snow is go...tomorrow

we didnt get much snow here around the coast today but the ground is solid and even better bone dry...any snow now will lie...i rode to work anyway on pugsley along glittering frosty back roads untreated with salt the hard frost crunching under the big 4" endomorph tyres..
first off heres a pic of a grassy mound on top of whitekirk hill where i work..

it is believed to be a burial cairn of 2 unknowen "coventers" killed in a skirmish here in 1678,it is not well known or documented in recent local history publications and i have tried to find out about its history and what happened..

new blogger friend alister who is also a east lothian resident is delving into his resources to find out any other information,maybe once we know the fact of what happened a sign or stone could get put up..oh before you ask i made the hexagonal seat on top and it isnt cemented or buried into the cairn it just sits on top...
the lammermuir hills are alot whiter now than when these pics were taken at 10am...


gonna be fun tomorrow..
also just fitted part of my xmas pressie to myself earlier...

how cool is that?,compliments the hip flask...

bought this from edinburgh bike co-op
think it will be nice to have a hot cuppa with some choc chip cookies out on the trail in this weather...
and i also bought this which i look forward to reading...

ghost trails is alaskan based blogger jill homer`s experience of riding the 350mile alaskan iditabike on her pugsley 2 years ago and by all reviews and if its anything like her brilliant writing on her blog it will be a great read,jill`s photos of the mountains around juneau where she lives are fantastic,a blog worth following if you have an interest in the outdoors of alaska,
her book is available to buy in the UK here
outside skys have cleared here and below 0 celcius already and its only 6pm,
fires stoked and on full bore...radiators are scorching...time for cider...

snow forcast...!

its looking likely im gonna get some snowbiking done up on the local lammermuir hills this weekend..,forcast is light snow tonight,tomorrow,heavy snow Saturday,
we had sleet showers all day but they were wet (and cold!) and never lay for long at work ,but inland the lammermuir hills are pretty white so should be good by Saturday...
it was bitter cold today with the northerly wind and dampness,least if it snows it will warm up a bit,we got a small flurry just as i got home from work after 3pm...

before i made some food some pugsley maintenace in the kitchen...warmer than out in the workshop...

i fitted the spare endomorph tyre as the rear is over half worn now after around 1600miles...

i will get better grip on snow with the new tyre on,some folk reverse them for more though you get a little more drag on tarmac..

the classic pugsley hand on tyre pic...every owner has one...


so yeah be great if this weather holds and i can go a snowride at the weekend,the lammermuirs are about 10 miles from home so will car it in so far then ride up,
skys are clearing tonight and the ground is drying with the wind so any snow will lie,certainly cold enough thats for sure...fingers crossed..
going to ride the pug up to work tomorrow (friday),so one thing is definite
whatever the weather,i will be the only person in scotland commuting on a pugsley tomorrow...
strange that aint it?.only one in 5 million...!

1984.......what could of been....

if i say the year 1984 what do you remember...?
im 38 now so i was only 12 and heading to start high school after a hot summer of bmxing,
other things i remember are scaletrix,rubik cubes,spectrum zx computers,the young ones...



while music in the charts was, frankie goes to hollywood,duran duran,wham,and band aid where xmas no1.... though i was listening to hawkwind,ac/dc,dead kennedys,tangerine dream,kraftwerk,stranglers and the damned...do you remember CND?,i do and i remember having a badge with the symbol just as rick wore on his jacket in the young ones- that really is a classic brilliant series...!
but do you remember a bbc play drama documentry called "threads"..?
you may remember as i do the 1983 US film "the day after" of a nuclear strike on the US...well "threads" came out a year later and even by todays standards is still pretty realistic,grim and factual...
well someone has uploaded it onto youtube lately.i watched it once before a few years ago and was left thinking "thank god it never happend...




Threads is a 1984 BBC television play depicting the effects of a nuclear war on UK soil and the 13 year aftermath..the play was Written by Barry Hines and was directed by Mick Jackson,based loosly on a young sheffield couple (ruth & jimmy) and there familys,the sheffield rotary control bunker,and the post attack breakdown of emergency services,society,and ultimatily the slow death of millions and battle of survival as disease,famine,and anarchey take over...if this all sounds grim its because it is...heres a taster trailer someone made of the docu-drama...



now if you just didnt like that then you proberly will not want to watch the complete film which can be watched on youtube in 12 parts..starting here with pt1 of 12...



things really start happening around Pt5 when the sirens start,then by Pt9 after the attack the fallout winter sets in and survival gets a bit grim after this..even ray mears would struggle to cook up some good grub in this...
so whats the attraction to this?,well if like me you`ve ever been down inside a nuclear rotary bunker or ROC observer bunker then you really do get a sense to how serious the threat of nuclear war was...how close it came to nearly happening and how different things could of turned out..

hawthorn,witches,punctures...

maybe its a curse but ive patched about 8 punctures in the last week with a couple on the work bike,2 slow punctures on the cannondale and sundays 4 flats...
Uncle Don had asked about a pic of hawthorn..the bush/tree/hedge of grief for cyclists when its cut here in the UK-esp here in SE scotland...
this is it here, "Crataegus oxyacantha"

the thorns are all year round but its only when its cut that the hard thorns around 1-2cm in lenght cause grief with punctures,as hedges are cut with tractors with rear arm mounted flail cutters the cuttings are thrown across the roads,rain and traffic eventually break them down but i have always had flats when there cut what ever tyres ive used before i started using slime in innertubes.
locally it is widely used for hedgerows here aswell as beech and blackthorn,if unpruned it will grow into a stubby tree as will a beech hedge grow into trees if unmaintained-why you often see mature beech trees along roadsides,these were probably hedgerows once..,interestingly beech was planted often alongside roads through wet areas as beech absorbs alot of water and they were supposed to keep evil spirits away.., hawthorn used to be hung on top of may poles,and is associated with fertility and was hung above wedding ceremony`s, but it was also associated with witchcraft,witches were reputed to dance under hawthorn,and as you may know there were quite a few burnings of so called witches around here in the lothians...


more reading here on hawthorn
after the carry on yesterday with punctures i was out in the workshop tonight sorting out stuff with the 29er,heres the new revised tool kit...

sorting out all my on bike toolkits heres the new tool kit list;
;specialized wedge under seatbag (was the mini wedge)
;2 tubes
;green bottle type container puncture repair kit that also has parktool glueless patches,shimano chain rivot,sram quick link,
;crank brothers multi tool with chain breaker
;Co2 bottle & inflater valve (back up to pump)
; 30-40 ml slime per tube..sod the wieght im sick of flats,worked on the pugsley...
:after problems with the top peak pump now a blackburn pump,
i have to say i hate bicycle pumps and have spent a small fortune on them over the years and have had alot fail when i needed them...i now only use scrader valve tubes (car valve) as i use the compressor in the workshop,garage airlines,foot pumps...
also i carry car type tyre foam (motorcycle size) in the pugsley framebag and on the commuter bike...
despite everyone saying top peak pumps are best ive now had 3 fail on me,both mountain morph pumps..on one the seal perished with i think salt air/water when on the pugsley (fair enough)and the other at the head where the rubber split..,both repaired with service kits (more money), now one is inside the pugsley framebag in the dry and the other on the motorbike...

dont get flats often on the motorbike but running tubes you carry a 21" front tube which can also be run in an 18" rear tyre in an emergency,the hand pump will pump the tyre up enough to ride to a garage and airline..
i have 2 blackburn pumps and again magazines and folk say they arnt as good as topeak pumps which are better...and while they dont pump as much air as the toppeak pumps they havent let me down,one is on the workbike and 10 years old!,so whats better? more pumping to inflate but wont let you down?..i think so...
on that note my wireless speedo has packed in on the pugsley at 13 months old.. a top peak 400 something... again rated in magazines,meanwhile the blackburn speedo i have,now on its 3rd bike (karate monkey) is still going after 4 years and only a couple of batterys, will i buy anything again from top peak?.. proberly not..
also wierdly the sea buckthorn has a far nastier thorn than hawthorn yet i have never had a flat from them...maybe it is all a curse..
after 2 days in the mud and gloop of woodland trails between the frozen trails and a week of punctures behind me im now looking forward to going along the beach again this weekend...
anyway bring on the war of the thorns... im ready!!

that sinking feeling...

you know when you get that feeling of a flat on your bike?
well i got it today...like 4 times!...
unable to film yest then deleting the SD card after an unknowingly failed upload i just rerode where i went yesterday,at least the freezing fog was clearing to a sunny day,though still cold with the trails still frozen in most places...
i shortcut a bit and riding down here i just saw the recent cut hawthorn hedging and thought...oh-no...

after setting up cameras i went back to the bike and seen a flat rear tyre...
so cameras switched off again i removed the rear tyre and the big thorn in the tyre and just patched the tube,saving the spare i had,i always do this as if you get a second flat you could be say on a busy roadside or its dark etc..,i just finished pumping up the tyre and i heard a quiet hiss from the front tyre...oh great..!
so i did the same and repaired that,then when i went to pump it up my pump started to play up...,"dont tell me is happening" i thought as after about 300 pumps i heard another hiss from the front...yep i had not checked the tyre properly and there was indeed 2 thorns...,arrrrgh!!!!,right sod it ,fix it get the film done and head home,i eventually got the pump to inflate the tyre but as you can imagine was getting a bit hacked off by now,at least the scenery was nice where i was...

i ride with 2 front and rear lights in winter,as a backup and after today im adding slime to the tubes on the 29er-as i have already done on the pugsley...
sod the extra weight and im adding a 2nd spare tube and Co2 bottles to the tool kit- on all bikes..,lesson learned..
as mentioned yesterday you sometimes come across an unnoticed sweet trail on your doorstep and this is one...


fiming done i headed for home first along a trail past a pond and an unusual visitor up here- a cormorant..long way from the coast...

and along a trail through a small estate with an interesting viewpoint-a picture frame hanging by wires..which views best?
garlton hills..?

or surly karate monkey...?

then after leaving the old road past this monument the front tyre went squidgy...

i was about to lose the plot now...!,spare tube swapped and about 300 pumps the tyre was only half inflated,i headed for home stopping after about 2 miles to give inflating the tyre another go and the pump started working...!,funny now im home hours later and how a few pints of strongbow cider makes you forget the hassles of otherwise a nice winter days cycling...it got a bit stressful for a bit-due to my lack of preparation but i got some filming done not brilliant but something,will be back up there in the spring... click here to enjoy singletrack helmetcam...

foggy trailride

it was pea soup thick mist this morning,i headed up to ride some woods near gifford and also check some new unvisited places i had spied on the maps...
it was 3 degrees at home but once up around gifford -3 freezing fog...

as last week i had paclite waterproofs on and endura MT500 overshoes on top of the shimano MT90 boots,i can never be bothered to put them on but your always glad you did once home,my feet were roasting all day,as was my hands in neoprene gloves,i only took a few pics with the compact as the lense kept steaming up,so i took stills with the tachyon camera and some film,but when i uploaded it i heard the bleep to say it was uploaded and disconected the camera and as routine reformatted the SD card,i was online at the time then went to look at the pics and footage and there was a pop-up saying there had been a break and to retry but i had already cleared the card.......doh!!!!,oh well,im going back up there tomorrow so will have pics for the next post..
every so often you find a real gem of a trail and today i came across some singletrack,about 1/4 mile descent,thats about a minute freewheeling,it will be sweet in the spring,
i was still warm after 3 hours out but it was so damp and cold,glad it was freezing as the trails would have been a slog...

look at the redness of my face!,not overheating,its the cold air..

good thing about riding from home is unlike a car journey,your bikes still wet and washes clean real easy...

same with wearing paclites and overshoes,nice and clean underneath...
roll on tomorrow...

foggy friday

i biked into work today in freezing fog,in the dark the fog was crystal like glitter in the beam of the lights,visibility was about 20feet,slowed the cars down...
heres a pic outside once at work,the shed lights outside reflecting of the fog...

around 10am the sky was clear above and the tops of the lammermuir hills poked out the mist while all below was under the mist,looked amazing,i should have took the tachyon camers and set up a timelapse..oh well..



i got a wee bit of a halo around my shadow with the sun behind me..nothing special but still...a halo!!

early bed tonight as a big day out tomorrow...,either 50 miles over the local lammermuir hills or around the county on local trails,depends on the fog...,if its the hills then taking the 29er if local trails be on the pugsley.. as they say...later..

history of scotland

if you read this blog because of an interest in scotland and are interested in its history then ive got something you may want to watch..
on sunday night was the last part of BBC scotlands "history of scotland" presented by neil oliver,a fantastic series of scotlands history starting from the picts of scotland and there lochside crannochs..

to the celts that came from ireland,and dunnad,crowning place of the first kings of scotland,through to scotlands turbulent history with its relationship with england and the heroes of scotlands history and making..,
including william wallace...

robert the bruce,king of scots...

and rob roy macgregor...

and then the jacobite uprising against its unwelcome rulers...


climaxing in the 1745 tragic slaughter at calloden and the afterward reprisal butchering by cumberlands troops of the jacobite clans peoples and the breaking up of the clan lifestyle and union of crowns of 1707 and onto the tragic highland clearances then onto the industrial revolution and scotlands contribution to the british empire which then covered quarter of the world and its royal navy and the industrial strenght of scotland in ship building on the glasgows river clyde...

but also the appauling squawler that working scots still as they always had lived in..,and onto the 21st century,despite many of everyday inventions we take from granted invented by the scots,closures of scotlands industrys of steel,coal,shipbuilding,3 votes for scottish devolution overruled by english (conservative) rule in westminister it wasnt until 1999 scotland finaly won its rightfull freedom...

and the rest will...be history...
someone has somehow posted a link to an episode of the series on youtube,episode 3 and the jacobite revolution here is part 1 of 6...



and you can follow the link to the rest of the episode, i think you cant view BBC i player overseas and that link will expire you can see a bit of the 5 part 1 hour per episode series..,