Langster.

Mind my Belter? Well it didn't work out too well for me. The singlespeed was OK for my commute and I really enjoyed riding the bike but it was eating freehubs like Elvis ate cheeseburgers. The Edinburgh Bike Co-op had replaced one rear wheel before I took the bike back with another fucked freehub. This time they offered to replace the lot again but I asked for a different bike. I looked at what I could get for roughly the same price as the Belter. Sweeney, the roadie fuck that he is, had tried to get me to go for a full on geared road bike and it was an option I was considering, but. I bought the Belter to commute on. The bike I replace the Belter with will be used to commute on also, and the salt on Scottish winter roads just fucks components up. I don't want to cycle home from work and have to wash down the drivechain of a geared bike so I decided to stick with  a single speed bike, this time running a traditional chain drive. Looking at my options, the bike I liked was the Specialized Langster, a track bike that comes set up with a fixed wheel. The only thing is, as you night have seen in the above video, I've given plenty folk stick for running gay ass arsehole drop bars. So there has been plenty abuse flying my way. A few years back here in Scotland we had a television programme called Still Game. Long story short, some of the cunts I call my mates are now referring to me as "Winston" as they feel I have a passing resemblance to the character. Fucking cheers guys. Google "Winston still game" if you want in on the action.
Anyways, so far the Langster has been brilliant, as were the Edinburgh Bike Co-op in dealing with my fucked Belter. I've read some stuff online about folk receiving shite service but all I got was good service and helpful folk. So a big thanks to the guys at Edinburgh Bike Co-op for helping me out..
Back to the Langster though. The shite, arsehole style, fuckwit drop bars took some getting  used to but its ok now. I've even been going out road riding, as for a while the Langster was the only functioning bike I had and I need to get my fat arse in to some state of fitness. (more to come on that shit.)
Road riding is boring as fuck. It must be even worse when you have gears to take the challenge away.
Here's a few photos of the bike. Notice I've got cool glow in the dark bar tape and flat MTB pedals.
Yeah, thats how I roll.

Totesamazeballs.

There will be a prize for the caption for this last photo.

Proper winter. Braw.

England went into fucking meltdown at the weekend. They were hammered by extreme and treacherous weather. About 2cm of fucking snow. There was one woman on the news banging on about how bad it all was, like the world had fucking ended. She was really worried that all the snow they had would freeze and she'd be doomed. There was still grass visible in the park behind her for fuck sake.
Up here in Scotland we also had snow but we embraced it like true people of nature. It was fucking quality.
my Pugsley was originally designed as a snow bike, it just happens to work really well on sand and other soft places. So it was great to get out in some proper dry powder snow.

Friday night the snow started to fall so I went for a short spin around the village before going for a pint in the Winton with Faithir.

The snow fell for the rest of the night and Saturday was nice and bright with plenty gid snow. It was pretty warm too, I had a really nice cycle on my own around Saltoun. I never got many miles in though, I was feeling pretty fucking out of shape since not being on the bike much recently from being fucking ill all the time., so it was Saltoun and hame. 

Even with the floatation from the tyres the Pugsley broke through the ice here on the Saturday and on Sunday.

Saturday's spin was followed by a Sunday spin with Paul and Peter. We followed a similar route but added in Kinchie, Woodhall and the Winton woods. Still lots of nice snow and a wee bit deeper than Saturdays cycle. It was good crack getting out in the snow with those roadie bastards, and Paul even managed a fucking awesome jump of a wee bridge but the Gopro's battery died just before he pulled it off. (the jump)

He'll be converted soon.

Caption on a postcard to......

Caption on a postcard to......

I had the Gopro with me on both days and I made a couple of videos. They're nearly identical apart from the music, leave a comment to what you think is better. The Vimeo one's music is Orbital and the Youtube one has Leftfield. "Both are pish" is also an option.

Snowfuds from yodagoat on Vimeo.

Orbital

Leftfield

The snow fell heavy on Monday but that didn't stop me and Gary getting out for a spin that night. Not many miles covered again though. This was fucking hard going, some of the deepest snow I've cycled through. Even with the Pugsley I was struggling to get though. 

We headed back up the hill to Saltoun, the first bit was shite and slushy and I thought it was going to be a pish cycle, but only a few metres higher and the snow was getting deep and drifting. I got about three quarters of the way up the woods before I had so walk and push. If I was a bit fitter and stronger I could have maybe made the top but it was seriously hard going. If I stopped to catch my breath it was fucking hard to get going again, plus the bike had picked up loads of snow as had Gary's. It was tough going and cold but we still had a good laugh and finished the night off with a pint and a pie in the Winton. Fucking quality.

At the bottom of the woods.

Halfway up.

At the top.

Braw.

You see me rollin'.....

Ok, when I last left this we had one fucked Pugsley, a sick ass new car and...... a shiney new frame!
The new Pugsley frame was built up a couple of weeks back, thanks to Dave at Law Cycles for getting me one nice and quick. I got the frame resprayed Porsche peppermint green again by Colin at Smillie Paint who gave it the usual flawless finish and Dave G gave me another hand building it up and swapping the parts of the old frame.
All left to do was to get out and ride the fucker!

I met up with Bruce and some of the folk from the UK Fatbike forum for the usual cycle out to the submarines at Aberlady Bay then along to North Berwick for a spicy haggis and chips. Braw.

We met these guys at Berwick Law, the big metal thing is a listening device the girl is making for her uni project. They said the couldn't hear much due to the wind and it was really cold on their lugs! The ear muffs they have planned should fix that.

Listening device.

A few days after that I headed up the Lammermuirs with Paul. There had been some snow fall so I wanted to get up for a play about on the Pugsley. The first bit of the track up was sheet ice, it was a fucking nightmare to walk on never mind cycle on but we eventually made it to the top of Lammer Law without any crashes, which is a fucking miracle considering Paul's current track record.

Lammer Law Summit.

I had my Gopro with me so I've made a video using some bits filmed on these cycles and some from a spin I went on with Roli the dog the other day. The song is One Big Moment by Orbital. Paul, Gary, Bob, Gav, Tom the Bass and myself went to see Orbital in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago, I was bouncing about all over the place at the front. It was fucking epic.

Orbital

Here's the video, you might have to open it on vimeo to view it in HD.

Pugsley in December. from yodagoat on Vimeo.

What happened here?? Comments below.....

Whats yer crack?

Good shit and bad shit in Mikeworld recently. My gout has fucked off (thank fuck) and I'm mobile again. Gout was really fucking sore. I'd rather spend all day getting booted in the balls than get gout again.
More good shit is that I've been given a car! Thanks to my Uncle Greaser I'm now the proud owner of a Ford Fiesta Ghia. Its fucking great. Electric everything and pretty good on fuel.

Ford Foosty

Another good point about the Foost is I can fit my Pugsley in the back. Now I can head further afield. I arranged a pedal around Tyninghame with "Beachboss." Unfortunately Beachboss poofed out due to having sore guts or something equally as lame. So I had my final ride on the Pugsley on my todd. I say final ride as I found this on my frame.

Cracked frame.

After several thousand miles by the previous owner Bruce and a fair few by myself the seatpost has cracked. Nightmare. 

The final ride was a good one though. Ravensheugh and Tyninghame are stunning places to visit with really nice beaches and nice views of the Bass Rock. I took my wee Ricoh and the Gopro. Here's the photos and the film. Please note the abuse for Beachboss.

Beach Abuse

Stick in the mud.

It's not all doom and gloom though.

Look what I've got.

New frame. Sweeeet!