Turf Zone – ThreeHares
With 113 zone takes during the day yesterday, there was the temptation to get out of bed at Silly O’clock that night, head down through Dalkeith and into Musselburgh, Prestonpans and Tranent and take the remaining 87 zones that would give me that cherished El Staminatore medal, 200 zone takes in 24-hours. In fact, I’d laid out all my cycling gear in preparation. However, sometimes the body overrules the mind and I was late waking up, leaving only three hours left from the 24-hour time limit remaining, cutting it a bit fine timewise. I guess turfing hilly Gorebridge and Mayfield, as well as Newtongrange, Bonnyrigg and Rosewell, can take it out of you. I needed the sleep and rest and besides, it was raining.
And to top it all I’d lost 70 zones overnight, mostly to turfers Hodge* and MuttsCycles. Seems I’m not the only crazy turfer who goes out turfing at 2.00 am in the morning. On the plus side my losses were on my local patch, Rosewell and Bonnyrigg. And that means I could have completed the El Staminatore medal locally. Oh well, never mind. There will always be other opportunities and I don’t need to go far for some zones today. I’d like to make a turf video blog while tackling the El Staminatore medal anyway.
I mentioned yesterday about the embarrassment of having installed both tyres on the Surly Ogre the wrong way round, and of having turfer MuttsCycles/Scott spot the error the instant I entered the shop. Anyway, sorted now and I’m quite surprised the difference it makes. Not only does the bike run smoother and seemingly faster but it’s much quieter as well. Previously there seemed to be a lot of noise from the rear tyre, particularly when accelerating or cornering, this has largely vanished.
So, it might be worth checking your tyres for the correct rotation. They should have a directional arrow mark somewhere on the side of the tyre. It needs to point forwards or in the direction of travel when positioned at the top. I’m also considering reducing my tyre size from 47 mm down to 40 mm. Not sure I would go any smaller though.
No change to my Turf League position overnight, I’m still sitting in first place and with my gap of 12,000 points still intact, much to my surprise. If I turf my local patch, Rosewell, Bonnyrigg and Dalkeith today that should, hopefully, giving me enough of a points boost to stay there, at least for another day.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, lads and lassies, visiting aliens and all the other folks who follow the myriad of other gender terms we have these days, it looks like we might have a true turf battle in the making. In the east corner, turfer Drylaw13, seasoned veteran with a bucket-full of region and country medals to his name. Famed throughout Scotland for his epic nocturnal turfing sessions. And in the not-quite-so-far-east corner, we have newcomer and upstart turfer turbosmith. Only a few weeks in the game of games but already with Eager Ferret, Greed 350 and El Staminatore under his belt.
They are currently running neck-and-neck in the Scottish League table and were recently spotted turfing it out in Tranent. Looks like hand-to-hand combat was avoided as both seem fit and well.
This will be an interesting battle. On the one hand, we have Drylaw13, a man with a standard bicycle. On the other, turfer turbosmith with his trusty e-bike Trek. A battle between the natural power of legs verses the power-assisted power of legs. I’m very interested to see how a normal bicycle compares to that of a 27 kg e-bike. (A normal bicycle weighs about half that). I’ll also be watching Turf TV avidly so see how the drama unfolds. And of course, turfer pPilot, currently sitting in third place, is not far behind. Yesterday I mentioned my keep fit mantra, as Fit As Féarglas. Today, in light of Hodge’s 32 minute Darkest Ninja time, I’ve now got another, as Hardcore as Hodge! Back soon.
*Congratulations to Hodge who was out gaining his Darkest Ninja medal.
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