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Tuesday, 17 May 2011

Cycling in Scotland

Up here on the West Coast of Scotland, cycling is not too popular amongst the natives. The hilly terrain and the great distances between communities are enough to deter most people and the gale force winds and horizontal rain are additional factors. However we have seen lots of keen touring cyclists battling against the elements. Presumably only the English visitors are mad enough.
Bicycles are not unknown hereabouts though, and this strange contraption is to be seen outside one of the coffee shops here in Poolewe, where it is taken indoors at night in case anyone should steal it. They would not be able to ride it away though, as it has no tyres and there is a box of flowers on the seatpost.
And howabout the trendy scroll type dropped bars?



Poolewe is situated alongside Loch Ewe, which is a large and sheltered sea loch used during the Second World War as a base for the North Atlantic convoys and their Royal Navy escort ships. As a potential target for German bombers, the area was well guarded by anti aircraft gun emplacements on the surrounding hillsides. 
These were mostly manned by professional soldiers, but some were manned by the local Home Guard.
The story goes that one enterprising member of the Home Guard mounted a machine gun on the handlebars of his bicycle. I don't know if he ever actually fired the weapon, but it led me to wonder what would be the effect of the recoil.
Would it propel him backwards if he fired it whilst cycling along, and what chance of him hitting any target in front of him?

1 comment:

mavis said...

Nice to see you are still thinking about us and Sustrans, even on holiday.