Caliban and Hilda's excellent Arran adventure

[Archev]

99 dollars? That's £73 as of this morning. The one I'm going to pick up is £10.

Presumably the Tesla one is more durable, but that's a huge price difference. Tesla branded products have always been extremely expensive though. It's possible that fancy shape might fit other cars too, it might fit the MG4 not too badly, but it looks a bit clunky.

I see they show it with the other rear seat back not folded down. That would be a royal pain in practice, with this big seat back in the way of using all the space to the side of the bed. However, I think they are relying on that seat back to keep the bed in place. What I do is fold both rear seats down. The front passenger seat is pushed as far forward as possible both to allow the maximum length to lay out the airbed (six feet), and to allow the storage box to be placed under the head of the airbed. This both give necessary storage space, and supports the head of the bed. The driver's seat is not pushed (so far) forward, so that the back of the driver's seat holds the head end of the airbed in place. My flight bag is just the right size to hold the foot end in place. It works, perfectly (until the bloody airbed springs a leak).

I need to take another photograph of my set-up. The only one I took was the first night, before I had perfected the arrangement. It works at least as well as the arrangement shown, indeed I don't see anything preventing the foot end of that bed moving to the right. Again you'd probably need to put something there to prevent that.

Also, Teslas don't have VtL, so I suppose you're stuck with a feeble pump that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket, same way you're stuck with a kettle that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket and takes about ten minutes to heat enough water for a cup of tea.

They’re £8 at Go Outdoors with a membership. I got a 10% off voucher which might be on top of that. And their stuff is as good quality as the rest I find. I’m certainly chuffed with my folding bed either in the car or in the tent. Very stable, comfortable and each foot is adjustable for height. This can even up the bed if the car’s not level or compensate for uneven ground in the tent. It’s also an extra cosy layer under the sleeping bag.

 

[Rolfe]

That works extremely well, although it wouldn't fit in the MG4. The levelling of the bed seems extremely handy. I have things I store under the foot end of the bed (or occasionally on top of the storage box under the head end) to approximate to the same effect.

I still think folding down the whole of the back seat works better, giving better access to the space available.

 

[Archev]

Aye the time I slept in the car on Bealach Ratagan I had the bike as well so all three back seats were folded down. Once I got to Applecross I pitched the tailgate tent with its inner tent containing the camp bed.

The carpeted inner tent just after the turn down service

 

[Rolfe]

Such versatility!

 

[Gomev]

99 dollars? That's £73 as of this morning. The one I'm going to pick up is £10.

Presumably the Tesla one is more durable, but that's a huge price difference. Tesla branded products have always been extremely expensive though. It's possible that fancy shape might fit other cars too, it might fit the MG4 not too badly, but it looks a bit clunky.

I see they show it with the other rear seat back not folded down. That would be a royal pain in practice, with this big seat back in the way of using all the space to the side of the bed. However, I think they are relying on that seat back to keep the bed in place. What I do is fold both rear seats down. The front passenger seat is pushed as far forward as possible both to allow the maximum length to lay out the airbed (six feet), and to allow the storage box to be placed under the head of the airbed. This both give necessary storage space, and supports the head of the bed. The driver's seat is not pushed (so far) forward, so that the back of the driver's seat holds the head end of the airbed in place. My flight bag is just the right size to hold the foot end in place. It works, perfectly (until the bloody airbed springs a leak).

I need to take another photograph of my set-up. The only one I took was the first night, before I had perfected the arrangement. It works at least as well as the arrangement shown, indeed I don't see anything preventing the foot end of that bed moving to the right. Again you'd probably need to put something there to prevent that.

Also, Teslas don't have VtL, so I suppose you're stuck with a feeble pump that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket, same way you're stuck with a kettle that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket and takes about ten minutes to heat enough water for a cup of tea.

I like the camp-fire burning on the infotainment screen though!

Have to remember that the model Y is considerably larger than the MG4 and so can accommodate a mattress more easily, that mattress is 76 inches long and 30 inches wide. The included pump does indeed use the 12V cig socket and says it takes 20 seconds to inflate.

 

[Rolfe]

I thought I'd just add a coda to this. Last Monday, a week ago, looked like the only chance of a nice dry day for a fortnight, so I decided to go another ride. I was looking for something all-tarmac, as I don't see any point in pushing Hilda (literally or metaphorically) on unmade tracks when the new bike is on its way.

I settled on this, a loop of almost 45 miles (44.38 miles) starting and finishing in Innerleithen, the Bike Capital of Peeblesshire, which has more bike shops than you can shake a stick at, and car parks specifically advertising "park and pedal".

It was actually quite cold and more overcast than I'd hoped for, but the route was great. Absolutely nothing Hilda couldn't cope with quite easily apart from one short steep hill where I only had to walk 50 yards. The first 15 miles was through the Moorfoot Hills on the B709 and then the B7007, designated as part of the National Cycling Network, but with the poorly repaired and unrepaired potholes so bad I was slightly yearning for a full-suspension mountain bike in places.

At the top I met a bunch of men on ordinary bikes who said they'd done that route in the opposite direction the previous day. They probably realised Hilda is an e-bike.

Then I made my way by various local byways...

... to Waterheads on the A703, and down that main road to Eddleston. Fortunately there is a cyclepath alongside the main road. At Eddleston, could I resist the Horseshoe Inn and a coffee and cake? No I couldn't.

The question then was whether to continue on the main road directly to Peebles, or go over the Meldons? The main road is scary busy and I wasn't sure that the cycle path continued on it. The Meldons road is very pretty and actually not especially steep, but a great ride. I was just a bit worried that Hilda's integral battery might run out before I got to Innerleithen (the route is about five miles longer than the direct road), leaving me to cycle the last part under my own steam. (The range extender, which is used first, had died somewhere up in Midlothian.)

But the sun was coming out, and millionaire's shortbread is remarkably reviving, and in any case the last few miles would be back on the Tweed Valley Railway Path where I cycled a few weeks previously, and it doesn't have hills except for one new hump-backed bridge over the river. I nannied the battery a little on the ascent towards the top of the Meldons road, but I probably needn't have bothered because it was still showing 33% (11 miles) when I got back to the car. Sailed over that humpback bridge as if on wings.

New bike later this week or (more probably) next week. Hilda will have another friend.

 

[MG Clive]

Hilda has done well getting you to many coffee and cake locations over the years @Rolfe , will she be staying with you when the new one arrives?

 

[Rolfe]

Yes indeed, but years? I only got her in December 2024, so barely 18 months and a lot of that was winter. Really, last summer was it. I started with local side roads and some tracks in late January and into February, rode Glen Orchy in March and progressed to the Cross Borders Drove Road in May. However I didn't really get going until early August when I went to Loch Ness, then Skye and Mòrar later in the month, then back to Loch Ness and thereabouts in September. It was in the Highlands where I started coming across the limits to Hilda's capabilities. (Not Glen Orchy, that was no problem, but then I'd already done that on my non-electric bike anyway.) By the time I went to Loch Katrine in early April this year I was already determined to move up a level.

The ease with which I can get Hilda into the car is quite something, and ideal for, for example, driving to the outskirts of Edinburgh and cycling into the centre. (Edinburgh hates cars, to the point where there's virtually nowhere to park.) Also for running to the shops in the village and so on, where an expensive trail bike seems overkill and might be a magnet for thieves. (Though to be fair I could simply use my non-electric bike for that, as I've done for many years.) I think it might be a bit of a performance getting the new bike into the car, which is fine if I'm setting off into the Highlands to face steep stuff, but it would be a pain on a day to day basis.

I've cogitated quite a bit as to whether I'd have gone right out and bought an expensive, powerful bike in 2024 if I'd known then what I know now, and the answer is that I had to ride Hilda to her limits to know what I know now. The very idea of spending £5,000 on a bike seemed ridiculous to me 18 months ago. I was first led into this by seeing an e-bike advertised that was only a little over £1,000, and the realisation that I could actually get an e-bike for that price, and one I could probably get into the car. In the end that bike was out of stock (lucky me actually) and Hilda was a bit more than that, but I simply wasn't ready to pay any more.

I was pretty fixated on a bike light enough to lift into the car, too. Hilda is that, and I wasn't ready for something I might have to arrange alternative strategies for rather than just pick it up and chuck it in the back. I'm so keen to tackle harder tracks now that I'm determined to manage that come hell or high water.

The main thing I didn't know though was that bikes more powerful than Hilda are actually road legal here, although Archev was saying things that suggested they were. The whole murky business about "continuous power" and manufacturers fudging the testing was a closed book to me. I don't think that penny really started to drop till I was overtaken on the Glen Roy road by the woman on the really powerful bike, the day after I had tried a bit of the Corrieyairack on Hilda and realised that she wasn't really up to it.

Even then I was uncertain about the legalities and didn't think there was a hope in hell of getting such a bike into the car anyway. I turned it over in my mind during the winter, but it wasn't till the guys at the Ride Innerleithen bike shop explained it all to me earlier in the spring, and said there was a possibility of finding something I might be able to get into the car, that I took the idea seriously.

Sorry, I'm waffling, but I've been trying to figure out for myself what I'd have done if I'd come at it all a different way. But I'm really pleased to have Hilda and she's a very useful bike in her own way. I expect she'll be coming back with me to Skye in August because I probably just want a bike for running round the Sabhal Mòr Ostaig campus, not for expeditions, and in and out of the car will be important.

 

[Rolfe]

I just thought. That was 45 miles, the furthest I've ever ridden in a day on a bike. Ever. And although it wasn't the Highlands, it wasn't exactly flat either. Innerleithen is about 140 metres, and the road north climbs steadily to the 400-metre contour line. A real slog on on ordinary bike, but gradual enough that even Hilda's relatively modest torque let me pedal up quite easily.

After that there's a lovely run down the road which goes obliquely down the scarp face of the Moorfoot hills, then it was just up and down and up and down until I was back beside the Tweed at Meldonfoot and only had to follow the A72 and then the railway path downstream beside the river to get back to the start.

Fifty miles is obviously doable for me on Hilda's battery system, which is a good day out, but not really a long one. That day was six and a half hours (excluding driving to and from Innerleithen), but certainly well under six hours riding given that I stopped to eat lunch at the top of the pass through the Moorfoot hills, then stopped again for the coffee and cake in Eddleston. It will be interesting to see how far I can get with the new bike. That has 880 watt-hours of charge, as opposed to Hilda's 460 watt-hours (both with range extenders), but then the bike itself is heavier and I'll be riding up hills I'd have had to push Hilda up, so we'll see.

I'm busy watching YouTube videos of various gravel rides in the Highlands, and thinking, maybe.

 

[siteguru]

When I was a teenager (around 15) I would go out for a 25 mile ride on my 10-speed racing style bike just for the hell of it .. no chance of that now though.

 

[Rolfe]

Where were you riding?

 

[siteguru]

Anywhere in general around the countryside .. this was when I lived in Birtley, Co. Durham and was 45+ years ago.

 

[Rolfe]

Not all that flat then.

 

[Rolfe]

Discussion about e-bikes seems to have drifted away from the actual travelogue, so I've moved the last few posts to the e-bike thread. (Although these ones aren't "lightweight" by any stretch of the imagination!)