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Our Kestrel Workstands, the ones our fantastic sponsors paid for in return for 24 hours of our pain and suffering on the West Highland Way, have finally arrived! Well, all except one part which has got lost in the snow somewhere.
So we now have a full complement of amazing stands. They are so much better than the old ones, it’s a pleasure working on them, and these things will LAST.
So, a massive thank you to everyone who sponsored or helped. We’re already planning the next fundraising event. It will be in January and it’s going to be good! We’ll be fundraising for another charity this time – keep your peepers peeled, all will be revealed very soon.
It’s nearly 5 days since we completed our 24hr fundraising challenge on the West Highland Way. Already the pain, suffering and chafing memories are fading, and it’s starting to seem like it was quite good fun, really. The wee film we’ve made makes it seem that way.
Bits of it were fantastic. We charged down every single one of the 4000+ meters descent over the route, sometimes going at 60km/h down fire roads, sometimes hopping over rocks and drainage channels on steep, tricky paths. Even in the middle of the night, we always found the energy to enjoy the downhill sections, lights blazing, probably scaring the life out of walkers camping by the path as we rattled past. The weather couldn’t have been better. Our support crew brought us lights and chicken soup when we needed it. The scenery was great. We heard stags bellowing, and saw herds of deer running across our path at dawn on Rannoch Moor. The King’s House Hotel gave us free coffees at 7am, even though they weren’t open yet.
But most of it was pretty grim. The 12km stretch around Rob Roy’s cave was the worst overall; a 4 hour bike carry across a never-ending jumble of rocks and boulders. There is no comfortable way to carry a bike for that long. By the time we passed it, we were 2 hours behind schedule, the light had gone and we picked our way slowly through the dark, bashing our shins off our pedals and falling into ditches until we reached Beinglas Farm and made our first support stop (where we got our lights). We were already knackered, and it was sooooo tempting to stop there and then for a few pints before getting a lift home.
But we ate a few rolls and had some soup, then pushed on. The next section up to Crianlarich was almost as bad. It was mostly rideable, so we made good time, but it was so rough that by the end of it everything was starting to hurt quite a lot. We reached Tyndrum about 2am, ate more food, put on extra layers to keep out the cold, damp mist, and kept going.
From Tyndrum to Bridge of Orchy was a relative breeze, with long fast sections of old military road, and we felt a bit better by the time we met up with our support for a second time to stock up on supplies and eat more chicken soup. We were also past half way, and feeling a bit more confident about making it to the end. But grinding up an endless hill at 4am, 80km covered in 14 hours, with 75km more to go before any rest, is not a happy place. Legs, arms, shoulders and most of all arses were really starting to hurt! We moaned a lot, but carried on.
The plan was to be at Kings House Hotel just before dawn, but we were still climbing up on to Rannoch Moor, miles to the South. Nobody said it, but it was starting to look unlikely we’d make Fort William inside 24 hours. That stretch was another real saddle-destroyer. We had slapped on extra cream at Bridge of Orchy, but the chafing was still bad. Ooooft. The cycle computers were telling us that we’d been stopping too often – our pace was fine, and we never stopped for a proper rest, but every gate, bridge, junction, puncture, snack, or call of nature stopped us for a minute or ten, and they all added up.
But we rolled into Kings House Hotel just after 7am. The kitchen didn’t open ’til 8, which was probably just as well because otherwise we’d have stopped for breakfast. Sod 24 hours, we were hungry, sore and tired. Some staff were already in though and took pity on us with free coffee. We doubled up on caffeine energy gels and left for the Devil’s Staircase, agreeing that we were definitely never going to try this a second time, so we’d better make a last ditch attempt to make it inside the time.
We slogged up the hill, up into the clouds, pushing our bikes the whole way since we were too shattered to even try riding any of it. On the other side, the cloud broke and we could see all the way down to Kinlochleven, over 2000ft below. The descent only took about 20 minutes, and we got into the town around half past nine, only an hour or so behind schedule. We had to stop for a while to eat some more and refill our water supplies, and we left for the final 26km stretch at 09:50. 2 hours 45 to go…
North of Kinlochleven is another long, hard push uphill, far too steep to cycle. But higher up the path levels out and improves a bit, and we cycled to the top of the last big climb at 11am. 1hr 35 left. We didn’t stop for a rest at the top, just mashed on, sweating and cursing as we careered past loads of walkers. We were all in a right mess by now, but determined to keep going until we ran out of time or reached the end.
Glen Nevis seemed to go on and on and on. And on. It was 12:15 but we still couldn’t see Fort William. Andy asked a foreign couple how far was left to the town. ”Oh, I don’t know” he said. ”Two and a half hours walk at least”. ”WHIT?!? We need to get there in 20 minutes!”. ”Oh, that’s not going to happen” he said.
Two minutes later the path joined a steep forestry road and the three of us raced down it. Andrew’s hands had gone numb and he couldn’t use his brakes, but we kept up. At the bottom the track joined the main road and a sign said 2km to the end. 3 minutes later we arrived at the sign, and pretty much collapsed on the spot. It was 12:35 – 23 hours and 59 minutes after we left Milngavie.
We went to the pub, had a pint, ate two meals each, then fell asleep on the grass next to our table until it was time to catch the train home. Yass!
So, a massive thank you to everyone who helped or sponsored us. Special thanks to Sandy and Vicky, our support crew. Also to Simon, who not only lent me the bike lights I needed, but sponsored us a whole heap of money. We will name a stand in your honour!
- l-r Andrew, Monty and Andy.
UPDATE – You can monitor the lads progress via Monty’s twitter page: www.twitter.com/missingl_nk (#24west)
De’ils on Wheels has a problem – we’ve done so much bike fixing that we’ve worn out our work stands, and they are on their last legs. We’d like to buy professional stands that can take the heavy use we inflict on them, but there is a catch – they cost £300 each, and we need three of them! £900 is a huge hole in our budget, but Andrew (one of our mechanics/cycle trainers) came up with a plan – do a sponsored bike ride.
OK, but to raise £900 we’ll need a pretty big challenge. Well, Andrew had that covered. “Let’s do the West Highland Way in 24hrs”. 96 miles off-road cycling from Milngavie to Fort William, non-stop. Yikes. So I’ve done a bit of research – it’s been done before, and here’s what people had to say about it:
“Worst I’ve ever felt in my whole life, no joke. Sore back, sore hands, sore legs. Those were the worst bits. I was honestly thinking of going to hospital”
Another snippet:
“I almost cracked there and then, so dramatic was the change within the environment within my body. Cold to my bones and as weak as a baby, I crawled my way up the climb one step at a time. Breath, step, breath, step, don’t think about the distance, don’t think about the time, don’t think about the weakness washing over your body.”
That last one, by the way, is from a professional endurance athlete (Rob Lee). Fair enough, he was trying to do it there AND back in 24hr, but that description was before he even got to Rannoch Moor, and he had to give up not long into the return journey. Encouraging, eh?
There’s three of us attempting it; at least our intrepid volunteer, Andy, is a doctor so he can maybe put us back together if we break en route. In fact Andy is a surgeon, but I can’t help thinking we’d be better off with a psychiatrist.
So please sponsor us! Email, leave a comment, or see our facebook event here
UPDATE: SEE HOW WE GOT ON HERE!
This is the trailer for the challenge Rob Lee tried. Again – yikes.
Tonight Dave and Dylan finished their bikes after just 3 sessions, and made a really good job of it too. They picked the workshop soundtrack for the evening and went for The Misfits, The White Stripes and Queen. A++
Andrew’s also been in helping us out a lot this week, tonight he spent a while repairing a puncture on an unloved BMX that lives in a garden. We’ve persuaded the owner to come in and give it a bit of TLC…
Other news – we spent some of today talking with potential partners about exciting plans, and we hope that some new developments might be in the pipeline – watch this space!
What’s definitely happening is a trip to the Western Titans BMX track at the end of Feb – Scotland’s only ‘proper’ BMX club have invited us along for a taster. Magic, and best of all it’s only 3 miles so we can ride there.
And finally… thanks to two: the Bike Station in Edinburgh for taking the time to chat this week – they have an amazing project and despite being ridiculously busy were happy to spend a while on the phone giving very good advice. Second, Billy Bilsland Cycles, who are helping us out with workshop supplies for now. Support like this is further proof that local bike shops rule.
Pedal on, Kirkpatrick.
Woop! Lots of images here The workshop is officially open – Mon Tue 5-8pm, Wed Thu 1-6pm. We had a busy day up there today, there’s now 14 candidates applied for our build-a-bike courses, and today we had two people in fixing their bikes with Sandy’s help. Martin sorted out some niggly gears, brakes and headset issues, while Jim came in for an hour or so and cleaned and oiled his chain and freewheel, which were starting to seize up (despite liberal applications of cheap margerine to his chain – we think this could be a new market: “I can’t believe it’s not chain lube”) . Jim told us he rides around a lot and it helps keep him in good health, but lately he’s not been out on his bike at all because it wasn’t working and he’d been told it’d cost £70 to fix. All it needed was the right tools and a few drops of oil – Jim’s well pleased and he’s coming back next week to learn more about bike maintenance.
