Today’s ride kicks off with me dropping off the works mini bus in Hyde for a bit of TLC, but the real journey begins right after. I hop on the Haibike and head straight for the iconic Etihad Stadium — and wow, the new £300 million development is seriously impressive! I take a lap around the outside, checking out the mind-blowing scale of construction happening right now. After soaking up the atmosphere and having a proper marvel at Manchester’s football fortress, I pedal north through the city to Crumpsall.
The weather? Spot on — warm breeze, light cloud cover, and barely any traffic. It’s the kind of urban ride that reminds you why cycling through Manchester is such a joy. Grab a brew and join me for this chilled city adventure!
Route: Hyde → Etihad Stadium → Crumpsall
Bike: Haibike
Camera: Insta360
Length: Over 1 hour of urban scenery, commentary & good vibes
man pushed in cannal
Hi folks. Um, welcome back to the channel. Sorry for the lack of content over the last couple of weeks, but we’re here now. So, let’s crack on. Today has been a little bit different. I’ve just dropped the works van off at the garage to have the wet belt done. No idea what that is, but it needed doing anyway. Um, and I should pick it back up again on Monday. Today being Wednesday, it’s about4 to 5. Weather’s brilliant, not too warm, nice cool breeze and we’re going to head down to Manchester City because they’ve done a lot of building work there. So, I just want to see what the new stadium looks like. So, we’ll have a tour around, have a look, see what we can see. Hopefully not getting in any trouble and have a perfect ride back. So, as we crack on through the ride, I’ll try and point out a few things. I’ve got stuff on me mind. I’ll let you know. But, let’s just crack on for now and have a ride. [Music] I’ve been watching a lot of stuff on on YouTube [Music] and there’s a few there’s a few things I’d like to comment on. Yesterday morning I saw a uh a cyclist riding along a canal toe path and got into some sort of altercation and got pushed in the water. There’s a lot of us cyclists that use the so toe path and that’s one of your worst nightmares. But again, I don’t know the backstory. I don’t know what happened, but I’m glad it wasn’t me. The other the other thing was the the ebikes with uh being confiscated in London, Birmingham. I’ve not seen so much in Manchester, but I presume it’s coming this way. When does an ebike become a motorized vehicle? Well, it’s obviously with the throttle and stuff. And I’ve seen some of those some of those riders. It’s not good. It’s not good. I’m presuming next the next thing to come for bicycles and stuff like that is you’re going to have to have a license plate on them or an identity plate just to ride your bike. Now I’m presuming that’s going to be etched into your frame help in a few ways. Um bicycle theft. um be able to track your bike. But again, I’ve I’ve seen a few well quite a lot of videos on on YouTube. just show just showing um vehicle uh bike thefts and stuff like that. Again, that’s not good. So, people being pushed off the bikes and the bikes being stolen. Again, not a good idea. What do you do in them situations? Is there anything you can do in them situations? I did watch one on on YouTube on YouTube where the guy’s got pushed off and he’s used um a fender ID spray to spray to spray the people that was doing it which I think worked. But again, what do you do? Is your safety is your life worth it? Or is it a case of it’s the principle of the thing and you’re not going to let anybody take anything from you? That’s my or that’s that that’s my principle anyway. As stupid as it may be, I used to do a lot of uh a lot of riding in city center Manchester weekends. But there’s so many protests going on now. And last time I was down there, it was it was it was just horrible. It was horrible. You’ve got two parties and both parties think that they’re right. And if you’ve got two, what is it? You got two people that I think that they think that they’re arguing for their for what they believe to be right, it’s just not going to work, is it? [Music] Just try and stay away from it. people are going to get hurt and I don’t want to be one of those. There’s a lot of traffic today. It’s not normally well normally busy at this time. You know, you got the school traffic, but summer holidays now. What do you do? Hey. So, I’ve got today and today, tomorrow, and Friday. Today, tomorrow. Yeah. Today, tomorrow, and Friday. Um, so you get get some more content in. Um, well, yeah, today, tomorrow, Friday, get some content in and then I pick your daughter back up Friday dinner time and hopefully we’ll have do a toll path ride and Emily can ride her own bike because she never pedals when she’s on the on the Wii U trailer. She always sits in the back watching her iPad, eating bags of crisp. [Laughter] Let’s face it, if I could, I would. [Music] Yeah, it shouldn’t take us too long to get into get to the stadium. We’ll have a proper good look round. It’s whether you like Manchester City or not, it may it makes the difference. It’s you’re looking at the I’m looking at the the stadium and what it’s going to bring to the game uh to the city and then you’ve got the uh the co-op stadium next door. It’s it’s just a massive place now. gets that big ab roundabout in Manchester uh goes to the motorways and stuff like that and although that I’m a confident rider and I I’d ride on the road me I don’t care. Um but I’m glad that there’s a cycle path that runs runs around because I I tell you there’s some absolute I was going to swear, but I’m not. Absolute horrible people that drive. Uh they don’t give you no space and literally push you up right up against the curb and some of those potholes near them grids. Not good. Not good at all. [Music] I did want to do um well, we’ve got I’ve got time for a couple of weeks to Jo try and get down to is it in Megalanch um in Swed is it Sweden or Switzerland and do the the downhill trail. I’ve seen it on YouTube and it looks amazing. Um my lad’s up for it. So do it for a weekender and get some really good footage of a very old not very old falling off the side of a mountain. Basically like Buzz Lightyear said, it’s falling with style. But Yeah. What can you do? Just got to keep going. Don’t ever Don’t ever let anybody say that you can’t do something. And if they do say you can’t do something, prove them wrong. [Music] Careful. [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Crazy drivers. They don’t realize is is they think that they giving me enough space then they got oversized w oversized windmaries. Ready? [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] cemetery. [Music] Thank you. [Music] Oh, thank you. Think you must have heard me because you give me a lot more room that time. Don’t be [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Boom. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Where is [Music] Oh, well, we got a quiet minute. I managed to get myself a a decent a relatively decent PC that I can do me editing on rather than using my phone because my phone was proper overheating and switching off. Yeah. So, it was good while it lasted, but I don’t want to break my phone. So, what is it? I bit the bullet just so I could get a PC that I can do some editing because it’s not like I’ve got a million subscribers or anything like that. I love I love riding and I just love like videoing. I love editing. It’s all good. Creative outlet. Let’s leave it at that. [Music] Yeah. So, I’m I’m editing at the moment with the Insta 360 app, but the the computer app and the phone app are two different like two different entities. In the phone app, you get like you seem to get like loads of more um things you can use. But with the the PC app, it it it’s it’s different. like you don’t get stickers or just little things. But it’s free and it’s the best program I’ve used so far. Like I’ve got GoPro and and things like that, but it just seems I don’t know. It just seems really difficult for the editing and it’s not in not as intuitive. I don’t know. I just seem to struggle with it. Um although I do carry not today though I do carry a GoPro um as a well basically an emergency backup camera. Um have me phone again. That’s another emergency backup camera. But today’s been good. I’ve not been out for a while cuz it see dust on me bike. That’s never a good thing when you can see dust on your bike is you’re not using it. But hey ho, we’re out today. Going to get a couple of uh couple of miles under me under me under me under me belt. try and get a long one in before the end of a six week holiday. Try and do a ride from from my house to my lad’s house in Wakefield about 50 odd miles. Uh set off in the morning mostly it’s it’s all mostly up to Wakefield is canal paths. Um, I’ve done it before and it’s got some absolutely beautiful scenic uh canal paths. Yeah. And you’ve got to go through like Rodale and places like that, which is sketchy at the best of times. Do you bring your own salad dressing with you? My salad dressing is normally uh a little gif lemon filled with half lemon and half Tabasco sauce. It’s great to give that to your sandwich. You never want to get it in your eye though. Not good on them canal paths. I think we turn here. Always make sure you have a good look. It’s a hide road. Hide road garage. Move. [Music] Yeah. Okay. It’s a little quicker route over to the stadium. [Music] [Applause] up to the lights. Turn left on Allen Tering Way. [Applause] And if you didn’t know, uh, Alan Churin, he helped break the Enigma code during the Second World War, giving the Allied troops the younger the advantage of knowing troop movements, combine movements, ship and submarine movements, and breaking all the codes. They also say that Alan Churin was the the grandfather of all computers. Check out watch the movie. It’s great. Read up on the history. It’s shameful what they did to him. Shameful. No spoilers. Watch the movie. [Music] So, what I’ll do tonight is when I get back cuz I got a nice quiet stress free house. Well, no stress anyway. Me little’s out with the mom till Friday. So, I can get some edit get some editing done, grab a put a couple of shots together and hopefully get out tomorrow. I wanted to go up to Heaton Park, Joe, just after the Awencius concert just to see what damage had been done to the park, the surroundings. But got a support oasis cracking band. Champagne sweeping over. Well, I’ve been riding for I just a little over 90%. I’ve been driving quite far. I’ve still got 82%. There’s a lot of people um saying, “Well, why ride an ebike? Well, I had a knee injury um quite well over 10 years ago where as I was standing up, my knee got shoved to one side as I was standing up and oh, it’s the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my life. It was So anyway, what is it since then? It’s anytime I’m doing like uh running or stairs or anything high impact on your knees like like like I do a lot of security work. So again when I’m doing searching and stuff like that you’re up and down like you’re going what and again that that plays have a with my knee. But what I found is riding an ebike, and this is a pedal assist only. There’s no throttle in it or anything like that. But riding an ebike, it’s low impact on me knee. And I can ride for hours and hours and hours. But don’t get me wrong, I can still feel it, but it’s not even a not even in the ballpark. And then not so long ago I did that ride up to Wakefield over 50 miles. I could have literally had a brew. Can’t beat a good brew. Yorkshire tea bags. Hey, no affiliation. No sir. But it’s just a cracking cup of tea. No cup of tea. Jammy dodger. Jump back in my bike and and and head off back. And it’s it’s just an absolute it was absolute pleasure. And when I’m out with my daughter and the bike’s pulling uh the trailer because she really does like to help and pedal. Yeah. Right. Uh no, it it’s it’s very easy and because it’s only a single wheel trailer, anywhere I can ride, she can come with me. So trail riding as long as it’s not too not too bad. Um, and if we do go trail riding, she puts on a full face because again, you’re going to you are going to get mud flicking back and possibly stone or something like that. So, I prefer to have a full face with a visor or with safety glasses. Oh, we’re at the stadium now. So, what I’ll do is right at the stop, I’ll stop the video and start fresh. So, I can just do a a clip just of me riding around the stadium. And you can have all you can watch it. Oh, you don’t have to. So, with that, we’re here at the stadium. So, I really want to have a look around. Let’s see what see what they’ve actually done. So, I’m 10 minutes in on this on this section. So, I’m just going to stop it there. And we just arrived at the stadium and it’s I’ve been a been a few weeks now since I’ve been back and there’s been a lot of building work done and it just looks huge now. It just looks massive compared to what it did do. Uh they took the roof off on this on the south on the north end and they built a big building. I don’t know what it’s for. Is it a hotel? Is it a corporate events? But only going to leave that side of the stadium for now and we’ll go down around the front of the around the front of the stadium. We’ll go around the front of the stadium and we’ll start from there. Hopefully, we might see some some people I know and you never know. Might even be able to get us give us a uh tour of the inside. So, what it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. I’ve worked at this stadium for well since it opened since it opened for the football. I didn’t do the Commonwealth Games. But a little story when um I’ll save that for another time. I’ll save that for another time. Yeah, plenty of stories like we all have. [Music] Oh, no way. Well, for a second there, I thought they ripped up the city logo from in front, but no. Wow. Yeah, he’s is until you actually stood here looking, it’s it’s just unbelievable the actual size of the place. Don’t you just love these air streams? Great. prop one of those. Right on to the building section. Now, they put the new roof on and a new upper upper tier and then you’ve got all that. It can’t be got to be hotels or corporate or something like that. It’s got to be and to our left that’s in the National Squash Arena or Squash Center. This is hu absolutely huge. And it looks like you’ve got an inner complex and an outer complex. But wow, it’s just absolutely amazing. And after the match, this is where all the cues are to the tram station. One going to Ashton and on this side going down back the other way to Manchester. Top tip. You ever going to Manchester? Quicker to walk. [Music] What happened then? Camera. We must have lost signal for a second. These are absolutely amazing. I think it’ll be worth going on the stadium tour once it’s all been built just to actually have a see. And this is a um an artist rendition of what it’s going to actually look like. And it does look impressive. It really does. Especially with the co-op live stadium there and it’s all lit up. Absolutely huge. That’s what she said. I’ll just stay there for a second and just have a look at that. That is impressive. And then on the picture there in front of you, you’ve got the the the stadium. And then what what you don’t see if you look over to the to the left, you’ve got the training grounds and you’ve got the sports academy. And it is just one massive big complex. Absolutely amazing. And you don’t you don’t have to be a be a city fan to to appreciate it, but it does need appreciation. is and is this privately I’m I’m presuming this this is all privately funded presuming it is it’s all privately funded by by Manchester City I don’t think it’s the um There was a map just having a look at the the stadium. We’re coming up to few of the statues here. You’ve got David Silva. I think this is Vine Vincson and Company again. Some of the legends Manchester City. Have we got here? Sergio Aguero. Happy days. And that’s us done. And we’ll we’ll leave our little stadium tour there. Oh, there’s some a little bit more here. Let’s not just end it just yet. We’ll start off on the floor here. [Music] Blue moon. You saw me standing alone. And that’s it. That’s our little uh our little tour of the stadium. I’ll do the same thing. I’ll go up to the top here and I’ll stop it. So then I can just do me ride back from you don’t have to look at the stadium if you don’t want to. Yay. There we are. There we go. Right. Let’s do our own. [Music] There we are back on the cycle path. Let’s get back home. No idea what to have for tea tonight. Don’t know what I fancy. I try and cut down on fat. I try and cut down on [Music] everything really. Salt, sugar. [Music] I believe I used to be 22 stone. 22 stone. Had a 44 in waist with a 20in neck or 21in neck. I was a big individual once I was f but I’d say I was underex exercised. Yeah. I just love I just love to eat. Everything just tasted so good. Yeah. That was it. And that was Yeah. Olympic Olympic standard smoker. Yeah. If there was an Olympic sport in smoking, I’d be I’d be a gold medalist. Literally. Put one out, light one up. Put one out, light one up. Yeah. So I got myself up to the up to the doctors and he said, “Oh, you’re borderline diabetic. You’re overweight. You smoke too much.” So literally the same day, I stopped putting sugar in me brew. Stopped eating sugary sugary treats. And for the next few weeks, going on for months, my diet was minimalistic. Uh, you probably laugh at it, but it’s true. I used to eat a baby belell cheese and a pepperami stick, a small one, not a big one, a small one, and then water and smoke. Lots of fats, which again probably wasn’t doing me all the best. But after the first week, I’m not joking, I stood on the scale and I couldn’t believe it the amount of weight I lost. The next week it was like double what I lost the first week and then it just it just snowballed. And within 3 months, exactly 3 months, I was down to 16 stone. And if anybody disagrees or doesn’t believe me, it’s it’s all on me Facebook anyway. Uh there’s some pictures before and after. It shows you when I’m 22 stone. It shows you when I’m like like I’ve got down to 16 stone and it’s a timeline. It’s 3 months. And I’m not joking. I’ve not felt better. I’ve slept better. I used to snore really bad. Um, the smoking that was horrible. It’s I’m not going to lie to you. I What is it? I stopped for about a year and last week I ended up getting some tobacco and I don’t even know why I did. But again, what is that? I’ll just I’m just have to get off it again. I feel absolutely disgusted with myself over it. But hey, it is what it is. Just keep going. Just keep trying. That’s all you can do. Yeah. I felt like I let myself down. I felt like I let everybody down. So, I started smoking. I stopped for a year. Why? Why? Why? Why did I start again? And it wasn’t it wasn’t something that was planned. It was literally the and I was smoking it. I don’t know. I don’t know. But fingers crossed. Let’s kick that kick kick that monkey to one side. Well, I’ve been smoking since I was like 12 years old. What do you do? Just Just keep going. Just keep trying. [Music] Just crossing over the canal now. Oh, definitely got to do another canal ride. This is some absolutely amazing amazing places. Got some really good sandwiches on the go. What’s your favorite sandwich? Mine has got to be corn beef and onion salad on thick cut bloomer bread with some some nice English mustard over the top. Not too much. I like the English mustard, but I also like the whole grain mustard as well. I’ll go with the English mustard on this one. And this this also is something I’ve not had for a long time and I just fancied it. What is it? I had peanut butter and jam sandwich and it was awesome. I loved it. Little bit of a treat. Peanut butter and jam sandwich on on uh Asda’s thick bread. Can’t afford Wobbits. As the thick cup, that’s where we’re at. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Let’s sort of stop the waffling and let’s put some effort into this ride. Oh my god. [Music] [Music] I’m glad the uh the camera’s got anti stabilizer on it because See a lot of um bumps and stuff. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] up into our parade. I could just do McDonald’s right now. Big Arch Burger. Liter of Coke. Big Arch Burger. Two cheeseburgers. Small fries for dieting. And well, now this is the end of the ride. I would like to say sorry for waffling. And it’s great going out for a ride, we hope you come with me again sometime tomorrow. Hey, you don’t have to pedal or anything. So, I’m going to cut right here near the church. And again, if you like the content, please comment, like, subscribe, all the other cringe things that you say. And stay safe, and I’ll see you again on the next ride. Peace.