Tuesday 21 July 2009

sunday trailride


i went what was planned to be a 40-50 mile ride on the road on sunday just to get out after satuardy being spent indoors so headed off on the karate monkey in a roughly south west then westerly direction into a strong wind with the intention of returning home with a tailwind,
due to all the rain over the last 4 days and the uncut undergrowth which often overhangs local trails which soak you in no time and high tide was midday and by then then the remaining coastline would be full of walkers on a sunday ruling out a pugsley ride so i setteld for a cruise on tarmac,

barly fields are starting to turn brown now,harvest time is my favourite time of year (scenicly)in east lothian,will post plenty pics next month,harvest starts early on the east coast of scotland due to being drier than the west coast and more daylight than down south (england) i love evening trail rides along trails between cut and bailed fields with long shadows from the straw bales,also with the nights drawing in you get a bit of nightriding too which i love,easy trails you know well become more intresting when viewed from an H.I.D light,



anyway so i did about 15 miles up and around the old village of humbie close to the border county line when i remmemberd about an old road or as it really should be called a `green lane` that ive never cycled but used to ride often on my motorbike(sold my motorbike last year but buying it back from my friend soon,more info later..)
its a classic once a connecting road between an estate and its farm and the village and marked on road maps until the 1960s,theres rough tarmac under the grass and proberly was downgraded from a maintained road due to the water crossing which would of required a wier to be built with a ford(proberly with pipes underneath)
so i just had to go ride it,about 2 miles long it descends through woods to ford a small river then climbs between walls and beech tree and was very slippy on the semi slick halo twinrails on the karate monkey (at 60 psi)having the camera i filmed some of it,

then back in humbie village i thought lets go do the woodland path along above the gorge and river,filmed a bit there as it is so lovely in there then returning home cut through a forest with paths and a cracking singletrack descent which lasts over a minute and i had another film in the can... so a planned hour or so road ride becomes a 3 hour ride with a bit of trailriding and filming...

2 comments:

  1. Great video. You must have spent an hour of that ride getting on and off the bike setting-up your camera. Gorillapod?

    Love that manual!

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  2. thanks,
    yep it takes a while to film but sometimes its nice to have a good look around where you are and listing to birdsong or running water i find relaxing,
    i do use a gorillapod!,just plonk the camera down and hit the button,cheap & very handy
    the KM is the best bike ive had yet for the balance point,with the monkey nuts in the drop outs its perfect for me,starting to get out the saddle now!

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