BB200 Withdrawal Symptons

[macinblack]

Drink copious amounts of beer, you will want to drink more.

Snort cocaine off curvy fleshy areas, you will want to snort more.

Open lots of gates? Well, lets just say I've just ordered one of these...

[Richard G]

I was actually quite disappointed with the gate quotient given my recent Braunton 150 and YD300 rides. Step it up BB200!

[Ben98]

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the gates this year, most of them opened and closed without a 20 minute fight!

[Single Speed George]

As an industrial designer I was quite impressed by the range of gate closure mechanisms on show throughout the route

[Matt]

[Mike]

Uv got the skills matt

[RIP]

Nice to see you wearing hivis red on the railway line, very safety conscious .

So here's a little quiz for a bored moment:
When does a train driver have to stop at a green light?
When does a train driver not have to stop at a red light?

"Reg"

PS> Presumably some bonus points available for guessing the location of the gate? Central Wales Line?

PPS> Oops, nope can't be can it. Sign's not bilingual .

[RIP]

Go on then, obv not enough bored moments like me! Answer:
a/ when it's waved violently. Could be any colour really.
b/ when given permission to do so by the signaller (light might be faulty).

Train Nerd Reg

[Ian]

As an industrial designer I was quite impressed by the range of gate closure mechanisms on show throughout the route

Welsh gate latches do annoy me. Up in Yorkshire, you get a nice wooden gate with a little hook on a piece of chain. Easy to do astride your bike with one hand.

In Wales, of course, where the sheep would rival Houdini for their abilities in escapology, most gates have a tightly wound spring that requires you to dismount and use both hands (and then drag the gate across the ground because the hanging post is rotten)

[littlegirlbunny]

I'm definitely a 'get right off the bike, put bike down, open gate, push bike through, shut gate' gal when I am on my own. It seems that, no matter how good my intentions, I never manage to streamline openings of gates whilst the bike is anywhere in the vicinity of it

[frogatthefarriers]

I've been caught out by the barbed wire that gets wrapped around the fences next to the gate. You open the gate, push bike through, prop it against the fence and when you turn to close the gate, the slight movement dislodges the bike from its propped position and lets it move, dropping your handlebar dry bag to catch on the barbs. Oops, another dry bag gone.

[whitestone]

What gets me about many of them is that the handle on the sprung ones is at 45 degrees so if you are cold/wet/tired then they are a real b**** to open. This is coming from someone who grew up in a farm BTW.


The picture of the "mid wales traffic jam" of sheep going through a gateway - lucky you! Richard and I had to hoik our bikes over that one as one look at the mass of baler twine holding it shut was enough to give you a migraine

[ScotRoutes]

I just assumed that the wide selection of gate closure mechanisms was some sort of Krypton Factor challenge.

[Richard G]

Ha, my brain is barely functioning at the best of times, let alone 15 hours into a ride. I'd rather just throw my bike over anything vaguely complicated looking.

[mat_swan]

I had to wrestle a gate open on today's ride - I was dangerously close to a jason bourne style flashback to things I've tried to forget!

[Zippy]

Soo many gates! If you average 5 gates an hour (I'm sure there were more), and one was out for over 20 hours, that's over 100 gates minimum.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Can I just draw everyones attention back to this please.

Don’t moan about gates … you’ll get no sympathy, it’s the countryside, it's not a trail centre and please make sure you close them all too, even the really awkward ones.

Thank you

[Zippy]

No moaning about gates here, just working out some numbers, I sort of wish I started counting, and then working out the percentage of ones which were locked shut so had to clamber over, and the ones which took more effort to try and unlock coz you had to pick up the gate etc - that I clambered over. It's then possible to do a graph and some stats

That said, I have no problem with gates, just not a fan of poorly implemented gatery.

[RIP]

I think I'm just about still OT here (just), and have finally worked out that gate is next to Broomhill station on the Strathspey Railway - so our Danny is unlikely to be mown down by the 10.30 Euston-Glasgow. The whole film is actually rather good even if you're not really into that sort of unseemliness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_7k3fnxPq0. Ok, enough already about the train stuff .

"R"

[ScotRoutes]

Ah, sorry. I could have told you exactly where the gate was. The old arch bridge he rides down (on his front wheel) is on the other side of the main road. If funds ever permit then the steam railway will go all the way to Grantown, passing under this, currently disused, bridge.