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3 Ferries Road Ride
June 24, 2012
3 ferries ride, start 9am (tbc), from Gourock, ferry from Wymess Bay, around Bute, cross at Colintravie, then back over to Dunoon. Full info published nearer time. Ferry cost around £9 for 3 tickets, plus there will be a pub lunch stop. Pace around 15-17 mph average.
I have 2 workmates who are doing Lands end to John o Groats in Sept and would like to come along on this one for training.The down side is that I would have to come along, and I ain’t no roady. Will let you know nearer the time.
looks like there could be a few others doing a variation of this too : this from CTC mailing list
‘Sunday24th at 9:00 meeting at Wemyss Bay Station prompt.
This is the Island Hopscotch where we retrace our route to Gourock for the 9:45 ferry to Dunoon and up Loch Eck for Colintriave and cross over to Bute and round to Rothsey for a third ferry crossing of the day back to Wemyss Bay. A very scenic route in good weather. 50miles is the distance with a reasonable amount of climbing along the way. Leader John Leonard. 01698 885237
‘
We could arrange a joust?
We’ll put Reuben up front to make train noises 😉
So who is up for this. Let’s get a show of hands
Go on, then. Time I got the slicks back on the cross bike.
I am in, weather permitting..
I’ve got a road bike sorted so i’m in, with 1 or possibly 2 of the workmates I mentioned earlier if that’s ok.
Right folks, time to firm up plans… There are 2 ferries from Wymess Bay to Bute, one at 8.45am and another at 10:15am. I am happy to get either, but I am sure most people don’t like getting up too early on a Sunday. Show of hands then… Leave gourock at 8am (sharp) or 9.30am for the GMBC peleton for 7 miles or so to the first ferry? Easy to park near the (return) ferry, just go through town and park along the esplanade, if you reach the garden centre… turn round. If travelling by train then you may get a discount if bought with ferry ticket, or if you need man points – ride down on the cyclepath via Kilmacolm, there may be space in a car to rescue anyone that blows up!
Rest of ride will be depending of weather, leave Rothesay and ride around Bute heading south, west, then north to Ettrick Bay and back over to catch the 5 min ferry to Colintravie to a nice pub for caffine and grub (if weather is not great we can shorten the ride round Bute as there are minor roads that intersect the island). Then after lunch its a climb up the A886 past Loch Riddon. We then go right and take the minor road which is a bit of a beast of a climb, there is a descent into ‘the notch’ at Loch Striven i.e. very fast drop (scarey on my dodgy cross bike brakes), then a lung buster – its all over soon enough and a gradual climb up past a dam (amusingly names Loch Tarsan… no silly noises now!) will take us to one of the nicest, flowy road descents ever! Soon we will be in Dunoon and on the homeward ferry. Total miles will be around 65 max and apart from the 20 miles between Colintravie and Dunoon, it’s not too hilly and roads are quiet.
Prices: Calmac don’t manage the dunoon ferry so we need to get a separate ticket – £4.10 one way (about 4 ferries and hour), the hopscotch ticket is £5.70 that takes care of Wymess Bay and Colintravie. Bring money for pub, it’s not the cheapest, but food is good, even if just for a soup and coffee.
I will be there with Alan Linstead and will be in a ford focus – keep your eyes peeled for a GMBC top. Meeting at either time once agreed, probably worth parking on street then grouping up at the ferry terminal at end of the esplanade (just were road leaves town towards Inverkip, not the bigger ferry terminal in the middle of town!)
Remember, fine for cross bikes, fast hybrids, or (ahem) proper roadbikes – MTB’s with slicks may be OK if lightweight and you feel like releasing the hero inside 🙂 no bikes shops (or many shops for that matter) outside Rothesay or Dunoon – so bring rations and repair stuff. Also check tyres, although not such a race to each ferry (unlike 5 ferries) so unlikely to have ‘watch tapping’ if you puncture. Also full lycra is acceptable and so is not having a camelback, feel free to dress as a roadie, or wear full baggies to mix it up a bit 🙂 Pace will not be hot, so no need to warm up on the turbo trainer first – steady and fun is our motto. If Rueben ‘the rocket’ comes along, the sprints for the 30’s might be on…
Count me & Alison in . Might have others too.
I am planning to be there, and bringing a pal. lycra and road bikes too 🙂
would personally prefer the early start
Would still like to do this. 0930 start would suit better, particularly as unless I can scrounge a lift, I’ll hop on a train, and the earliest doesn’t arrive until after 0800. And no, I’m not cycling out there for 0800 ;~)
Could offer a lift with Alan too, can get 3 bikes on rack. Just across the road. If you want the earlier start…
Thanks! I’ve a big day out on the Saturday, though, and will probably be quite late back, so the chances of me being able or even interested in being out of the house at 0700 on Sunday are pretty much zero ;~) I’ll see what the consensus is.
Courtesy of Roadie Simon:
“Three ferries if 9.30 start
Hoping to rode this a week on sunday(?) asked gerry to post up intention. Intending to leave Lenzie at 6.45, milngavie 7,15, erskine bridge east @ 7.45. I think . High road via gleddoch preferred rather than a8 but see how it goes . Anyone up for this? “
Not sure yet if I will join Simon on the early start from Lenzie, as might stay with my folks on the Saturday night (Skelmorlie) and get a longer lie. Will confirm later on. However, will not ride back to Lenzie at night.
Meant to say 09:30 start is our vote too.
I’m up for the 9.30am start. Although, I’m a little confused with the meeting location. Is it the terminal at McInroy’s Point on Cloch rd?
9.30am start is our vote. Same question as Barry, is the meeting point for leaving the cars at the red and white ferry at McInroys Point?
I would prefer the later start as well…..
CTC ride is going for the later ferry too :
Fellow Members,
There has been an important change to the ISLAND HOPSCOTCH ride on Sunday 24th of June.
Meet at Wemyss Bay ferry terminal for the 10:15 sailing to Rothesay. (allow enough time to buy ticket)
By Train:- Glasgow Central 8:50 am, arrive Wemyss Bay 9:42 am.
By Car :- Park at Lunderston Bay car park, which is 4.5miles north of Wemyss Bay. (20 minute bike ride)
Cafe stop at Ettrick Bay for lunch (but advisable to take food as there may be a long distance to next food stop).
We catch the ferry from Rhubodach – Colintraive there after to the Western Ferry and across to the outskirts of Gourock which is 1.5 miles north of the car park.
Trains back from Wemyss Bay are at ;- 16:50, 17:50, 18:55.
The ride leader hopefully will be Alwyn Christmas but any further enquiries to John Foster at 01555 759102.
Meant to add – I have mailed the CTC ride organiser to let him know – the more the merrier I guess !
OK lets say the later 9.30am start, by 9.30 I mean rolling out then – so be there are 9.20 and check wheels, fix flats, adjust gears etc. so we can head off with no faffing and avoid pressure for a race to ferry 🙂 Yes, the meet point is the red and white ferry at McInroys point – tp://www.western-ferries.co.uk/map.shtml – easy to find a parking space on this road toward ferry normally. If you prefer to meet at Wemyss Bay by 10am – no problem, it means a 7 mile at end of day to get your car – I will be starting at Gourock!
This ferry at Gourock will be our return at end of day. Even with ‘later’ start we should be home at reasonable time. Hope weather is kind!
Current forecast for Sunday looks pretty grim :~(
Looks like they are heading our way now too! can we squeeze past a carradice saddle bag and form a peleton!
One of my pals from work, Loiuse is keen to do this ride, but needs a lift from West End – any offers ?
Louise now has a lift from a pal of hers on the CTC ride
Hi, so good to read this from start to end as I now see its 9.30 at Gourock rather than 9.30 @ Wemyss Bay.
I’m riding down (possibly with Gerry)We’ll meet you at the ferry about 10 as we’ll probably ride over the high road by Gleddoch and go over the hill behind Greenock and drop down onto the road that goes past hospital and IBM. we’ll see you on the road or at the boat.
With reference to the dodgy cross brakes ( any CTC member worth their clips’n’straps will tell you this) road brakes don’t pull the right amount of cable for canti brakes. Therefore mechanical advantage is all wrong and you’ll find the lever on the bar on the nice wet descent. The solution was for many years the ‘TRAVEL AGENT’ travel adaptor.
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=24613
from st johns st cycles website:
The Problem Solvers Travel Agents allow the use of any non-linear pull lever, STI or Ergo lever with any linear pull brake.
Products Uses:
Designed at the time when the industry was shifting from cantilever to linear pull brakes, the Travel Agents allowed customers to keep using their expensive integrated cantilever brake shift levers while upgrading to new linear pull mountain brakes. Today, the Travel Agent still solves problems as it allows the rider to use road drop bars and road brake / shift levers and the stronger linear pull brakes.
(linear pull btw means ‘v brakes’ i.e. last century kit)
The CTC mag used to be full of articles about this. Sheldon Brown’s pages talk about this too. Chris Juden the CTC tech officer is a bit of a guru and worth paying attention to. While on the CTC subject, I’ve been using ‘shimergo’ gearing since last century. ‘Shimergo’ is worth a Google if you are bored.
All academic maybe as only a matter of time before Alfine 11 can be combined with ultegra Di electronic shifters and disc brakes… However, I’m sure my 1991 Campagnolo HP02 cantilevers will see me out. http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/bicycles.asp
Anyway, see you Sunday.
Cheers for advice Simon. I am just about to swap my wide tektro 720 cantis for some nice TRP 8.4 CX v-brakes, these have shorter arms so get round the need for a travel agent (still have one of these in shed as used to run v’s with regular levers in the olden days 🙂 ). The TRP’s look bling and are red – I am a sucker for these things, and are very expensive IMO for v-brakes, did look at ‘travel agen’t option – however buy a set of XT v’s, travel agents and some barrel adjusters and you are looking close to same cost, it would look ugly on my ‘good’ bike, plus the TRP’s have titanium bolts, mmmm. Hoped to have these in time for 3 ferries ride, but think it may be next week. A cheap option is to just buy some RX5 tektro v’s, £15 each and work with road levers – not bling, but for price of pads you get a full brake and don’t need an ugly roller, BMX mini v’s also work.
Hope weather improves for ride, it’s looking like sun and rain so I am reading light showers to keep my spirits up. Plan to be there at 9.20 latest at Gourock. Ryszard, do you need a lift, I should be driving and can take 3 bikes (I hope) never put 3 on the thule ride on, but it is designed for 3 🙂
The official Met Office line is “light showers” ;~) If you’ve a space for one plus bike, I’ll be very glad to accept a lift. I’ll roll over to yours, let me know what time.
I’m in. See y’all there.
Brakes! Stop now!
Just to clarify – the sticky out at 90 degrees cantis are the ones to have. Ideally with a non fixed length straddle wire – look up Shelton brown on mechanical advantage etc.
(how to adjust cantis http://sheldonbrown.com/canti-trad.html)
The scary ones are low profile cantis ( basically the non v brake ones produced from 1991 until v’s came in about 97?) they are crap. Those are the ones some bike shops will happily replace with mini v’s for you. One problem here is that folks in some bike shops will sell you and set you up with bling and in the shop car park with no pad wear and nice dry rims it’s all ok.
Gerry had mini v brakes fitted so ask him how they are on a steep wet descent with a bit of pad wear.
I’ll save everyone the bother of googling – 1st Chris juden then sheldon – forget what you read on bike radar or on “London Fixie n Crossa Forum” coming down the hill from Angel to Euston is simply not a descent…
Here’s from CTC archives (def a bling free zone) oh yes, I find it best if you read the questioners letter in North of England accent and the reply in a southern one. (both have beards)
Mini-Vees – 2004.01
I wish to improve the brakes on my 1997 Dawes Galaxy. It has Shimano Deore cantilevers, whereas my road bike has Tiagra dual-pivot sidepulls and much better braking.
I read in Cycling Plus that mini V brakes will work with drop barred bikes. They reviewed a Planet-X Kaffenback with Tektro Mini Vees which appeared to work well. They are not very available in bike shops, but they do seem an answer to braking on drop barred touring bikes with large tyres.
Ben Bate – Edinburgh
Standard vee-brakes have 100mm vertical arms pivoted some 25mm below the rim. Subtract a bit for the cable “noodle cradle” etc. and that leaves 70mm of clearance for tyre and mudguard. Allowing a 50% margin for the latter, that’s about right for a 47mm tyre. That brake is designed for a 25mm cable pull. Drop handlebar levers pull only half that. So a mini-vee with 50mm arms should work okay. But that would leave only 20mm for tyre and mudguard! So mini-vees are a compromise, with arms about 2/3 the height of a standard vee. They give no more clearance, and neither do they work any better with drops, than a medium-reach dual-pivot sidepull (as distinct from the normal, ultra-short-reach variety).
I tested an Orbit Harrier with Tektro Mini-vees in October 2000 and found that these brakes limited the section of tyre that could be fitted to 25mm with mudguards. I also observed that, whilst braking required but the lightest of touches, the pads didn’t move far before the lever bottomed out – requiring perfectly true wheels and frequent brake adjustments. I thought Orbit would soon abandon the experiment, and they did.
So mini-vees are not the best answer unless the question’s really weird (like a racing bike with cantilever braze-ons, like the Planet-X Kaffenback) which probably explains why you don’t find many in bike shops! They are certainly not the answer for a Dawes Galaxy. For that you’d better stick to cantis.
Chris Juden
For a confirmation that Mini-Vees are not the answer even on a Planet-X Kaffenback, here’s a query I received 2005.12:
I recently bought a Planet X Kaffenback and am generally very happy with it, but there are two issues that you may be able to shed some light on. Firstly, the bike is fitted with mini V-brakes combined with drop-bar brake/shift levers. Whilst the brakes are very effective with the blocks set up a hair’s breadth from the rim, any tiny deviation in the trueness of the wheel causes the pads to rub. If I set the brakes up so as to clear the rim, then they fail to bite until the lever is pulled back almost to the handlebar. I stress that the wheels are actually very straight, with an almost imperceptible wobble which I have tried to fix wit a spoke key. Do you, by chance, know any tips that could help me solve this problem?
Geoff Wood – by email
I suggested some decent cantilevers!
NOW FROM SHELDON
Brake Levers for Direct-pull Cantilevers
Direct-pull cantilevers have double the mechanical advantage compared with traditional brakes, so they require special brake levers. Direct-pull brake levers pull the cable twice as far, half as hard. The lower mechanical advantage of the lever compensates for the higher mechanical advantage. of the cantilever. It is not generally safe to mix and match levers/cables between direct-pull and other types for this reason.
Conventional brake levers used with direct-pull cantilevers will usually not pull enough cable to stop in wet conditions without bottoming out against the handlebars. In dry conditions, they either won’t work, or will grab too suddenly.
Direct-pull brake levers used with any other type of brakes will feel nice and solid when you squeeze them, but due to their lower mechanical advantage you’ll need to squeeze twice as hard to stop as you should, so unless you are a lightweight rider with gorilla-like paws, this combination isn’t safe either.
Drop-bar Levers
To make a brake lever with low enough mechanical advantage for direct-pull cantilevers, the cable must run twice as far from the lever’s pivot point. This is easy enough to do with levers for straight/upright handlebars. Levers for drop handlebars are harder to configure for direct-pull brakes, and currently, there are only a couple of drop-bar levers made that are compatible, the Dia Compe 287V and the Cane Creek SCR-5V “Æro” levers.
Most newer drop bar bikes are have Ergo or STI brake/shifter units as original equipment. Direct-pull cantis are not compatible with these. Other types of shifters may of course be used, along with the special brake levers. In any case many cyclists prefer bar-end shifters. These are simpler and less expensive than brake-lever shifters, and give an indication of what sprocket is in use: brake-lever shifters return to the same position after every shift.
Drop-bar Workarounds
If you want to use Ergo or STI brifters with direct-pull cantis, there are two workarounds available:
You can use a pulley-device, such as the QBP Travel Agent (Q.B.P. Photo). These are a bit of a hassle to set up, but do work. Any pulley of the small diameter commonly used on bicycles eventually leads to fatigue failure of the cable, so check the cable regularly for fraying.
If you have a bike with skinny tires and no fenders, there are “shorty” direct-pull cantis that are more-or-less compatible with drop bar levers.
Neither of these systems is ideal, and neither is really any better than traditional center-pull cantilevers.
Oh, and while we are at it if, we are meeting up with the CTC I suggest we adopt appropriate names; Terrence, Geoff, Francis, Fred, Archie and perhaps Raymond?
I shall be Geoffrey and maybe Gerry can be Terry so he can remember it more easily?
Yorkshire accents compulsory. Topics of conversation must include the brakes issue above, getting a bike on a train, best sandwich box, the benefits of non- indexed gears, best small Korean hatchback into which you can fit a touring bike with full rack and mudguards, best sidewall dynamo, the needless increase of gears numbers beyond seven, cheapest cafe to do baked potato and beans….
Joking aside, some of the hardest riders I’ve ever ridden with we’re CTC…
Best regards
Geoffrey
Alan, Ryszard, and I (or Tarquin, Benjamin and Winston) will be in Gourock at 9.20 latest – look for a blue focus and some cross bikes (sorry Al).
PS. Simon – I use the wide as possible Tektro 720 canti’s which allow for loads of pad clearance but a little wooden, The TRP mini-v’s are 85mm long so will be a little better in terms of power at expense of a more accurate set-up… we shall discuss over a pot of breakfast tea and eccles cakes tomorrow? 🙂
PPS. Shall we need to all fit a brooks saddle and were trouserclips or will canti’s on at least one bike be acceptable – Rysard may have a rack!
i’m joining tomorrow.
see you at gourock at 09:20.
Andy
three of us coming along now.
Andy