holy island sunrise beachride

ok ive not been on since my holiday as the weather has been amazing,were getting a proper summer which after last years washout is more like it!
i was going to post some of the stuff i took on the pugsley on holiday and what worked/didn't work,i still will do that soon,
i went an amazing beachride yesterday,i got up at 3am,put pugsley on the car and drove the 35 miles down the A1 to the town of berwick upon tweed just over the border on englands northumberland coast,destination was holy island at low tide,
from there you ride down the coast 2 miles via a cliff top bridleway which was at one time an old cart track to get to the beach,at the start of the sand i stopped to watch and film an amazing sunrise around 4.30am,













low tide was 6am so timing was perfect,then with the sun on my left,dunes to my right i cycled the 6 miles out to holy island,





also called lindisfarne,the last 3 miles were a bit soft and i was down in the granny ring,tyres were set to 8psi which is lower than i usually go but the difference was notable,made for good pics too of the wide endomorph print!,























the island is a tidal village with a causway only passible around 6 hours between high tides,the village is a heritage site with the ruined priory and restored fortified castle,the island is historicly famed religously for st colombus and the monestry and also being on the sharp end of some pretty brutal viking raids,also the upturned boats made into sheds are a well photo graphed image of holy island,





as it is a heritage site and a nature reserve i stayed to the footpaths and didnt go dune bashing!,
being there so early meant i never saw anyone on the ride out on a footprint free beach and there was only a couple of people having a walk around the small island harbour at 7am,ive been before a few times so didnt do the tourist thing and just got some quick pics,no shops,cafes were open for another 2 hours anyway!
i returned along a signed cycle route which started after i crossed the causway,



the 9 miles back to berwick where intresting,the track was a mix of fine hardpack gravel and hard sandy single track over short fine grass,passing a golf course then along behind the dunes where i started there were already cars parked with beach visitors,it pays to get up early during summer,it was only 9 am when i got back to the car and i was home 10am,bike and gear washed and snoozing on the hammock in the garden by midday!,

the northumberland coast has more to offer for beachriding,theres another good lenght of sandy beaches which starts past holy island and goes several miles past the huge restored bamburgh castle,
proberly have to be another early rise to get the beaches and views to myself but definitly worth it!



the pugsley is going great,only a second chain and both brake pads replaced in 1300 miles now,the new philwood BB is smooth as silk,and the epic designs framebag is brilliant,the top back opens quickly which is ideal for grabbing the camera while filming,its not waterproof but the mainbag is,i had a spare top,2 bottles of water,a map,6 cereal bars in the top compartment and didnt know they were there,the tools,tube(a big 2.5")and pump are in the lower compartment protected by the salt air and water,i had my pump fail before as the rubber o ring had perished,luckily i noticed this at home,once the present chain wears out i will get the alfine hub laced on,then the pugsley will be a true bomber adventure bike!,i love it,
heres some film...

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,