Beinn Ghlas and the Lack of Brains
Week 2
I am constantly amazed at the speed of which the Christmas holidays evaporate. It’s such a busy time with visiting people and doing stuff that the days whip past, and before you know it you are back to work and it feels like you’ve never left.
Blair was unflinching in his desire to climb 2 munros in our short holidays, one on Thursday and one on Sunday. Dad was out of the 2nd one due to complete exhaustion. He had a pretty bad bug before climbing Ben Chonzie and the completion of the day tripled his suffering, a bad move perhaps on everyone’s part, but we enjoyed Schiehallion 2 years ago so much that it seemed a fitting way to welcome in the new year.
So it was just Blair and I for the Sunday climb, which I was a bit sceptical about, if not worried slight.y. It’s always good to have Dad there, he’s done hundreds of munros so when he guides or advises on something either before or during the climb, you follow it without question. We wouldn’t have that experience to fall back on and I was a bit concerned. However come Sunday I was well up for it. I had bought new boots (Asolo Flame GTX’s for those interested) so was excited to try them out along with my Christmas gifts from Mum and Dad, which I had used already on the Ben Chonzie climb but found my Tresspass £30 shoes weren’t up to the task.
I got my new boots the day before, Saturday. Blair had already bought a pair of Scarpa Infinity GTX boots from Go Outdoors. However they had called him the next day to say that they were out of stock, so would send him a similar pair that were more expensive, but would absorb that additional cost as a goodwill gesture. So he ended up with the Scarpa ZG65 XCR boots. Me and Em went down to see the wee one and I tried them on and thought they were nice. So that then lead to us looking at boots for me as I had fancied upgrading my Tresspass‘.
We found the Asolo ones on the Go Outdoor’s website and I liked them, but they were £135 and my budget was at most £90, and even then I would have a struggle justifying the cost. However to my delight we had found the Flame GTX’s on a competitors website, and lo-and-behold Go Outdoors have a price guarantee policy (so long as you have purchased their £5 a year Discount Card) whereby they take that competitors price, and discount it a further 10%.
The competitor’s website showed £84 for the Flame GTX boots, so a rough calculation would mean that I would get these for £75.60, almost half price! Blair got upset as he had just got these Scarpa boots for more than £75.60 and they weren’t as good. So he decided that he would send them back and get a pair of these Asolo ones at this ridiculously good price. It was getting on time wise so he grabbed the phone and called the number on the “price guarantee” section of the website and got through to a bloke called Mark. He advised Blair that he could match the price and that unfortunately he only showed one pair of boots in the 9.5 size that we both require. He suggested Blair call the Edinburgh store and reserve a pair there for us to pick up.
So he did that and the Edinburgh folk threw the spanner in the works almost immediately. Although it doesn’t state this on their website or indeed any of the information that accompanies the “Price Guarantee”, the competitor’s product must be EXACTLY the same in make, model and colour. Blair obviously saw that the ones on the Go Outdoors’ website were blue, and the ones on the competitors were black, so conceded this and called back Mark.
Mark then said that the ones on their website were a stock image and that the actual boots they stocked were indeed black as well! Triumph! Mark then did the good turn and offered to send the ones he had in the warehouse, and call ahead to Edinburgh on our behalf to reserve the boots and make sure that everything would run smoothly. The Edinburgh shop closed in 2 hours, it’s an hours drive to the shop from Blair’s house (we had factored in the traffic at the Forth Road Bridge considering it was New Year‘s Eve!) so this would allow us to get there and quickly pick up the boots in good time.
Our last-minute trip to Edinburgh was met with annoyance from the ladies, but we were going walking tomorrow and my Tresspass shoes were still soaking wet from Chonzie and wouldn’t cope with another winter walk, so I basically needed these boots for tomorrow’s walk. Off we went then, hoping the traffic at the bridge wouldn’t be too bad.
There wasn’t a queue at all, we breezed through to the Edinburgh shop in a record 35 minutes. It was bizarre. Anyway, we got there and the massive warehouse shop was still really busy, a good sign. We headed inside and walked around to the check-out, after standing at one that looked like customer service at first, but then turned out to be just another till.
Blair explained firstly his desire to return his Scarpa boots, going through the back story of how he ordered the Infinity’s but had someone call him etc etc. The girl who served us said ok and tried to scan the barcode but there was an issue with that. She got her wee walky talky out and bleeped some bloke. In crackled radio squawk he said he would be there in a couple of minutes. Blair took this opportunity to then explain about the Asolo situation and produced the piece of paper with Mark’s name on it, the order number Mark had placed for the Edinburgh store and the make, model and website of the competitor with the boots at the £84 price.
This girl then headed off to pick these boots up from the reserved area of the store, leaving us standing there thinking this is easy.
Then a different girl came around the till and stood. She then was quickly joined by the radio boy who tried to scan the Scarpa boots. “I think this is the box that we couldn’t scan last week. I’m going to have to print out a barcode.” Off he went. This new girl then enquired as to what the situation was and Blair started his story again. This girl didn’t really look interested but after the story took the bit of paper with the competitors website on it and headed off to check that all was present and correct for the “Price Guarantee”
She returned a minute later with the barcode boy and got that return out of the way. We were now fully concentrated on the Asolo price match. Barcode boy left and the new girl left again to check the competitor’s’ price. Whilst she was away the first girl returned with the boots and she left again. I had a look at the boots in the meantime and they looked good!
The 2nd girl returned and said that there was a problem with the price match, in that it was not going to be possible. Of course it wasn’t. These things never are easy, so Blair then re-explained the story about the phone call to Mark online and how he had supposedly called ahead to make sure this would all go smoothly. The 2nd girl had a wee moment of panic but got on the radio to someone else, and quickly we were joined by another woman, the superior. They had one of those conversations, you know the conversations that two store employees have in full earshot of the customer on purpose. They do it on purpose so that the confirmation between each other of the terms of the price match and the fact that our price match wasn’t acceptable would be heard by us, thus removing the need to have to explain it to us face to face and thus removing the need for confrontation.
It made me agitated.
Anyway, it turned out that the reason our “Price Guarantee” wasn’t deemed acceptable was that the competitors boot was indeed an Asolo Flame GTX in Graphite, but they were selling a size 9, not a 9.5. Blair then yet again explained the story to this 3rd woman, the superior and she then looked a bit panicked. Are these people not trained to deal with these things? Anyway, she got on the radio to someone else and asked them to join us.
All the while I am standing there staring at a 20ft long sign on the wall with the 5 “Incredible Benefits” of the Discount Card. It’s arranged neatly in to bullet points, the 2nd point (I mean the 2nd most incredible benefit no less) was that they would beat their competitors prices and then take a further 10% off that. The most infuriating thing was that this “incredible benefit” was touted all over the place, but at no point were you shown the stipulations and conditions that you need to be able to get this “incredible benefit.”
Anyway, we were then joined by the big boy. We knew he was the manager because he was wearing a tie. Almost immediately he was on the offensive. “What’s the issue here?” And thus the ladies explained about the 0.5 of size issue preventing a successful price guarantee. The manager joined in the awkward conversation between employees right in front of customer to prevent confrontation act, and Blair then brought up his 2nd last wild card. The conversation and subsequent order placement online through Mark on the phone.
Before Blair had even finished his sentence the manager had his phone out and was furiously bashing through his phone book, all the while nodding and “mmhm” ing whilst Blair was talking. In a baffling “we’ll sort this out once and for all” look shot to both of us, he then had the loudest phone conversation in the history of shopping experiences. “HELLO MARIE, IT’S **** (I can’t remember this blokes name funnily enough) FROM THE EDINBURGH STORE. DO YOU HAVE A “MARK” WORKING THERE TODAY?” He said Mark’s name with an emphasis, as if he just couldn’t believe that someone named Mark would ever work at Go Outdoors online.
“RIGHT, I HAVE A MR FRASIER (our surname is Fraser, not Frasier as in Dr. Frasier Crane off tv. F R A S E R. Rhymes with razor or lazer or fazer. And this guy was Scottish too, which is frankly inexcusable.) HERE AND HE SEEMS TO BE UNDER THE IMPRESSION MARK HAS PRICE MATCHED BOOTS.”
His confident bellow gave way as Marie, wherever she was, started explaining the situation to him. His voice got quieter and less cocky after every “right” or “mhhm” to Marie. Eventually he said his final whisper quiet “ok, that’s what we’ll do” and then hung up the phone. He said nothing more, or nothing less than the following, as if it was his final sentence to the world before it ended in a blazing apocalyptic fireball: “Honour it. Honour the guarantee.”
And that was it, he walked away and the young girl began prodding the keypad on her till. Blair handed his Discount Card over to this girl for what must have been the 6th time tonight for her to scan, and I finally and triumphantly slid my credit card in to the chip n pin thing. It felt like we had just had an actual scrap, as if we had scuffled around in this shop with the complete hierarchy of staff before finally emerging victorious with our prize.
The most embarrassing thing for us was, we were going to get these boots after paying for them and saying thank you and accepting their millionth apology for the fuss and time taken, and then head in to the store to have a look at jackets and other stuff!! I tried to make light of this by saying “thanks for this, we’re going for a wee shop so I’ll possibly be annoying you again in bit” but the girl just stood there blinking, not even looking at me.
So we headed in store and across to the jackets and there was a collection of staff, around 8-10 of them, in the center of which was the manager, obviously relaying his experience to his minions. It was made all the more obvious when they all went quiet and turned around to look at us. We carried on towards the jackets and they dispersed around the jacket area and the manager did his best to delegate jobs to them all i.e. “straighten up that jacket, zip up that fleece” etc.
Anyway, I found a nice Gilet (pronounced jee-lay but for some reason I can’t help but say gillit, as in spill it.) and decided to buy it as with the Discount Card it was £20 (£30 without).
This Discount Card really is worthwhile having!
We looked at a few more things and made a conscious decision to go to a completely different till, to someone unrelated to the earlier fracas. We got our wares and headed outside where by now the carpark was empty.
We deconstructed the events on the way home, confused by the way they dealt with it or just the sheer idiocy of the manager, but anyway, the boots were amazing and the fact that we had got them for nearly half price, or 2 pairs for the price of one if you like, was a great feeling. It’s not often you get deals like that.
We were up early the next day, as in 5am early as we wanted to get up to the munro as early as possible. We were both excited about the climb as it had the potential for 2 munro’s in one day as the climb to Beinn Ghlas gets you to a saddle upon which you can then walk along and climb Ben Lawers, in a away you’ve already done the hard bit, you just need to do that wee extra bit and you’ll be at the summit of Lawers. However Dad had vocalised his discomfort with the conditions up there and asked us to carefully consider the conditions and not just blindly head up the munros and get in to a situation we couldn’t get out of.
When we arrived at the turn off up to the base of Ghlas (a car park that used to be a visitor center but was now demolished) there was a car sitting at the top of a wee hill 45° across the road. There was 3 people standing around the car and we concluded they were stuck and came to a stop and watched. 5 minutes passed and the 3 people hadn’t moved, neither had the car. So we turned the car off and walked up towards them. Asking if they needed a hand, one of the 3, a girl, said “no thanks, we’re ok.”
We said ok and headed back to the car, by which point another car had arrived behind us and had stopped. A guy got out and we told him they didn’t want help. The 3 of us then stood watching as the 3 people up the hill stood around talking. Meanwhile the driver in the car would periodically open his door and shout something, then close the door and the cycle would start over again. about 10 minutes passed and Blair had asked if we should just park at the side and walk from here, leaving these tubes to faff about on their own. I maneuvered the Mini over to the grass verge and we started to get ready. The bloke behind us did the same but didn’t get ready. By this point another car had arrived and 2 blokes got out. They asked what was going on and after telling them of the situation, they revealed they had been here yesterday and after the top of this hill beyond the tree-line, the ice on the road that was crippling the car at the top of the hill disappeared. They then ran up the road to the 3 idiots standing outside, who were at this point handing a shovel to the driver, who had opened his driver side door and was chipping away at the ice under his front right wheel….whilst sitting in the drivers’ seat still belted in! It was incredible. And while he was chipping away, the 3 others just continued their standing about duties!
We watched as the two blokes who ran up started pushing the car, defying the idiots’ pleas that they were ok and were handling the situation. We ran up too and managed to get the car in line with the road again and then all ran back down to our cars. We had thought the idiots, who we had now termed students as they were quite young and obviously dim… would just roll back and hit the gas in order to get over the ice, now that we knew it was clear at the other side….but they decided to just roll back down the hill. But instead of getting in the car, the 3 of the passengers directed the driver down this shallow hill as if he was a blind man. Blair stood astonished at the complete lack of fundamental driving ability exhibited by this lunatic, as well as the brainless actions of the passengers. It was bizarre really.
Anyway we, the guy behind us and the guys who had done this road yesterday made way for this slowly reversing cavalcade of stupid, and then the last to arrive gassed it up the road, letting a wee tire squeal out as his then hit the ice and slalomed over it. We sat there waiting to see how the guy behind us did and he as well did ok, so I started the Mini and off we went. I got some speed going but Blair said to slow down. I kept quite a speed up as the last thing I wanted to do was to get stuck. I mean it would be pretty devastating to have stood and slagged these dimwits off, only for us to attempt it and get stuck as well..anyway, we made it quite easy which made the actions of the students even more infuriating. I mean, if these guys can’t even navigate a slightly stuck car to safety, how were they expected to walk up a snow and ice-covered mountain!? They said they were going to park at the bottom and walk up, but the road to the car park was fecking miles away! They would have to walk 3 miles up hill before even getting to the base of the munro.
Anyway, we arrived at the car park and joined the others, who were by now getting ready, in a bit of a giggle at the situation that had just presented itself in front of us. We were the 2nd to get ready and set off up the hill, after the usual photograph of us before the slog starts. We made good time and made it to the foot of the hill quickly, passing the folk who had been up here yesterday. We continued along what we thought was the trail but quickly found that we had taken the branch that leaded to the saddle of the two munros, the return path we were going to take due to its gradual decline instead of vertical. We then met up with the correct trail by heading straight up the side of the hill. It was challenging and really tiring but it felt good to be on the path less travelled.
The good thing about Beinn Ghlas is that it’s not just a constant ascent. There’s several plateaus between the short faces making a 3-4 tiered path that allowed you to have a burst of energy, then have the flat bit to compose yourself before bursting up the next face. It meant we made really good progress up Beinn Ghlass. With Chonzie it was a regular hill path up to the base of the munro and then pretty much constant slope to the top, making progress slow especially with the deep snow. On Ghlas it was more icy and grassy which meant that grip was better to achieve.
However we then arrived that the final face before the summit of Ghlas and this was an entirely different thing. We were standing looking at a face of blue ice, the solid core of ice with a fine dusting of snow on top concealing its treacherous condition. Add to this the lack of footprints in the surface, it was a bit of a worry. Anyway there was a slight path made by someone else’s toes which we decided was the easiest way to get up. When I say toes, I mean toes. Most of the dents in the blue ice, 90% of them were only 3-4 inches deep. You could only just get your toe of the boot on it meaning that you were constantly on the move, you couldn’t stop as there wasn’t enough stability to do so. There was the odd full foot print in the ice which allowed a much-needed rest, but for the most part it was bum clenchingly risky. I would glance over my shoulder and note the ice chute that went from my feet to the base of the munro in one unbroken length. If I slipped here and didn’t get a good anchor with the walking pole, I would be down the bottom in a heap before I knew it. Whats more, the 1 ice axe we did bring was strapped to my rucksack and now really wasn’t the time or place for an equipment change. Blair made me take a photo on the face half way up which I did, but I was definitely glad to be at the top of that section.
We got to the feature lacking summit and had a quick whizz around the view, a couple if photographs and then headed down the ridge to find a place for lunch. On the way down we kept looking at the sheer drop to the left and the fantastic views all round. I then did a massive banana skin and landed on my right forearm. Luckily I had managed to not impale myself with the ice axe that I was now holding in my right hand. Blair asked if I was ok but saw I was laughing so took that as a yes.
We eventually found a wee rock to sit behind to get out the now bitterly cold wind and we got stuck in to lunch. The people who had done this yesterday had now arrived at the saddle with us, after going the path that we had originally started before going vertical. They were obviously wanting to go up Lawers. However we had decided on the way down from Ghlas’ summit that the conditions on that final ascent were pretty touch and go, and looking at the route up Lawers, it looked white from start to finish. We decided that it was just too risky without crampons and an ice axe each.
We finished lunch, took a few photographs and then headed for the route down. We couldn’t find it initially…in fact, we couldn’t find it, so had to make our own way down the north face. It was really difficult as it was mostly hard packed snow and ice, so a lot of slipping was going on. At one point I had slipped enough that my head was nearly between my knees. My red metal water bottle that I got for christmas then slipped out the pocket it was in and I wasn’t able to catch it in time. Both Blair and I watched as my water slid down and down and down and down the mountain and then lost sight of it when it hit a grassy patch. It was either lodged in that, or had then went further down the hill. It was funny but it meant we had to retrieve it now which was going to be more difficult that it already was. But eventually we made it down to the water bottle which was slightly dented but now chilled to such a temperature that drinking it was the most refreshing experience to be had. Amazing.
Anyway we continued down the face eventually getting to the bottom in time to start our incline up to the main path. We bumped in to 3 blokes who asked what the summit of Beinn Ghlas was like as they wanted to snowboard down it. I said it was pretty much just ice so they concluded amongst themselves that it was probably best not to try it and decided to just go up a wee snowy face at the bottom of the munro.
Our descent was quite slow over the ice and rocky terrain and eventually made it back to the car. It was around 4 hours start to finish and we were pretty happy with it. It was good to get the fresh socks on and get moving again down the road.
Em had run a bath for me getting back. This was a new thing to me but Blair had mentioned it on the way down Ben Chonzie. He said getting straight in to a bath after getting home was the best way to recover, so tried it after Chonzie and it was amazing how little my muscles ached. After Ghlas they were still a bit tight but not as tight or sore as they would have been had I not had this bath. So that was great!
Then a couple of days later it was back to work. Which was crap. But it was only a 3 day week which was less crap. I was meant to wash the Mini this weekend but come Friday night the ground was covered in 5 inches of snow again. It’s amazing just how quickly the snow can cover stuff and make it yet again impossible to get anywhere without a lot of fuss. Anyway, we’ve spent the entire weekend in the house except for a walk down to Sainsbury’s for me to get milk….and coffee. And tomorrow it’s back to work. But my journeys to and from work are now accompanied with my new Amazon Kindle! Dad bought one for Mum’s Christmas but after the first one went to his work’s address, he ordered a replacement but never changed the address, so the second one went to his work too…so he then had two, one of which he was going to send back to Amazon but I decided to buy it off him, and it’s amazing. I’ll write about that next week but so far, since Friday, I have read 1 book and am halfway through another. It’s just an amazing little thing.
So there you go. A bit of a mammoth week but I am pretty happy so far with the way the year has started. Work is going to get busy and stressful so I guess I have to enjoy the calm whilst it lasts.
Till next week! All the best
Gordon
It’s a sound unlike any other.
Break the mould just this once.
This isn’t a weekly update, but I am compelled to post for many reasons. The first of which starts with the photo above. There is several things wrong with this photo. I wonder if you can see what?
No? Yes? Let me tell you.
The first thing you can see is that this is a motorcycle, obviously. And it’s travelling on gravel. Now, that’s no big deal, but let me elaborate. This, as you can see by the screen identification, is a man named Jed Heath. I’ve never met Jed so I don’t really know much about him. But I know that he shouldn’t be on a motorcycle like this, in some gravel. And he especially shouldn’t be travelling at the speed he was travelling at when he reached the hairpin gravel section of Knockhill Racing Circuit, near Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, UK. You’ll also note, he’s not braking.
I was at Knockhill this weekend with Rossy Boyo for the Jock Taylor Superprix, a celebration of Mr. Taylor winning the sidecar world championships in 1980. There was the usual support series including the GP400′s, which is what Jed Heath was riding.
We had started the weekend at the pit straight, followed by the bottom of the Seat Curves and the Scotsman, taking photos and getting our techniques in to shape. We drove around eventually to the “Carlube” corner and found it to be a bit lax, although the loudspeaker system which pumps out some irritating twat fumbling his way through times and interviews at obscene volumes was broken, so it offered us a bit of a rest. Following the completion of the Superstock 600′s in which our very own Stuart Jackson (of Jackson’s Bikes) was racing, we headed around to the hairpin for some closer in action shots, and some shade from the sun beating down upon our (or at least my) reddening faces.
The sidecars spun their way around and finished quickly. A man with a small boy turned up with a Nikon camera (with a stumpy looking lens) and a laptop of all things. No bags, just those two items…and his wee boy.
The 400′s, Forgotten Era’s and the 125′s headed out on track at once and I decided to switch to black and white on my camera to try and get some nice oldy looking shots with the Forgotten Era bikes. I was shooting in JPG as well, meaning these black and white’s were baked in to the files (instead of RAW where you can remove the black and white setting should you want to…)ANYWAY. I mention this only to make it clear that I didn’t translate these following photos in to black and white for “effect”, for impact or show. It was just unfortunately the setting I was in when this happened.
So they went round a few times to get their tyres warmed up a bit and the grid set up and off they went. I moved a bit further up the hairpin whilst Ross stayed close to the outer edge of it. The man with the small child/laptop was in between us. And then it happened.
I was locked on to Jed which was strange in itself as I had been resting my now knackered arms in between the Forgotten Era bikes going past. But I had my camera to my face and was locked on to Jed and I was immediately aware that something wasn’t right. Usually by the time they get to the hairpin you can see the front diving and the sound of hard braking, rev’s getting lower possibly some tyre screech. With Jed however, when I locked on to him his bike was still going as fast, there was no dive of the front, no reduction of engine pitch.
My camera was on continuous shooting mode but for some reason it takes two very quick photos, there’s a wee pause and then a third photo. It’s not really “continuous” in any sense of the word. I took the first of the two quick photos as he entered the sand trap. The next quick photo captured the photo above. The next photo, after the short pause, showed him or rather a wheel of his bike, sticking out of the now seriously inflated air fence.
Jed hit that fence with a sound that, like all things of horrific nature, isn’t heard anywhere else. We all knew how serious this could be and my initial reaction, after the air fence impact photo, was to turn to Ross who looked at me with such horror that I swear I have never seen before in anyone. The sound was that of a motorcycle going past you, flat throttle with no increase or decrease of pitch, with some gravel noises thrown in and then a hollow “boffffffffffff”. Then silence. No “OH MY’s” or sweary words. Just silence.
We watched together as the marshals whipped across that gravel barely touching the surface and were in that air fence before the fence came back down. Red flags were being waved ferociously as the other racer’s continued on unaware of Jed’s fate. A few seconds later, after rooting around deep within the tyre fence, a man emerged and stood up, resting himself on the airfence beside his impact point. A collective sigh of relief washed down the spectators box and Ross walked over, shouting how certain he was that Jed was dead. “You can’t go in to a fence at that speed and survive.”
And he was right. Jed was travelling at full speed when he skipped across the gravel and hit that fence. It’s a long straight leading up to that hairpin and these 400′s are quick. How he is standing there, talking to the paramedics, who had arrived shortly afterwards, is a miracle.
We had a moment of reflection, Ross and I, as we watched the bloke get his laptop out the case, and then proceed to upload a photo, presumably of the crash, to somewhere. Instant coverage…
Our day was coming to an end anyway by this point but we watched a few more races and then headed back to the paddock to speak to Stuart before heading home.
I got home and after having a shower and my tea, I sat down to transfer my day’s catch on to the computer. I was interested to see how the black and white ones came out, as well as my longer exposure ones (the really blurred fast looking ones).
And then Jed’s sequence appeared on screen.
It’s been a bit of a thinker for me tonight as I cropped these photos for YamYam. In the photographs of Jed travelling across the gravel, I can see his eyes in one. I said to Em, “This would have a completely different significance had Jed not been so lucky” to which she replied, “you’re full of joy tonight.”
But it’s true. In any number of ways Jed could have not have been so fortunate. His bike could have skipped up at the last minute making him miss the air fence…etc. etc. And this photo would have been the last moment of his existence. His last point of being in the world.
On every Knockhill ticket it states “WARNING MOTORSPORT CAN BE DANGEROUS. Despite the organisers taking all reasonable precautions, unavoidable accidents can happen. In respect of these, you are present at your own risk.”
“…you are present at your own risk”.
I couldn’t help think that the risk involved for us isn’t getting hit by a flying motorcycle or car, it is having to possibly watch someone die in front of us. I mean, I enjoy racing, I enjoy watching it and despite the slightly demonic inclination, I enjoy when people crash (don’t try and take the moral high ground here either, I know you like a good crash or two). But as long as they get up I can feel ok about it, I mean they know what they are getting in to. Right?
Right. But in the same token, this weekends racing made me really think about what these guys bet every time they get on that track. This wasn’t a professional race, it was probably a Dentist or Accountant on his weekend thrill seeker. And the moments before his demise would have been crystallised in startlingly clear digital pixels on my amateur camera in my amateur hands.
Despite the enjoyment I get from motorcycle racing, I don’t know if I like the risks involved, if I’m honest with you.
YamYam’s Top 10 Posts Ever.
So whilst I await the melting of the Fife Ice Caps, I shall collate some data…Geek Style.
I am always amazed at how sparse reviews are for products, or how biased a lot of reviews seem to be. Motostrano Blog said it excellently:
“I rarely read product reviews these days. They are all advertisements and we know it- pure fantasy. On the other hand, there’s the ‘discussion forums’ where you can read countless essays written by lonely males holed up in their mancaves about the products they’ve purchased, sharing with others the ins and outs of why the product they invested in is so great. Of course it’s great, you bought it and you’re actually wasting life hours writing about it. We beat our chests about the little gizmos and gadgets we’ve been able to scrounge up on our hunting and gathering missions out in the shopping wilderness. Heading back to camp with our gear speared on a stick- which is really a lonely little desk away from the kids or wife – we review the goods, inspect it, try it on, pose in action shots in front of the mirror, perhaps in our underwear, perhaps dressed up in our leathers in the garage. Then, as if to map out a terrain that no other fellow savage has explored, we set up to transpose our inner most thoughts on digital paper about whatever it is we just bought, signaling to other tribe members where to go and what to see along the adventure.”
So it’s with great satisfaction and indeed pride, that I have been complimented on my reviewing technique and detail. This is probably why (and you will see soon enough) my reviews are the most popular out of my posts. Naebody cares about me seeing a plane almost hitting the Forth Road Bridge. They want to know why I think the Puma Desmo’s were the best boot ever made.
Anyway, lets move along. I give you the top 10 favourite posts on YamYam ever (in descending order):
#10: Review: Respro “Foggy” Anti-fog Mask
#9: Review: Puma Brutale Gore-Tex Boots
#8: Update: AGV GP-Tech Helmet
#6: Review: Shark RSI “Eden” Helmet
#5: Yamaha MT-03
#4: Review: Puma Desmo 800 Boots
#3: Tutorial #1: How to change grips and handlebars
#2: Kawasaki ER6n
The most popular post on YamYam ever is, surprise surprise:
#1: Review: AGV GP-Tech Helmet
So there you have it. I think the reason is I got the GP-Tech really early, as in first batch. This allowed me to get a head-start and offer the viewing public a chance to see what this new helmet was like before going out to purchase it themselves.
It’s a good indication of what people are after when looking around the interweb for motorcycle type stuff.
I hope you enjoyed reading the top 10 posts, but also have a wee look around the archives at the non-review stuff. You might be pleasantly surprised…or endlessly bored.
All the best
Gordon
Winter Hack
What what what.
My last post to have the blue banner of information said that I was in a so-so mood, had done 24486.3 miles on my GSR and…go to yamyambiker.com.
Since then, as you can see with my new blue banner of information, I have increased in mood by 3 bars, I have covered 2619 more miles on my GSR and you’ve still to go to yamyambiker.com.
So what’s the chat? What have I been doing that’s so damn interesting to keep me from my YamYam duties. Well as you know, I sometimes go for ages and then end up writing a long assed post, so perhaps this might be one of those moments. I’ll start from where I left it…that is I had just reviewed my current jacket (Wolf Titanium if you ask), I had been told I would be better suited to a scooter because I couldn’t handle my Kwak ER-6n and I was off to Tenerife. Not before emailing West Coast Harley about their current Buell stock, a small yamyam probe to see what the deal was (deal…get it?)
Well I got back from a spectacular 2 weeks of sunshine, sleeping, eating (a lot) and bobbing in an extremely cold pool. Like a true Scotsman, I sucked it up and I was in there pretty much every day, floating like a fleshy coloured iceberg, whilst others sat shivering on their sunbeds. I didn’t care. I wasn’t thinking about work, I wasn’t thinking about the thousands of troubled thoughts that plagued my mind on a daily basis. For 2 weeks (well, 1.3 really) I was awol from my mind, from my life back in Scotland and all that was really to do was decide what to eat (crisps or bread), what to wear (usually just shorts…easy ladies, and a t-shirt) and what to do; float or read…or watch a film…or go for a walk.
We arrived back in Scotland to an extremely cold, windy, wet Saturday morning, having had our plane delayed a wee bit. I sat on my couch at 6am deliberating whether or not to go to bed or just ride it out and see how far I made it. I went to bed.
It was great being back really. I love Scotland and no matter how many Hunters Chicken I ate (a delicious meal prepared by someone other than me in a restaurant filled with alcohol and sunshine), it’s still no match for the stiff, crisp Scottish air. Refreshing some might say.
Before heading away on holiday I had realigned my broadband duties from Virgin to O2, because I found Virgin’s internet to be slow in the evenings, slow enough that I had to buffer some films from Sky Player a few times.
What a mistake that was. From the get-go O2 were dismal, utterly dismal. Think along the lines of trying to open a YouTube video, only to have someone actually come out of your screen and scream “Who do you think you are!?” at you for even trying. I couldn’t load any videos, surfing was a task and I was totally fed up. However I had a 30 day “Happiness Guaranteed” period where I could opt out and nothing would be said of it. I gave it a little while as I was promised that the service would start to pick up shortly because of some maintenance they were doing to the lines or something.
Well guess who got their math wrong? ME. I got back from Tenerife thinking I had a good week left of my 30 days, only to find that I was actually, from Saturday of my arrival onward, 1 day in to my contract. The service was no better by the way, still as crap as always. I should have been getting 8mg. I was getting 0.3mg.
So with no time to lose, I called them up and got my MAC code, then requested my account be cancelled to be told that I am now “within contract period and it’ll cost £160 to get out of it.” After much argumenting and deliberating from O2 I got out of my shockingly bad contract and luckily I was able to go to a more safe bet, BT. Now that I have, my internet is ace, I can watch films, watch YouTube and I’ve even updated www.gordon-fraser.com to celebrate.
But all this has taken it’s toll on my time available to post here, that and just getting on with riding my bike every day with pretty much no incident.
Since getting back the weather has steadily decreased to the point of no-feely-handies. So I decided that it was time to forget looking swish, and buy some hand guards for my Gisser. I did buy them (£38) and fitted them with Dad with a little trademark Fraser persuasion.
What a difference, my hands are now wind free and really a lot warmer. Then the weather got to the point that in the morning my bars would be iced up, so really even though my hand guards were preventing wind and rain from chilling my fingers, I was still holding on to a frozen piece of metal, so my hands still got numb. The ride home however is a different story and I am ever so thankful I took the plunge and fitted them. I also re-fitted my screen unit and it’s keeping a lot of the rain and draught off me so that’s ace. The only problem is the increase in ease of speeding. I am always so used to having the drag on my body that the position I sit at naturally on the throttle is causing me to cruise faster with the aerodynamic advantage of the fairing. It has been a few times I have glanced down to see that I am not sticking to the speed limit without knowing it. ANYWAY.
Hand guards were from a V-Strom 650, for all you like minded GSR riders, and can be picked up from your local Suzuki dealership.
I mentioned the email to Buell Glasgow.
Well I sent a wee informal “Now that Buell is going south, what deals you got?” email to them and I’m not exaggerating here, 8-9 calls later they are still trying to get me in to have a chat. I’ve decided to forget going for a new Buell because I spoke to Stuart @ Jacksons Bikes about it and he said that because of the miles I do, I could quickly find myself in a position that I need a part and they can’t supply it. Say if the engine management computer packed in, and I couldn’t get a replacement, that’s my bike written off, even if the rest is in mint condition. So aye, even though I LOVE LOVE LOVE Buells, I just can’t justify it really. I’ll stick with the pain in the arse and rusty boy until it packs in (it’s been a while so touch wood nothing will happen…)
So that’s really where we are at. It’s a week until christmas, Blair is soon to be a Daddy (it could hit off anytime now) and work is busy as feck.
In a week there could be a small, brand new Fraser in this world. After a year of utter SHITE, I am desperately holding on to the hope that it’ll end well. I am hoping.
2010 is a new year. It’s a fresh start. One things for sure, it really couldn’t get any worse than what 2009 was. If it does, there’ll be bigger problems than my hands getting cold, or BT internet. 2010 could be the greatest year of everyones lives, purely for the fact that we had one of the worst years just before it. I hope for all our sakes it will be.
AHHHHHHHHH
It’s definitely time to draw a line under this post. Word count is 1308 as of this word HERE.
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Go check out my home website WWW.GORDON-FRASER.COM and feedback me.
All the best for the remaining 2009. I will speak before the bells.
Thanks for visiting all,
GORDON!
50% Off All Prints
Well well,
As you may or may not know, I have a wee shop where I sell my wares in the shape of photographs. These are available immediately to buy, and as of this very minute are on offer of 50% off all orders.
If you use the code: YAMYAM at the checkout, you will get a whopping 50% off. Now that’s a good deal. Some examples of the great stuff you can buy are below. Click HERE to go there right now!
All images are available in 15″ x 9″ glossy photo prints.
Scottish Motorcycle Championships @ Knockhill
Hello all,
Sunday there I was at Knockhill for the Scottish Championship motorcycle racing. It was a brilliant day out, which resulted in a mega sun-burnt panda face. Scottish wind+sun=false sense of security.
Anyway, I was there to test out a new lens I got, and I have to say I am really chuffed with the results. I shall now post them up for you.
My bike (GSR) is now back, and with it a complete history of work done to my bike including the latest sheet, which has all the parts needed for the corrosion job…and is 2 pages long.
More on that later.
So yeah, there you go!
For those who want to know, I am using a Canon 450D with a Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 II lens.
Speak to you in a bit about my GSR, I’m still thinking about what to do.
Thanks for looking,
Gordon
Still Here>Not Happy
Hello.
I am still here folks, albeit a bit miffed.
My bike is falling to bits and now, to top it all off I am having to get the front of the engine replaced. This is costing £1500 JUST FOR THE PARTS and then 2 weeks of labour, all done under warranty.
I will update with pictures this weekend.
Meanwhile I have finished my first book, and it’s available to buy now worldwide.
Check it out below:
So check that out, then come back at the weekend to get the low-down on my horrendously bad bike…
Thanks for looking folks,
Gordon
January 2009…what happened?
January 2009
Good evening all, it is a cold Sunday night here in Scotland and I have just realised how long I have left it since posting.
My January this year wasn’t the action packed January like last year. No sir, this Janauary consisted mainly of riding to and from work. That’s it.
As far as biking goes, this is as routine as it comes. Yeah there was numerous stupid car driver fuelled moments and a lot of lonely rides in the bogging Scottish winter weather.
My favourite moment from Jan 2009 was when someone pulled out in front of a guy on a beemer Long Way Whatever. I watched as the guy then peeped his horn, raced along side the driver’s window and proceeded to pound on it in frustration. It was a spectacle and something which I found highly amusing. I could also hear some expletives being launched from within his helmet. Brilliant.
We had some snow here over the past 2 weeks and for most the snow had little or no impact. When I say most, I mean people who actually have a grip of themselves. There were people flailing about whining that they can’t get to work and blah blah. Every day I went out in -1°C, -5°C and swept the snow off my bike. I then started my bike and then got on my bike. I then wheelspun out of my housing estate and then wheelspun on to the motorway. I then rode my bike to work and back again. Most people called me a psycho, whilst I called myself a non-panic merchant. I found it fine riding in snow. I found that although it was at times trecherous, as long as I approached the situation sensibly, I was ok.
Well there wasn’t a better way to approach the weather last week. And my story starts thus:
Thursday last week I headed to work in the snow like I had done for a few weeks. I got on the motorway and it was snowing heavy. I then got all the way through the rush hour traffic and roadworks, through some idiotic moves from car drivers playing with satnav and mobiles, some thinking about work and some just sleeping. I got to my work’s street, which is cobbled and the back wheel was loosing traction like mad, so I slowed down to below walking pace, say 3-4mph and kept it in 2nd to try and get some traction. Then as I went over the entrance to my office car park, which happens to be downhill, my front folded and down I went.
Now there wasn’t a whiff of brake, nor a whiff of anything else. As soon as I touched the slush on this slope there was absolutely nothing I could have done. And what’s the most annoying thing? It should have been gritted.
As I fell it felt familar, something which only people who have fallen off their bike can understand, and I shouted “why isn’t this f*cking gritted?”
Well not a moment had passed and a guy from my work had appeared from the garage saying he had heard me fall off. He also said that his car had been all over the place too and was angry that it wasn’t gritted. He gave me a hand up and off I went in to the garage pushing my bike along, although it was sliding still under no engine momentum whatsoever. It gives a wee idea of how slippy it was.
In to the dry garage I stopped and surveyed the damage; broken rear brake pedal (obviously. These things are meant to break…) a scuffed engine casing and crash mushroom was filed away flat. Luckily because I fell on a downslope, the crash mushroom protected the bars from coming in to contact with the ground, so they were fine, as was my bodywork.
I tried to start the engine and after a bit of trying it started fine. It was showing FI but I turned the ignition on and off and it started ok. I then rode it and parked it up.
During that day I went back out and noticed that my bike was leaking oil from my scuffed engine case. There was a bolt loose enough to turn by hand and this was where the pil was coming from. I went inside and called Stuart, from Jacksons Bikes. He suggested tightening the bolt and warming the engine up to put the engine under pressure and see if there was oil spurting out. If there wasn’t I could ride it to his garage. If there was, it was goosed. Luckily the bolt tightened up fine and there wasn’t any oil.
The ride home was interesting though as I crapped myself incase the engine casing burst off the side of the bike, thus throwing oil on to my back tyre throwing me in to a housing estate or field…but I was ok and got to the garage fine.
After riding the bike in to Stuarts new bike garage wing he surveyed the damage saying that he thinks it’s just a case of rear brake pedal replacement and that’s it. My 16,000 mile service was due so I said just to get that done whilst the bike was here and also replace the brake pads after Stuart had mentioned it the last time.
“You’re mental. Riding in this!” He had a look at the back and muttered “That’s down to the steel…” had a look at the front and “…yep, they’re pretty much the same!…how do you stop!!?”
“It’s an issue”
So we agreed on what needed to be done and off I went happy that my bike was in safe hands.
Voila! My January was complete and February is already half way through, which is ridiculous. My weeks have been flying by (hence the reason I never realised how long it has been) and I am getting the bus to work tomorrow, something which annoys me. On Friday there I was sitting in front of some greasy bank exec type who had serious fag and tea morning mouth and kept sighing, which sent all his faggy tea breath over in to my seat. Lovely. Then some youngster sat in front of me, doused in some sweet smelling aftershave which added a sickly twist to the atmosphere. This is why I hate public transport.
I can’t wait for the spring and it seems to be coming through now. It’s to be mild this week and I can hopefully get my bike back before I poke my eyes out on the bus.
I have had the GSR a year now, so I’m going to post up a yearly review of it. Stay tuned for the relatively small good points and the overwhelmingly regular bad points…it’s not going to be pretty…
Thanks for the regular interest all, I know how lucky I am.
Send me a message if you can, I’ll reply to every single one.
All the best,
Gordon
p.s. 15,500 miles this year. It seems to be flattening out a bit, but that now makes my overall bike mileage well over 33,000 in 2 years. Oh and recent news of bike air bag jackets will be covered soon too…grrr.
Back in full swing.
Hello all.
Well this last 2 weeks have flown by. My bike was in for it’s 7500 mile service last Thursday and although they didn’t fix the really annoying knocking sound, they did fit another back tyre. £340 it cost for the service and back tyre, which is a big chunk of moolah, but I guess that’s what happens if you use your bike a lot.
So the knocking is still there, but I have booked my bike in at the end of August for a “longer test ride” by the mechanics, who also noted on the service sheet that I need a new air filter…but they couldn’t fit it because they ran out of time…
Great. I am starting to doubt the authenticity of the garage. In a few posts back I wrote about how B needed a new bar end weight after his fell off. Well he went in to the garage at the weekend there and I went with him on my bike so he could get his bar end weight fitted under warranty. He decided to get a new back tyre as well because it was bald! So we waited around for a bit and then the guy signalled B in to pay for his back tyre fitting. When he got in the guy said, “That’ll be £140 please” and B went, wait a minute. He knew exactly how much it should have cost because I got my tyre fitted 2 days ago and it should have been £118 fitted. So he queiried it.
“Well there’s the tyre, and that costs £x, and there’s the valve and that costs £x, and then you have the fitting and balancing and that costs £x….and then you have the bar end weight..so anyway.”
“Hold on a minute, the bar end weight is to be done under warranty!”
“Hmmmm. Hold on.”
He then got the only guy in the whole of the garage that is allowed to deal with warranty issues (supposedly) and he came out and went, yeah it’s to be done under warranty.
If B was any other punter, he would have just paid the £140 and that would be it, no second thoughts, but it just shows how sneaky some people can be.
Rant over.
The weather was tremendous at the weekend, starting foggy and burning off to reveal a gorgeous day. I then went with Em on Sunday to buy a sofa, which was stressful and then had a BBQ at night, which was awesome.
The week started pretty bad with lots of fog. Then today it was foggy again but brightened up a lot during the day, only to lead to an insane mega down pour at home time, but luckily I only caught the outskirts of it and managed to ride across the front of it, which was nice!
The bike is going well, and the back tyre sure does remind me how good the GSR handles. You start to lose that “flickability” when your tyre looks like a car tyre. Oh well.
I was going to get some BT016′s on for their “triple compound” goodness but can’t afford it this month (or the next 56) because of the house. Oh well. 
We move in in 2 weeks and Em is beside herself. I can’t wait and I am looking forward to 19 days of pure and simple holiday.
I am finishing my photography website off where I have got all my landscape photographs and other images available for sale. I’ll post details closer to launch, but as a wee taster, here’s one of my images. If you fancy owning a fantastic limited edition print, including ones that are distinctly motorcycle based then check it out.
Thanks for looking all,
Gordon
Updates
Pictures section has been updated with 2 galleries full of nice images.
Check it out and drop me a line if you like anything.
Cheers
Gordon
