frame bag

the epic designs frame bag is amazing

need to try it on the karate monkey to see if i can use it on long days,
i am really impressed with the quality fit and interior design
all my tools and bottles are covered and clean now which is good as i was having problems with my pump seal perishing with the salt on the beach,took pugsley to john muir beach today,really low tide and the river tyne is low with the dry weather so managed to ride across,was shallow but soft sand that you sank into if you didn't keep moving,i made a short film...

good holiday!

An amazing holiday...clear warm weather though a bit windy,the drive up through glencoe to Isle of Skye was breathtaking as always...









Quite cold at nights when out on the isle of Harris,i only stayed on Harris 6 nights instead of 10 cause my bike was a bit heavy so stuck to the beaches and didn't head up to do some of the old crofters trails in the N.E, corner of harris...
headed over to Applecross after a few days on Skye just to chill and do a bit riding...



Of course my frame bag arrived 2 days later!!,had been stuck in UK customs,i just fitted it this morning after washing the pugsley and have to say I'm very impressed with the quality and fit,all the tools,pump,tube are in the lower compartment now and theres still loads of room so its going to be very useful,thanks eric at epic designs!...

late start to holidays!

i should be on the ferry to the isle of harris this now but I'm waiting for my frame bag to arrive,eric at epic designs sent it out 12 days ago so the hold up must be here in the UK,if it doesn't come today then just have to go with the rear pannier set up as in the picture,there was two panniers but i just went through everything and thinned out more stuff,



the pannier is bulky but not really heavy,i was going to take enough powder food for 7-10 days but surprising how heavy it is,so going with 3days at a time as be about the longest i will be between local stores where i can stock up



i didn't realise how heavy my small colman tent is until i put it on a pushbike!,i vie used this a few years on the back of honda XR dualsport dirtbikes and never noticed the wieght,a hennessy survival hammock- www.hennessyhammock.com would be the way to go but there arnt any natural trees on harris/lewis!
for those abroad its the one island separated by a narrow piece of land named `tarbet` the principle town of harris with ferry port, heres a link to where im going;well i cant seem to get the link to work so heres the website,www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk then click on the western isles

the uber v

i took my uber v out for a couple of hours ride today,i made a youtube film as i haven't seen any ubers on there,you may be wondering what an uber v is?
an uber v is a cannondale super v with a raven or jekyll swingarm which allows a longer travel shock to be fitted (190mm instead of 165mm) giving around 6"/150mm travel,these are your original all mountain bikes,built up around 2002 onwards when someone discovered the swingarm/shock swap out,at the time downhill bikes like cannondales own DH v were 6" travel,i still have a pair of 2002 junior T 6" forks which were fitted to alot of them but i do prefer the pikes,the bike has a 05 build mainly hope and XT though the cranks and wheels were fitted a couple of years ago,with a 140 lefty fork fitted this would be a light build,as it is around 25-26 lbs



i haven't ridden it for ages and often think about selling it to put the money into parts and goodies for my newer bikes then after a ride on it again i think `no cant sell it!!



don't think its the best bike out there but it is nice to ride and climbs and descends well,my heckler descends better but doesn't climb nearly as well,it has a high BB which i like for xc riding where your on narrow singletrack through heather,the coil pikes suit it well and admit ably havent been serviced yet since new in 2005! ,a testament to there reliability


the Fox RP3 rear shock works well with bob free climbing and all the parts work well for what i use it for which now is just xc riding and winter night riding,hence the neoporene gators,i like the old school colour of kawa green with the red,it still has the original 1999 STX front mech and theres still no play in it,
so a 6" rear travel xc bike with wind down forks to enable steep climbs then fly down quite narly descents,these were being ridden all over the place before the scott ransom came out and `supposidly` rewrote biking with the `1st all mountain bike`!!

summers coming

i took these pics at work yesterday,we've had 2 weeks of this high pressure weather with an onshore easterly,only mid may and light till 10pm on a clear night.it will be an hour later than this up on the north west coast and even later on the western isles where I'm heading in 2 weeks.hopefully my frame bag for my pugsley will arrive from alaska next week as promised by eric of epic designs,apart from that I'm ready to go,just need a night packing the bike.


its going to be a long summer with the amount of biking Ive done already,lots of places to go locally on weekday evenings,lots of ideas for films,going to do a series of films biking the east lothian coastline here and putting together a film on riding tunnels on the pugsley,done some already in edinburgh but going to recce a storm drain which will be cool if not to greasy and slippy-and it exits onto a beech!,

new parts!!

well there here at last the parts ive been waiting for the pugsley,most important and much needed the new bottom bracket and i must say what a lovely looking bit of engineering to go hiding inside the frame(esp at how much it was) but hopefully it will give miles/years of service,i fitted it tonight along with the middle burn crank arms,im fitting shorter 170mm arms than the 175mm that were fitted for that little bit extra clearance on rocks and should save the pedal pins on my flats from taking so much abuse,the threads of the philwood BB were a bit fiddly and hard to get started on the frame threads but i found it easier to start them by hand then use the fitting tool once they got to hard to turn by hand,i need to order a larger bashring to clear the crank spider,the 32 tooth bashring is hitting the arm prob because its the xc spider for triple chainrings so will get a 36-38 bashring which should work ok,
also to arrive this week was the alfine 8speed gear hub and shifter

though as i was told by my LBS who will build the wheel no sprocket,axle nuts and the bit for the cable housing but will be ordered in to the shop for the end of june when i get back from my 2 week holiday,the shop is too busy to get the wheel built so im going on the derailier set up at present which to be fair makes sense as by the time im back it will need replaced as is half worn now,i expect to bike 4-500 miles and prob about a third of that will be on sand,beaches,
also to arrive was the rear rack,not much options on known racks that fit pugsleys in the uk(not many pugsleys!) but the old man mountain rack which fits is unavailable,prob have to order the surly rack and wouldnt be that cheap i imagine though proberly very good,i took a chance and ordered an alloy rack from chain reaction in irland that was a reasonable priced £23 and claimed to be able to fit any bike and it even fitted the pug after i trimmed th front mount bars and then added spacers to centre it with the offset frame,



so just waiting for my framebag from epic designs, promised by mid may which i hope to try out every thing on a local weekend trip camping before my hols in june,

DereStreet; A border crossing

I prepped the Surly Pugsley sat evening for a days riding which basically meant oil the chain and with the tools,spare tube etc.. under the seat i fitted the cheap frame bag i got crammed with more than enough food for a big day out and it was early to bed and up 6am Sunday morning to clear sky's and a glorious sunrise,and soon headed off with the pug on the back of the car for Jedburgh an hours drive south in the borders.
I was cycling by 7.30am,a 12 mile ride on hedged country roads which took me into the cheviot hills which the border follows peak to peak and round the humped 2767ft summit of the highest hill-cheviot itself...



These hills are famous for the cheviot sheep and its wool and lambing is ongoing this now so care was taken...


Four old routes cross the Cheviot's roughly north/south,the route of the present road the A68,the near straight Roman road `Dere street` which originally would of connected Hadrian's wall in Northumberland the Roman border with the Scots and the Antoine wall which ran west to east from the Clyde near Glasgow to the firth of forth near Edinburgh,the Romans didn't bother heading up much further into the highlands,maybe because the Pict's were so wild or maybe the midges!,


The other two routes are `The Street`, and `Clennel street` both also used by drovers to drive cattle and sheep to market,which probably included many not by there owners...






I rode up a long hard climb to the border gate on `Clennel Street` from Cocklawfoot farm...




At the border gate the land around here is known as the white lands from the grass which bleaches white in dry weather during late summer, the Pennine Way long distance footpath crosses west to east here and climbs up to the Cheviot hill itself...


Climbing around 1100ft in 2 miles on stone slabbed pathway which actually floats on the peat on heather bales.
The summit of the hump backed Cheviot is a rock saucer shape full of deep peat,several ordnance survey trig points were lost in the peat until a deep concrete plinth was made to support the currant trig point...




The peat up here rises and drops as it swells in wet weather,which is how in extreme dry spells crashed aircraft rise Phoenix like out the ground and i wanted to see two wrecks that crashed in bad weather during WW2,a wellington bomber NW of the trig point and a B17 flying fortress half a mile further north.
I got out to both though had to walk leaving pugsley beside the path and was a bit disappointed to find lots of the wreckage has been removed since i last came up in 1996/97,the propeller made into a war grave at the B17 is gone which is pretty bad as is is a war grave as one of the gunners was killed.also the B17 wing struts were broken up and i couldn't find one of the landing gear dunno how someone could move it as its huge and no machines could cross the peat,even an Argo cat wouldn't get up and down the ledges.

Nearer the Trig Point is the wreck of a Vickers Warick that crashed in 1946.
The engines are about 7 feet diameter...




Some of the bomber wreckage surrounding the two engines...






Its a treacherous place in wet weather and walkers are advised to not leave the flagstone and wooden paths...







Back down onto Clennel Street i rode around the military ranges and returned over the grassy track of the roman road dere street...





Classic army range sign...


Leaving the army range at Chew Green Roman camp...






Heading for the point of the hill-Windy Gyle and the border fence where dere street crosses back into Scotland...



I used to ride this all the time on my motorcycles for years(road legal Honda XR`s), now the English south part is closed to motor vehicles due to it being classed an ancient monument and was damaged from irresponsible riders cutting unnecessary ruts through wet areas...




Its part of a widespread problem in England now,and will miss ever riding it again on a motorbike,i love this trail,its the longest continuous trail here at around 18miles but it is hard work,as it was extremely dry i was going to take the karate monkey but love riding the pug and didn't know if it would be dry up top,in normal weather most of the year the pug would rule here.
The descent from Windy Gyle down to the tarmac road section at Towford is a cracker...



From Towford Dere Street undulates along to the walled section to Pennymuir...





Unusually dry conditions...





After a short tarmac section the last 5 miles off road is arrow straight to Jedburgh...




The last half mile descent to Jedfoot is a blast,good thing too as my legs were shot...



So out for 10 hours,8 hours riding time that does include a bit hike-a-bike and a massive 56miles considering the terrain i was amazed at this amount. I usually  ride 35-45 miles max before feeling it, having more than enough food deft helps and that float of the Pugsley`s low pressure 4" tyres combined with the 29er effect and the big grin factor keeps you rolling!,  not also that but the eco friendly very low impact footprint - less than a human foot print really makes these fatbikes shine in enviroments like here where as little erosion as possible is a good thing.
I hope the new bottom bracket arrives this week as the cranks getting quite bad now!.
Here's the film i made...




More soon...