Live blog: New Colnago C64, Doris Swinnerton, still making wheels at 92 + much more

I've ridden the first half of this route doing the Five Ferries, which can be done in a single day if you want or at a much more leisurely pace. Ferry chasing does lead to a sense of adventure though! Don't recall the Boguillie being that bad a climb, the one out of Tighnabruich (carry on past Kennacraig, get the ferry from Tarbert on the Five Ferries) was much worse to my memory. Never taken a bike to Islay as yet, but been there a few times. Port Charlotte is lovely and the food and people at the hotel are always great too.

@Mr Blackbird No they don't- it's just a police dodge designed as part of the 'get the driver off killing a cyclist, or at worst a joke suspended sentence' procedure. It's rather like the stupid police attempt to insist on incriminating videos being removed from social media, when what they really don't like is the public being allowed to see how indisputable the evidence really is. Daniel Thomas has now been charged with criminal damage or some similar charge for slashing a dinghy out in the middle of the Channel- the video was livestreamed and has since been shown on TV to countless people. Are the police saying 'he can't possibly have a fair trial now, we'd better let him go'? No, they aren't- they only use that dodge when the people who have been KSI'd/ offended against are people they don't like: and cyclists are among those

Worse than that - they used all those pastel shades!

I'm not sure you can occupy a petard. It would have to be an unusually large one. And you'd presumably have to remove its contents first, which would render it benign anyway.

An espresso version would be better, to put the top of the mug somewhere near the bike. (Or maybe a Sheffield stand...)

Actually, will we need the space for the latest version of flying taxis? 🤔 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwz0z5dppxypo Won't you think of the ageing millionaires?

@mattw completely agree about the wider accessibility in design being a "bolt-on" even though we now have law here. Of course the solution to eg. "the shops are now really inaccessible as they're in a remote shopping centre beyond the dual carriage way, via underpass and giant car park" is "we can't limit driving then - those who are less able *need to drive* there" ...

@mattw "oodles of dead space in carriageways" Yes, there's a surprising amount which - once you look, you can't not see. (Although while I like Robert Weetman's article on this I think the "look at the un-driven-on snow" is a weaker argument.). It should be removed anyway (for "make crossing roads shorter distance", "cue slower driving" and "less road to maintain" reasons)! Although I hear there's often push-back from local bus companies who are very hot on *their* preferred widths. Of course some of *those* may be because we allow parking everywhere and people just don't leave enough space... However the utility of this for improving *cycling* specifically might be overstated. Some of the "narrow" places *are* chokepoints (for several modes of transport) - and above all we need to sort out junctions. A deeper issue is that because of our "multi-functional" roads (through-route AND "place") we end up with "driving must be everywhere". So we always "have to" mix modes, and it's harder to get the benefit of the Dutch "unbundling" or "disentangling" approach.

Arran has a few more good climbs. I recommend the Ross Road in either direction, with the Boguillie (A481 between Sannox and Lochranza in the article) a close second. The hardest part of the circular A481 is the undulating southern end, though possibly that is subjective because I tend to be there later in the day when 'nearly finished'. Oh, and the wind blows against you on the west coast no matter your heading

@Nigel Garage They criticised a rider they sponsored for sharing racist social media content, and they used some black models. Oh the horror of wokery.