Jeremy McCreary
Bought it anyway
- Region
- USA
- City
- Carlsbad, CA
Kinda figured but good to know we don't have to worry about you — at least not on the movie front.I was funnying
;^}
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Kinda figured but good to know we don't have to worry about you — at least not on the movie front.I was funnying
For its day, it was.I recently skimmed through Jaws on a whim when it came up on the Netflix or Prime feed. Define "masterpiece".
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Back to the scene of my first ever ride on my Giant on April 1st 2018 with a ride out to Kirknewton near Edinburgh! We have been stuck with easterly winds lately but they have been light and very welcome, today they were around 15mph so it was a fairly easy ride out to Kirknewton into the headwind! I was looking forward to having a tailwind on the way home for a nice change! I made my way out to Armadale and used the cycle path down to Whitburn, I stopped for this photo on the path with the Pentland Hills in the background! The Pentlands featured heavily today as the road from Kirknewton to Carnwath runs alongside them!
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From Whitburn I used the excellent cycle paths to Bathgate and Dechmont and then SE through Pumpherston and East Calder, I enjoyed a few flights passing overhead into Edinburgh Airport on my way to East Calder! From there I continued east to Kirknewton and joined the amazing A70 towards Carnwath!
I stopped for a few photos of the Pentlands at Kirknewton!
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Now on the A70 where I stopped for more photos!
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Its such a great road with lots of ups and downs and twists and turns!
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I got a very pleasant surprise to see they had laid some nice new tarmac up the climb to Harperrig Reservoir!
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I stopped for more photos before heading up the climb!
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At the top of the climb looking back down!
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Harperrig Reservoir!
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Now at the western end of the reservoir!
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Now it was time to enjoy the A70 with a nice tailwind all the way to Carnwath, I stopped for many photos along the way!
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From Carnwath I headed east towards Carluke on the awesome A721, lots of climbing followed by some excellent descents!
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Another view of the Pentlands part way up the climb!
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Tinto Hill from the A721 near Kilncadzow!
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The final climb into Kilncadzow, the descent from here to Carluke is amazing!
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That was the last photo as I had to get home around 1pm to help my sister, she had a nasty fall recently and is nursing some very painful ribs! After helping her into bed I had some free time so headed back out and did a 20 mile loop out to Slamannan and back! What a fantastic day that was, it started very gloomy and I wasn't going to bother taking any photos but things cleared up a little! I need another 53 miles for 49000 on my amazing Giant Road E+1 Pro, I would almost certainly have taken it past 50000 miles this year if not for the motor failure! The 50000 will have to wait for 2027, I think 1053 miles in less than 2 months would be pushing it...Especially with the Dolan primed for action if the weather plays ball!
My total for this year is now 6,271 miles which equates to 10,092km for those that use metric!
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I expect the coming winter months to be almost exclusively the Giant, any good days without grit on the roads will see the Dolan get an outing for sure! I can't wait for next summer to really test the Dolan's range in warmer weather, it was just unfortunate I got it so late in the year! I feel blessed to have 2 great bikes at my disposal now and look forward to adding many miles to both! There is no doubt the Giant will have more range given the 3 batteries and will be used for the much longer rides!Here's a nice problem to have: How will you split your time between the Giant and the Dolan? Guessing the Giant will get the longest rides, as you already have the extra Giant batteries for it.
Winter bike & Summer bike, perfect!I expect the coming winter months to be almost exclusively the Giant, any good days without grit on the roads will see the Dolan get an outing for sure! I can't wait for next summer to really test the Dolan's range in warmer weather, it was just unfortunate I got it so late in the year! I feel blessed to have 2 great bikes at my disposal now and look forward to adding many miles to both! There is no doubt the Giant will have more range given the 3 batteries and will be used for the much longer rides!
I have always run 700x35 Schwalbe Marathons on the Giant but I didn't have the option with the Dolan so went with 700x32 Vittoria Randonneur Techs and I like them, only 5 rides so far though but they roll well and have decent grip!Winter bike & Summer bike, perfect!
What size and make tyres are you running Rab? Do you have similar on both bikes or trying something new on the Dolan?
and both are ok on the often less then perfect tarmac of UK roads? I mean the fact you have rolled those Marathons over so many thousands of miles of Scottish roads answers that!I have always run 700x35 Schwalbe Marathons on the Giant but I didn't have the option with the Dolan so went with 700x32 Vittoria Randonneur Techs and I like them, only 5 rides so far though but they roll well and have decent grip!
@Chargeride: There is a similar but shorter descent on MOSTy, a lot of stone and one clear path by a tree. Any younger "immortal" has no issue to ride it down. Marek is 55. He looked down at the descent and snapped 'I'll rather walk the bike down!' Yes! He's not immortal anymore, same as myself!Bri didnt let me down, he wobbled for 40ft then hit that stump.
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This may well be my last ride on the Dolan this year with a cold snap moving in, it was good to get such a nice day for my final ride! Of course if we get another mild spell it will make a return but it will almost exclusively be the Giant from today! Once again we had light easterly winds which is perfect for heading east so I made my way out to Hillend Reservoir and stopped for a couple of photos! Its great to see calm waters around these parts!
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I then continued east and stopped at the Black Loch for a couple of photos!
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I then enjoyed the descent down into Avonbridge and made my way up the big climb to Standburn, some nice fast descents also on this very undulating and fun road! From Standburn its a lovely long fast descent on the road to Linlithgow, unfortunately the awesome road to town has been closed for many weeks and there is no completion date as yet! So I had to head south here down the Avon Gorge and make my way down to Linlithgow from there, passing over the canal on the way and I had to stop for a photo!
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I also stopped for this photo of the Ochil Hills!
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I made my way through busy Linlithgow without incident and continued east towards Bridgend and Threemiletown where I turned south and started up the climb on the road to Ecclesmachan before turning west towards Beecraigs Country Park! This road was such fun today with a lovely tailwind, albeit only 10-15mph but it sure helps! I stopped at the top of the valley for some photos before flying down the descent at over 40mph! It was a shame the Ochils were shrouded in cloud as I saw them in the morning and they looked incredible!
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After the big descent it was straight into a huge climb up to the country park and I stopped on the way up for a couple of photos!
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I stopped again at the top of the climb for more photos looking east with the big descent I enjoyed earlier in the background!
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The Forth Valley!
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I then decided to use the back road through the country park which is full of big climbs and big descents, this climb was a real beast and this is at the top looking back down! Of course the photo makes it look almost flat...
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I had a view of the Pentland Hills at the top!
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The next climb was even harder than the last one but I had a cracking descent before it, the Dolan had no problems up these climbs in level 4 assist! I then joined the back road to Cairnpapple which is another massive climb up the corkscrew, the big descent before it helps you gain momentum for the climb!
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The views at the top are sure worth the effort!
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I then enjoyed the fastest descent of the day at almost 42mph, it would have been even faster but the sun made me go a little slower than I would have liked...At the end of the road I turned south on the back road to Dechmont, another fantastic road with a couple of steep climbs but an incredible long descent down into Dechmont! From there I used the excellent cycle path to Bathgate and Whitburn and joined the equally great path up into Armadale where I took the quiet back road to Blackridge! From there I turned west for home and decided to use the cycle path alongside Hillend Loch and stopped for some late afternoon photos!
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The Dolan performed flawlessly once again and it made for a very good days cycling, I do hope I will get another chance to ride it soon but the Giant is every bit as capable and just as much fun!
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