2013 Retrospect...

Hang on and keep a positive attitude and things will work out...

And they have for myself this year. Outside of the regular blog stuff it has been a truly great year.

Family;
It has been hard for all our family having dad go into a nursing home a year last November.
Hard for mum esp... We are all there for mum and dad,  and the staff at Fidra are brilliant, and dad has surprisingly accepted it rather well!...

Motivation to blog;
I was going to quit doing the blog this time last year. It is a lot of work and time to keep going.
But i now do the blog to show dad what is happening around East Lothian on the coast. Apart from days out in the bus, reading my blog is dad`s eyes of the county where he used to walk for miles as East Lothians first, then senior Countryside Ranger.

Health;
I lost 2 stone this year!. 2 stone i put on over a year and a half. So now i am back to a 34" waist!, and all my old cycling gear i wore now fits me again!, it`s like having a new wardrobe!,
How did i do this?, not sure!, i have cut down on all sizes of portions of food i eat. I hardly eat biscuits, chocolate or sweets, crisps and crap like that anymore-only eat cake if i am out cycling and burning calories. I think a combination of early summer time starts and finishes meant i never ate after 7pm in the evening. riding a road bike to work nearly every day-and 3 times a week to NB after work to visit dad. that and riding big miles on the single speed KramPug, gave me a good beasting!, out on the singlespeed most evenings killing it!...

Slim Jim again!... -)

Riding the road bike, the old Roughstuff Peugeot, and also the fixie road bike i got from big bro too has burned the fat...

Work;
Delays at work are nearly sorted and next spring hopefully the re-development of Whitekirk Golf Course will begin. Everyone is itching to get going, after 15 years there and 10 years as Head Greenkeeper my dream job that i was trained to do is within reach...

Weather;
From the wettest summer in 2012, to what can only be described as a fantastic warm summer!
The hottest summer for years!. Starting at 6am i witnessed countless amazing sunrises, days of big blue skies and white fluffy clouds drifting across the county's skies,  and then finishing work at 2.30pm i was out on the trails and coast cycling and loved the heat!!!

Harvest;
A brilliant harvest here in the county. Great weather saw late evenings of the monstrous combines working into the dark.  Great sunset images of East Lothian`s countryside at work...

Home life;
This great year has been rounded off with meeting a lovely woman...  -)

Francis and i get on like a house on fire!. We met via the proposed and scheduled resurfacing without public consultation of a local ancient and historic Byway- Becky`s Strip.
Francis from a horse riders interest, my self as an off road cyclist, and both of us having a love of old roads and their history.  We are going to have a lot of adventures together on fatbikes and horses- yep i cant wait to start trail riding on horse back, something new to me!...

Along side on our adventures will be Mowgli- Francis`s hyper Springer Spaniel!, Mowgli loves to run with the fatbikes!...

And he loves the fire... -)

Cycling;
What the blog is really about, combining all my interests with my cycling.
This year was the year i just rode and rode my bikes, maybe not always big mileages but with the excellent weather i rode nearly every day and i have no idea how many hours i put in, i don`t keep tabs, but count in hours, i`m not interested in the stats... i just keep fit from having fun and enjoying being out doing my own thing,,, but it`s nice to share your passion, with a small group of friends...
Or as a massive group!

This years FORTH FAT was an amazing weekend. 42 fatbikes from all over the UK travelled to North Berwick to ride our coastline. The biggest gathering of fatbikes to date in Europe!...

 Meeting new and old friends and having a fun night out in the pub.
Never thought some guys from Surly Bikes would come here to East Lothian to check out our little scene going on. Tyler and Eric rolled up, and both said that we have a great scene going here and fantastic scenery and cycling on our door step. Maybe i take for granted living here too much!!!
They were genuinely blown away, and it was an eye opener for them that most of us also own regular MTBs and commuters etc but choose to ride fatbikes for all types of riding!,
Nowhere is this happening anywhere else by fatbike owners than here in the UK, and your going to see a lot more fatbike action in 2014...


Bikes;
I was given a pair of 29+   (29" diameter x 50mm wide Surly Rabbit Hole` rims, with 3" Surly `Knard` tyres)  Krampus wheels-offset built to fit a Surly Pugsley by Tyler as a thank you from Surly. I am still seriously made up by receiving these wheels and the whole weekend of FORTH FAT...

And so a new angle on fatbiking to play around with over the summer- I named it a  Surly KramPug, and it is way better on trails as faster and lighter than a regular 26x4" pugsley, the bike is a hoot!, i rode it single speed for a couple of months then added gears and tweaked a few parts...

Next year the KramPug is going to roll on a new dropped top tube Pugsley frame for increased crotch clearance and the steel Jones Truss fork i bought secondhand and tried on the Moonlander is going on.
The bike will be a kind of Pugsley, Krampus, Jones Truss fork front, all in one of all these bikes, maybe not as good in one certain area as any of these bikes but with two sets of wheels (29+ and 4" fat) very versatile.
29+ bikes will be marketed heavily soon enough once more tyres are available for UK conditions, watch this space...

I will mostly be riding this new Pugsley frame build  with both wheel sets when it is finished. And the big Moonlander for rock crawling and dune blasting, i still ride trails on the big beastie too!...

The other two old Pugsleys are semi retired after this winter. And be ridden by Francis and visiting friends...
The Purple Pug will stay as it is with it`s retro theme...

The black frame  pugsley-originaly the grey pugsley which was used for the Pumpkin KramPug build is still built up as a Budget Build Fatbike with cheap sourced fatbike specific parts and stuff i had lying around and sourced on eBay. This bike is getting a `Tonka Toy` theme paint job soon... -)

The Surly Karate Monkey 29er frame set i bought second hand in March is still a single speed. Not used that much i plan to add gears, semi drops, and rebuild a bike like the Salsa Fargo i had, but it it will ride a lot more comfortable with its springy frame...

The old Peugeot triathlon bike and lately the Pearson fixie , both from my Big bro, and the old 1985 Muddy Fox Courier MTB will be used for work, shops, cafes, pubs, roughstuff riding and general cycling!

You can never have enough bikes...  -)



Some films from 2013;

January;

Hogmany Beachride- Holy Island




Visit to the Submarine wrecks with friends...



Snow ride with friend Jason...



The Mighty Surly Moonlander was a year old, what an amazing bicycle!


More snow riding with Jason!


If your a fan of digital radio 6 music then you will have heard of new British band `Public Service Broadcasting`.
I love their combination of audio newsreels and film with their music in their videos,
posted them a lot on the blog, a favourite is about a very special plane, and those few that flew it...



February;

Beachride with friends...


Black and white evening solo cycle...


Rock Crawling on the big Moonlander!


Digging up some WW2 history here in East Lothian...



March;
The last stubble fields are ploughed for sowing spring crops. You will have not seen this angle on farming before, amazing film by friend Gary Eunson...the first of some really cool films from the air here in East Lothian...



Last of the winters big storms hits the shore at Peffersands...



April;

Built another Surly Karate Monkey...


Twice a day the tides goes out, and exposes a big playground...Why i bought a Surly Moonlander...first bike online to ride to the Reef marker...




A typical commute to work on the fatbike which i do once or twice a week, then i go for a play at home time...




A CD was dropped off at my work`s office by a couple of guys. It was none other than Marquis and Mike from the band Boards of Canada. They must have been down this way for the day in East Lothian,
The CD is their new long awaited album `Tomorrows Harvest`  and was a few days from it`s release date!, how cool is that!
BoB are one of my favourite bands, deft my favourite Scottish band. I hope the guys get in touch this year to come out for a cycle on the fatbikes on the coast here!

Here is a song from the new album `Tomorrow`s Harvest`



Forth Fat;
For me it was the big post of the year-what this blog is about; Forth Fat

click on the link above for the pics and details. or click below to see the films...







great films,
here is my effort...




back on the trails on fatbikes...


My big sisters partner did an amazing feat for a good cause... mass respect Ian!
A very emotional day for us all...



May;

More rock crawling on the Moonlander...


Build and first ride on the Surly KramPug;


June;
Summer holidays! and 5 days roadtrip to the NW corner of Scotland.
Time to take the big Moonlander out to the most remote beach in Britain-Sandwood Bay...


And also ride the sands of Faraid Head, the biggest, longest dunes in Britain- Moonlander heaven!...


July;
Enjoying the light warm summer evenings out on the trails on the Surly KramPug...



And the coast on the Pugsley...



August;
Out again on the big Surly Moonlander...




The infamous North Sea Harr..




September;
10 mins blast around Butterdean woods on the Surly KramPug. This film should silence a couple of anti fatbiking local internet trolls who are slower on Strava around here, 29+ rocks!


Harvest time...





I enjoyed this evening, what i bought the big Moonlander for...



October;
Back out with friends on the coast...


And the first of the big Autumn storms rolled in from the North Sea...



November;
Out on the coast with Francis and Mowgli- he is hyper about fatbikes!!!



December;
`Baked Bean` Trail chest cam on the Pugsley...


And local woods night riding as we near the solstice...


And the Solstice, spent at Holy Island...




Will post up a photo dump for New Year...