Thursday 6 May 2010

Chopper has now gone. It and Trailer have been lain on a pallet, wrapped in black plastic, labelled up, and is ready for despatch later today.

Yesterday evening, and this morning, I packed and stuffed my things into the trailer-box and loaded it all into the car. The cycle rack locks on the tow-bar and Trailer fitted easily in the back of the car with the seats down, and I drove it round to my mate Paul at RK Pridham Engineering in Tavistock. http://rkpridhamengineering.co.uk/ Paul had selected a reasonable pallet and we nailed down a sheet of plywood onto it.

Paul has arranged with a local firm to collect my pallet and transport it all the way to Wick. And do you know what? They've agreed to do this for free! How fantastic and generous is that!!!

I J McGill Transport Ltd are wonderful people, and I thank them wholeheartedly! http://www.ijmcgilltransport.com/







We arranged the stuff on the pallet to get the most efficient and stable positioning for everything. I took the front wheel off Chopper and turned the handle bars and front rack for a better fit and we stuck an advertising sticker on the side of Trailer proudly displaying McGill Transport.




With a forklift truck, the pallet was lifted a couple of feet off the floor and we wrapped and wrapped and wrapped black plastic all over it. This plastic stretches and grips like cling-film and within a few minutes, all was stable and secure.









If you look carefully, you'll see from the above shot, that we left a pedal showing. We wrapped some more, and eventually it was all done. I forgot to take a final photograph, but you get the idea!

Lastly, Paul stuck an address label on the top, but when it's collected, it will be labelled and bar-coded properly. This should happen today, and it should arrive in at Wick Airport on Monay or Tuesday next week.



I feel a little strange.

Chopper has gone and my life feels empty! Weird!

I seem to be very confident now. I was worried about the monumental task of riding this contraption, but recent rides have been much easier than I could have hoped for. The concrete block was superb training and I feel ready and able to ride the 900 miles.

That's it. Done and gone. All I can do now is wait and hope that my flight goes ok. I must get to Wick by lunchtime on Thursday for all this to happen.

Thanks for reading, and keep your fingers crossed for the Icelandic Volcano to spew it's ash away from my flightpath.

Regards to all,
Mick.



PS:
Sorry, forgot to mention that Paul made me a sharp tool out of some flat steel. He fashioned it with a sharp hook thing on the end, and then gaffa taped it neatly to the outside of the wrapping.

This should enable me to unwrap without hurting my hands.

Regards,
Mick.

3 comments:

  1. Don't forget to pack something to cut the plastic off! You'll have to pput it your hold luggage mind, or it will be confiscated...

    Our tandem set off for Wick last night as well, feeling a little pang of loss at the moment. We'll be meeting up again on the 14th, can't wait!

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  2. Crumbs, the time is near. Looks like you have some wonderful friends to help you out like this :-) I'm so pleased the intrepidation has given way to excitement about the ride. You're an old hand at JOGLE, so I never had any doubts about your ability. I'll be watching progress daily to see if you've managed an update. If it's possible to recieve good vibes across the ether, then you should be receiving them as you read! Never thought I'd get this excited at someone elses trundle from end to end :-)

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  3. Mick just found your blog. Without wishing too sound too gushing great read.I was wondering why you could do this and I cannot and I suddenly saw that you are aged 57. Well I am 59 and its because I am that bit older that I am restricted.Or might it be that I just do not have the bottle. Yes thats probably the real reason well not probably it is.To make life even harder for yourself you even choose a Chopper to do it on as well.If you can when you reach the end could you bottle up some of that courage and send it to me because I really do need to venture out on an epic journey before it gets too late for me.As for your speeds well I avewrage 10mph on my Tourer so your hardly slow in my book.
    I was interested to watch the video clip of the hair pin bend where the coach went into the barrier and I hope all of the kids have recovered ok by now because several years ago just before he died I took my dad up to JOG and we stopped to look back at the same point you did. As luck would have as well that day they were transporting some nuclear waste and one of the National papers had a coloured photograph of the trucks climbing that hill taken from the same point and I made my dad a place mat out of it which he used to enjoy looking at.Your right it is a bleak place. we stayed in a BB in Thurso and we went to go into the pub in the evening and as we went to walk in the door we realised England were playing Scotland at football on the telly so given the pub was packed we bottled it and instead went and brought some fish n chips and walked down to the beach.Stay safe Mick and I look forward to your next report. Ted

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