A few firsts

The past few days have brough a few firsts for me. The first first was arranging to meet up with a bunch of folk of an internet forum. Bruce, AKA Coastkid, had arranged a ride round the coast on the Singletrack World forum. This run led to my second first, I was up before half nine in the morning. On a Sunday. On my day off. Cheers Bruce.
The run took us through Gosford and Luffness to Gullane, then back along the coast to Longniddry. I had a wee shot of Bruce's Pugsley, a crazy looking balloon tyred bike designed for riding on sand and snow. It was great fun riding around on it, I hadn't ridden a bike with hub gears before and I thought it was great especially not having a derailleur to worry about getting burst.

Bruce flying the Pugsley

All in all I had a good time. The guys on the ride all made me feel welcome and I had a top day out. For a full write up of the day and some videos check Bruce's page here. Just keep an eye out for the sexy bastard with the green fleece on the pink bike.
The run really nackered me so I refueled myself with some homebrew and the rabbit that the Hoodster had shot for me. Fuckin champion!

The next big first was my first trip to Glentress. Woody arranged the trip and Aaron, Jason, Morton, Dave, Woody and myself headed down after a gid breakfast at Dave's.

Dave'll be on masterchef next year.

Jason pre mud.

Another viz style "up the arse" moment? Answers on a postcard.....

The plan was to ride up to the top of the red route and hammer down, then have a wee play about on the jumps. The climb up was hard going but good fun, there's loads of rocky bits, skinny wooden bits and logs to try and ride over and wee stopped for a few rests to make it a bit easier.
Everyone will be glad to see that Morton has got himself a crash helmet this time.

Aaron takes a well earned rest



Morton attempts the skinny log thing.



Jason's 1000 yard stare

The gut at Glentress.

Spooky Wood, the top part of the red route, was shut for repairs, so we turned off the diversion and joined the track further down. Just near the top Aaron and Morton missed the diversion and got split from the rest of us. They ended up at the mast at the top of Glentress and came back down their own way.

I didn't stop to get any pictures of the way down but it was ace fun. the track is alot smoother than the one I did at Golspie, with loads of big berms and jumps. Still, it was just as hard going down as it was going up. We had good weather on the day but it had been pishing down with rain the day before so the rock and roots were a wee bit sleppery. By the time we hit the bottom and cycled back up to the jumps we were all well fucked. Dave, Jason and I caught some "phat air" over the jumps and watched other "dudes" do some pretty impressive stuff. Sick.

After that we hit the Hub for some cake, soup and a full breakfast for Morton (he rates it at three out of five chainsaws.)
Another top day, good effort from everyone.
We'll be doing this again.


Team Extreme.
Left to right - Aaron, Dave, Jason, Woody, Morton and me.