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green oil bike armour
for the past six weeks, bbc scotland has shown episodes from its eight-part series entitled island crossings, a look behind the curtains of scotland's state-owned ferry company, caledonian macbrayne (calmac). in truth, it hasn't told islanders much more than of which we were already aware, commencing in episode one, with a broken ferry and the inconvenience caused to prospective passengers and to calmac staff who have to deal, at first hand, with the repercussions a broken ferry creates.
the current crisis, which logically has followed on from pretty much every other previous calmac crisis, changes by the day. as a pertinent example, islay is currently served by two vessels, the finlaggan and the isle of arran, but only yesterday morning it was announced that the latter had been found to show 'sight material fatigue', hardly surprising given that it's the oldest boat on the fleet at forty years old. as a result, all its friday sailings were cancelled and at least one saturday sailing too.
there are two unfinished ferries sitting in ferguson's yard on the clyde, more than three times over budget and five years' late for delivery to calmac. had those boats arrived on the arran route for which they were intended in 2018, much of the current crisis could have been averted, but it is what it is. all this and more has been highlighted in the documentary, but even when the series is complete, the problems are highly likely to continue unabated, and we'll still have hassles trying to get a spot on a ferry, and we'll still be down to a single ferry one month earlier than advertised.
during the course of the programme, we were shown a ferry in dry-dock during its annual refit, where it was necessary to remove a section of the hull in order to allow the replacement of the ship's generators. during that particular episode, the engineers discovered that the metal structure on which the old generators were seated, displayed serious corrosion, requiring unplanned-for replacement; once the new generators were in place, it would have been more costly to deal with the problem during a future re-fit.
thankfully, the average bicycle is several magnitudes simpler in construction than a west coast car ferry, meaning that any spots of corrosion or wear are a great deal easier to see, and mostly simpler with which to deal. and though the very latest carbon frames lean heavily towards internal cable routing (which may eventually require a calmac engineer to replace), many already in existence and bicycles a few rungs down from state-of-the-art, still expose their cables to the great outdoors. and in the process of so doing, some of those cables necessarily contact the bicycle frame on their way to the business end of matters.
though in essence, brake and gear cable outers would seem to be the very epitome of a stationary object, in the rough and tumble of the average bike ride, they move up and down and side to side, gradually wearing the surface against which they nestle. there are a number of purveyors who offer clear plastic stickers which can be placed at the points of contact, but in my experience, those often seem less robust than the cable outers with which they come in contact. what might be required is something a tad tougher, like green oil's bike armour, for instance.
these oblong stickers announcing, in relief, the object of their existence, are made from real metal. they do bear an uncanny resemblance to metal-coloured plastic, but green oil ceo, simon nash, assures me they are fashioned from the real thing. with an adhesive back, it is simplicity itself to attach one of these to an area likely to receive unwanted wear, or small areas of tube damage, even on carbon frames. and at a mere £4.99, its not a purchase that's likely to harm the bank balance.
having recently replaced the gear and brake cables on the ritchey, i find the rear brake outer to have begun scuffing the side of the head tube a centimetre or so above where its predecessor sat. i have, therefore, appropriately attached a bike armour sticker to fend off the cable's undesired attentions. i'll let you know how i get on.
and while we're on the subject of green oil, they've recently launched a kickstarter campaign to fund the production of gardinól, a wd40 substitute that eschews use of ptfe, a carcinogenic additive which simon nash feels ought to be made illegal. to help achieve that, gardinól has been formulated using biodegradable plant-based ingredients. this will be available in both a spraycan version and a small dropper bottle, priced at £11.99 and £8.99 respectively. if you'd like to help and to receive bonuses for doing so, subscribe to green oil's kickstarter list to hear when the campaign goes live.
saturday 9 september 2023
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