Snow Roads 2018

[U.N.Dulates]

Tandem braking is a different beast to half bikes, where weight transfer means that most of the braking is done by the front wheel as the back becomes unloaded and thus locks up much more easily. With the long wheelbase and rearward weight distribution the effect is much smaller on a tandem - it's impossible to do an endo, you'd lock the front wheel first. So the brake bias is much more towards 50:50, and with disks you just want the biggest you can get as physics dictates that you'll be going 50% faster with twice the weight to stop.

Not that we were doing much braking. Big roads with good sightlines and good surfaces meant pretty much all the descents could be taken flat out and 50mph+ was the order of the day. Made up for the long upwards slog.

[FifeingEejit]

Makes sense and what I'd suspected.

Never got as fast as that on the day; crapped out and just hung on;
probably the best chance of good speed for me was the bit of CoM that was scraped of surface and the straight section of the Lecht descent; where I was being shifted around by the wind more than I like.

[Pingu]

There's often a nasty side wind on that descent of the Lecht. I find the Glenshee descent to be the best one for max. velocity.

[fimm]

How was all the tar'n'chippings on the way down from Glenshee? We drove over it the previous weekend and there was still a lot of loose stuff at that point.

[FifeingEejit]

Was expecting it all day, but never saw it.
Plenty of piles of gravel on the ideal line though.

[IanDG]

Just seen a ridiculously purple tandem going through the town centre. Is it anyone on the ride?!

The Hamiltons (from England, but often seen riding in the Frozen North) are pictured on their purple tandem in this set of piccies:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPoas-kdpYIrX-DK1gKV9y4ntWoDPzAQGuFxFJ41dwKrGqOe0XCtHzPbdvX2DNB8Q?key=U0NnbldoZDNLUEVuOE9wUkt4NWUwZVlhN0cxaEZ3

That was us, making the long trek up from Englandshire. The Snow Roads has been on my to-do list for ages so when it popped up on the calendar and didn't clash with anything else this was going to be the year to tick it off. And Mrs Dulates still hasn't learnt to check the route before saying "yes" when I suggest events to her.

That, as everyone else has said, was hot (but not as hot as down at home). The main effect of the tailwind on the way out was just to reduce the airspeed to zero, removing any cooling effect. Dufftown to Tomintoul was the highway to hell (to borrow from a famous Kirrie descendant). After the turn on to the Lecht road things got better turning into the headwind which knocked a couple of degrees off the temperature. BH1 nearly did for us after the Lecht. Temperatures more to our liking after that and rejuvenated by the control at Braemar the Cairnwell was almost an anticlimax (the descent on the other hand...) After that there's a awful lot of downhill back to Kirrie and we ended up rolling in at 11:30.

Thanks to Alex and all the helpers at Kirrie and Braemar for a cracking event.

Sorry, don't think I saw you to say hello.

[IanDG]

Just seen a ridiculously purple tandem going through the town centre. Is it anyone on the ride?!

The Hamiltons (from England, but often seen riding in the Frozen North) are pictured on their purple tandem in this set of piccies:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPoas-kdpYIrX-DK1gKV9y4ntWoDPzAQGuFxFJ41dwKrGqOe0XCtHzPbdvX2DNB8Q?key=U0NnbldoZDNLUEVuOE9wUkt4NWUwZVlhN0cxaEZ3

That was us, making the long trek up from Englandshire.

You have impeccable taste in tandem colour schemes.  (Even though I managed to totally miss it on the day!)

As everyone else has already said, that was rather hot. I kept looking out for the snow, but I didn't find it.

I'd looked at the weather forecast beforehand and seen a pleasant 17°, so when it came to the "second water bottle or tool bottle with some extra CO₂ and tubes" decision, I opted for the latter. Big mistake. Suffice to say, I was stopping at every shop to get water (and sweets). I only had a very small saddlepack and a mini top tube bag - in retrospect, I should have taken a slightly bigger saddle bag, to avoid ditching a water bottle. Lesson learned!

I'm glad others also found the Dufftown to Tomintoul stretch tough. I was slogging it out on my own, barely seeing anyone else, on that section, and although it seemed pretty flat, I just didn't seem to be making any progress. I wondered whether it was just me, but it seems not! I saw one rider up ahead in the distance turn straight on to the Lecht road, but decided I definitely wasn't doing that and diverted in to the metropolis of Tomintoul in search of ice cream and more water. Soon afterwards a whole bunch of other riders turned up with the same idea, so I stuck with a big group all the way back to the end.

After the turn on to the Lecht road things got better turning into the headwind

I can't think of too many occasions to use "Lecht", "headwind" and "better" all in one statement...

Huge thanks to Alex and all involved - it's a lovely route; the Braemar control was great (even if I was regretting having eaten quite so much on the climb up to Glenshee) and macaroni pies at the end even better.

We spoke briefly in Dufftown (I gave you directions to the WC) then you passed me on the road from Dufftown and couldn't understand why you 'caught up' with me at Lecht summit.

[IanDG]

Just arrived back home. Great event, had me questioning life, being and the universe (and WTF do I enjoy audax) between Dufftown and Braemar.

Then a useful couple of days in D&G house hunting (OT) spent most of the time in the Dumfries/Castle Douglas area then a quick trip out to Thornhill to spy out the area. Ideas for events forming already

[Dave_C]

.....
Then a useful couple of days in D&G house hunting (OT) spent most of the time in the Dumfries/Castle Douglas area then a quick trip out to Thornhill to spy out the area. Ideas for events forming already

Good luck! ECEing a ride down there would be great as we could control at JSB services en route.

[Chamford Sideplate]

Good to talk to you on Friday evening Windy. I'm glad the house hunting went well. D&G is a great area for cycling - just watch out for people trying to sell you a boat ride to Isle of Whithorn.

[noisycrank]

You should charge

https://twitter.com/PeteCrane5/status/1024624837736706048

either that or promote it as the best signed Audax in the country