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olivereliott · 5 years ago

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Malle hardens up a pair of Enfield Interceptor 650s

If you’re a fan of classic motorcycle luggage, you probably know the English company Malle. Set up by designers Robert Nightingale and Jonny Cazzola, the London outfit sells tough but stylish travel gear for riders, and classy accoutrements for weekday use.

Robert and Jonny also have a knack for running quirky moto events such as the Malle Mille. Their latest endeavor is next month’s ‘Great Malle Rally,’ and they’ve built two very stylish Royal Enfield Interceptor 650s as support vehicles.

Royal Enfield signed on the line when Robert and Jonny pitched the idea of rally spec support bikes to them.

The goal was to create two machines to carry engineers supporting 100 ‘very inappropriate’ custom and classic motorcycles on the 1,250-mile (2,000 km), five-day rally—running across the wildest landscapes of mainland Britain.

“We wanted to create very specific tools for a very specific job,” says Robert. “The Interceptor 650 twin was perfect for the heart of the build: lightweight, fun, easy to modify and with a beautiful engine at its core.”

Robert and Jonny borrowed a stock Interceptor for a field test in Portugal earlier this year. “After thrashing the bike over a thousand miles in three days, with 200 of those miles off road, we had a pretty good grasp of what it could do,” says Robert. “And also what modifications it needed for the rally.”

When it was time to build the bikes, Malle worked with the Industrial Design team at Royal Enfield in the UK. On monthly trips north to Leicestershire, Robert and Jonny shared their ideas and sketches.

They started stripping the bikes down, and convinced friends and collaborators to loan them a few parts. “Our friends over at British Customs were on board immediately.”

“Although they typically make parts for custom Triumphs, they set up a jig and made two sets of custom exhausts that just slipped right on to the 650 Twin,” says Robert.

“We also used British Customs’ heavy-duty Grabber foot pegs and Mule Tracker handlebars, and Biltwell grips.”

The bikes might look good, but usability was critical too. They needed to carry rally tools, assorted kit and supplies. So Malle adapted each Interceptor to carry a pair of their Moto Panniers, stuffed with 20 kilos of tools on each side—one side with metric, one side imperial.

All of Malle’s luggage is made from British waxed canvas—made by the oldest waxed canvas mill in the UK, established in 1776. One bike has the standard matt black, but the lead engineer’s bike is sporting the new Red 10oz material for greater visibility.

The large duffel at the back holds a checkpoint kit, plus spare fuel tanks, cables, consumables like zip ties and duck tape, and the personal effects of the engineers. Each set of tools is packed into dry bags inside the panniers, keeping everything waterproof and airtight.

For a support vehicle, lighting and safety are crucial. In the Malle tank pack, you’ll find five USB charging parts for phones, GPS and torches, as well as a first-aid kit, water and food.

PIAA were the lighting partner of choice and supplied Malle with extra large twin front lights, dual oversize fog-lights and large taillights. The side/rear lights can be rotated to act as spotlights for the engineer.

Most of The Great Malle Rally runs along tiny, single-track B roads. But there are also loose gravel mountain tracks, and small rivers often burst their banks and spread deep mud across many of the lanes.

So Malle lifted the bikes by a few inches with modified upside down WP forks and extended rear shocks, and installed tough Heidenau K60 dual sport tires.

The new forks meant new yokes, so Royal Enfield’s sister company Harris Performance fabricated a pair—and added a couple of heavy-duty aluminum bash guards too. Malle beefed up the protection still further with more engine guards that also house additional fog-lights.

The tanks and oil boxes have been hand-painted with contoured relief maps of favorite roads in the Rally: the Applecross Pass (Bealach na Bà, above) in Scotland, and the Hardknott Pass from the Lake District in England.

“The Royal Enfield team went to town on the paint jobs, with several post-2 a.m. nights in the spray booth to get them perfect,” says Robert.

The Interceptor 650s are now ready to tackle the Great Malle Rally, and if the event sounds like your kinda fun, a handful of packages are still available. And no, this isn’t just an event for scramblers and ADV bikes: it’s open to all classics, café racers and choppers too.

That might sound like a recipe for disaster, but there’s little need to worry. If anything goes wrong, the ‘Rally Royale’ Interceptors will be there in a jiffy.

Malle London | Facebook | Instagram | Images by Mihail Jershov

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runridedive · 5 years ago

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The 2019 Suzuki Jimny, why I hated it

I remember the launch very clearly, the Suzuki stand at the Festival of Motoring 2018 was buzzing with excitement. The journo’s and the brand’s representatives were sipping a custom blend of coffee and recounting stories of adventures in the outgoing model with much gusto and lots of laughter. As the reveal time came closer, the seats in the gallery rapidly filled with all the big names in the industry while photographers jostled for the best angle.

There was a lot of excitement. I was caught up in the mood and also wanted to get ‘the shot’.

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Is it green or is it yellow? Suzuki launches the new 1.5 litre Jimmy. Available from 1 November 2018. #suzuki #jimmy #offroad #4×4 #yellow #green #carsofinstagram #carsunlimited #carswithoutlimits #SouthAfrica #carporn #photooftheday

A post shared by Can you drive it (@canyoudriveit) on Aug 30, 2018 at 5:37am PDT

As the introductory briefing ended and the vehicle became available to be inspected by the media, I withdrew to a safe distance having snapped just this photo, while the hoards raced onto the stage for a closer look, and hoped to drive it in the near future.

The demand for this vehicle was high in media circles and we patiently waited our turn. And I’m afraid that’s where my opinion of this vehicle met it’s fate. The hype was over and the reality of driving the latest Suzuki Jimny weighed heavily on me.

Without the excitement of it being new to market, the failures became too apparent. Too many and ultimately too great for me to gloss over with a simple ‘it’s cute and fun’. It now had to pass a sterner test of comfort and usability as a daily vehicle rather than a 4×4 toy.

We drove the GLX auto, a manual is pictured here

The Interior

While the layout of the interior is simple and easy to use, the mix-match of 5 or 6 different plastic materials, each a different shade of black or grey and each a different texture, some matte and some glossy, and that’s just the dash, spoil what could be a fun place to offroad.

The centrally located display screen is reasonably user-friendly and compared to some earlier Suzuki’s it’s much easier to connect your mobile device. However the navigation system requires an SD card, not supplied, and therefore could not be tested.

Storage for the driver is incredibly limited. The door pockets won’t hold much more than a magazine or map (redundant if you have navigation?) and the glove box isn’t really big enough to hold anything more than your wallet and cell phone with the owners manual in place.

Cup holders? Yes, this 4 seater has two. They are big enough to hold a 500ml bottle or a regular coffee cup but they are placed a little behind what would be a comfortable position to reach for without looking down.

Storage and load capacity

However, my biggest gripe is where to put anything of value that I don’t want to carry with me when going to the shops on the way home from the office. For example, where would you leave your laptop? Any vehicle without proper storage for today’s daily appliances is really at a huge disadvantage when coming to a standstill, let alone being parked unattended in South Africa.

I remember when Dave (cars.co.za) was on his way to a football game with us. He stopped at a red robot only 2 minutes from the field to have his passenger side window smashed and his laptop stolen from his passengers hands! Out of site storage is a must have in South Africa. A simple under seat storage box might solve this.

So, to my annoyance I had to go home first to drop off the laptop before I could go get bread and milk. Convenience, out the window with usability.

The back seats fold down to reveal a decent sized load bay and with the tail gate opening very wide to the right, most of the width of the door opening is usable to load/unload large items. Even our enormous Bull Mastiff would fit, though, Suzuki SA I promise we didn’t try.

Offroad ability

Fans of the Jimny will no doubt disagree with every word I say and it’s most likely because they use the vehicle where it’s at its best, offroad. While I didn’t take this vehicle into the wild yonder to drive in the dunes, through deep water or up and down steep terrain, I am very aware of its and its predecessors capability. Please feel free to revisit my glowing endorsement of the Jimny at the Bass Lake 4×4 off road course, here.

Off-roading is lots of fun when practiced safely and from experience, it’s usually wise to go in two vehicles just in case something should go awry. Also a good idea because there’s no space in the Jimny to take more than one friend and any luggage worth mentioning.

I concede that you could load the Jimny on a trailer and drive it to the location you wish to offroad at, storing your luggage, camping gear, 12V fridge (for which there is a plug) and friends all in the towing vehicle like when you go ride bikes or jet-skis.

City Driving

The new 1.5 litre engine is definitely an upgrade on the 1.3 from the previous model but mated to the automatic box it struggles when the cruise control is engaged at 120 km/h on any decent hill. The hill at Linksfield caused the transmission to gear down as the 75kw engine couldn’t maintain 120 in top gear, only to change up again as it breached the speed limit. Moments later, it was gearing down again to try hold the speed before changing up again …

The other thing I didn’t enjoy while driving the Jimny is the rather substantial body roll in any higher speed corners.

In conclusion, if you’re buying the Jimny as a toy to go offroad every now and then you’re buying a capable vehicle with limited interior space and questionable at worst and quirky at best dashboard styling. If you’re buying a Jimny as an everyday car because you love Suzuki, I would opt for the Vitara instead.

Got milk

Full list of features: Launch

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#Can You Drive It #Industry News #Can you drive it #suzuki

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privateplates4u · 6 years ago

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Toyota Yaris GRMN – Gazoo Racing turns Toyota tot into a bit of an animal

For Strong performance, revvy engine, snappy transmission, agile handling Against Price, it’s sold out, poor driving position, cheap interior Bespoke supermini isn’t cheap (and is sold out), but it delivers raw and undiluted thrills that are missing from many in the class. The unlikely Toyota Yaris is the model that’s been tasked with launching the Gazoo Racing sub-brand in Europe. With a limited run of just 600 cars (400 in Europe and a further 200 restyled versions for the Japanese market) it’s more of a toe in the water exercise than a full-on assault, but its character will set the tone for a raft of go-faster models from the Japanese firm. Aimed squarely at the likes of the Peugeot 208 GTI by Peugeot Sport and the forthcoming Fiesta ST, the Yaris hot hatch has been developed over two short years by a small team of dedicated car nuts who are keen to remind the world that Toyota still knows how to have fun. To this end it packs a 209bhp supercharged 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine, a six-speed manual gearbox, heavily revised suspension and a limited slip differential. Given the limited time and budget for its development, the Yaris is actually a real hoot. For starters it’s genuinely quick, the mix of fizzy motor and closely stacked ratios making for rapid progress. And while the chassis lacks the ultimate finesse and poise of the 208 GTi, it makes up for that with an infectious appetite for fun. Whereas the Peugeot remains a little aloof until you really dig deep, the Yaris eggs you on from the moment you prod the starter button. Perhaps more amazing still is how Gazoo Racing has turned the roughest of supermini sow’s ears into a really desirable silk purse. It’s not cheap and they’re all sold out, but the Yaris GRMN deserves consideration among the top tier of hot hatches. Toyota Yaris GRMN in detail > Performance and 0-60 time - You'll have to snatch third before hitting 60mph in 6.4 seconds due to the short gearing. The Yaris tops out at a 143mph. > Engine and gearbox - Its supercharged, 1.8-litre engine develops 209bhp and 185lb ft of torque – the latter coming on stream at 4800rpm. > Ride and handling - The chassis setup is well-judged, fostering confidence and exhibiting a pleasing degree of adjustability. > MPG and running costs - Unsurprisingly the supercharger has a deterimental affect on fuel consumption in the real world, however Toyota quotes a combined 37.7mpg. > Interior and tech - The lack of adjustment for the driving position doesn't do the hot Yaris any favours. > Design - The GRMN-based makeover adds some visual aggression lending the Yaris a purposeful road presence. Image 2 of 17 Image 2 of 17 Price and rivals At £26,295 the Toyota Yaris GRMN is an expensive go-faster supermini – as a comparison the Peugeot 208 GTi by Peugeot Sport, the only real alternative, is £23,550, which is hardly a bargain price. However, this financial argument is largely academic, because all the UK cars have been sold. And while the Yaris isn’t cheap, it does feel like a special car that’s been engineered by people who understand the thrill of driving. While we eagerly await the Ford Fiesta ST, the Yaris just edges the Peugeot as our favourite pocket-sized funster. Performance and 0-60 time humb the starter button and the 2ZR fires keenly, idling with a note that’s more vocal than the Peugeot 208 GTi’s but a fair bit quieter than an earlier prototype we drove. It’s a joy to work the GRMN’s engine hard. It’s not just a means of getting along the straight sections of a road quickly, but rather something that’s a source of satisfaction itself just to deploy. Clearly, it lacks the low-down punch of some, but the mid-range is surprisingly effective and most of all, it loves to be extended between 5000-7000rpm.. While there is the distant characteristic whine of a supercharger at lower revs, it’s the rush of compressed air and exhaust blare that you hear towards the red line. Crispness of response is its major advantage, complemented by a slick and precise gearchange. > Toyota GT86 review The car’s outright performance figures are competitive rather than startling, with the 0-62mph dash taking a claimed 6.4 seconds – although the fact the sprint geared Yaris won’t crack 60mph in second, requiring a change to third, means this is a pretty impressive effort. Top speed is electronically pegged at 143mph. Engine and gearbox The Yaris GRMN is in many ways defined by its ‘2ZR’ 1.8-litre supercharged engine. It’s a type of powerplant unique in the current hot match market, and while it uses forced induction its throttle response is superior to that of rivals that are all turbocharged. It’s powerful, too, with a peak output of 209bhp and a slightly less impressive 185lb ft maximum torque output developed at a high 4800rpm. Image 9 of 17 Image 9 of 17 Considerable work was needed to fit the big unit in the nose of the Yaris, with many of the challenges revolving around heat management and maintaining emissions compliance. The Magnusson-Eaton supercharger, its intercooler, and the air intake, are packaged as one, slotting down into the front of the engine bay. The exhaust was a particular headache, as there was no provision for the necessary shape and diameter of a performance pipe with the standard Yaris underfloor. The only transmission option is a six-speed manual with a close ratio gearset. This drives the front-wheels through a Torsen limited slip differential. Ride and Handling In normal driving the GRMN is surprisingly undemanding, with a ride that, while possessing an underlying firmness, is far from uncomfortable. There is perhaps a fraction more weight to the steering, but there’s still a slightly artificial manner to the way it self-centres and, in fact, during those first few degrees of lock when you turn into a corner. It’s a glassy, remote kind of sensation, which on cold, wintry roads makes it easy to over-commit on the amount of steering lock required, and therefore overload the front tyres, which clearly don’t have the outright grip of the Michelin Supersports used by the Peugeot 208 GTi. Nevertheless, get through this phase and it’s clear that the nose does stick, and the Yaris GRMN can be thrown down a road with manic enthusiasm, revs flaring, nose gently torque-steering under power but never requiring a firm hand, and all at very high speed. Image 5 of 17 Image 5 of 17 The GRMN engineers have consciously settled on a chassis tune that’s playful, but also one that strikes a fine balance between interaction, adjustability and confidence-breeding stability. It’s appreciably less tail happy than the 208, but no worse for it. Perhaps the only real criticism is that the Yaris seems to quickly run out of suspension travel, which is no doubt down to the many limitations of the standard car. It never gets unruly and there’s just enough control at the very limit of compression, but it can sap a little confidence when really attacking a bumpy section of road. A 208 GTi is more controlled in similar conditions, but this poise comes at the expense of some communication at more realistic everyday speeds. MPG and running costs The GRMN is based on a humble Yaris, so you’d expect it to be relatively cheap to run – and based on the claimed figures, you’d be right. At pumps Toyota says you’ll see a return of 37.7mpg, while CO2 emissions run to 170g/km. However, work the supercharged unit hard and the fuel consumption will drop to the mid to high 20s, which isn’t so bad in itself, but when it’s combined with the measly 35-litre tank, you’ll find that the Yaris will barely go 200 miles between refills. Image 13 of 17 Image 13 of 17 The rest of the running costs will be fairly low, with the Toyota’s light weight paying dividends when it comes to brake and tyre wear. Some of the more bespoke parts, such as the Sachs dampers, will be more expensive, but it’s a small price to pay for what is essentially a bespoke, low volume performance car. Interior and tech Inside, the GRMN is almost pure Yaris. There’s a GT86 steering wheel, a RAV4 gearknob (yes, really) and a pair of heavily bolstered high-backed seats, but that’s as far as the modifications go. That means the driving position is too high, there’s not enough wheel adjustment and you’re drowning is a sea of cheap plastics. There’s decent kit, including sat-nav, but the lack of illumination for the window switches and steering wheel controls is a constant frustration after dark. Image 3 of 17 Image 3 of 17 Tech is fairly limited and essentially runs to Toyota’s Touch & Go infotainment and sat-nav set-up. The large touchscreen is fairly easy to use, but the graphics look clunky and the mapping seems about a generation behind that used in superminis from the VW group. Design Visually, the car closely follows the template set by the standard three-door Yaris – cost restraints meant sheet metal changes were out of the question. As a result, the GRMN (Gazoo Racing Masters of the Nurburgring. I know, it’s obvious isn’t it) gains its visual muscle courtesy of some natty body graphics, a large tailgate spoiler and centre exit exhaust that takes its cues from the brand’s WRC machine. The whole lot is set off by the addition of 17-inch forged BBS alloys. Overall, the GRMN looks surprisingly purposeful. It’s not got the sort of instant presence of, say, a Renault Clio 197/200, but it gives off enough racy vibes to let those in the know that this is no ordinary Toyota shopping trolley. 20 Mar 2018

http://www.evo.co.uk/toyota/yaris/grmn

#Cars

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numberplates4u-blog · 6 years ago

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Toyota Yaris GRMN – Gazoo Racing turns Toyota tot into a bit of an animal

http://www.evo.co.uk/toyota/yaris/grmn

#Cars

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inverted-sheep · 6 years ago

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Have you ever heard of Graemsay? If I was a gambling woman I’d put good money down to bet that the majority of you hadn’t.

It’s such a gem of an island, especially on a sunny day, that if it were further south or more easily accessible there would be hordes of people visiting.

As it is, it’s a tiny island off the coast of Mainland Orkney, which itself is an island off the very north coast of Scotland. A ferry goes every day, but the timetable means you have to be prepared to spend the whole day. This is great on a nice day, but as it doesn’t take long to walk round the whole island, and apart from the ferry waiting room there isn’t anywhere to get indoors, this might be a bit daunting on a miserable day.

Leaving Stromness behind

The ferry is a small boat with some indoor seating as well as seating on the deck. Most people who catch the ferry are going to Hoy, a bigger island on which can be found a famous sea stack called the Old Man of Hoy. The ferry stops on Hoy at a convenient place for people to start the hike to the Old Man and this is what most of the passengers on the ferry were planning to do. A few passengers got on at Hoy, but they were all going back to Stromness. Hardly anyone was going to Graemsay. Not surprising really considering Graemsay only has 24 residents!

The Graemsay ferry

When the ferry docked three older women got off with me. They were planning to do a short walk and then catch up with a friend they buy sheep fleeces from. For the first hour we kept catching up with each other, but after that I barely saw anyone for the rest of the day.

There was a pretty good tourist map of the island on the waiting room wall. I snapped a photo on my phone so I could keep referring to it during my walk. I hadn’t bothered with my OS map as I knew there wasn’t much chance of getting lost! There are toilets and plug sockets in the waiting room, but not much else. If the weather turned bad at least you could sit inside, but unless you had a good book it would soon get boring. You can also fill up your water bottles here, but note that there is nowhere to buy food on the island so bring enough for the day plus a flask if you want coffee.

Graemsay is only 4.09 km² so I knew I wasn’t going to get lost.

My walk started with a bit of uphill which soon levelled out. I decided to walk anti-clockwise as that way I’d get to see the things I wanted to see most first, just in case the weather turned later on. This far north you have to always plan for changeable weather no matter how the day starts out.

Gramesay has two lighthouses. I came across the first one – Hoy Sound High Lighthouse – soon after I’d started walking and began to realise just how small this island really is. If I didn’t slow down I’d have walked all the way round it and be back at the ferry pier six hours early!

Hoy Sound High Lighthouse – that’s Stromness in the background

Just past the lighthouse is a beach I was really interested to see. Sandside beach is, as you might expect from the name, very sandy. But … it’s also covered in shells and coral. The fine white sand is covered with so many shells and so much coral (called maerl) that in parts I couldn’t see the sand at all.

Can you spot the chunks of maerl amongst the shells?

I hadn’t heard of maerl before, but the text on the map I’d photographed explained it to me:

Maerl is a chalky encrustation, laid down on pebbles by some species of red algae. Maerl beds like the one offshore here are rare and fragile habitats, but once washed onto the beach the calcium rich maerl was used as a good lime fertiliser for the island’s acid soils.

The three ladies from the boat were at the beach, collecting shells or sitting along the concrete pier having coffee. I chatted for a while and then spent quite a bit of time looking for perfect shells and bits of maerl and drinking my own coffee. There was no point in rushing after all.

Sandside beach

Next I walked along a lane enclosed by high grasses and dunes. When I came out the other side I was alongside another beach with views looking back towards the beach I’d just been on and the lighthouse. I could also see across the water to Stromness, the small town on Mainland Orkney from where I’d caught the ferry.

The three ladies from the boat are walking ahead of me near Hoy Sound High Lighthouse.

I’d already noticed that there were picnic benches placed regularly around the island and there was another one here. As I’d only just had coffee I carried on walking. The lane took me slightly uphill and past the small shack that is the community centre. There are toilets round the back, but no access to the building itself. The waiting room at the pier really is the only place to get inside or fill up your water if need be.

How white is that sand? And how dramatic do the hills of Hoy look in the background?

In hardly any time at all I came to the second lighthouse – Hoy Sound Low Lighthouse. Both lighthouses are private houses and so you can’t access the grounds, but can still get up to the gates and see them quite well.

Hoy Sound Low Lighthouse – in case you haven’t worked it out, the High lighthouse is tall and the Low lighthouse is short.

It was when I spotted the lighthouse I realised I’d missed the turnoff for the coastal path I’d been hoping to pick up. There were several rough tracks leading down to crofts and houses so I assume one of these was the access path to get to the coast. Later on as I walked further round the island I did spot signs pointing out the ways to the coastal path, so maybe there was one here too and I just missed it. It wasn’t a problem as the lane goes so close to the coast anyway it wasn’t as though I was missing out on anything.

Just behind this lighthouse is the Point of Oxan. It was here, on New Year’s Day in 1866 the sailing ship Albion was wrecked. She was on her way to New York from Liverpool and had 43 passengers on board as well as 24 crew. Eleven people were drowned, but with help from people on the island, the rest were able to survive. One island man, Joseph Mowat, was drowned whilst trying to help. He is buried in the local churchyard. Apparently you can still find broken pottery from the boat on the beach. I didn’t find any, but I may not have been looking in quite the right place.

WWII lookout tower behind Hoy Sound Low Lighthouse at the Point of Oxan. I wonder if they turned the lighthouse off during the war?

In more recent history, the Point of Oxan was used for a coastal battery during WWII. I spent a bit of time poking around them – having recently visit Ness Battery and HMS Tern on the Orkney Mainland and having guided tours at both, I felt I knew a bit about what I was looking at and what the building remains would have been used for.

WWII gun placement at the Point of Oxan

I followed a sign and tried to pick up the coastal path here, but the ground was so uneven and full of bumps and hollows I gave up and went back to the lane. The path only went a short way anyway, before turning back to the lane so again I hadn’t really missed out on anything.

Graemsay doesn’t have peat so has a different look to the other islands. It seems much greener and has grass rather than moorland. It also has plenty of picturesque roofless old croft cottages.

I had been told before coming to Graemsay (and it was mentioned on the map) that although there are coastal paths round some of the island, they’re not maintained and so can be quite difficult to use.

It was still really early and I’d already walked round half of the island and seen most of what I wanted to. Time to slow down a bit more. I walked up the lane to a slightly higher point, found a picnic bench and sat down to eat my lunch whilst gazing across at the hills, coves and beaches of Hoy. Hoy is the only really hilly island in Orkney. From where I was sitting the dark peaty hills made a dramatic backdrop whilst the Hoy Sound ran a deep blue in the foreground. Bright green grass rolled down to the sea and the few small beaches formed splashes of white in amongst the rocks.

Coffee time. That white speck near the horizon is the Hamnavoe – the ferry that sails between Scrabster in Scotland and Stromness.

After my lunch, I got my flask out again and poured a coffee to drink whilst reading my Kindle and enjoying the view. It was so calm and tranquil, warm enough to be in short sleeves. I spotted the Hamnavoe making it’s way across from Scrabster in Scotland to Stromness in Orkney. This is the car ferry that makes the journey a couple of times a day and that evening I would be on it.

Had I mentioned this was my last day in Orkney? I was so lucky to get a lovely day. There weren’t even any midges! Coming to Graemsay on my last day would have been special no matter the circumstances, but it was actually even more special than just my last day. Graemsay was the last inhabited island I had to visit on both Orkney and Shetland. Now that I’d made it to Graemsay I’d seen them all. At least that was what I believed until I got back on the ferry and the three ladies from earlier pointed out that there are a few islands that have one couple or one family living on them. As they have no ferry links and you need your own boat to get to them, I hadn’t thought to count them. But I suppose I should. So I’ll change my boast to ‘I’ve visited every inhabited island that has a ferry link in Orkney and Shetland’. I’m still pretty proud of it!

The old kirk (church) and graveyard and some dark clouds forming over Hoy.

After a while I continued walking and turned off towards the old church and graveyard. The church is derelict and not safe to enter and the graveyard is very small, so it didn’t take me long to see both.

I found another bench and sat with a different view of Hoy. A car came down the lane with two older ladies in it. They’d come to visit the graves. As they arrived I was getting up to leave and they were concerned they’d disturbed me. I assured them that it wasn’t them that had disturbed, but the heavy black cloud that had appeared over Hoy and seemed to be heading in my direction.

This was a part of the island where I did want to walk along the coast as the road climbs and goes across the centre rather than sticking close to the coast. But although the path was marked it seemed to be blocked off. I thought maybe erosion had made it unsafe and I’d better not try it especially with those heavy clouds speeding towards me.

Walking over the top of the island back towards the High Lighthouse

Instead I headed across the top of the island and ended up near the first lighthouse again. As I knew I wasn’t that far from the ferry waiting room if it did start to rain, I took the opportunity to sit on the bench I’d passed earlier. The clouds were now behind me and seemed to have changed their mind about coming to Graemsay anyway.

Sandside beach looking towards Hoy

I sat looking out on the most perfect view. A gorgeous house with a white beach and crumbling old stone barns to the side and the lighthouse behind. I could live here. Apparently there’re also usually seals on the beach, though I hadn’t seen any. I actually think they’ve all been eaten by orcas this year as I haven’t seen nearly so many as I usually do and there have been several pods of orcas spending a lot of time around Shetland and Orkney.

The perfect house by the perfect beach with the perfect lighthouse behind it. All on the perfect island. What’s not to like?

I tried to think of disadvantages of living in the perfect house. I suppose the lighthouse flashing and the seals barking all night could create quite a bit of disturbance, but you know what? I wouldn’t care.

I sat on the bench gazing at the view for quite a long time until I felt the sun really start to burn the back of my neck. Then I slowly wandered back to the pier to take shelter in the waiting room, not from the rain, but from the sun!

You know a place must get windy when the telephone box door has to be tied shut!

On my way past the perfect house, the same car as had been at the graveyard drove past me, with only one lady in it this time. She stopped to chat for a while. She had been born on the island, and without any prompting, told me it was a pretty perfect place to live.

“We’ve got peace and quiet, but Stromness is only over there and there are ferries, so when we need something we can just go over. We don’t feel isolated at all.”

I noticed near the ferry terminal in Stromness that there is a special parking area reserved for residents of Graemsay so they can leave their cars there to use when they visit Mainland rather than having to pay to take them on the ferry each time. The cars that I saw on Graemsay tended to be ‘island cars’. These are cars that anywhere else would be condemned. They don’t need an MOT or tax (or at least no-one bothers with it) and have wing mirrors and doors hanging off and bonnets held down with string. As long as it still moves then it’s good enough to be an island car.

I still had about an hour to wait for the ferry. I filled my water bottle, drank it all and refilled it. I’d not realised how thirsty I was. I also took my boots off and peeled my socks off letting my feet cool down on the cold floor tiles. Then I sat and read some more until the three ladies reappeared. I went outside to chat to them whilst we watched the ferry chug over from Stromness. Once we were on board we had to go over to Hoy to pick up the hikers before heading back to Stromness.

Sailing back to Stromness. The clouds over Hoy looked so foreboding, but the rain held off.

As all the hikers got back on board at Hoy they all seemed pretty happy. I knew they would have had a great day because I did that walk myself last year and it really is well worth doing. However, I couldn’t help feeling a little smug because I’d also had a great day visiting an island that really is special and yet hardly anyone knows about it, let alone gets to visit. And I’d ticked off my last inhabited island in Shetland and Orkney (that has a ferry link).

Have you ever been to a little-known and seldom-visited island? Would you like to visit Graemsay if you’re ever in Orkney? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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markmcintyre-blog1 · 6 years ago

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Gravitational waves, a “new window to the universe”

The historic detection of elusive gravitational waves by scientists at the LIGO observatory in the United States has been described as an “ultimate testimony to human genius and ingenuity” by professors of the University of Groningen.

Adding to their excitement about the news, is the prospect that the discovery will lead to a new era in astronomy by providing what they are calling a “new window to the universe”.

At a much anticipated press-conference transmitted live across the globe from Washington DC on Thursday afternoon, scientists from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), run jointly by MIT and Caltech as well as a host of other international universities and research institutes, presented their data to the public, describing how gravitational waves had been directly detected for the first time ever.

Ripples in space-time itself, large gravitational waves such as the ones detected by LIGO are produced by massive astronomical phenomena, like super-heavy binary stars orbiting one another at tremendous speeds, or as in this case, the violent collision of two massive black holes.

As the waves spread out across the universe they subtly bend and warp space itself. This almost imperceptible warping is what LIGO’s newly upgraded detector recorded on September 14th of last year, just days after had been turned on.

LIGO’s 4km-long detector in Livingston, Louisiana. (Credit: Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab)

LIGO works by splitting a single laser beam and sending it along two 4km long tunnels at right angles to one another. At the end of these tunnels, the beams meet two large mirrors and are reflected back to a light detector. Should a gravitational wave pass through the Earth – likely after travelling some great distance across the universe – it would have the effect of minutely “stretching” one tunnel, while “squashing” the other.

The two laser beams continue along their paths, before meeting at the light-detector slightly out-of-sync, creating an interference pattern – the tell-tale sign of a passing gravitational wave.

From the strength and duration of this disturbance, scientists at LIGO can tell a lot about the source of the waves. In this case, they were able to work out after months of calculations and comparisons with theoretical models, that the waves were emitted by two colliding black holes, which joined to form a single bigger black hole.

Just prior to their collision, the black holes, which were each around 30 times as massive as our sun, were spinning around each other at close to half the speed of light. Their collision was an extremely powerful cosmic event, but despite this, their great distance from us (roughly 1.3 billion light-years from Earth) meant the signal picked up by LIGO’s instruments was incredibly faint.

LIGO scientist Gaby Gonzalez presents the “sound” of the their historic gravitational wave signal.

Dr van de Weijgaert, Professor of Cosmology at the University of Groningen, described news of the detection as “totally spectacular”, admitting that he stopped his work to watch the announcement live from his office in Groningen.

“This is the news of the decade, if not even more. Some compare it to the discovery of the Higgs particle. I’m a little biased but this is even more spectacular.”

In late September of last year, American astrophysicist Lawrence Krauss broke early rumours of the extraordinary detection to his hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/LKrauss1/status/647510799678750720

Since then, scientists across the world have been fighting the temptation to celebrate, waiting with anticipation for Thursday’s announcement, quietly hoping that the rumours would be true.

“My first reaction was scepticism”, said Dr van de Weijgaert. “First of all as a scientist you should always be sceptical. The first thing you think is well, maybe some people found something but it remains to be seen…”

“But then, over the past few weeks things started to become much more specific…”

Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916, as a one of the strangest consequences of his theory of general relativity. Until now however, their existence remained a mystery.

“This is a building that was put up one-hundred years ago” added Dr van de Weijgaert. “And gradually all the stones and elements have been falling into place. This is the ultimate proof of what Einstein put out.”

“And actually it’s beautiful that now, it is exactly one-hundred years after! It’s the ultimate birthday present.”

Physicist and string-theorist Brian Greene explains the discovery:

LIGO’s two large 4 km “L-shaped” observatories, one situated in Washington State and the other over 3,000 km away in Louisiana, sensed the passing gravitational wave almost seven milliseconds apart, allowing the LIGO team to get a general idea of which direction the wave was coming from.

As cleverly constructed as this experimental set-up is, these first-time detectors remain too crude and are crucially too few in number to yet make precise statements about the location of gravitational wave sources.

“That’s why there is a banana-like shape on their map”, Weijgaert explained. “Because two observatories is not enough. You would need three to pinpoint the origin.”

ligo banana new scientist

The projected source of three of LIGO’s detected signals, two from December (in red) and one from 14th of September, as featured in this week’s historic announcement (the blue “banana”). The sources are overlaid on NASA’s WMAP of the cosmic microwave background radiation.

(Credit: New Scientist Magazine)

The hope is that with further gravitational wave observatories, scientists will be able to not only pinpoint their origin points in our skies, but learn much more about the black holes and other cataclysmic cosmic events which are the sources of such waves, as well as peer through the cosmic microwave background to the earliest moments of the universe.

An analogy which might help explain their importance to science, is to imagine yourself standing waist deep in a swimming pool, blindfolded, as someone dives in at the other end (an energetic event symbolising the distant merging of the black holes).

Just as light has its limitations in allowing scientists to observe the most distant, ancient, and dark objects in the universe through telescopes, we too are unable to tell much about the mystery diver with our vision blocked.

We can imagine however, that if our hands were sensitive enough, and our minds capable of super-human computational power, we might be able to tell a lot about the person that jumped in, just from sensing the ripples moving across the surface of the water. If we spread our hands apart, we might be able to tell which direction the waves are moving in.

If we were sensitive and smart enough, we might be able to tell details about the person themselves: how big they are to start with; what direction the diver jumped from; perhaps even something as detailed as what size shoes they were wearing at the moment they hit the water.

In a similar way, scientist are hoping to some day build detectors large and sensitive enough to use gravitational waves, or ripples in spacetime itself, as an alternative way of learning about the remaining mysteries of our universe.

LISA-waves

Illustration of the proposed eLISA detector project – three spacecraft arranged in a triangle in space, 1 million km apart.

Dr Mariano Mendez, a fellow RUG cosmologist specializing in the study of black holes through the X-rays they give off, described the result as “a great discovery and tremendous for science”. He added that the news was “very exciting” for him, as it has direct implications for his field of study in particular, and will “give us the ability to study the evolution of black holes and see what happens when they merge.”

Dr van de Weijgaert, also talked enthusiastically about the exciting consequences of the discovery for cosmologists such as him, expressing hope that the breakthrough will lead to even more cooperation between the European and American space agencies on projects to sniff out more gravitational waves.

Specifically, he holds hope that NASA may now find it more feasible to work with the Europeans on the ambitious and previously joint eLISA project, currently scheduled for launch in 2034.

A “LIGO-like” system, in that it will use the same laser beam detection principle, eLISA would be much more sensitive to passing gravitational waves, using three satellites in orbit around the Earth, each one million kilometres apart. Unfortunately, NASA dropped out of the original and bigger LISA project in 2011 due funding limitations, forcing the European Space Agency to scale back its plans.

“We know how real it is now. You can now go to all these funding agencies, and you can be sure now, they will be very willing.”

“The gates are now open. You can be sure that this is the beginning of a new era. This is gonna be a new window on the universe.”

“Before, it was still hypothetical. I think if they now go back to NASA or the American Congress, they will now be very willing to invest, because now products are guaranteed.”

A member of a group of European scientists working on a potential follow-up to the Planck satellite, to be called COrE++ (the Cosmic Origins Explorer), Dr van de Weijgaert is now more hopeful that their project will be given the go-ahead. A more sensitive upgrade from Planck, the proposed COrE satellite would also look for evidence of “primordial” gravitational waves etched into the fabric of the cosmic microwave background radiation, in the very early universe.

“I hope that this will increase the chances of such a satellite substantially. You never know. It’s certainly putting everything in a different perspective… it is real.”

“Gravitational waves exist! Point. Whether ones from the earlier universe exist, remains to be seen”.

Einstein_Wien

Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves exactly 100 years ago, in 1916, as an expected consequence of his 1915 General Theory of Relativity.

While there is consensus that the gravitational wave discovery should be worthy of a Nobel Prize, with LIGO co-founder Rainer Weiss favourite to be among those honoured, Dr van de Weijgaert suggested that the prize ought to also be awarded posthumously to Albert Einstein, “not only because he put the theory in shape, but because he even predicted the existence of these waves”.

Regardless, Weijgaert suggested that the Nobel committee might have to change its selection procedures to fit with modern times.

“Science is no longer like in the beginning of the 20th century, the work of one small person, or one small lab, it is the work of a huge consortium.”

“So many people have given critical contributions to this that a more fair assessment would be for the whole collaboration, but they still don’t do that. The maximum is still three [recipients].”

“This is going to be a tough one. With 1,400 people involved. Who do you give it to?”

“It’s going be a puzzle for the Nobel committee. I’m glad I don’t have to do it!”

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