Octsober is over!

That's HB and I finished our four weeks off the booze! Health benefits? Fuck all.

We had planned to celebrate by going up to a beer festival at Glencoe but I somehow managed to fuck my ankle up on the Pugsley during Thursday's night ride. The fucked ankle combined with freezing temperatures persuaded us to stay at home, so it was beers with Paul and Gary on Friday and a curry and the Winton on Saturday. Being off the sauce for so long means I get pissed on just a few beers. This resulted in me falling off my seat on the bus home on Friday night and landing on my arse, which gave everyone on the bus a good laugh. 

In other news HB has been at me for ages to introduce the new member of our household for ages. A while back HB was outside about to feed Jake when this other cat turned up. It was starving so HB gave it a bite to eat. We let it stay the night and over the next wee while we found out that it was a he. He hadn't been chipped or reported missing to any of the many folk we reported finding him to. We put posters up but got no reply so we decided to let him stay, he's still here.

Introducing Tink.

Autumn.

Had a good day today but before I tell you about it I'll give a wee update on how Octsober is going. Its shite. I'm not really missing booze but I'm missing looking forward to going to the pub for a beer, or relaxing at night with a nice wine. HB thinks its shite too. If you're thinking about stopping drinking don't, its shite. Next Friday will end our Octsober, not quite the full month but 4 weeks and its the beer festival in Glencoe on Saturday. Cannae wait!

Anyways, back to today. I had a really nice spin on the GS. I headed over the Lammermuirs via some easy dirt roads to Duns. Got a cup of tea at Mannings and headed home over the hills past the Whiteadder reservoir. The colours were amazing with the leaves on the trees changing colour. I had the wee Ricoh PX with me but I wish I'd had my Nikon. You could see for miles the air was that clear and the wee Ricoh struggled a wee bit at times

Brilliant.

Its a Belter.

I've got myself a new pushbike for cycling to work. I've went for something more road based but I wasn't wanting a full on road bike as I don't really like drop bars. I had looked at a few basic commuter bikes and I went to the Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative to look at their Courier, a basic 8 speed bike. It looked pretty decent and I figured it would be ideal for what I needed. I was speaking to one of the staff in the shop about the different bikes they were selling. I had seen they had a Revolution Belter, a belt drive bike in and asked a few questions about it. The guy suggested I took it for a wee spin. It was ace! It felt really light and easy to get on with. The belt drive felt really solid, direct and should be hassle free. I really liked it. The downside is that its a single speed. No gears. So if there's a brutal headwind or a steep hill you have to pedal harder. If you're going down hill and want to go faster you have to spin like crazy. I arranged another longer shot and went away to think about things.

My commute is pretty flat and when I had my second test ride on the Belter I tackled some of the wee hills I could find near the shop in Edinburgh. The Belter has road wheels and tyres which make going up hill piss easy. I figured I'd be fine on my commute to work and went for it. I'm now a proud owner of a Revolution Belter. The belt drive is a Carbon Drive system made by Gates and is pretty similar to the timing belt in a car. I'll post up how I get on with the Belter over the next few weeks. I'll try and make a riveting film with the Gopro showing it in action too.

Big day out. Happy as Larry.

My mate Andy had got himself a new pair of tyres for his Salsa Mukluk so I bought his old one off him, a Surly Larry. The difference the Larry has made to the Pugsley is phenomenal! It grips in the mud where the old Endomorph on the front used to slither about all over the shop. Now I can belt down muddy trails with less chance of smashing into trees and stuff. Sweeet!

To try out my new tyre I headed out for what was going to be the longest cycle of my adult life. 

I headed to Longniddry and rode the John Muir Way to Aberlady where I met up with Andy. From there we headed out to Aberlady Bay. Usually I would head along to the submarines out on the sands but the tide was in. Instead we headed along to Gullane following the trails through the dunes and dropping onto the beach where we could. 

The subs are right in the middle of that.

High tide at Aberlady Bay

After Gullane we crawled over the rocks to Yellowcraigs, the big balloon tyres keep rolling where you think you're going to stall out. We were trying to figure out if a particular section was passable with the tide being so high (the sound of the waves on the rocky beach was amazing!) when along came this lady carrying her dog. She had got her feet wet and had nearly lost her dog the tide was that high. Andy and I new better though and carried on. Hardcore.

Just as we got to the end of the rocky bit my front brake started to make a funny clicking sound. A quick inspection showed my brake pads to be nearly non existent. Shiiit. Luckily the next few miles to North Berwick weren't too heavy on the brakes. When we got to North Berwick I went to see Dave at Law Cycles. Being a Fatbike shop I had no trouble getting hooked up with a new pair of pads. Cheers Dave! I also caught up with Dave's brother and  fellow Pugsley rider Eddie. It was good to shoot the shit for a while while I refueled with a pie, some cakes and a can of Bru.

Listen to the waves on the rocks.

Fux ake.

Andy on the tools.

We rode along this. Hard Core.

http://www.lawcycles.co.uk/

With the sun beginning to go down we headed along the coast towards Seacliff. Andy never had any lights with him so he headed back to Aberlady when we got to Tantallon Castle and I carried on to Seacliff beach myself. Seacliff is one of the  nicest beaches in East Lothian with great views of the Bass Rock. I had the place to myself farted around doing wheelies for a while. A posh surfer dude came along so I spoke to him for a wee while before heading over the Scoughall rocks to Peffersands and Tyningham. Some of the rocks were pretty slippy and I was aware that if I fell and fucked myself up it would be a wee while before someone else would come along so I took it steady and carefully. 

The Bass Rock

Tantallon Castle and the Bass Rock.

Seacliff.

Heading homewards I rode through Tyninghame Estate, loads of deer jumping around in the fields and on through Binning Wood. It was getting dark and I was beginning to feel fucked. I had planned to ride through Ashfield after Binning Wood but I got lost and ended up in the garden of some big stately home. The folk inside eating their dinner looked pretty miffed to see me cycling around the place. 

I put my lights on and followed the road to Haddington. I figured I would drop in on my mate Bruce to scrounge a coffee and some biscuits, and use his pump to inflate the Pugsley's tyres to make it a bit easier going on the road but he wasn't in. By this point my legs were fucked, I was slowing right down on the climbs and I was getting colder and colder. I put my waterproof on in Haddington which warmed me up a bit and took the back road home as there would be less traffic on it. Just as I was at the top of the last climb a massive shooting star lit the sky up. Awesome!

I got home having done nearly 50 miles. I was abso fucking lutely fucked. I had nothing left. I jumped in the shower to warm up and get cleaned up and HB made me a massive plate of curry washed down with a big glass of fresh orange and lemonade. 

I destroyed this.

I had my Gopro with me so here's the film I made of my ride. Remember and click the wee sprocket and put it up to HD.

Is Autumny a word?

Jake's sorted.

Another cracking autumny day here so I decided to head to the beach on the Pugsley. I gave Jake some treats and headed out, just me, my bike and my wee Ricoh PX camera. I cycled down the road to Longniddry where I jumped between the beach and the John Muir Way trail till I got to Aberlady bay. I headed out to the submarines and farted around on the beach for a while then rode through the dunes to Gullane. A mars bar and a can of Monster energy juice from the posh shop and I headed back to Aberlady bay to meet up with Neil who had his new Pugsley with him. We did another lap of Aberlady and Gullane with an awesome sunset for a background before Neil gave me a lift home where HB bought me a chicken wrap. Sorted.
Here's the day in pictures.

A rusty shit pipe. This will get some folk excited.

I spoke to this road cyclist who was actually friendly. Bizarre. 

At the submarines.

Another mars bar at the top of Gullane Hill.

Then back to Aberlady bay to wait for Neil to arrive.

Where I seen this weird cloud.

And this Triumph TR3 (cheers J Dawg)

Neil arrived.

Loads of geese coming in.

Neil on murder hill.

Riding down murder hill.

Kiss my arse.