Turf Zone – BridgeOfFaith
First, something I meant to post the other day following a very muddy turf session to Gore Glen. The issue was mud clogging up the bicycle wheels and how to remove that luverly, sticky, glutinous mud. Yes, you could scrape away with a stick or similar but there’s a much simpler and more efficient method. First, find a short but stiff stick, twig or similar. Hold the stick against the tyre at the seat stay or chain stay on the rear wheel or the fork on the front wheel, bracing the stick against the stay or fork. Then wheel the bike forward keeping the stick in place. Repeat as required. Simple and effective.
There’s a useful tip I’ve been testing while taking zones. It’s for those instances when your turfman icon appears off to the side of the zone. A good example of this is at zone EskPath, located on an old railway line in Dalkeith. Sometimes, the turfman icon is hovering in the trees on the river side. An easy fix is simply to turn your phone, or your bike if phone is attached, around 180 degrees. The turfman icon will hopefully move into the zone. I’ve found this works more often than not. Zone taken.
Next, annoying bicycle rattles. Are you one of those turfers who absolutely hate rattles when cycling? Or, if you are one of those people who does not bother or even notices something is rattling, you can skip this section. Personally, I hate bike rattles and have all my bikes running silky smooth with only the sound of the tyres on the road and a faint swish from the chain, other than the annoying rattle from the mobile phone case mounted on the handlebars, a common issue from what I’ve heard. The solution, add a few strips of self-adhesive neoprene foam or similar to the platform, the stuff you use for excluding drafts around doors. Simply and effective.
The League. At the moment I’m in League 3, Group 4 and just hanging in there at pole position. And it’s been hard work fending off the rivals below me. Each day I’ve needed around 10-15,000 points, which equates to about 4-hours turfing on the bike. I nearly gave up the other day when my 10,000 lead dropped overnight to only 2000, however, I was saved during the day by a healthy 300 PPH, and a few zone takes. As I write I have a 10,000 lead but will not get much turfing today as it’s Mother’s Day, so off down to Selkirk to visit mum. Guess I may have some serious catching up to do on Monday.
I do ask myself if participating in the League is worth the effort. You often have to put in long hours turfing to get promotion, against others who may or may not actually be the least bit interested in the League and are only turfing normally. You may also need to keep on doing the same to stay there. It a shame there’s no reward that you’ve achieved a League position, even the Elite League, though I guess Elite Hat does count. With so few turfers who start this fine game – over 400,000 have signed up but there are only around 5000 active today (260 in Scotland) – actually staying the course, anything that encourages turfers to keep on turfing should be a gaol to aim for and League medals might just be one way of doing that.
I often try to think up ways and means to encourage turfer to stay with the game, and also to entice more turfers to take up this fine, often challenging, often rewarding and often frustrating pastime. To my mind, and I will admit I love getting medals and want more, more, more, further medals would be one way. Also medals like the Daily Five are great to keep you enthused. But that one ends after 365 days, which is a shame. So, how else can we entice new turfers or retain existing turfers? Something to think about, perhaps?
Copyright ©2024 Gary Buckham. All rights reserved.
