views at work

look at the saltire flag today above east lothian..its a sign...!

actually it was just 2 planes vapour trails..
it dawned clear and frosty today so i took the camera to work,sunrise isnt over the coast of the county until around 10 minutes after the official time given with the lammermuir hills in winter...


heres a quick film of the view at sunrise...



heres some other pics i took..
lichen covered rockface...

pinus alba....scots pine...

old ransomes horse drawn plough from the 1920s/30s...


our local doe(female) roe deer with her 2 young...

old boundary wall covered in lichen...

old tree...

these old walls are often used by stoats and we see them running in and out of holes,i cant imagine working outdoors and not being able to watch wildlife,the sky and the surroundings throught the seasons...

natures television

is what i call a good fire...i can stare into a fire and watch it for hours...


i find splitting kindling wood for lighting my fire very relaxing...but dont get dosey if you value your finger tips...,note the old school hickory shafted,sheffield steel axe,got it from my dad,he bought it before my folks got married,good tools are worth the investment..,i havent bought any firewood or coal this winter yet,keep picking up wood here and there..,and the money saved in doing so will pay for "surly No3 frame" in febuary..,you will just have to wait and see what it is,but heres some clues;
:its unfortunately not the big dummy cargo bike frame...
:everything on the cannondale suspension bike is going onto it...
:it is a steel hardtail and it will take the 140mm/ 5" pike coil fork...
:rear tyre clearance up to 2.7" (fff chainstays)...
:theres still some in the UK in bright red...

im building this as i dont ride the cannondale suspension bike much around here and to be truthfull i enjoy hardtails,this bike will get 50mm wide rims laced onto the existing hope hubbed wheels and will be ideal for a thrash around glentress with the long travel fork and that can be wound down for climbs..basicly it will be everything that was on a kona cowan frame i had but with that i couldnt run the fork full lenght..

then if i want/need to or someone wants to come for a beachride i can have 2.7" DH tyre on the back and for £80 a straight (non offset) pugsley fork that i can swap over to allow a 4" endomorph up front giving a 2nd (semi)fatbike, also in standard build with suspension fork i can run 2.5 single ply continental diesel tyres which on the 50mm rims will be better than a standard 2.35 tyre on soft ground,or coastal trails that are sandy in places...
all bikes i build now are going to have to be flexible in diffrent uses..,good value,and built with the intention of keeping long term,surly seem to have all the bases covered,at a new frame purchase every 2 years thats still another 6 bikes to build and 12 years!..

sandy sunday

after the battle of the somme re-inactment to and from the beach yesterday i went to gullane beach for a quick beachride,cheating i put pugsley on the car to save the 6 miles road each way,i can half the road miles if i use trails but there probably underwater too..
confusingly aberlady nature reserve point is called gullane point,although a 1/2 mile west of gullane beach, aberlady point is actually across the south side of the bay near aberlady village itself at kilspindie...,locally the reserve point in referred to as "jophies neuk" as marked on the 1:25,000 ordnance survey map....

named after a shepherd who lived nearby,about 15 years ago when i was a greenkeeper on the links here i was shown where the ruin 18th centuary cottage foundations were,they were visible in the frost,will try find it again after new year when the grass has died back more...
i just rode out to the old submarines again..,i must visit these more than anyone nowadays!,at least every 3-4 weeks...

up onto the headland of the reserve i met 2 bikers out for a days cycle,impressed by the pugsley i left them as i rode along the coastline along gullane beach round to freshwaterhaven then returned through the sandy trails through the pinewoods and along behind muirfield golf course and above gullane beach to the point again,
the view east over gullane beach...

and the view to the west over the beach back towards the nature reserve...

quite a few folk were out as you would expect as though overcast it was mild and the skys were clearing...
back to gullane along a nice section of the john muir way,all weather path-mud free!,

the JMW path joins the old gullane railway branch line near the village,another offroad route being used soon in the core paths plan...

mud plugging

well it was to the beach and back,just a loop around john muir park today on the pugsley, so heres some pics on the trails there and back,it was pouring rain so i had the paclite waterproofs on,i usually boil in the bag when i wear anything waterproof no matter how breathable but i just cruised today to not overheat,
the pugsley is a double edge sword with its wide smoothish tyres... in 4x4 ruts and mud on top of hard pack is all over the place esp when off camber like in theses ruts..

but it dosnt spit you off it kind of slides expectedly but nearly always stays upright, but when onto soft wet stuff like this where theres grip being grass here the float is brillant as you can see by the lack of rut left,riding this on a normal bike is hard work...

the rain was pretty heavy by tyningame bridge,i was dry and warm with rain kit on;
buff under helmet..
northface paclite over a lightwieght endura merino longsleeve top..
endura singletrack trousers under montaine paclite waterproofs..
viking dryboots and wool bridgedale socks for toasty dry feet..

today i cut through the woods of john muir park,note the small tree in the middle of the pic,someones already in the xmas spirit...

an old WW2 building amongst the pine trees...

adjacent to the park is east links farm & family park aswell as many british farm animals are these lamas...

i rode round to the bridge at west barnes and back round on an empty beach,just a few surfers out in the water...

out near the point at the tyne estuary lots of sand has shifted,uncovering this old scooter!, looks an old vespa or lambretta,i havent seen this before...

heading back round towards home i went a diffrent way riding along the embankment west of the park,built to drain land for agriculture and built by prisoners of the napolionic war,i rode round here a few years ago but it was summer and overgrowen and wondered if i could find a way through now with lack of undergrowth...

it turns west alongside the river tyne through tyninghame estate...

theres an old victorian footbridge over the tyne here thats seen better days...

it has a gate halfway across thats got a cheap looking rusty chain and padlock...

then the embankment became a bit overgrowen as it ran alongside the river and i ended up walking through trees about 1/4 mile to the bridge i passed by earlier...


the bike was alot better with the new chain and jockey wheels that arrived friday,and the chain was still lubed by the time i got home despite all the water,of course the rain went off and the sun came out once home...!

sun worship

you hear how folk that work indoors suffer from lack of visual daylight in winter months (SAD) esp factory workers well i think despite working outdoors and getting a minimum of 7 hours daylight mid winter i suffer from some sort of greyday dullday syndrome...im telling you,i was miserable again yest after loving the frost and clear skys of monday,expecting the same grimness this morning i pulled the curtain back to see stars and frost on the workshop roof...yipee!!!!,jumped up got ready and left early on the bike for work just to enjoy it!,why else cant i stop taking pictures into the sun?,and i love mid winter sun as much as summer sun,its not about temperature...
what a lift and great end to the week having some winter sun on friday..
heres todays sunrise...

random stuff...

after the lovely clear cold day of monday 2 days of overcast and wet weather..,riding to work with front light full on now at 7.30am and blinky lights on coming home at 3pm, everywhere is soaking again...,trails-mud and slippy wet leaves,under foot at work,the farm roads i commute..., so... heres a nice film of east lothian i found youtube,heres some of the coast i ride from the air..



did you see the tartan sheep? lol
winter nights is time for being a bookworm..,ive just read this..

a fascinating read about the city that really did exist under todays city of edinburgh.alot of it is still there today and open to the public like mary queens close
there still sometimes tunnels and vaults being found when renovation work is carried out under the ground floors of the old towns buildings..a good read and a real eye opener,like the use of children as chimney sweeps and the famous body snatchers burke and hare,below street level which was ignored by the dignities of edinburgh this is where the saying "criminal underworld" comes from...
now im about to read this...

mark beaumont`s record breaking ride around the world,now been broken twice..
and some random pics..for fellow blogger tommy a pederson bicycle!

one of my last bmx bikes, a 1985 skyway...

a 1930s vincent black shadow,have one of these if my lottery number comes up...

and heres a nice old album of postcards on flickr,click on `random or `recent to see more..

brrrrrrr...

some proper winter weather again at last!!!!,a real hard frost last night which didnt lift all day,-3 celcius and a real cold northerly breeze...the sky had that winter magic colour to it as i cycled up to work just before dawn...

i love this weather, i love cycling on white frosted back roads still not gritted,i love not overheating cycling and i love the cold air nip as you breathe,
this is the winter weather we need,it kills bugs and germs,stops the grass growing at work (bonus) aswell as kills turf diseases`s and plants go into winter hibernation,compost breaks down etc...
around 8.30am the sun was up but no warmer,in fact colder up on the hill in the wind,it would cut you to the bone as they say...hands were numb and nipping without gloves taking pics after 5 minutes..

then we saw a cool looking halo start to form round the sun..above it at first...

then around the sun...

it faded a bit by mid morning then by 1pm as cloud came in from the west you could see it again...

and there was a strange shadow and line of cloud...

pretty cool..,ponds stayed frozen all day,need a few days of this weather before you could walk on them....

and thats the problem here on the coast,the weather never stays the same for long,7 degree forcast tomorrow,oh well today was nice if really bitter damp cold,
with berries like this on alot of hedges like the hawthorn here i still think we are going to get snow again here this winter...

fingers crossed...

new bike parts-chain maintenance

this months bike part purchases from chain reaction come to a recession induced £20...
a cool wee £3 bell for the karate monkey made by m-parts which attaches by an O ring so you can mount it to any diameter bar or as i did headset spacers- nicely out the way, no more coming up behind walkers freewheeling the clicky hope hub and coughing hopeing they hear it...ring a dingding and keep the flow going!...

and a new chain for the pugsley...

the 3rd at 1550 miles,the chain has took some abuse,look at the stretch...

im impressed at the slight wear on the truvantiv blaze chain rings (22,32) now on the middleburn cranks and the shimano SLX cassette after 1500+ miles...,remmember proberly 2 thirds of this has been on sand...,ive never had mileage out drivechains like this on my glentress bikes,VERDICT; sand and salt water isnt as bad as wind dust allweather tracks (but they are fun!)
first 2 chains have been shimano dura ace (XTR) which are zinc plated- which does eventually rust..., road salt and salt water will eat through the zinc over time,rusting is only an issue if you wash your bike and chain and dont dry and lube the chain and leave it wet...,how ever i have now found a quick spin around the street to help dry a chain then airline it before lubing it after washing seems to work well,i have found the perfect chain lube for the beach... i used to swear by squirt dry lube,and it still is good,no dirt sticks to the chain and cassette, but it is bio degradable and to be so is water based and does wash off after riding through salt water puddles on the beach leaving that dry crunch feeling through the pedals,so i think squirt is perfect for trail centres where even if raining your only out riding 2-3 hours but for the beach with salt water and freshwater crossings and sand and longer ride times im now using castrol motorcycle chain wax..

this is what i coated the inside of the pugsley frame with,i used it for years on motorcycles as it didnt come off and go over the rim and tyre like most spray grease does,it does attract a bit dirt so unlike when i used squirt lube where i just re applied some after a bike wash i now clean the chain,air line it dry and re-lube it after every beachride,so far so good...,
so i didnt buy a dura ace xtr chain this time as there now £32!!!,so ive bought the shimano HG73 at £13,it isnt zinc plated so will rust quicker but i dont expect as many miles out it as the first 2 chains now the drive chain is starting to wear,
oh check what happend to the XT shadow mechs lower wheel...

the teeth are gone!,ive never seen that,i have one on back order but it is still working ok...
the way i fit a new chain is with the bike on its wheels with chain on smallest front and rear rings to get most slack,i recommend 2 things.., a workshop chain tool and a bent spoke to hold the chain to make the join on shimano chains...

people go on about how hard shimano joining pins are to use..,i dont know what the problem is..,with the chain held with a bent spoke and a workshop chain tool instead of some small multi tools it isnt an issue..,chill..., take your time,if you turn the pin through the links a bit too much and it goes tight you just use the inner holder on a workshop tool and a light pressure will be enough to free the link..job done easy..
the last thing you want for riding on sand is the greased condition a new chain comes in so i had to de-grease it..,if i had any parrifin (kerosene if you live USA/canada)then i would have soaked it in a bath of that then dried it and waxed it but having none i used the chain cleaner with TFR costic cleaner (undeluted)
heres the other tool you should have if you ride offroad...

it will save you money long term,i paid £23 for a park tools chain cleaner as you can buy replacement wheels and foam as a kit though mines 3 years old and still ok,you could buy there bio degradable cleaner (pricey) but i just use costic TFR, parrifin is really good but you shouldnt wash it down the drain..,i pour it into sawdust which then goes onto my open fire-burns well!, note; NEVER use petrol as it will melt the brushes on most chain cleaners!..,the chain is the most neglected part of the bicycle..,we are all guilty-but when you can and do look after it and your bikes gears change as smooth as silk on a bike YOU BUILT and YOU MAINTAIN well that is a really satisfying feeling...-so go clean your drivechains...