Turf Zone – LochrinBasin
Today, we shall mostly be looking at the topic of mobile phones for turfing, or more specifically, mobile phone mounts on bicycles. One issue I’ve discovered recently was the lack of space between the “U” shaped handlebars on the Brompton for my Quadlock phone mount. This mount comes in two parts, the handlebar mount and the phone case. In operation, you turn the phone 90 degrees and it locks the phone onto the mount. All very neat and (mostly) secure.
However, my Google Pixel 8 Pro phone is too large to rotate between the Brompton handlebars which is a bit of a bugger. But fear not. This was resolved by using an alternative called Intralock which works in a similar manner but does not require the 90-degree twist. On the down side, this system is not as secure as the Quadlock and the phone has dropped off a few times when riding on rough ground or hitting a bump in the road. Though this might also be down to user error on my part! It can also be knocked off with your knee when dismounting. Not very good. But there’s a fix that can at least stop the phone hitting the ground. Attach a strap to the phone case and loop that around the mount. No more dropped phones.
Another issue I’ve found recently, this time with my Trek Farley 9.6 fat bike, is the lack of space on the handlebars to mount both mobile phone mount and bike lights. With riser bars fitted usable space is reduced, just not enough space for two light mounts and a phone mount. I got round this issue with an alternative phone mount attached to the handlebar stem, thus moving the phone back from the handlebars. In addition, I discover that mounting the phone sideways, in landscape format, also frees up space though takes some getting used to after using portrait format for years. Sorted.
Now, on to turfing and the start of a new round of turf. Things got off to a slow start with the turf app playing silly buggers when trying to take a zone. My first few takes seemed okay, the take countdown working fine and the posh lady inside the phone reassuring me the zone was taken. However, it all began to get rather annoying.
The take countdown would complete but then stall. The zone never actually getting taken. Tried the usual, switch off GPS and on again, restart the turf app, restart the phone, all to no avail. Even some pretty impressive cursing didn’t make any difference. I gave up on one zone, moving onto the next but the same issue occurred. Then, after trying two further zones, both which failed to take, the zone I tried to take three zones ago finally completed the take. At this point I gave up and headed for home. A check on the Turf Scotland WhatsApp group revealed other players were in the same boat. Annoyingly, it was working as normal by the time I reached the house.
I started turf back in December 2020, my very first zone was Pittendriech, located about 100 meters from the front door and it was held by a turfer called Féarglas, who was also my initial inspiration to take up this fine game following an article on the BBC website. I posted my very first turf blog that same day, Turf Blog – 21-12-20, and while it was very short and didn’t say very much, the final sentence noted that I was going to enjoy the game of turf. And that was very true. For a while at least.
I recall those early days, the excitement of reaching the first 10,000 points, the thrill of all those early medals popping up on the mobile phone screen, the uncertainness of meeting other turfers for the first time, Cruachan, Féarglas, Hodge and many others. And later, the more challenging medals, like the Greed-300, Insomnia, Darkest Ninja and the Eager Ferret, taking 10 zones in under 10-minutes and reaching your first 1,000,000 points. All very exciting and enjoyable, though hard work at the same time.
That was 1690 days ago from today. So, what happened? Where did that thrill and excitement go? Why am I struggling to find any enthusiasm for the game of turf? Remaining medals are tough to achieve, dreams of taking 1,00,000 points during a single round have fallen by the wayside and even the new Turf Missions, recently created by turfer Féarglas, just aren’t keeping me interested. Is it just me that’s the problem? Or is it a problem with turf itself? I wish I knew the answer.
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