Saturday 21 February 2015

A Tale of two bikes in one beach ride!



Late night arrangement to meet friend Brian​ today at North Berwick for a beach ride early at 9pm this morning to catch the low tide, It was a tale of 2 bikes in one ride when my Middleburn RS7 cranks lock ring on the green Pugsley stripped at Yellowcraig and i had to return to NB...
Home in the car, i grabbed the old Pug and back to NB (Got the same parking space again!) and nailed it on the JMW to Gullane to meet Brian on route to Cools for ice cream  having been out to the subs wrecks in Aberlady Bay :)
Turned out a fun day in the end with another amazing winter sun blue sky coastal vista... We found a coconut!, caught up with Craig at the cafe who has been chained to the sink, so a good day,,,

Look at the winter light and colour, fantastic!


Low tide at Broadsands...


Then at Marine Villa my chain rings went all wobbly...

With the crank spider lock ring seemingly stripped i limped home to NB on the John Muir Way leaving Brian to ride on. I just hoped the ride would not damage the threads too much on the spider and cranks.
Days like this i am glad i drove to the coast with the bike on the car!,
Back home and i grabbed the old Alfine hub Pugsley, bottle and tools swapped and ready to go again!...



Even got the same parking space!, you would be lucky to get parked here in summer by mid morning!
Same pic again, but another Pug!..


Headed to Gullane via the John Muir Way, hoping to meet Brian for an ice cream!...


Past the usual ice cream stop at Cools and following the JMW i soon met Brian again...


And had that ice cream!...


Then we headed back to the coast via some of the sandy single track trails like `Baked Bean Trail`...


And through the pine woods...


Back to the coast...




Tide times have not been ideal this week for my winter week holiday at home but the weather has been fantastic!...


No need to go away when you have this on your doorstep...


Look what we found...


A coconut!  :)


Loads of  sand has blown  up onto the dunes this winter...


And while some areas of beach have been stripped  to the rock bed some like here have been totally covered...



Surly Larry tyres are definitely the best compromise beach riding tyre, after riding with the big chunky Nate tyres on the green Pugsley the Larry`s really roll!...


Tides are real high this now so we cut in at North Berwick to head to the cafe to see friend Craig...


A big dirty black cloud blew down the coast, lucky we missed this down pour...


Tail wind assisted grassy single track into town...




And some food and banter with Craig who was hard at work!


Tide was a low 0.4 meter this morning at 10.09am,  now at 16,11 it was 5.9 meters...


Why it makes our coastal riding so varied...


Back home and two bikes to hose down, and pulled off the cranks on the green Pugsley...


Looks like the lock ring is stripped, and the crank threads look a bit iffy, Main thing is no play in the spider on when on the cranks, Must have not been enough free play to damage it...

I will email Middleburn about it as they have a good reputation for warranty stuff even on older products like these 7 year old cranks,
Failing that friend Craig is a fabricator and could alloy weld my cranks! :)


The wheels i built on the green Pugsley i have been meaning to swap over to use at the fat wheels for the Pumpkin Pugsley so some tyre swapping was done...


I stuck in two new tubes, Schwarbe 2.1-3.0  Scraeder valve Downhill tubes,
After juicing them up with some `Joes No Flats` for the Hawthorn hedge cuttings around here, half a 160ml bottle per tube...


After topping up the bottle with some glitter, it makes the juice last a lot longer adding particles to the juice...
I now also carry one of these 160ml bottles in my tools as the amount of thorns on our roads is bad this year,
Hedges have just been cut again so make sure you tubes are juiced up!...


Green bike with wheels swapped awaiting crank repair...


And my Pumpkin Pugsley with the Larry tyre wheels fitted, with the 29+ wheels and 2 handlebar options which both take take under 5 minutes to swap, along with SPD or flat pedals this is my good Pugsley for this summer.

It does need some nice drilled rims and a Hope Pro 2 rear hub to finish it!...


More soon...

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