Riding My New Gravel Bike on the greatest route at Whitelee Wind Farm in Scotland.

This weeks video I travel to the largest onshore wind farm in the Uk. Whitelee!

This is just south from the city of Glasgow in Scotland in East Renfrewshire.

It identifies as one of the greatest Gravel cycling areas with a lot of cyclists visiting daily! Most of which set up “Basecamp” at the Whitelee Wind Farm visitors centre to make use of their facilities. Cafe, showers, toilets etc.

Huge thanks to who made this route up on Komoot, it was an absolute banger of a ride and highly recommended!

I only managed to nearly crash once also!

Hope you enjoy the video as much as I did making it!

Feel free to subscribe for more and you can also follow me on Instagram & Strava… Just search ThatCyclingChimp!

#gravelbike #subscribe #cyclist #trending #new #fitness

Hope

Double O by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100503
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Digya by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1200080
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

welcome along to another video I am that cycling chimp and in this one I’ve decided to return to White Lee wind farm this is a largest onshore wind farm in the UK and it’s just south of Glasgow City in Scotland it’s an absolute Paradise for gravel cyclist and today I brought my gravel bite with me I’ve had my gravel bite now for a couple of months and a lot of you guys have been asking me how I’m getting on with it so I thought I would take you guys in a Solo Adventure across the wind farm so if you’re interested in seeing some more of the Scottish Outdoors or maybe you’re just interested in what gravel bike I’m riding grab a Couer kick back and relax and let’s get the show in the [Music] road so today I’m riding the Merida CX 400 or as I like to call it the Green Hornet had the gravel bite roughly about 2 months now so this is the first time I’ve really been out to use it on gravel I’ve done like kind of small Adventures but I’ve never done a fullon gravel ride on it I’ve had a quick caution change as you can see loaded the bike up we’re ready to go the conditions today according to my weather apps was supposed to be sunny and warm it is pretty warm but as you can see it’s pretty overcast there’s actually a lot of low Cloud as well so this is going to be an interesting one for me actually get into the hills let’s clip in right out and see what we can see as I said coming up the Cloud’s pretty low it’s 10:00 in the morning and I’m hoping that the sun’s going to come out and burn that off it’s not cold in any way at all it’s actually really clammy this morning the forecast says no rain cuz if you remember the last time and if you watched the last video was up here I got absolutely drenched it was still a cracking day out but I got absolutely soaked I’m hoping that doesn’t happen today for some of you guys that watch the channel and and know my bikes inside out you’ve probably seen there’s a couple of upgrades to the Green Hornet and I’ll get through them later on you’ll also see that there’s a slight upgrade in my back as well I’ll tell you more about that later on well that’s we done my first 5 kilm so the warm-ups by every time I come up here I’m in awe with the countryside and just the way that it looks I think I better show you guys exactly what it’s like a lot of you guys with the Keen eyes will probably notice I’ve got a small backpack on today that’s a uswe hydration backpack picked one of these up because I was looking for something that was a little bit more substantial than my GoPro chest day cuz I have the GoPro chest plate on with it and I was looking for something I could store just kind of little bit some Bob I’ve not got a hydration bladder in it today I’m using one of my water bottles but it holds a 1.5 L bladder for those that are interested I’ll probably give a full review of it this is the first time I’ve used it out and about it’s also the first time I’m using my new camera pole on the back of the bike as well which is the RO microphone boom pole I had the insta 360 one but it was just a little bit too short and I’m hoping with super view on the GoPro you can see the vist that I’m seeing is cycling too now if there’s anybody from the central belt of Scotland or airshire advises to come up here on your bike cuz it is an absolutely great place it’s traffic free although there is a bus that goes around about the wind farm that does tours but apart from that you very rarely see anybody and I know that there’s gravel Enthusiast cycling clubs that are in the city of Glasgow and if any of you guys would like to invite me to a gravel ride out feel free to comment below or hit me up on Instagram today’s route is 47 km now it’s it’s a completely different 47 km to what it is if you’re doing it on the coast cuz the coast is pretty much flat the can of rout that go the terrain up here as I said is a gravel cyle paradise and the first thing I’ve noticed the gravel is nice Compact and dry it’s not wet and Soggy I uploaded my route to my Garmin last night and this is actually a slightly different route than I took the last time instead of going anticlockwise round about the wind farm I’m going in a clockwise Direction I’ll also stop at the head and Cafe probably halfway through as well cuz that was quite a nice little place and you never know who you might meet there and here we go with the first Ascent good thing is my legs are warmed up properly so that’s the biggest difference I’ve found straight away between this merid SX 400 and a TR de Mani the group set that’s on the Merida is a grx 400 which I think it’s the entry level gravel group set on the de Mani it’s a SORA group set that I’ve got which isn’t the greatest but it’s it’s not the worst the difference between the two well as I said there with the grx it’s made for gravel and the good thing about that is when you’re hitting Hills you’ve got a bit more selection compared to the S but that doesn’t mean to say that this is just a standalone gravel bike and that’s all it is far from it I done the big Instagram ride at the beginning of June and it was 44 M on tarmac and yes I was tired at the end of it but I wasn’t fatigued because of the bike but the gearing ratios are really good and it’s definitely something to consider if you’re looking into the gravel group set [Music] [Music] Market well just can’t describe the vistas that you see we out here and this is a good thing with me pre-loading my route the night before into my Garmin this is a slightly different route as I said that I took earlier on in the year and the biggest difference is there was a lot of roads that wasn’t really accessible in the winter time just due to the condition that the roads were in being sludgy muddy and really wet and this is one of these roads since I’ve done 15 km I’m just stoping to have a little break because with the hill there that was a little bit unexpected and that’s what I like about up here because it does challenge it quite a lot thought I’d take the time just now just to run through what I’m riding and exactly what the bike is cuz some of you guys have been asking about it so this is a Merida SX 400 taking away as you can see there’s a couple of upgrades and differences to the bike as I was saying it comes with the grx 400 grip set which includes the grx 400 front and rear brakes it comes with the grx 600 crank which is actually a 2 by10 and it’s 46x 30 it’s in size large I’m 6t and it fits me perfectly the Fels on it for the tires I’ve got the Maxi Ramblers which are 700 45C these are the stock tiles that come with it and they seem to be pretty good at handling gravel and they’re not too bad for me I think they’re a little bit thicker than what I’m used to I may downsize my tires when I need to change them out the rims on it again it’s stock merid rims they are tress ready but when you buy the bike you do not get tape or valves you need to buy them separately and talking about upgrades as you can see I’ve got a few bits and Bobs on the bike first of all you can see I’ve got the road boom pole there that’s just to give you the over theh shoulder look with the camera I actually upgraded my cable ties to Black for a change recently I picked up the re wrap handlebar bag which is a 10 L one and it’s absolutely brilliant for space it’s a great little bag for your handle bars also Al got the restrap large frame bag as well to keep some more bits and Bobs in always opt for a tool bottle rather than a saddle bag and for obvious reasons that’s why I don’t use a saddle bag you probably noticed the saddle the saddle is a Brooks C7 I’ve got a c-15 on Shadow fax and I think they’re a really comfy saddle the stock saddle that comes with the merita and any bike I find I don’t understand you pay quite a lot of money for a bike and then they just throw on a ridiculous saddle that you know you’re going to change out the handlebar tape is actually bun rager the track brand I changed that out the other week there I actually double wrapped the bar tape the original black bar tape is underneath that I just needed it for a bit more cushioning because the B tape that comes is so thin so proba was the reason I picked this bike I was looking for something that was kind of in between as I said the Dem Manis a road endurance bike it’s capable of gravel but it’s not the greatest for gravel it’s probably because of the group set as well so I wanted to delve into the the gravel territory because I tried it and I got an appetite for it and I do really enjoy riding gravel the other reason I wanted to purchase this bike I was looking for something that was going to be more of a Touring bike but at the same time can work round about can urban areas as well would I recommend this bike to anybody yeah I definitely would I know there’s a couple of people that bought the bik below it silx 200 and I know some people that’s bought the carbon fiber versions which I think’s the x 4,000 7,000 the frame on this is aluminium as well so it is pretty rugged and pretty bomb prooof if what I’ve put it through so far anyway it’s getting to that time I’m kind of needing a coffee so let’s see if we can get to The Heading Cafe and hopefully it’s not too busy [Music] [Music] hey how you doing now this is the first problem that we’ve got when we’ve got big chunky tires like this it doesn’t actually fit the bike rack and no doubt the bike will fall down there I’ve stopped off at the head and Cafe for a nice little mocker and some [Music] cake I’ve got my traditional marker and I’ve also picked up a slice of toffee Apple loaf I’ve done 25 kilm we roughly got about an hour 20 to get back to the white Le Visitor Center so I’m going to try and enjoy this carve off a little bit that is a seriously good cake but so far I’ve been feeling pretty strong in the bite today I’ve been keeping consistent in the last little while I’ve been trying to do 300 Mes in June and my last count before I started my ride today I still had 100 miles left to do well that’s me finished with my coffee need to find a little bin of a quick Comfort break and then we’ll ride out again back towards the white Le Visitor Center where base camp is if anybody’s everever out this neck of the woods and they near the hering cafe definitely to check it out because our coffees are really nice I was about for Speed well that very nice gentleman that just passed me there I’d met in the her and Cafe just before I was leaving he’s got the latest road bike model from Factor now as you seen there he overtook me but he must have set the flux capacitor for 1955 cuz the minute I turned that corner it just disappeared it’s just unbelievable the technology in bikes today it’s possibly one of the fastest bikes I’ve seen out in the roads the last couple of weeks and as we turn off the road we start cutting our teeth into the good stuff again now this is another road I’m not saying isn’t possible in the winter time but it definitely didn’t look possible the last time I was up here there has been a lot of activity in the last couple of days CU I’m seeing quite a lot of bike trails and quite a lot of lines in front of me and again we had another Ascent but we really don’t know that it’s a hill just because of foliage all around about it’s not until you can hear my breath laboring that you know that you’re in one but it’s all good in the hood for the endurance oh I’ve had a little mishap the idea I had was to put the camera back up so you could watch me over my shoulder to see some of these Vistas again because the scenery is absolutely topnotch but when I was reattaching the GoPro to the boom pole I shielded the adapter now luckily I’ve got plenty of adapters at home sadly I didn’t bring a spear that’s something I’m going to need to put in my kit bag for the next time coming out really disappointed in that but then again that’s cheap components from a certain Marketplace now being serious when I say this I don’t know if this is going to translate to the camera as well as I think it is I can see my route and I can see my road from roughly about 2 miles away it’s just this little gravel path it’s that kind of golden snake like Bend to the north there I’m into my final 10 km and I’m feeling really strong in the bite today but I’m also looking forward to getting the shower because I’m starting to get pretty sweaty with the humid it but it has been a really good ride today I’ve been really happy with my effort it’s been a strong effort but we’re just on the final straight I’ll see you guys back at the car use the force nuk let go force is strong this needless to say the bik is pretty dusty well that’s how’s got to the end of yet another video hope you all eny enjoy today as much as I did for an absolute legendary ride out in the gravel at White Le Wind Farm if you like today’s video give us a huge thumbs up and if you really like to please consider subscribing it’s absolutely free for you to do and you’ll get to see more Adventures like this if you really want you can follow me on Instagram and straa as well just search for that cycling chimp like the channel here hope to see you on the next one but in the meantime you can check out my last video up there which was my 100 km ride with my dad or you can check out previously on that cycling Chum down below which are archive videos and Adventures until the next time guys bye for now and if you’re out riding remember to raid safe