The weather this summer has, to say the least, been unpredictable. I really do want to get away camping but the advance planning needed to go on my bike means I really need a forecast of a fairly prolonged spell of good weather. Booking trains and campsites at this time of year means my options are restricted.

So I have decided that I will go away in the car. I can be packed up and on my way a few hours after I decide to. It also gives me more choice in where I can get to. Not the greenest of decisions but my mental health could do with getting out of the city.

I will need to look out my bike carrier and get it fitted to the car. Then I can take my mountain bike and have the option of cycling when I get to my chosen camp-site.

For months last year, while I was building them up, there would hardly a day went past without me doing some work on one or another of my bikes. Once I had both of them on the road and running the way I wanted, there was nothing to do to them apart from washing them down after a wet day out, oiling the chain and ensuring everything was tightened up. Even the last one is needed less and less as all the components settle down.

So what I find myself doing is wondering what I can change next. Mostly, I come up with ideas which are purely for the sake of looks over function. Like swapping out my cambium saddle which was blue for an orange one which fitted in with the colour scheme. So now I’m considering changing the saddle on my ALICE, touring bike. The brown leather brooks is comfortable having had some time to get broken in. But, I’ve seen another Brooks saddle, in green, which will go nicely with the colour of the rest of the bike. It’s a really rare piece so there’s a good chance I won’t get it. Even if I don’t get the one I want, maybe I’ll change it anyway. A black one would fit in to the colour scheme better than the brown!

UPDATE: The green saddle went for three times what I was willing to pay for it (£320). It really is a rare example. So I’ve bought a black one with titanium rails and copper rivets. They often sell for £160 or over so I reckon I got a bargain at less than £120.

I’m in two minds if guided cycle tours are a good or bad thing. On one hand they encourage people to get out cycling, can introduce visitors to an area and are a way of getting people together to share and encourage a love of cycling.

But, as I recently observed while cycling in Orkney, there can be a more negative side to them. I watched a group of nine cyclists on the road from Kirkwall to Stromness. I first noticed them when I was taking a short break to take in some views. They were cycling in single file along a busy road. They were fairly well spread out but with insufficient space between them to allow a car to pull in. This meant that drivers had to pass all of them in one manoeuver. The road they had just come was fairly wide so this wouldn’t have been too much of a problem but in places where there was single track with passing places it could easily have caused delays and frustrations.

I came across the same group a little later and realised that they were German. They had visited a tourist attraction and were leaving the car park, turning left to rejoin the main road. The leader of the group looked out for traffic but the rest of the riders pulled out with no hesitation, following the rider in front. Most if them didn’t even glance to their right so would be unaware if any traffic was approaching. I have no way of knowing how much experience these riders have of being on the “wrong” side of the road but it was worrying that there were so many in a group together. I had heard reports from Shetland, that even larger groups who come off cruise ships for a few hours, were being offered cycle rides there as excursions. Given that the roads out of Lerwick, where most of these cruises berth, can be exrtemely busy I would think that these large groups of cyclists will cause hold-ups as well as being a danger to the cyclists themselves.

As for tours in cities. I have heard of and seen one or two guided tours using OVO hire bikes. I don’t know how much they stick to cycle routes but I would be worried for them if they go on some of Glasgow’s busier roads.

I must say thanks to Orkney Islands Council for their speedy response to my e-mail, pointing out the difficulties I had when booking a pitch at Point of Ness campsite while I was there last week. The web booking form is difficult to navigate, especially on a phone and I ended up paying for the same two nights at two different camp-sites.

I don’t know yet if they are going to rectify the problems or even refund my money but at least they have sent an aknowledgment of my e-mail. I have never known a council elsewhere to respond so swiftly, so maybe there’s hope I’ll receive some redress.

UPDATE: Orkney Isles Council have refunded me for the two nights I didn’t use. Well done to them.

I’ve come to the last day of my cycling and camping trip to the Northern Isles. I spent fifteen nights in my tent, and although about fourteen of those were wet, it served me well. Now that I’m home, the process of drying and packing away begins.

I met a lot of fellow cyclists. Some pretty serious, like the guy on the train from Thurso to Inverness who had just completed LEJOG and was already planning a trip to Korea. Mostly the folk I met were similar to myself,  cycling because we enjoy it and taking our journeys easy.

Nevertheless,  I am looking forward to planning my next trip and hoping we get some sort of summer, even if it is an Indian one.

Just travelled overnight on the ferry to Lerwick and was surprised to be the only cyclist. There were a few cars and campers with bikes on racks but I was the only one pushing a bike on. Compared to ferries in the Western Isles, at the same time last year, where there were dozens of bikes on every one.

I wonder why?

.. but it’s not the worst cycle storage on trains here in Scotland. I’m on the intercity from Glasgow to Aberdeen.  At least the bike doesn’t need to be hung up by the rear wheel! Squeezing the handlebars through the narrow gap in the doors is a pain. It meant my panniers needed to come off even if the bike would have fitted in the space with them on.

A couple of times I’ve thought about buying some kind of navigation device such as a Garmin or even using an app on my phone but always talked myself out of it. There are a few reasons why and here are the main ones.

• Cost. As far as I can see a half-decent bike computer will cost well over a hundred pounds. Reading up on these it looks as though anything less would be false economy.
• Need. I think I have got lost once in the last four or five years that I’ve been cycling and that was because of a mis-placed sign.
• Aesthetics. I go cycling to escape the world in which I am surrounded by technology. Taking it with me (apart from a phone for safety purposes) would seem to defeat that purpose.
• I like maps. I can get all the information I need from a paper map or a physical guide-book.
• Power. These things need charging every so often and if there’s no power source available, do I need an old fashioned back-up anyway?

Maybe I will change my mind or someone will convince me of the advantages of an electronic navigation device but until then, paper wins.