On The Road Again...

There has been a distinct lack of activity on here for a wee while, primarily due to a lack of money. The car had needed a few pounds for tyres and tax and I had been saving up for a trip to Venice with HB for her birthday!
Venice hadn't been my first choice of places to go, but it was HB's birthday and her choice. I figured I'd enjoy it, but once I'd been there Venice would be ticked off the list.
So before Venice I'd been farting around on the pushbike and planning on getting the C90 back on the go. I've been struggling with motivation on the cycling front a bit with all the trails being a boggy mess and my bike's headset becoming a gritty shithole, but my mates helped me out and kept a motivational foot in my arse.We went to Gentress for a blast down the red run. Bruce got me out and made a wee video of us at the local jump spot and Dave helped me fit my new headset, which On One supplied under warranty no questions asked. I also got a new haircunt.

Big thanks to Dave for the headset helpin.

Here's a wee video of the jumps. Bruce really can make a bike fly through the air.

Woodhall Jumps from coastkid71 on Vimeo.

HB and I also visited the Butterfly Farm, a top day oot in anyones book. It really is worth a visit if you are in the area, the staff are really enthusiastic and you get to handle some of the insects and snakes and the like. Its quite a nice place to sit and chill out too.

HB holding a millipede.

Kevin from the Butterfly Farm. This man should receive an award for the passion and enthusiasm he has for his job.

So after much farting around HB and I headed for Venice.

Mind what I said about not being to fussed for going there? Well I had begun to get fairly excited about the whole thing. For starters I'd only flown twice (there and back being one flight,) so I was buzzing about going on a plane, never mind going to Venice. I was still mildly enthralled about flying despite having to get out my pit at half three in the morning to drive to the airport. We got checked in without any issues and I managed to catch up with my mate Nickleback, who works in the airport. I did feel like a jakey bastard having a pint at 5 AM.

We had a wee problem connecting with the plane to Venice (we fucking missed it) as our flight was slightly delayed for de-icing, and we had stuff robbed out our bags, but despite this coming into Venice was still pretty awesome. It's like no where I've been. Folk said there was no cars or bikes but I still thought there would be at least one road. There isn't. Everything is done on boat or on foot. I took over 800 photos when I was there and I'll try and get the good ones on my Flickr page. Everyone had told me Venice would be an expensive, smelly tourist trap. But if you avoided the tourist traps, which were shit, it was pretty reasonable. And it only smells a wee bit when you get a really high tide which can cause a wee bit flooding too. I'd go back for another visit in the future.

Aye, Venice was suprisinly good.

Once we got back I got rattled into the C90. I fitted a new rear tyre, bodged the indicators back on and adjusted the valves...

Kicked it over and it burst into life and...

TICKTICKTICKTICKTICKTICKTICKTICKTICKTICKTICKTICKTICKTICKTICKTICK

Something was knocking its cunt in, and because valves have to be adjusted cold I couldn't do anything about it. So me and Bob (who was helping) got pished.

The next day, slightly fuzzy, we discovered I had set the clearances on the wrong part of the stroke and the gaps were fucking huge. So with this sorted I kicked it over again.

I've also primed, painted and waxoyl'd the underside of the C90 which should hopefully stop the bike rotting away.

Morton has also got his C90 on the go so we've been out for a wee spin.

Sick.

Sick, narly, rad, extreme........

Due to being skint this month I've been unable to get the C90 back on the road and have any adventures on it, but I've sourced some anti rust paint off Faithir to paint the underside of the now clean back end, and I recon I've found a not bad pair of tyres for twenty quid. The GS has a new battery in it and I'll start getting it serviced and ready for the good weather as soon as I have the money, and my car just passed it MOT, so all in all its looking good on the vehicle front.
So I've been spending a fair bit of my spare time out on the push bike practicing my stale skills and pedalling around the place. The biggest achievement over the past few weeks was "nailing" my first "sick drop." I have to admit, it left me feeling pretty fucking stoked.... I was shiteing myself a wee bit before I done it.
Anyway, pictures speak louder than words so here's a bunch.

Jason cycled to the top of Gullane hill.

Moonrise.

Awesome!

Radical!

Extreme!

Sick!

Crossed up.

Stale!

Dope!

Droppin' in!

The pic doesn't show how steep the trail is.

Dave shreddin'.

Gus rips it up.

Jason lets it hang ooot.

Me feeling stoked.

Gus belting doon the hill.

Gus shows how its done.

"WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!"

A big thank you to Dave and Jason for their photography skills.

Happy New Year!!!!!

Happy New Year everyone. HB and I saw the new year in with Ben, Kirst, Bob and Nikki. Much beer was consumed. Something happened at around 2.30am and I went from relatively OK, to completely fucking wrecked. Apparently I ended up going to bed at around half six after attempting to go for a cycle. What a fucking clown.

Anyway I had organised a cycle with the East Lothian MTB crew. We had swithered between the first and the second of January, but thank christ most folk had opted for the second as I was pretty much a write off on the first, with a wee pedal up to Saltoun with Dave being the my only activity, and that nearly resulted in me spewing my ring all over the shop.

I was feeling much better on the second, everyone met up at my bit with full hip flasks ready to go. We had a top day out pedalling around some of the woods, my mate Bruce even gave me a shot of his Pugsley, with its big fat tyres it flies over all the swampy bits and slippy roots and rock easily. I recon I'll need to get myself one pretty soon. We had regular jelly bean and booze stops, there was two lots of sloe gin, some JD and I had brought some of my home made ginger and lemon wine/liquer stuff. This may have been the reason Faithir binned himself going down kichie woods, writing off his back wheel high siding down the trail. I was right behind him when it happened, if only I had a helmet cam, what a fucking laugh. 

After we got back to mine we headed to the Winton for a gallon of beer. Fuck knows how everyone else managed to cycle home, I was well pished. Luckily HB had made my tea which saved me being rough as a badgers arse the next day.

All in all we had a fucking top day and a good start to the new year. Quality fun. Just ask Gary....

post beer Gary.