my commute

ive been cycling to work everyday for a few weeks now,you just feel better all day for cycling in,it can help tired legs recover from a big ride the day before too.
i have only used the car on friday nights to go to the supermarket 5 miles away as i was worried about not getting frozen food home in time,
i took the bob trailer on friday to pick up my motorbike jacket and trousers i bought on ebay and had deliverd to work,i the got the trailer complete with bag and new tyre for free-swapped for 1 of 2 spining bikes which were replaced in the gym at my work and were to be scrapped,
on friday i left 10mins early and thought id photo my commute being such a nice morning.
only 3 miles each way with one short steep hill,the prevailing wind is westerly so usually headwind going home,off we go;
leave the house;

over the railway bridge of the eastern mainline railway and today into a low sun (6.30am)

i can often here the intercity trains coming from miles away on a calm morning and although the railway is 40 yards from my house in a cutting you feel the house vibrate as freight trains pass!
after 2 small holdings we have fields either side and pass a small wood on the left where i often see deer who dont hear the bike till you pass real close

i only see 3 or 4 cars when on summer hours (7am start) two of which wave,we dont know each other! just passed each other for years,there cars change as do my bikes,they probably envy me working locally as there heading westerly presumably into edinburgh (shirt and ties) i put a smile on there faces in winter when still cycling in awful weather,there are a more cars in winter when i start at 8am as the edinburgh commuters are heading for a train station nearby or for the A1 road west into town
so on we go,at the road end swing left now riding north along a rolling up and down road with fields either side again



potatos on the 2nd eastern side field are nearly ready,dont think they will miss a few soon for a hungry cyclist!often as this morning the low sun looks amazing shining on the ripe wheat nearly ready for harvest

there is a road east here i can take to my workplace,a back road often untreated in winter i sometimes go but it makes the same climb in height over a half mile as the short steep climb ahead which i prefer as i just stand up in a harder gear for about 20 pedal spins and though it catches your breath slightly i dont heat up like i do on the other longer climb so arrive at work not sweating,esp when wearing waterproofs
so up the short steep hill which narrows to less than two way traffic width through a cutting,
at the top we turn right,note the view behind over the flat plain with traprain law behind and the lammermuir hills on the skyline

my house is southwest from here,beyond the wheat field in about the middle of the picture

we ride about half a mile east-today into the low morning sun,theres a lovely view south over farmland again


theres a couple of trails that cross the road that are part of the john muir trail,i can ride to work mostly off road but not really as the crow flys-so to speak,

turn right at the next junction,note the old cast road sign,a common feature in east lothian,they are old but must be post WW2 as all road signs were removed during the war incase there had been a german invasion to slow down there advancement and orginisation!

this dead tree was growing when i started working and using this road daily here 12 years ago,theres tree stumps all along the road and must have looked quite diffrent tree lined,especially in summer,

around another right then left then its a quarter mile slight downhill to turn up to work and also where i first see the sea,the low sun in the pic blocks the seaview



before turning up to the sheds at work,note the right of way sign which is the old coachroad to north berwick,once a main thoroughfare and halfway along its 1 mile lenght was a coach inn which has now completely vanished on the ground where old maps showed where it was,proberly the stone was used to build elsewhere,

up a short climb and im at the sheds,nice when one of the guys is in before and opened up too!,now time for a quick brew before starting


and what an amazing day,heres some pics of views from work;





work transport

the mother of all flymo`s!!

harvest time

I'm like a big kid when the harvest starts,i love it seeing combines around the county,being prime agricultural land the countryside comes alive with combines,grain trailers and baler's,another reason ive bought my motorbike back,miles of fields of stubble to blast down,i got my motorbike m.o.t and tax on satuarday after fitting a new rear tyre friday night and took this pic ,which tyres fatter?!!



its actually been a few weeks since i came home from a bike ride totally knackered..,
which i dont think is because im either really fit this now or really to lazy to push hard or just haven't been out doing loads of miles/long days,
its because ive realised my cycling habits and style is changing,and im now looking around a lot more not to mention stopping alot to take pictures and setting up my camera to film,i had a lovely local cycle mid week it was a calm clear sky and combines were out harvesting early wheat...







talking of which ive made loads of films lately and its paid off,ive won a new out `tachyon 2010` sports camera in a youtube compition!!
for two of my films,funnily there two of the first films i made when i just got my pugsley and the editing etc isnt that good,i have the tachyon xc already which i made the first films but lately ive been using a cheapy £59(UK) cannon powershot A470 which has good video quality for its cost,

good enough for youtube anyway,i like the idea of making fun films with cheap cameras as quality is made up for by imagination,the new tachyon 2010 has a wider 90 degree lense which willl be much better than the old models 50 degree lense which wouldnt film in low light or directly into the sun,it has a low light facility and they say it can film in 3D!!!,hopefully it will arrive soon,

so i was saying how my cycling has changed there,i think its been getting the pugsley!!!, 90% of my riding the last 4-5 years has been driving an hour down to the borders to ride round the trail centres of glentress and innerliethen and also ride downhill(at innerliethen) with summer holidays up north usually the northwest coast and isle of skye camping while doing out and back to base day rides while dreaming of doing epic multi day trips,this years holiday to harris was the first of these dream trips buts its took a while to get the right stuff to do it,
so ive had countless suspension mid travel bikes and two devinci downhill bikes which have over the past year been sold to fund new and different bikes,the newer downhill bike was sold to fund the pugsley then this spring i sold the older one to fund the karate monkey and this month i sold my much loved trailcentre bike-a santa cruz heckler

gone to a good home the trusty heckler

to help fund buying back my old motorbike,so i still have my cannondale uber v which despite having a 10 year old frame is going to be my trail centre bike now for ocassional visits to see friends,

the uber v is a keeper though




so now im riding mostly from home(no driving) around my own county on either of two fully ridgid steel framed bikes-the karate monkey for road&trails and the pugsley for sandy coastal trails/beach





and im having more fun than ever so hows that?,and what does it mean?,it means im no longer fished in to the bull#### marketing hype which makes you believe you need the latest hydroformed multilink suspension bike to ride!!,granted i mostly ride alone now as all my mates are still riding glentress etc.., every weekend and also im the only pugsley owner in scotland that i know of too!,
despite living up the road from arguely the best trail centre in the UK ive just got tierd of the same thing week after week,i miss seeing the guys reguarly for the laugh and banter but we all email/facebook,as i joke to them there the mould on the bread,but there starting to see how much biking is costing them (to be cool!!)and why i like doing what i do watching my films,that is the rub-cost, living on your own costs alot though i help that by still having open fire central heating and collecting firewood,infact anything wood to burn!!,skip diving,ebay sales,wheeling and dealing bikes and parts all help,i save alot of money now not driving as much and cycling locally,car milage will be about 5000 miles by this years m.o.t it used to be 12-15,000 miles annualy,both surly bikes are going to be cheaper to run,the pugsley is 10 months old now and only had brake pads,chain replaced in 1400 miles,trail centres are hard on bikes-brake pads,drivechains,tyres all take a beating aswell as suspension sevicing,but it is good fun,better to go once a month or 6 weeks just to be sociable at least!!

with the glentress gang


wallride-glentress freeride on the heckler,one cracking bike


ebay sales are a bit slow this now,im trying to scrape funds together to buy an alpacaraft from alaska but proberly wont be for this summer,they look amazing and alot of fun,opening up lots of ideas for mini adventures using the two rivers locally in east lothian aswell as up north or the river tweed in the borders, bike upstream,paddle home!!,heres a link to epic eric of epic designs adventure with them;
and thealpacaraft website,im going to get one of these before the extracycle for my hybrid which will be great as i can then pick up firewood cycling home from work passing local woods,i think after i get that my craving for bikes will be quenced for a while,just some lightwieght camping items after that,mind you maybe i will somehow come up with a plan to afford to get the big dummy after all..........!!

airshow

it was the annual airshow here yesterday,the museum of flight is a field away from my house,in a WW2 airfield and hangers,
heres a link
the small square of houses where i stay have a bit of a get together-basically weather permitting sit out front having a few beers,music on watching the aircraft right above,they fly over us instead of the crowd just incase something goes wrong!
there was no euro fighter this year which was a pity as it is awesome but the finally was the vulcan bomber,these were brought out of service after the falklands war in the mid eighty's,there is one at the museum but only one now flying,it was restored using mainly public donations and i watched the series of its restoration on discovery channel,i remember seeing them flying over east lothian when i was young,to see and hear it again after watching the programme was quite moving,i caught it on film
the noise was unreal!!!
big ebay sale starting tonight over 3 hours spent writing up about 38 items!,



basically im getting rid of everything i dont need and use which will give me money to buy stuff i do need(want) which will be usefull,i like reworking my hobbie money doing that-its kind of like recycling! ie a classic raleigh bike which is worth £150 and not likely to go up much more is replaced with a hessony hammock which will be great for lightwieght bikepacking

i also bought my motorbike back on friday night,only 300 miles more on it than when i sold it to a friend last november,i bought it new in 2005 and sold it to fund building the pugsley,its a belgrada yamaha ttr 6oo,basicly a yamaha italy electric start trailbike with lower spec suspension than the kickstart only enduro bike,the engine is a XT600e from the early 90s,old school air cooled and bulletproof,there a bit underpowered in stock trim and heavy but the engines a real smoothy,the XT trailes are legonary for there reliability and often the bike of choice for overlanders,esp sahara bound explorers,media would tell you otherwise after recent TV programmes with 2 film celebrity's riding big BMWs!!
heres my bike in standard form as sold but it ain't staying like that for long...


basically im setting it up for 50/50 on/offroad riding like being able to ride up north 3-400 miles then still being capable of doing easy-ish trails and green lanes while carrying camping gear,it also takes pillions and being single that may be of use soon too! let me know if you want to here about my motorbike on here as i know most folk who read this are cyclists!,maybe i should do another blog for it??

first combine was spotted last thursday though its been rained off with fridays downpour and again today,really early this year



haven't been out on the pugsley for a week so need to get down the beech this week,hopefully tuesday evening,tomorrow night will be spent packing the 38 ebay items,lot of work but prefer to do a big amount sale once in a while,heres a funny pic i took using the tripod which shows the footprint of the surly endomorph tyre!

sunday trailride

i went what was planned to be a 40-50 mile ride on the road on sunday just to get out after satuardy being spent indoors so headed off on the karate monkey in a roughly south west then westerly direction into a strong wind with the intention of returning home with a tailwind,
due to all the rain over the last 4 days and the uncut undergrowth which often overhangs local trails which soak you in no time and high tide was midday and by then then the remaining coastline would be full of walkers on a sunday ruling out a pugsley ride so i setteld for a cruise on tarmac,

barly fields are starting to turn brown now,harvest time is my favourite time of year (scenicly)in east lothian,will post plenty pics next month,harvest starts early on the east coast of scotland due to being drier than the west coast and more daylight than down south (england) i love evening trail rides along trails between cut and bailed fields with long shadows from the straw bales,also with the nights drawing in you get a bit of nightriding too which i love,easy trails you know well become more intresting when viewed from an H.I.D light,



anyway so i did about 15 miles up and around the old village of humbie close to the border county line when i remmemberd about an old road or as it really should be called a `green lane` that ive never cycled but used to ride often on my motorbike(sold my motorbike last year but buying it back from my friend soon,more info later..)
its a classic once a connecting road between an estate and its farm and the village and marked on road maps until the 1960s,theres rough tarmac under the grass and proberly was downgraded from a maintained road due to the water crossing which would of required a wier to be built with a ford(proberly with pipes underneath)
so i just had to go ride it,about 2 miles long it descends through woods to ford a small river then climbs between walls and beech tree and was very slippy on the semi slick halo twinrails on the karate monkey (at 60 psi)having the camera i filmed some of it,

then back in humbie village i thought lets go do the woodland path along above the gorge and river,filmed a bit there as it is so lovely in there then returning home cut through a forest with paths and a cracking singletrack descent which lasts over a minute and i had another film in the can... so a planned hour or so road ride becomes a 3 hour ride with a bit of trailriding and filming...

rained off-garage catch up

i planned to go local camping this weekend,leaving friday night and do 40 miles on road over into the borders to lauder and freecamp then satuardy ride the last 55miles of the southern upland way long distance coast to coast path which is now of course bike-able with the open access/right to roam law (admitably i used to ride it alot!!)
anyway it poured steady rain thursday/friday and a box of strongbow cider for dog sitting for a niegbour took care of friday night!
so a satuarday at home,well mainly in the garage doing a bit spannering and sorting out gear,
heres some pics of my servere wet weather riding gear i prefected last year during the mother of all summers;
if riding clipped in then its the shimano MT90 boots but for really wet days i ride flats and these `viking dryboots` there lined lace up rubber boots with full hieght sealed tounge not as cold and sweaty when wearing as youd expect them to be (like wellingtons are)the soles are a little bit soft for cycling but ok for a 2-3 hour ride,i had these on snow biking and were perfect,



my scott (motorcycle) enduro neoprene gloves are proberly 10 years old now and get warm once wet but have a supple enough feel through the fingertips for MTBs - istill think pugsley is an ATB!!



endura waterproofs keep out the rain but a little bit sweaty-esp around the knees but ok with lycra under shorts,and my pac lite north face goretex jacket,pity the hood dosnt fit over my giro helmet or it would be perfect,i only wear this cycling on the beach,not through woods etc as it cost £160!! but i have never been wet in it yet,you will get wet inside with sweat if climbing hills etc but its fine crusing on the pugsley,and thats my scotland rain beater kit,





i also tried my epic designs frame bag on the karate monkey today and it fits fine
both my surly frames are 18" so thats great as i want to do a weekend locally camping soon with the 29er,









the pugsley has got the front rack back on as well as the rear rack (doubling up as a mudgaurd)and some of you liked my homemade fork mounted bottle holder, heres what it is,just a couple of the brackets which hold on reflecters,there handy for my camera mounts too heres one i made from an old tripod top for when i have my sleeping bag on the front rack and cant use the `endo cam` view







i also gave my commuter a quick service,retro geeks will like this!
its a 95-96 killer v in john deere green (at my work it is also john deere grass cutters!)it has a dd60mm headshock from my first 1996 super v and most of the build is used mtb parts,it has swarbe thornproof semi slick landcruser tyres,SKS mudgaurds,good old v brakes,converted to full lenght cables,and the B17 brooks saddle to nurse you to work on a monday after a weekends biking,my commute is only 3 miles each way but often windy,plans are a nexus dynamo front wheel before winter and the 36 spoke rear hope pro 2 hub currently on the pugsley which will be spare once the alfine hub goes on there will build a nice strong rear wheel,often i detour an extra 6 miles to to the local towns supermarket so it usually has a rack and a RH pannier but i used the rack off the dale for the front of the pug after hacking the front off it but havent replaced it as i really hope to save/ebay sales £400 and get an extracycle kit for it,i cant afford a big dummy but im sold on the cargo bikes with neon lights underneath on youtube films,see here
theres always so much you wana get isnt there?!!!



lastly ive started using this dry lube on all my bikes now and its really good,for years i thought chain lubes were a marketing overpriced rip off hype and just used 3in1 oil on my bikes since BMXs in my teens,once i got my pugsley i had to use a dry lube for the intended beachriding,i tried castrol chainwax which is really good on dirtbikes but a bit overkill on a cycle chain,jake at my local bike shop the hub at glentress swears by this stuff and there hire bikes use it,like all dry lubes it isnt waterproof but providing the chain is properly degreased first this stuff is great and you just keep re applying



i plan on getting up real early tomorrow at 3am to check the skys and if no rain will do another dawn sunrise beachride and film locally this time as lots of folk liked my last film,viva le pugsley!!