Sunday 2 June 2013

A Day Trip to Tentsmuir in Fife...



You may remember i had a great days cycling through the sandy woodland trails and beach of Tentsmuir in Fife in the winter... you can read and see pics and info here; Tentsmuir and St Andrews...

A ride was organised on the UK Fatbike Forum, We got a posse together after Hendo (Stuart) offered to take his van that takes 5 folk and bikes and we could take a BBQ to have on site after before heading home,
Of the 5 folk going 2 dropped out not feeling well and one was chained to his work bench, so Hendo, Gary and myself headed for Tentsmuir under a big blue sky...

Road Trip!... -:)







We were early so had our post ride beer/cider pre ride!, Time to do some bike geek stuff...
Checking out Gary `s Pugsley it is a smart set up, the inside walls of his SURLY Large Marge rims have been cut out, and the  remaining rim drilled to make a very light set of rims. Then he fitted the larger 4.7" ` Big Fat Larry` tyres, what is fitted to the Moonlander, they rode nice when i later had a shot and not weird like i thought it would be with BFL`s squeezed on to  65mm rims. Tts deft got a bit more float.
The bike has a higher BB now too which he prefers. Gary rides mostly on Peat and Heather in our local Lammermuirs and does a bit of hike -  a biking often so this lighter and fatter set up is ideal for him...


The chain clearance issue was solved using Middleburn cranks with a 5 spider arm and a 30 took chain ring up front, with a 9 spd 36t rear the ratio is not a low as say my 22t - 36t rear 1st ratio but its close, and the chain line is ok too...
I just bought a second set of Middleburn crank arms cheap on eBay, old and battered from riding Trials but i am not worried about looks, these will be mated to another Phil Wood 100mm BB in the future to lighten up the Purple Pugsley which has heavy Truvativ cranks on, think the rims will get drilled now too seeing these, something i would have not entertained doing before, but no one has died yet or had a home made drilled rim  collapse yet!...

Check the BBQ stands with fire blocks underneath here, real neat, and will get used later when we return...


Stuarty arrived with his Pugsley too, 4 Pugsleys! -:) ...

The other guys were meeting at the train station car park so we had to meet them somewhere between here and there, we decided to go for a ride through the woods then try bump into them before the long 8 mile beach ride down to RAF Leuchers Air base...


Lovely big pine trees here...




Is there a woodland Troll here? ...





Popped out above the beach, then more brilliant sandy single track...











Out to the point at Lundin Bridge...



The PSG (Pugsley Splinter Group) on top of a WW2 Machine Gun Pill Box...


Still no sign of the rest ( err my phone was in the van ) so we headed for a wee loop back into the woods...


















Out the woods and across a Golf Course...


And another wee BMX track for Stuarty to play on...





Back to Lundin Bridge and the rest of the guys were there along with a MTBr from Dundee who joined in...
Stuarty again...


Stuarty shows off his skills, He used to ride trials and is friends with Danny Macaskill -:)




Off we all go...


For 8 miles of beach -:)










Big Sky Day!...









I found a road cone, so of course it came along with us...

Eventually after a work out into a strong headwind we reached RAF Leuchers...






I left a sign...


Back to the woods while the other guys headed for the train station...



We kinda took a wrong turn and rode into a swampy forest and had to wall the bikes out to the return trail to the Forest car park...


I rode right past this in a dune above me, then Stuarty yelled out...
This is the WW2 Pill Box similar to an Alan Williams Turret, here is the RCAHMS link...






Nearby another WW2 building that has collapsed...



I saw one of these in the distance on the Golf Course at Barrow in Furness when we had the fatbike meet there.... first one i have seen up close...



Last trail back...


22 superb miles with friends...

Hendo was already back at the van with our MTB friend who after a Sterling effort on the soft sand on his regular tyres had to give up. Hendo had the BBQ spread all out and we cooked and tucked in. I don`t eat red meat or chicken, but will east every bit of seafood going!, anyway i cooked Alaskan Salmon in tin foil then had that with black pepper and some peppers...



Washed down with this...

Great to come up here again and share a day with friends...

The Pugsley Splinter Group joke was a good laugh but as we drove home over the Forth Road Bridge and admired our Rail Bridge -  `The` Forth Bridge, i suggested  we do a Pugsley meet, underneath it!, two great engineering ideas loved by many!.


Why not eh?,  now that there are so many and most are all personally set up by their owners for where and how they ride. Also it must be near to 10 years next year since the concept idea of the SURLY Pugsley was created and built...
I will be doing a big blog on their history nearer the time with pics of all the production model colours and characters i have met on them and over seas friends films of them riding where they live...
Here is a good early intro to the original Pugsley

By the time we blethered about all the things you can swap and change on them, and all other fatbike stuff  we left the Pugsley Matrix and were 80 odd miles back home in Sunny North Berwick....

A great day out, Thanks Hendo for driving, a real gentleman -:)





5 comments:

  1. Flying_Scotsman2 June 2013 at 11:27

    Look like you all had a great time!! Glad to see Stuart finally finding a helmet for himself at the end!! :-)

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  2. Was an ace day!, the pic of him with the turret top on his head was blurred -:(

    So we will just need to return! -:)

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  3. Great write up as usual Bruce.
    Did you get your souvenir home ok?

    Clubby.

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  4. I forgot about it in the rush for food back at base Steven!, so would still in Stuarty`s bag!!, so need to get it off Stuarty next time were out!

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  5. Hi All Dundee MTB guy here (Del)
    Found the blog in the end and tried to join UK Fat Bikes but can't atm for some reason.
    Great to meet you all and it was a grand day out. Cheers for letting a skinny wheel bike join in :)
    Hope to do it again someday and maybe have a different bike to do it on.
    Del

    ReplyDelete