Terrid's Map

| | Comments (1)

Terrid's Map pinpoints good spots across the country for BMXing, skateboarding, mountain biking, kite surfing etc etc etc.

Every effort has been made to make sure that each spot is absolutely accurate, so just zoom in and zoom in and zoom in and you'll then be able to find it easily. If the satellite image is good enough, you may even be able to see it. Newest entries/edits are at the top of the list.

Notes:
- Transgression Park in Edinburgh now has a video clip.  Click it for mair...
- Unit 23 Skatepark now features virtual tours and a gallery.  Click it for mair...
- Terrid's Map does not work in Internet Explorer 6 but works fine in everything else.

  • Skateparks
  • Mountain biking
  • Street
  • Surf
  • BMX Track
Edinburgh FINALLY has an indoor park!  I haven't been there yet but reports so far are great (as you would expect from anything that Dave Sowerby's had a hand in designing/building).

Address:
TransgressionPark
Unit LE3
Ocean Terminal
Leith
Edinburgh
EH6 6JJ

Use the RED car park and park on Level E and its right inside the doors. Parking is free. The park is open from 10am to 10pm daily.  More info at www.transgressionpark.co.uk

Check this rad vid of Dean and Lewis getting loose:



Virtual tour / picture gallery coming soon, but for now, check these belters courtesy of Simon Lamond:

transgression-park-complete-001.jpg
transgression-park-complete-005.jpg
transgression-park-complete-002.jpg
transgression-park-complete-004.jpg


Unit 23, Dumbarton

| | Comments (0)
Unit 23 is claimed by many to be the best indoor park in the UK. 

It's massive size and arsenal of ramps is an ever-changing wonderland of flow and boostability.  To maintain quality control and general warm, fuzzy happiness, every addition to the park is also a result of collaboration and consultation with various uber-experienced (see: 'old') riders and skaters, with easily over 100 years of ramp-riding experience between them (or is that just Gogo on his own?)

Half of hall one is currently closed as Chick and his army of neddish ramp builders are making some kind of bastard half-brother, dopelganger of the Little Devil bowl.  If it gets finished by the end of February, Chick's promised to take them all snowboarding, so fingers crossed.  You've honestly seen nothing like the size of this thing - it's off the bloody hook!  Plans to follow as soon as I get them off Grant.

VIRTUAL TOUR:

Click on any of the three pics below to take a virtual tour of the place.  New panoramas of the bowl etc will be coming as and when it's finished.

To take control, click and drag your mouse around the photo.  Use the shift and ctrl keys to zoom in and out.

hall1_promo.jpg
hall2_1_promo.jpg
hall2_2_promo.jpg GALLERY:

unit2303.jpg
Rider: Dean Walla Walla / Photographer: Terrid

unit2302.jpg
Rider: Dean Walla Walla / Photographer: Terrid

unit2301.jpg
Rider: Parky / Photographer: Terrid

VIDEO:

Video clips coming soon.  If you have any video clips from Unit 23 that I could use, please get in touch.

Milngavie to Ardlui

| | Comments (0)
I did the first part of the West Highland way on Saturday, riding from Milngavie to Ardlui.  I can't find a decent map of the route online, so made a roughish one using the Gmaps Pedometer thing which you can see here.

I got the train from Argyll Street at 6.48, arrived in Milngavie at 7.24.  As you can imagine it was pitch black so had to put my lights on as it's nearly all off road.  5 mins into the ride, my gears froze so if i wanted to shift gears i had to kick my rear mech.  hoho.

Around 9am a mist came down and it was frickin BALTIC!  I had to put 3 gloves on each hand and was wearing 4 layers up top and a woolly hat.

Riding from Milngavie to Drymen is pretty easy going (if you're ever wanting to take someone out on their first bike trip, it would be a good one cos it's a piece of piss and nearly all flat).  But once in Drymen, the track leads up into the woods and from then on you're on singletrack paths for the majority of the run which is 'ace'.

Going over the hill i passed through the cloud and had to walk the bike a good part of the way cos the ice was crazy mental.  I got a nice photo from the top of Ben Lommond etc all poking out of the mist.  The descent was amazing and a bit scary cos of all the ice.  It would be amazing to ride in dryer/warmer weather cos there's some very rocky/tech bits.  Coming into Balmahar (11.10am) my gears finally defrosted and i even  found a tap with drinking water so i was able to refill my waterbottle (although i should have poured all the slushy ice out first - idiot).

By about 12pm (4 and a half hours in) i was getting a bit tired.  By 13.00 i was knackered and had to face up to missing the 13.50 train from Ardlui, which meant i was going to have to get the 19.50 - pisser.  I stopped for the first real time and had a half hour rest whilst trying to force as much tuna pasta down my throat as i could.  i tried to light a fire for fun/warmth cos i'd brought my firelighting kit with me, but my hands were too cold and i didn't have it in me.  Can't remember the last time that happened!

I rode on till i got to Inversnaid Hotel which is hideous and only accessable via the West Highland Way or boat.  I got another water bottle refill and then set out onto the part of the trail known as 'piece of shit'.  This is because, it was 5km of totally unrideable trail and i had to carry the bike with my bottom lip so far out i nearly tripped over it.  It took me about an hour and a half - to give you an idea as to how hard the terrain was, i can normally run (never mind ride!) that distance in about 20 mins.  frickin hell it was pish.

Anyhoo, as soon as you get to the end of the loch, there's some more ace singletrack and a great descent but it was getting dark and i was a bit scared but then i happened accross this weird hippie hamlet thing and that's where the bridge over the river was, which allowed me to get onto the west side of the loch, ergo THE TARMAC ROAD!! oh joy.  I was singing very loud a version of an Everton cup-run song which normally goes:
Tell me maaa, me maaa
We don't want no teeeeaaa, no teeeaaa
We're going to Wem Berrr LEEEEEEE
Tell me maaaa, me maaaaaa
(I substituted Wemberly for 'Ardlui'.  Amazing, i know)

I got into the Ardlui Hotel at 16.55 to find out that Everton had beaten City (yos!) and that although i was going to have to wait 3 hours for a train, i was comforted with beer and lamb casserole and a full change of clothes which i had brought with me (perfect planning etc).  my riding clothes were so mingin, they made a 'slap' when i dropped them onto the floor in the toilet.  haha.

It was so frickin hard but also so good.  i would definatelly reccommend it as a bike route but probably as a two-dayer.  I even think it'd be good to take three days cos then you could have a day going up Ben Lommond in the middle - some kind of 'Monroe Sandwich'...pfnar!

Anyway, the next mission is to get the train up to Fort William and ride back to Glasgow, again on the West Highland Way track.  This way I'd also get to ride The Devil's Staircase, which sounds grand.  I might try to camp it up but if i can't wait for my savings to reach 'buying a tent' state, then i reckon i could use bothys.  I've never slept in one, so that could be a fun adventure. 

You should all do it - it's a blast.  Although Kell would hate it 'cos there's too much pedalling.

Distance travelled - 40 something miles
Time taken - about nine and a half hours

Photos to follow (i was shooting on a new roll of black and white film, so i need to finish it off before processing it.  Screw digital!)

REEEEEEEEEEEEET!