Genesis Prototype Fatbike; update

Bikes should be ridden and not hidden..

In loft storage last two years set up with single speed 27.5+ wheels....

The Genesis Prototype Fatbike;
A one off prototype in Reynolds steel, with sliding adustable dropouts and finished in Genesis team colours. 17” medium it is a little smaller than my 18” medium Surly Pugsley’s but rides real nice.
Yeah it could be hung up and looked at but it’s just a pushbike at the end of the day and should be owned by someone who will love it and ride it.
So the bike is back out in use again with two sets of wheels - Fat and Plus and 1 x 10 gears as my other bikes all have,
Girlfriend G bought the bike and i soon had set it up ready for her to use,

The Halo Fat wheels were bought used online and i soon had them set up Ghetto tubeless after they were delivered and adding discs and new Cassette for a quick swap with the 27.5+ wheels...

With a spare new 10 speed drive chain i soon had the bike ready and G added a womans saddle...
G has rode over 300 miles already in just over a month swapping the wheels herself for the coast or inland on trailsand she loves the bike!

I`m happy to see this special one off frame set being used, esp by someone who having just discovered Fatbikes is absolutely loving the bike with the two wheel options,

The only bike i now own and do not ride is my original Surly Pugsley but thinking it will get some use again over the summer...



More soon...

Isolation Cycle 12; Barnes Ness Pt 2

Not often you cycle here and have the path - part of the John Muir Way to yourselves, so here is a non stop section above the low dunes returning to the Lighthouse...
Wee film, Song is `Music is Math` by Boards of Canada


Isolation Cycle 12; April 2020 from coastkid71 on Vimeo.


More soon...

Isolation Cycle 11; Whitesands and Barnes Ness...

Blog posts running 2 weeks ago...

Another big sky day in the Shire, and with the car park and access road to Whitesands closed Barnes Ness is an ideal cycle route for daily exercise with nice wide roads...

This was the first day of the year that actually felt warm once mid morning...

The lighthouse is always an impressive sight as you near it...

Wee film, Song is `Sandstorm` by Cast


Isolation Cycle 11; April 2020 from coastkid71 on Vimeo.


More soon...

Sloe Gin...

Time to make some Sloe Gin to fill the hip flasks for bike packing hopefully mid summer once the Apocalypse is over,
I still have loads of Sloe`s frozen that i picked two years ago. With a 7cl bottle of Gin i weighed out 400 grams of Sloes into a Mason Jar i sterilised with hot then boiling water...

Then added 200 grams of Castor Suger...

Then add the 750cl of Gin...

The light nights are on the way, still light at 8pm...

And after just a few hours the Gin has changed colour, every couple of days turn the jar and in 6 weeks filter it through a cloth into hip flasks and ready to warm you up in the evening...

More soon...

Isolation Cycle 10; JMW to NB Law...

A cycle along the JMW then around NB Law past the Cold War ROC Monitoring Post, then along to soak up the view at Seacliff harbour-an island  withthe sfternoon high tide...

Wee film,
Song is `Collapse` by Boards of Canada


Isolation Cycle 10; April 2020 from coastkid71 on Vimeo.


More soon...

Isolation Cycle 9; Peffersands

Another big sky day on the east coast and despite a high tide it was back on the coast for our daily exercise...

15 mins and it would be clear here of the now retreating tide...

Back home and reading in the drift wood lean-to...

Wee film,
Song is `Nailing Honey To The Bee` by The Brian Jonestown Massacre


Isolation Cycle 9; April 2020 from coastkid71 on Vimeo.

More soon...

Surly moonlander Update; back on the coast!

Note; to date i have never seen sinking sands in Aberlady Bay!, and lived here all my life, knee deep soft wet sand around gliderpole stumps if your lucky!, some drama nonsense on social media to blame!, nonsense!

So i started riding the big Surly Moonlander again just before the Corona Apocalypse started,
1st reason doing so is to not use my 2 good bikes - the Surly Wednesday and New Pugsley 2.0 on the coast and end up with all my bikes trashed cosmeticly with salt water exposure,

The Surly Wednesday is my mountain bike with 29+ wheels, suspension fork and dropper post...
The Surly Pugsley 2.0 my All day Trail Bike and Bikepacking rig with 29+ wheels...

Coastal salt water abuse;
I have changed my value of a bike nowadays for trashing on the coast and don`t want to use a bike with a value of much more than £600, it is more important the bike is set up  prepped properly and ideally tyres set up tubeless to avoid pinch flats when running real low tyre pressures for soft sand and then grip on real greasy rocks exposed at low tide...

2nd reason to do so is that the Moonlander is just such a good bike on on real soft sand as has the widest available rim - 100mm  and widest tyres - 5" and combined with a bombproof 135mm rear Hope Pro 2 hub (same as the Orange Pugsley for keeping spares) makes for a good rig. The bike does not have the huge wide rear end of all other 5" tyre fatbikes and the small Shimano Zee rear mech is neatly tucked in out the way making it good on rocks, along with the bash guard on the Middleburn RS7 crank arms - why do new crank sets not allow bash guards to be fitted? - i`m sure it`s not just me that rides rocks?!!!

More Tweaks;
I recently added a Microshift thumb shifter to the 1x10 speed group set i fitted last year and in the last week improved the bike adding a bit more cockpit room with a jtek layback seat post that is under £30 from SKS Cycles and after some measuring replaced the 165mm square taper bottom bracket with a 155mm BB which was £19 on eBay...

Fatboy slim - for a 5" fatbike!,
This is ace now as i have removed the huge wide effect BB which all 5" tyre Fatbikes have and the BB is now only 5MM wider each side than a Pugsley or other 4" tyre Fatbike...

Since these pics were taken i added a 2mm spacer on the drive side on the BB to make the crank arm to chain stay clearance gap the same...

New and old- 1x 10 with with clutch mech and thumb shifter, then a triple spider on the crank allows a 22t bail out granny ring and a bash guard for rock crawling - Retrotastic!...

Pump and tool bag from G, this is a neat design and swaps quickly between bikes with velcro with just the size of tube needed for each bike...

Along with the black and orange Pugsley these are my go to Beachbikes now...

More soon...