coastline photo thread...

after the weekends dissapointing weather today (tuesday) was clear and bright..with a cold easterly wind,lowtide wasnt until 6.15pm so i headed to north berwick just after midday to ride west to aberlady bay..a reverse of satuardays beachride with tommy and hanneke...i enjoyed a strong tailwind on near deserted beaches...passing only a few dog walkers...although a 2 hour cycle i managed to spend 5 hours today here and riding home in the dark...i love our coastline,i love the sea air,the cleaness of sand,i love the shells,driftwood and odd funny item that washes up...i love the sunrises of mid summer out over the north sea... the sunsets over towards edinburgh and the coast of fife... its scenic beauty and various diffrences in geology and ever changing sands..the wildlife... all in this bit of only 8-10 miles of around 40miles of east lothian coastline... and i really enjoy cycling along the coast... so heres some pics from today for my friends tommy and hanneke for what they missed seeing on satuarday...
as i said to them many times "on a good day you can see..." all of this...

pugs on patrol...movie

ive been burning the leccy for hours on moivemaker editing satuardays beachride!...all done now and 1hr10min film burned to dvd (from 4 hours with 2 cameras)and the same again but to scottich music burned to send to tommy,
also a youtube film now posted which of course has to be 10minutes long maximum...
hard to edit it all down but i managed to keep alot of footage of tommy and hanneke..not alot of views pf the coast as there wasnt any!..i will also send him a dvd of the youtube film so he can upload it in dutch for friends back home...
music is the popular modern take on traditional scottish music by `peatbog faeries`
a great band to see live,seen them many times...enjoy...

biking with tommy...

after weeks of good visability here on the coast be it clear,rain,snow or days of all mentioned it had to be misty for tommy and hanneke`s visit!,of course he had heard the old adage the day before and again today i said to many times..on a good day you can see.....`
living in the netherlands his home climate is similar to scotland so he didnt complain about the damp cold weather...
we rode out across the nature reserve at aberlady bay...

look 2 pugsleys!...i only once went to pick up the wrong one...

across the reserve then onto the beach and out to the WW2 mini submarines...


riding east we rode into the mist that sometimes came on as drizzle so filming was hard trying to keep the lense clear,the rear rack camera was good facing backwards and 90 degrees alongside tommy so have alot of film thats good there...
riding alongside tommy it was great watching how a pugsley rolls over soft terrain..something i just cant seem to capture riding on my own even using a tall tripod and a rideby shot...talking of which we found a tripod which someone had proberly lost off a rucksack,quite a heavy cheap one and a bit rusty it had been lying a few days, i may have a go at making a telescopic boom from it which will hang way out back to the side to capture the tyres like my friend ward does with his pugsley films...
pugsley love...

the classic `taking a pic of each other` shot...

under gullane cliffs and a look at the rocks and infamous `murder hill`...i looked forward to riding down this with tommy for a few pics but the bottom of the dune is washed out this now with a 3ft drop onto rocks not to mention a huge bit of old pier washed up...years of firewood here!...

with heavy drizzle i didnt take any more pics from gullane until we rode around to broadsands (yellowcraig) but again cameras were filming...we spent some time shell hunting in the small coves after freshwaterhaven and walked over alot of the rocks i usually ride over which warmed up hands and feet in the damp cold...
the mist was that bad we could hardly see fidra lighthouse..just its light flashing,
onto broadsands and lovely smooth hard sand...

tommy couldnt believe how few folk were out walking on the beaches compared with back home in the netherlands,`its great isnt it` i replied...satuardays always quieter to sunday on the beaches esp in the morning...

around point gary onto the west beach at north berwick it was `pea soup` as we say here about the mist and now hard to see with moisture on your eyelashes...we rolled up at st andrews old kirk beside the seabird centre...





riding back to gullane to the cafe we at least had a tail breeze,talking with tommy he is like me being one of a few in his country that rides a surly pugsley,we had a laugh about how other cyclists come up and say `it must wiegh a ton` and be `hard to cycle` with the big tyres then they have a shot and are like `wow...`,like me he too has a full suspension bike he seldom rides...
despite the weather we had fun and hopefully tommys work will send him back over again and next time the views will be better!,have around 4 hours film with the 2 cameras to go through,burn to disc to send to tommy and then will do a wee film to post on youtube...

youtube surfing...

some films ive found on scotland browsing ...

a lovely made film of edinburgh...



one of our most scenic islands from the air...



things invented in scotland...



im not a big fan of bagpipes with drums etc..though a lone piper is nice.. and i like the peatbog faeries...this is northumberland pipes music to some lovely photography...



one of the best films ever made in scotland...if your scottish and havent seen this then shame on you!...a classic made in 1982 and timeless...



a clip from the film..if you`ve ever been up on the NW coast and seen the northern lights at night you know what macs excited about...you cant eat scenery...



a clip from the culture shows programme on the 25th anniversary of the film,
the films beach scene`s were shot on morar beach with the isle of skyes cullin hills in the back ground on the west coast..the village scenes were shot at the small fishing village of `pennin` east on inverness on the bannffshire east coast...and a infamous red phone box...

ive got it mapped...

i got a lovely collection of maps the other night that belonged to an ex-workmates grandad...
it was a big bag which included 36 `inch to mile` ordance survey maps as well as various other touring maps and towns maps from the 1970s...

added to my own inch to mile maps im well on the way now at 2/3rds there to having all 81 maps of scotland in the older imperial series...so why would you want these?,
well these maps have alot of features and old roads in some countys omitted on modern metric 1:50.000 OS landrangers,and are great when compared to modern maps to find old unmaintained and sometimes lost roads...roads once used that often look like this...



the eastern countys of fife,east lothian and particulary berwickshire which is the next county down from here in east lothian on the border with england has a lot of unmaintained roads which somehow have been missed when remapping...these were the type of roads we looked for when motorcycling offroad,later in the year i will visit and post pics of some of them...some have overgrowen twin hawthorn or beech hedges lining them in the middle of mature woods with a stone bottomed ford crossing a burn and although locals all know about them and may remmember them in use they have been missed by the map makers...when you compare old and new maps and think you found something then see it on the ground which only happens once in many times of looking its a great buzz,i know of one such lost road with a stone milage marker for instance..some countys like berwickshire had so many roads in the countryside there just must of been mistakes...there not going anywhere,just waiting to be rediscovered...
i also got a great geological survey map published 1957...

great detail of the rocks that make up scotland...


and this `robert the bruce` history trail map which details all places and events associated with the king of scots...


added to a growing collection of older maps these complement some nice old books i have which include this beauty from the early 1970s...

more for historical buildings and artifacts than old roads it is full of great info to look at anywhere you may visit in scotland...

workshop tinkering...

after a fun weekend riding about local woods i did a bit bike prep on the pugsley tonight for tommy (bike patrol) from the netherlands visiting this weekend coming with his pugsley to go for a beachride when here...
i refitted the rear rack so i can film him as much as possible when following or alongside using the 360 mount with one camera and the other camera on my helmet...


while he can take pics of the scenery i thought it would be nice to give him as much footage as i can of him riding that he can edit himself...
with the frame bags back on i too can quickly grab my camera and get him some pics...
you can tell its payday... new pair of DMR V12 pedals for the pug!

the bearings are finally shot on the old set after around 4 years having previously been on 2 devinci downhill bikes and on and off a kona cowan jump bike so no shame to them after lots of downhill razzing,dirtjumping then 14 months on the pugsley...they have never lost any pins either or worn them out and they get a hard time on rocks on the beach...thats impressive in 4 years riding...no point sourcing new bearings for them as the spindles will now be worn having ridden them for a couple of months with play...i discoverd this with motorcycles that when you do this on say a swingarm you have to replace the swingarm spindle too or the new bearings last no time at all...
at £42 and there 4 year lifespan i think there a good buy...PUGSLEY APPROVED!
i really like DMR products, another great british company with a growing loyal following,the V12 flat pedal is the sealed bearing version of there now classic (in mountainbiking) V8 pedal which was a copy of the then defunct classic shimano DX bmx pedal of the 1980s but threaded for mountainbike cranks...
i also made a new front tyre camera mount which i will try out next week as im on holiday,a few days planned here and there weather permitting...
looking forward to meeting tommy this weekend and seeing another pugsley!,should be fun, tidetimes are perfect at 1.30pm satuarday so lets just hope for a nice clearday

more woods riding...

sunday dawned clear and cold like yesterday with a hard frost, there is a wooded hill near home which now with all the vegitation died back would be good for a look round, often deer tracks through woods are ridable in winter as was the case here..and i found some short downhill runs..who made them ive no idea so they will remain elusive to anyone asking whereabouts on youtube...made for intresting riding on fully a ridgid bike with ballon tyres and a high seatpost!
it was a lovely clear day...



people say to me how can i be bothered making films and setting up
cameras and going back and forward?.... the cycling is just part of being outdoors..im looking at scenery,wildlife,whats on the ground when on the coast...when your constantly cycling be it on road or off often your hearts pounding and your breathing hard and though you do see stuff you dont see half of whats about..or hear it...i often watch road cyclists head down legs pushing hard and they havent even seen me standing not 5 yards from the road....i dont like road only cycling because i just dont feel safe being passed by cars sometimes only leaving a foot or two clearance...walking is great for seeing everything but your limited to distance covered,i find combining cycling with a bit on foot exploring best for myself but each to there own and i respect that...anyway when filming you get really quick after a while and it isnt much trouble at all..after being in the woods i rode round some field boundrys which were frozen and enjoyed the views...



back mid afternoon and another nice trailride...