harvest time

I'm like a big kid when the harvest starts,i love it seeing combines around the county,being prime agricultural land the countryside comes alive with combines,grain trailers and baler's,another reason ive bought my motorbike back,miles of fields of stubble to blast down,i got my motorbike m.o.t and tax on satuarday after fitting a new rear tyre friday night and took this pic ,which tyres fatter?!!



its actually been a few weeks since i came home from a bike ride totally knackered..,
which i dont think is because im either really fit this now or really to lazy to push hard or just haven't been out doing loads of miles/long days,
its because ive realised my cycling habits and style is changing,and im now looking around a lot more not to mention stopping alot to take pictures and setting up my camera to film,i had a lovely local cycle mid week it was a calm clear sky and combines were out harvesting early wheat...







talking of which ive made loads of films lately and its paid off,ive won a new out `tachyon 2010` sports camera in a youtube compition!!
for two of my films,funnily there two of the first films i made when i just got my pugsley and the editing etc isnt that good,i have the tachyon xc already which i made the first films but lately ive been using a cheapy £59(UK) cannon powershot A470 which has good video quality for its cost,

good enough for youtube anyway,i like the idea of making fun films with cheap cameras as quality is made up for by imagination,the new tachyon 2010 has a wider 90 degree lense which willl be much better than the old models 50 degree lense which wouldnt film in low light or directly into the sun,it has a low light facility and they say it can film in 3D!!!,hopefully it will arrive soon,

so i was saying how my cycling has changed there,i think its been getting the pugsley!!!, 90% of my riding the last 4-5 years has been driving an hour down to the borders to ride round the trail centres of glentress and innerliethen and also ride downhill(at innerliethen) with summer holidays up north usually the northwest coast and isle of skye camping while doing out and back to base day rides while dreaming of doing epic multi day trips,this years holiday to harris was the first of these dream trips buts its took a while to get the right stuff to do it,
so ive had countless suspension mid travel bikes and two devinci downhill bikes which have over the past year been sold to fund new and different bikes,the newer downhill bike was sold to fund the pugsley then this spring i sold the older one to fund the karate monkey and this month i sold my much loved trailcentre bike-a santa cruz heckler

gone to a good home the trusty heckler

to help fund buying back my old motorbike,so i still have my cannondale uber v which despite having a 10 year old frame is going to be my trail centre bike now for ocassional visits to see friends,

the uber v is a keeper though




so now im riding mostly from home(no driving) around my own county on either of two fully ridgid steel framed bikes-the karate monkey for road&trails and the pugsley for sandy coastal trails/beach





and im having more fun than ever so hows that?,and what does it mean?,it means im no longer fished in to the bull#### marketing hype which makes you believe you need the latest hydroformed multilink suspension bike to ride!!,granted i mostly ride alone now as all my mates are still riding glentress etc.., every weekend and also im the only pugsley owner in scotland that i know of too!,
despite living up the road from arguely the best trail centre in the UK ive just got tierd of the same thing week after week,i miss seeing the guys reguarly for the laugh and banter but we all email/facebook,as i joke to them there the mould on the bread,but there starting to see how much biking is costing them (to be cool!!)and why i like doing what i do watching my films,that is the rub-cost, living on your own costs alot though i help that by still having open fire central heating and collecting firewood,infact anything wood to burn!!,skip diving,ebay sales,wheeling and dealing bikes and parts all help,i save alot of money now not driving as much and cycling locally,car milage will be about 5000 miles by this years m.o.t it used to be 12-15,000 miles annualy,both surly bikes are going to be cheaper to run,the pugsley is 10 months old now and only had brake pads,chain replaced in 1400 miles,trail centres are hard on bikes-brake pads,drivechains,tyres all take a beating aswell as suspension sevicing,but it is good fun,better to go once a month or 6 weeks just to be sociable at least!!

with the glentress gang


wallride-glentress freeride on the heckler,one cracking bike


ebay sales are a bit slow this now,im trying to scrape funds together to buy an alpacaraft from alaska but proberly wont be for this summer,they look amazing and alot of fun,opening up lots of ideas for mini adventures using the two rivers locally in east lothian aswell as up north or the river tweed in the borders, bike upstream,paddle home!!,heres a link to epic eric of epic designs adventure with them;
and thealpacaraft website,im going to get one of these before the extracycle for my hybrid which will be great as i can then pick up firewood cycling home from work passing local woods,i think after i get that my craving for bikes will be quenced for a while,just some lightwieght camping items after that,mind you maybe i will somehow come up with a plan to afford to get the big dummy after all..........!!