last night of summer?

1st of october already tomorrow!,clocks go back an hour in 3 weeks and its already dark by 7.30pm,but i love the arrival of autumn,i love every season as it comes,
tonight has to probably be one of the last short sleeve evenings,it promised to be a good sunset with the sky clearing to the west so i rode down to ride an out and back from yellowcraig along to gullane,i returned back along in the dark which is the first time ive ridden on the beach at night and will be doing it a lot more this winter,im one of the few folk that actually cycle more in winter than summer as i work shorter hours so have more sleep-more energy,both hope H.I.D lights are on the pugsley and karate monkey now full time,
i did a bit filming too but heres some pics to leave you of a favourite stretch of coast and once again a sunset that is as always unique...

maps of scotland

im a bit of an anorak when it comes to maps of scotland,ive collected all 84 ordnance survey 1;50,000 scale landranger maps and alot of the 1;25,000 explorer maps

over the years ive also collected many maps from the 1950s to the present from imperial to metric..

these maps are a great resource for finding old roads that were once tarred pre WW2 then abandoned after WW2 for more direct routes or wider routes,probably this was also done to reduce local authorities road maintenance costs,a dead give away of an old unmaintained road are these `no through road signs`..

many companys produced maps like bartholomews

and for cross reference with present maps to confirm old roads the excellent johnston 2 miles to the inch series,

these are the best resource ive found as as stated on the maps "all roads on this map are statue highways of the king and his subjects",
statue highways are defined as `once a road always a road` for a road to be downgraded it has to have a stopping up order issued by the secretary of state for scotland,of course we now have the right to roam but i still find it all interesting,but essential if like me you occasionally ride motorcycles (or drive 4x4s) offroad,a hot potato subject im not going to go into here as you could write pages on the issue..,
here on the johnston map the pen tip points at a road over the local lammerlaw,an ancient route to the border country not marked as a road now on present maps...

this is the old route i made a film
the route is signed as a right of way now,not as a byway as it should be but has plenty evidence with an old metal road sign down at the farm,
onto the good news, the national library of scotland has published all its maps of scotland online; to view
these are maps from the sixteenth century to the 1900`s and also Ariel maps after WW2,included are the first ordnance survey maps of 1847,the famous roys military survey of scotland,going to take a long time to look through this lot!
here also is the history of the ordnance survey which will explain what these things were made for and planted on hills and mountains all over the british isles...

another cold war bunker found

its been blowing a gale now for about 7 days that and a pulled muscle in my left shoulder,resulting from a broken collerbone a few years ago made me not very enthusiastic about going cycling!,not offroad anyway,i was out and about though on the motorbike visiting friends,(the friends that make the best cuppa tea get more visits)
remember how im interested in the cold war ROC bunkers? and i did a film
well ive found another i was looking for via the very informative roc site of a well preserved one locally, if your interested in these bunkers,referred to as posts and live here in the uk do a search on the area you live,there was originally 1500 odd posts and around half of them were de-commissioned when the threat of being nuked lessened,most of these were filled in as the others were still being used,the ones in use till they were all decommissioned are mostly intact at least above ground minus the ground zero indicator and fall out monitors,let me know if you find one near where you live!
heres the bunker i found this morning above torness power station which wasnt yet built when the bunker was first built...

this post`s paint has survived well too...

but with those padlocks i wasnt going to get a look inside...

but thanks too this excellent site
i got some pics of inside...



heres the link to the page on that roc post
if your interested in all this stuff you could spend hours on that site,so much that went on in our country we didnt know about...

2010 pugsley and new tyre

heres a pic of the 2010 pugsley frameset!,now in mustard and with a lowered top tube-i imagine to protect the crown jewels of those with a shorter leg

also on the front is a 2nd choice of surly tyre, the `larry` again 3.7 but a bit more aggressive tread while still remaining low profile for minimum drag..

the changes to the frame are the first in 4 years of the pugsleys production and the tyre has been eagerly awaited by pug owners looking for that little bit more grip up front, lots of talk on the fatbike forum probably everything you would want to ask or find out about these amazing bicycles has been answered on here,a real friendly site too

trail clearing

remember way back (only 8 months ago) i made one of my first films down a local trail through a strip of woods off the local garlton hills its a good 2 minutes of good nice singletrack descent
and that happened..,well all summer this real nice bit of trail has constantly had stuff pulled across it including large logs-well no more!,cause i went out tonight on the hybrid and bob trailer...

so whats in the bob trailer?,the petrol chainsaw!!!,time to rebel..

also the local land owner hasnt bothered about the path either and has also used barbed wire to try and discourage people using this path claiming it was put up to stop illegal dumping..yeah right!!,next week im heading up again with a pair of lopers that cut branches up too an inch and will cut the trail back far enough to see down it and therefore can see anything pulled across the trail again in the future,,.thing is this trail is only 3 miles from my house and probably one of the best 2 minute sections of flowy singletrack in the county and the more some asshole trys and spoils it for cycling the more i will go up and do more removing stuff to deter them...cause time is something i have lots of spare for things like this...
heres a film i made chainsawing,some angry music too!,but now im peaced its sorted...

cheap pugsley racks/mudgaurds

the beady eyed among you lot may have spied new racks on my pugsley when i was floating about in the local river,well i had hacked up a rear rack off my commuter for the front of the pug to go on holiday to the western isle`s of harris back in july so i needed another rack for my cannondale commuter,edinburgh bike co-op do a cheap lightwieghtmountainbike rack with splash gaurd for £15,i orderd one but apon arrival found it was actually too short and touched the full mudgaurd-out with the measuring tape and i discoverd it would fit the pugsley front and rear and would give me a mudgaurd both ends too,i went back on line and ordered another then fitted it on the rear, the axion rack already on the pugsley was a bit too tall which made pannier centre of gravity a bit too high...

while these racks are about right,so i fitted the sturdier axiom rack to the cannondale which makes sense as its the only bike i usually carry heavy items on with panniers(shopping)and it had enough clearance...

..back to the pug and i used the axion racks mounts to fit the revolution rack onto the rear as there alot sturdier than the bike co-op revolutions bendy metal fittings..

once the rack was on i realised theres now enough space for a bottle cage to be cabletied on behind the seat post freeing up space in the frame bag...

a few days later the other revolution rack arrived and using the homemade fork/camera mount...

i fitted the other rack on the front...

and used the same spacers as the previous rack to offset it on the offset fork...

so ok these racks are not that robust compared to other more expensive racks and there a bit bendy but they wiegh next to nothing and offer to double up as mudgaurds,i dont plan on using panniers on my pugsley as i only plan on carrying a tent on the rear rack and sleeping bag and thermarest on the front so they will be fine for my needs,and at £30 for the pair there good value as is most of the products in the bike co-op`s revolution range

pugsley floats!...

it was a lovely warm september day tuesday so straight home from work i changed and headed to the river tyne at hailes castle,sole purpose to film the pugsley floating,i filmed a bit riding down then setting up both cameras waded in with the pugsley,water wasnt cold ,leaving it to float for a couple of minutes,

all seamed fine as i new it would after a few weeks ago,the gas tank bag and top compartment of the frame bag filled up with water but didnt affect it floating,the lower compartment where the tools are stayed dry!,it was about 6 feet at deepest and in places could put down a reassuring foot,also down stream another 50 yards at the bridge its shallow so i wouldnt get into difficulty,but all was fine i went up stream a bit and waded in and jumped on!!

the bars and seat were under water and with the wheels out front it held my 14 stone weight fine!,i had no steering though so just bobbed along with the current
i reckon with my tent on the rear rack and sleeping bag and thermarest on the front rack all of which have drybags would even up the buoyancy and would work a treat,
heres the short film i made...

september long weekend pt3

this secluded glen has been a favourite place of mine for years,even the entrance is kind of hidden (in summer)including the information sign,its managed by the woodland trust and as such although legally you are allowed to cycle through it i keep it low key and only cycle here a couple of times a year,there are also alot of steps you have to get off and carry the bike up or down,the film doesn't show this,it looks like a long nonstop flowing trail!,probably the longest descent is about 20-30 seconds,its an amazing wood,full of ancient oak trees and ferns...





2 deep gulley's join together below a wooden bridge over one of them...

crystal clear water from the lammermuirs flows over the bedrock..


hard to believe your in scotland when here...

but this is what most of the glens would have looked like once before deforestation and take over of non native trees like scyamores,
theres an old bridge,quite substantial for in a small glen...

which has low sides,this was for pack horses,so there packs would clear the sides,the bridge was once of great importance as this was a joining route onto the historic `herring road` from dunbar here in east lothian over the lammermuir hills to lauder (then lauderdale) in the scottish borders,you can see the sunken track here...

you will see in the film i made theres a bridge washed downstream,that crossing is knowen as tinkers leap, i left the wood here and crossed an empty grazing field to join a track down to a hillfarm,passing this old railway goods carraige once used as a shed-proberly for feeding for sheep,theres still lots of these around the hills here but this ones seen better days...

back onto country roads and past one of the best of the many old cast road signs,it has the names of farms on it and distances given to an 8th of a mile,a good reason we shouldnt go metric as we would lose all these old signs!