FORTH FAT Fatbike Gathering 27th/28th April North Berwick East Lothian Scotland

"Never in the field of human cycling has so much been owed to so few. We shall cycle them on the beaches..."


Build it and they will come...

And they did...

The largest ever group of Fat bikes to date in Europe,
40 ish Fatbikes rolled out of North Berwick west to Gullane on Saturday morning and 30 ish on Sunday to Tyninghame Links, hard to put an exact number as some came and went during each days ride, there was i think 42 at the WW2 midget submarine wrecks in Aberlady Bay, a sight i will remember for a very long time...

This weekend made me realise just how lucky we are to live in this wee county by the comments made of our coast here by old friends and new friends met over the weekend ...

East Lothian is a place i am very proud of, home to the birth place of our Saltire Flag, The Bass Rock and Fidra Islands offshore, ruin castles and miles and miles of amazing coastline and Victorian seaside architecture...

We showed our coast at its best with big blue skies with fluffy white clouds that drifted by, and that magical sunlight reflection of the clouds on the calm sea that brings the water to life as it sparkles on ripples and waves,  and warms your back as you cruise along the coast...
The grins and comments of the great scenery and fantastic coastal trails and beach riding from everyone also warmed me a lot...

Special thanks go to those who helped out with the weekend;

A MASSIVE thanks to Jason and Barry who were tail - end charlies and brought up the rear of the group, with out them the group would never have stayed on route and all arrived each day, thanks guys!

Stuart H and Colin C for van driving duties, you made Saturday`s ride out to the Sub wrecks run perfect... thanks guys!

Dave at Law Cycles here in North Berwick, helping out Pat from ISON...

Carl Hutchings for the free handout Squirt Dry Lube for everyone, great to meet you at last Carl and show you our coast!,

Jon from bike-bags.co.uk for a T shirt to hand out and the Free Frame bag which we have still to raffle and will update on here and the UK Fatbike Forum...

Si from UK Fatbikes Forum for help and also Gil for the usual stickers, T shirts and Hoodies, top blokes!

Pat from ISON for sorting out our overseas visitors,

Eric and Tyler from SURLY Bikes USA, who came to our little county here in Scotland to check out our UK scene, and as Eric said we have a great wee scene going on here....
Two larger than life characters who said they had a fantastic two days riding  and said they will be back for more...

One day a few years back i said `one day the guys from SURLY will come and ride here`...

I have to admit to being blown away that they have indeed come here and rode on our coast!,
Then we all got drunk on Saturday evening and had a riot!, my sides were sore from laughing...

I am totally made up with what happened here this weekend...

This post will get updated with friends films and photo sets of the weekend.
The raffle film still has to be done and will be posted for the Bike-bag.co.uk frame bag...

The story of FORTH FAT is not really told by myself but those who came along and rode...
I was up front most of the time leading out and cranking on to spread the field out between stops and keep the fitter riders happy, so not a lot of time to film and take pics myself..

If you have a link to a photo set or film you want to share email me at; coastkid71@yahoo.co.uk
and i will add it on here...

Check out friend Allan Kelly`s fantastic photos of Sundays ride; open a beer, put on a favourite tune and watch Allan's FORTH FAT Slideshow

Also John Climbers pictures, who also rode up NB Law TWICE after Saturdays ride! Flickr pics

And Alan Cole`s Flickr set

Gavins Blog post and pics

Colin Caddon captured the Fatbike parade  through North Berwick High Street on Saturday morning,
I could hear the rumble of the tyres behind me!






And friend Gary Buckham who rode mid field made a fantastic film that captured Saturdays ride;




Eric's dune crash on the Sunday; hope your not too sore!

There are also Si`s fantastic pics on the The Big FORTH FAT Gathering photo thread
If your not already a member you may have to wait a while to get registered as it takes Si a while to get through the spam for the genuine registration requests, be patient and you will get on...

I took 150 pics, you already know what our coast looks like here from the blog, quite different in real life alot of folk said, as usual most pics are taken when the going is flat and easy, ask anyone who came along and they will tell you just how challenging some of our coastline can be to ride a bicycle across,
I will post up a bakers dozen here of some of the old friends and new friends made,
friends i hope to cycle with for many years to come,  the photo set can be viewed Here on Flickr

Not much film as leading from the front and often we were stretched out over a mile in places, mixed with pics and various tunes...
click on the cog icon to view in HD



I took home some nice SURLY goodies from Eric, Tyler and Pat ,
My T shirt and Hoodie and stickers from Gil and memories from everyone who turned up, helped out and made the weekend, as it was YOUR weekend,  and the memories i will cherish for a long time,

Thanks everyone and see you at the next Gathering...