Long Haul Trucker and the first hints of Spring

I've just edited this post following a comment that I won't publish. I was up early on Sunday morning, before sunrise, but there's not a lot of point in taking pictures in the dark so off I went home for a Sunday breakfast and to get the energy and motivation for a pedal on the Long Haul Trucker.

Once the sun had been so decent as to get high enough above the horizon to provide some pictures I headed  west with the morning light to catch the Winterfield Golf Club whilst the first dark banks of heavy cloud started to gather to the west.

The LHT with sun picking out Belhaven Bay. This photo has come out noisy and over saturated but that's kind of what the light looked like this morning so I've left it in for you to make your own judgment.

Down to West Barns with the most minimal of effort on the pedals and I was so lucky to catch this pick of a Little Egret. These bird are normally only seen on in the south of England during the winter and are rare in these climes. I had heard it was about over the last year and MTB Stravaiger Barry had caught a pic in his blog recently. I was still well chuffed to get this pic as it hunted little fish.

Then on by East Links and there was the first real signs of spring, Knock kneed lambs making their pathetic Meh.mumm calls.

You can still see this little ones withered umbilicus. He's only seen a couple of days and was full of the excitement being young.

Ginger ears, stiff legs and wrinkly skin. Ahh...

Then as the sky grew more overcast, I pedaled on and found some shelter from the wind. Although I've been experimenting with cold brew during the week, It was a simple hot flask of  freshly pressed coffee for breakfast.

Sitting the long grass, sheltered, happy.

Back cycling..on the Fatty.

Although my flu has cleared, I'm still feeling exhausted and to add to my woe's, I've pulled a lumber muscle in my back. I was walking like a very grumpy and very decrepit John Wayne for the most of the last week.
The weather was also trying it's best to discourage me with winds gusting to 45mph but I had to get out for a cycle. I built the On-One Fatty for days like this.

I find a lot of solace from life's little tribulations in a long day on the Long Haul Trucker, but when the weather is inclement, it's great to grab the simplicity of the Fatty and go for a blast through the woods. A well lubed and tightly adjusted 1x9 gearing makes for simple cycling.

I just look far enough forward and, as long as I'm pedaling, the Fatty floats over everything. So off into John Muir Country Park with brown bracken against the grey sky and  pine trees providing a welcome belt of green and some much needed shelter from the biting wind.

 

Fly ran alongside and whenever I stopped to take a photo, she took the opportunity to find a fetch-able stick.

And as much as I enjoy fleeing through the woods, bouncing over lumps and roots and floating across ground that would capsize anything other than a fat bike; It's just as important to stop for a few minutes and soak up the peace of the ebbing tide in the estuary.

A couple of hours of play and I returned to the car with a tired dog and a mucky bike.

Plant sprayer to get rid of the worst of the grit and slime, then a quick spray with cheap silicone furniture polish to displace the water and the Fatty is clean enough to load up and head home.

I stopped at the sailing club to put another coat of paint on the Heron's rudder and grab a beer with Stuart. I also had to take a picture of the barometer,...If you sail, you will know that a reading like this thankfully only comes along very rarely.
...the glass is falling, batten the hatches.

John Muir Country Park on the Fatty

I was woken this morning with rain lashing off the windows and a howling gale whipping the first of the Autumn leaves through the streets. I had loosely planned to go for a cycle with Coastkid and it took a lot of self discipline to get out there.

There is a lot of jibber jabber spoken about fat tyre being easy to cycle with loads of momentum. I can tell you it was hard work cycling into a gusting 40mph wind with those wide bars. Once I was onto the sand though it all started to make sense.

The sun also came out which made the waterproofs we were wearing a bit superfluous.

When you have open beaches like this just a couple of miles from your front door, it's an easy decision to get a fatbike.

The pristine new On-One Fatty is beginning to look like a well used bike which is just as it should be.

After heading out to the tank blocks, it was a pleasure to turn and have the wind behind us as we cycled around the edge of the salt marsh. When I looked back at the soft land we had crossed there wasn't a mark from the floater tyres. On the loose sand there were faint tracks but these will disappear with the next tide and is certainly nothing compared to the hoof-prints of horses.

Coastkid nosing through flotsam on the shoreline.

Abandoned sand martin nests.

As the rain really began to bucket down we cut into the single track in the woods for some shelter. It was another short cycle of probably only seven miles including the road sections, but it it was a good couple of hours of blethering, pedaling and hiding from the rain. I still love getting on the LHT for big runs but today would have been misery in the wind and rain. The Fatty is ideal for just getting out for a bit of fun.

On-One Fatty

This post is the fault of CoastKid. Five years ago he bought and built a bike I had never seen the like of. I have coveted the Surly Pugsley from that day but could never justify the expense. But life is for living and if you have patience and a keen eye on e-bay the exclusive can become affordable. Over the last year I have collected parts and placed them in boxes labelled 'useful'. Last month I pressed the left mouse button and bought an On-One Fatty frame set. This morning the patience paid off and the 'useful' became 'practical'; Oh, and it was a joy.

Early morning emptiness and the sun was just starting to warm the air as I was out on the beach at Belhaven/John Muir Country Park. There were a couple of hardy souls swimming, but no surfers yet.

Last night's storm had swollen the Beil Burn to salmon swimming levels, but it's a bit late in the year for that.

I can't really think of words for the last two photos. If you have ever had an early morning pedal along a deserted couple of miles of sun kissed beach, then I guess you can insert your own caption.

Again, you have to get up early and pedal along empty beaches to know what I was feeling. Fly was happy too.

Hoody on as I stopped on Spikey Island for breakfast. Hot coffee ('Asda After Dinner' (4)-very good.) and helmet hair. Is it just me or does a flask of freshly brewed coffee always taste better outdoors?

Quick pic of one of the ubiquitous 'Glider poles' placed in the sand 74 years ago to foil a Nazi invasion. Now a quick opinion to upset the locals!! I agree the rare concrete pillars were 'Glider' traps. But, I think these wooden posts were stobs for the coils of barbed wire that stretched across the bay to do the realistic job of slowing an enemy advance whilst in the killing grounds of  pill box machine gun posts. In the event of an invasion, there simply would not have been enough battle hardened troops to resist. It had to be about about a nasty process of slowing and sacrificing. Anyway, enough of that sort of talk, the sun was still shining.

After the beach and off into the sunlit glimpses through woodland single track.

The Fatty wheels are 26" but the huge tyres make the overall diameter far closer to 29"ers and I could really notice this in the woods. Slow techy bits with off-camber roots were a breeze, steps and drops were easy bunny-hops with loads of forgiving 'suspension' from the floater tyres. The grip through corners has to be experienced to be believed.
The chain stays are the same length as a Surly Pugsley, but I think I'm correct in saying that the head set/fork angle is slacker. I was really reminded of a Montessa Cota trials bike I owned 25 years! ago. You don't ride it fast, you ride smart and you might not get there quite so quickly, but you do get there with a huge grin.

Don't know who lives in here. The smell suggests it could be a Troll and the hot summer seems to have driven them down from the hills. It's been an awful year for their pesky ways but I suppose they have to live somewhere.

The Fatty is so very different from any other bike I've ridden. It excels at cycling in places where I never thought I could take a bike and that is what I wanted. It also just makes you smile. Can't be a bad thing.

Five Photo Cycle

Its been a busy 'holiday'. I've spent most of this week building a cupboard around a new boiler and the old electrics. The doors are hanging straight, they are nearly flush on their stops and I put what I hope is the last skim of plaster this afternoon. Meanwhile I have been neglecting the Long Haul Trucker and myself. I suppose it was the thought of being back at work tomorrow that provided the inspiration to get out this evening.

I headed off along towards John Muir Country Park with little idea where I was really going. The was a gusting south westerly wind so I figured I would cycle west to have an easy run home.

As I cycled I began to get into a rhythm and started to relax into the ride. I continue to be amazed how mindful I can be of the simple act of pedaling. I just slip into a focus and enjoy myself, all the days stresses slip into the background. 

I was feeling reasonably strong so I turned up through the Yew avenue into the Biel Estate. This leads to a gravel track across the fields and then very short steep descent to Biel Mill and a much longer and equally steep climb up to the Stenton road.

Along the hillfoot roads and I saw my first working harvesters of the summer. The crops have come on tremendously considering the late spring. The long hot weather and recent rains seem to have added up to a bumper harvest. No doubt the farmers will complain that this will push prices down so that they need more subsidies. It's not easy running a Range Rover these days!

After Spott I had the long descent back to Dunbar. I made a quick loop back down by Belhaven to get a picture of the 'bridge to nowhere' doing what it is supposed to do, providing a crossing for the Biel Burn. A really enjoyable pedal and made all the more interesting as I had forgotten to put a memory card in the camera and so was restricted to only five photos on the internal memory. That would be the five you have just been looking at.