railway trails

today dawned clear skys,yipee..,only a raging gale blowing,i headed out on the 29er into a killer wind for 10 miles on the road to head for todays area of trails around the pencaitland to whitecraig railway line walk,recently resurfaced and signed i reckoned should make for a better day than slogging through slop on the local trails,it also meant an out and back into the gale which would blow me home,turning offroad at penston this rough track was once an old road and actually has kerbing in bits under the grass...

the old branch railway to macmerry is all weather surfaced now...

and crosses another trail through winton estates woodland,the next 5 miles west of here is crisscrossed with tracks and trails,there has been alot of woodland management aswell...

the estate has built alot of trails for people to enjoy and provided information signs and there is alot of sculptures...

rejoining the macmerry branchline i joined the main railway line near the old ormiston station,it runs from west saulton 3 miles south from here passing pencaitland...

once again some great information signs,click on the pictures to full screen to read...

they are informative and have a sense of humour too...

theres a couple of the original signals near the old station platform,though the tops have been removed/stolen...

the surrounding coal mines (referred to as pits) are marked with memorial stones...

the old railway runs 4 1/2 miles west from here to smeaton,where various other lines now also walkways go into edinburgh and musselburgh...

along the way there are more new signs...

and we pass more mine memorial stones...

i love the scots spelling on the signs as if the writing is straight out the mouth of the local older generation who provided the stories and still rememmber when the railway and mines provided employment for so many local people...

the stonework on the bridges is perfect as was all victorian building of the times...

coal mining and the railway was once the way of life for generations of familys through the lothians west of here...

a path crosses the railway here,once a busy thourghfare,alot of these paths like this one went to churches,once well used on sundays...

theres a good sign here...

heres a 2minute film of the branch of the railway,listen to the interference when im under the pylons,well freaky!...

heres the film of the ormiston line...



i headed towards faside castle next...

now above the old railway line down in the vally...

faside castle is really a fortified house restored a few years ago and it was in ruin for years,the view over edinburgh from here is nice...

and to the east over gullane links,right in the centre of the pic is where the midget submarines are,covered in the pic by the tide...

heres a 2 minute film from the end of the railway to here at faside hill...



i had now done 25 miles and had around 10-12 to get home so although only 2pm headed for home as cycling tomorrow again,it was a blast having a gale tailwind home,down the old A1 the karate monkey seemed to just cruise at 25 mph!!!,wierd how quiet it is when your riding with the wind,i remmembered about the old WW2 pill box outside macmerry so stoppped for some pics...



heres a 2 minute film looking around the machine gun pillbox...



i cleaned the karate monkey once home..,i used the costic traffic film remover i was on about in the last post in the chain cleaner,look how clean it is...,told you its good stuff!...

day in the garage

spent most of today in the garage as rain fell horizontal outside,also uploaded photoshop as i want to try some editing of my pictures,see if i can improve them,im still all for using cheap cameras,
outside was awful,we even had hail at one point!,i picked the wrong week to be off work but nevermind...

heres some stuff that may save you some money,
nielson products are a company that mainly deal with the motortrade selling car cleaning products,they operate out of lorrys and visit customers monthly,alot of workplaces (like my work) tend to just buy traffic film remover soap(tfr) for there power washers and the odd other product like centre pull towel,loo roll etc..,
they sell lots of types of soaps for powerwashers and hand application,good news is they sell straight out the lorry to anyone and take cash(no account needed) and i have bought quite alot from them for a few years...

your litre bottle of muck off and the like is a non costic diluted cleaner in a litre applicator,this will cost you around £6 in bike shops,nielson do a non costic (pink in colour)cleaner called GENIE which is the same,you can buy a 5 litre container for £7.50- and thats undiluted! so if mixed diluted to 20:1 thats thats 25litres/5 gallons!,but it gets even cheaper... they sell 20 litre drums (tap scewtops available) for £24 (you get 5 litres free)... starting to make the bike trade products look very expensive aint it?, i have a 20 litre drum of GENIE noncostic for the MTBs and bought a 25 litre drum of the TFR soap TRANSPORT RAPIDE which i use in my PARK chain cleaning tool on the MTBs, and with hand applicators or power washer to wash my motorcycle, the rapide tfr is clear in colour,

both can be used diluted or applied straight depending on whats to clean..., BE WARNED the costic trf if used straight on say MTB anodising would over time fade the anodising as its pretty strong stuff..
if you buy a 20 litre drum of genie non costic soap you will probably get a free hand applicator throwen in,i also bought a 5 litre container of there car wax shampoo,interior dash cleaner and glass cleaner years ago and still got loads left,there latex workshop disposable gloves are good and cheap too £4 a box (100) also airsol brake cleaner,release oil, and silicone spray, cans of sprays are £2!, thats a third cheaper than say silokolene prop prep silicone spray in motorcycle shops,i bought a massive tub of orange scented hand cleaner(like swar figa) that will probably last a life time-or until i get that army lightwieght landrover i really want!(tax exempt,bio diesel,galvanised chassis etc...)
ive also bought 5 litre containers for the house...,washing up liquid,liquid soap,floor cleaner,that blue stuff for the loo...airsol non static polish for the TV etc... you get the picture..,so next time you see a silver nielson lorry at a workplace or in a layby-its driver having his break go buy some stuff for your bikes..,remember with the ongoing recession esp in the motortrade you may get a good discount if you buy alot and wave some cash about,now just think of all that bike bling you can now justify to buy with money saved...

cold november rain

rain indeed!,england is getting a hard time of it this now..,i feel sorry for people having there homes flooded...,id be gutted if it happened to my home,worse if it was the garage...,the railway passes my house and is in a cutting so hopefully when armageddon happens the water will go down there!,
i was up 6am to check out the window,stars to the north and east and none to the southwest as forcast the big front was moving in,the heavens opened by 7am,i was dreaming of a good sky to go film at glentress but that soon went out the window...
8am i wandered out to the workshop with a cuppa and it was quite dark outside...

i even thought about just getting geared up ang going out locally and even put a rear crudcatcher thing on the 29er..i actually hate these things and always end up catching my leg on them or they rattle or loosen and drag on the tyre,i found this one minus the post clamp at glentress,another old reflector mount got it fitted,at least the name matches the bike!...

did some needed maintenance to the commuter...

buying a workshop stand was one of the best things ive done,saves alot of hassle,no more trying to do everything upside down!...

trued up the back wheel,using another smaller handlebar mount plastic reflector bracket on the chainstays,these things are handy..., note the old school brooks spoke key...

deciding to give riding a miss today with the awful weather i visited the parents after an aquaplaneing drive into edinburgh to buy chain wax for beachriding at two wheels motorcycles and caught up with friends who work there and had a look at the nice and shiny new triumph bonnieville scrambler motorcycles which i will never afford to buy,heres a customised one i like that i found on flickr...steve mcqueen eat your heart out...

monday blues....NOT!!!

ok this is a really long post but there can be alot in 2miles of coastline...
i was up at 6am all hyper with being off for the week but had to have multiple brews of tea and the usual PC look through to kill time but was still out in the garage by 8am pinching tyres and lubing chains, by 9am i was back inside with the feet up watching morning TV dribble while munching on toast and more tea...,sod this i thought im off out! low tide was 11.50am so i spent an hour riding on pugsley through woods on route to seacliff beach to ride east round to peffersands, down on the beach at seacliff all was quiet...

with just a couple at the little harbour so i left the lovebirds to enjoy there empty beach and rode east round the point...
the next 2 miles to peffersands is a bit of a rockfest with trialy type riding...

the rock here is the same colour as the farm fields around whitekirk hill the highest point from here...,the fields are clay while this looks like sandstone how its eroded and rounded by the wind and sea..

along the beach a bit is an old chassis from what looks like an old lorry as its quite long...

along to this point there is certainly lots of interesting geology and rockpools...

to look at then the coast turns to predominately sand...

can you see me?...

heres some film up to now which,i hope shows the shoreline,not the usual beachride!...



passing the old WW2 machinegun pillbox which has slipped down the dune, amazing it hasnt broken up...

and peffersands opens up before you,nearly a mile of lovely beach.only a couple of folk were walking the sands...

a big dune here has completely disapeared here..washed away in the recent big storm...

peffersands beach was empty once i had ridden along...

this beach is hoaching on a sunday,intrestingly east lothian council do not premote this beach yet its car park is overflowed on sundays,
at the car park is a new information sign,again very informative...

if you click on the pics you should be able to read the information...



and heres a great quote from the man himself...numero uno in conservation,john muir...

near the car park is the old now unused tyninghame farm steading,now sold and proberly to be developed into housing so enjoy this photo of what was once a classic east lothian farm steading,getting a rarer site in original condition nowadays...

from the cabin at ravenscleugh which you can watch in part 2 of the filming i did...



i rode back along the beach...

and enjoyed having the beach again to myself...

i dont ask for much in life but days like this i can cherish forever...

an empty beach,calm conditions and a pugsley...

it was only 2pm so i didnt really want to go home yet...

so i rode back along the deserted beach again!!,hell why not,if it was a sunday it would be full of people,best enjoy the tranquility when you can...

some rides you wish could last forever..today was one,it was perfect...

but with a week of (all going to plan and weather)of riding i have to save the legs so headed for home...,a great day to remmember...

nothing like sitting at home in front of a roaring fire after a great days cycling,a hot bath,pasta and a cider...very peaced...