Join me as I cycle along into Weston-Super-Mare via Birnbeck Pier. From here we will have lunch at Stones Cafe before cycling South and North along the promenade. Our homeward journey takes us along the old toll road through Kewstoke where you can pick up the the National Cycle Network Route 33 Pier to Pier Way. On route I also talk about how best to secure your expensive bicycle/e-bike.
As a 58 year old retired cycle fan I want to encourage more senior people to get on their bike, any bike and explore the outside world. I talk about my low budget cycle equipment showing how you don’t need to spend much to have a great time.
The emphasis of this video is also to make the most of the time we have, you will often hear me say “Everyday is a gift” and “Living the dream”.
So what are you waiting for, come along with me, get some idea’s and….if you don’t do anything else……get on your bike and welcome nature into your life.
Music by Bensound
Artist Yunior Arronte
License Code EODD450VP5M7LGIB
Okay, today is Wednesday the 24th of September, 2025, and I’ve got uh about a 3-hour slot to um to go out on my bike. So, I’m thinking that because it’s absolutely gorgeous today, I will cycle to Burnbeck Pier in Western Superare and then probably stop off for a cake and a um coffee or a panini or something and then go for a cycle ride along the prominard down to uphill Okay, turn around. Cycle back up the prominard and go along the toll road heading towards Q Stoke where I will return back home and that should be a nice little circuit. Um so if you like that sort of thing, please um come along with me for the journey. Um, I um I anticipate that I’m going to be away for about 3 hours on this journey. Uh, and um, as I say, the weather is gorgeous. Haven’t done uh, a video for a while due to family issues, but uh, hopefully we’re slowly resolving those. So, um, I would be great if I could do more of these types of videos in the future. So anyway, um I’ve got the bike out, the uh batter is all charged up. Um so we will um enjoy the glorious sunshine and uh we will live the dream and go for a glorious cycle ride. So I will catch up with you lers. Okay, so we are on Church Road. Um, got a bit of a squeaky back brake, which I’m not that happy about because there’s nothing worse than a squeaky back break. Anyway, this is Church Road heading into Western on the what I call the top road. And um we will make our way to uh Burn Beck Pier, which is about 3 miles away, is 2 and a half, something like that. Shouldn’t take long to get there. Like I said earlier, the weather is absolutely gorgeous. Ideal conditions for going on a nice bike ride and I’ve got about 3 hours. So, uh, I’m sure like all good bike rides, I can sneak in a coffee and something to eat. That’s what it’s all about. Enjoying the ride and being a Torian. Food has always got to play a part somewhere. Give way to this van. I think I don’t think he’s going to be giving way to me anytime soon. and he didn’t even thank me. Marvelous. Anyway, I’ll come back when we are closer to uh our destination which is uh Burn Peek Pier. This is quite a steep hill. So, Church Road and now on Spring Hill. I’ve got the uh power assist level quite low. So, the bike is making me do a lot of the work. I don’t know why I’ve got it on low actually cuz um for the distance we’re going to do today. I’m not going to be short of power or battery. So anyway, it’s good exercise, isn’t it? So, uh, yep, I’ll come back once we are closer to the seafront. We’re just going past, uh, the park on our left. Um, and I thought I’d just have a mention about some of the things that I’ve bought for my bike that have been a complete waste of time. And uh Ashkin Park, by the way, don’t know if I said it’s Ashkin Park on my left. Some of the things that I bought for this electric bike that have been complete waste of time and some things that have been absolutely game changer. So rather than buy one expensive lock that uh you know these D-locks and what have you. What I’ve done is I’ve bought uh uh one chain lock, one cable lock, a lock that you attach to your disc rotor, stops the front wheel from moving forwards or back wheel, and then a um oh, what do you call them? I’ll show you later. It’s like a a zip code. Um, and I use that for just popping into a shop quickly. But my reasoning, if you rely on one lock, if somebody wants to knit your bike, they’ll just cut through the um the tube on your bike to remove the lock and then sell the bike for parts. So you you buy an expensive lock for £100, £150. If they just want the parts, they’ll just cut the tube on the bike with uh a battery angle grinder. Bob’s your uncle. It’s literally seconds. So, my reasoning, I put the chain lock on the front of the bike somewhere and then I put the cable lock on the back of the bike somewhere. And then if I put the um the the lock that goes in the disc brake on the front or rear disc and then I’ve got the zip tie lock. You got four locks that you’ve got to try and find because my reasoning is that the longer it takes the person to get your bike moving, the harder it’s going to be for them to take your bike. So, by spending about £60 on four different locks, I think that’s going to be harder. my bike’s going to be harder to pinch than just relying on 150 pound Super Deluxe DLock. Uh, and I’ve also got a gadget that um, it’s a bit like a car alarm in a way. you can hide it on your bike and as soon as the bike moves it sets off an audible tone and um that was about 1520 on eB uh Amazon and it works really well. It works really well. So obviously locks are important. The next golden nugget is to have a mirror on your handlebars on the right hand side so you can see the traffic behind you without having to turn your head round all the time. Absolutely priceless. It really is. Thank you driver. So that is a bit of a must. um things that have been a complete waste of time. I would say I tried various different ways of avoiding punctures. from putting plastic tubes in the wheels, but then you get friction punctures to um uh buying tires that have got bit prevention inside. There’s all sorts of different permutations to try and avoid the dreaded puncture and especially of electric bikes because they are heavier. they are more prone to uh we’ll go Queens Roadway. It’s pretty up here and uh being so we’re on a bit of a scenic view. So this is Queens Road. Uh slightly different way into town but uh anyway pretty. So, the best thing that I found is putting a liquid into your inner tube. Um, like everything, it’s got its pros and cons, but the good thing about this is that it’s relatively cheap, easy to do, especially if you’ve got car type valves. Piece of cake to do. And the idea is as you cycle along, the liquid circulates around the inner tube so that if you were to get a puncture, then this liquid fills the gap. And uh you know, worst case scenario, you might have to change the inner tube when you get back home. But the idea is it will get you back home. So, I kind of like that and it’s so far it’s worked well for me. Um, like I say, electric bikes are heavy and uh if you got do a puncture, it’s so much easier to do it at home in the garage rather than in the middle of nowhere. So, I find that that liquid, it’s about 15 quid a bottle, but it’ll do three or four tires. That has worked well for me. Nothing’s perfect. There’s no, apart from getting a solid tire, there’s no uh way of avoiding punctures really. And then if you get a solid tire, you uh you get a rougher ride because it doesn’t absorb the bumps as much. So there’s no uh perfect answer. So my advice, go for the and you put it in the inner tube. Not not the wheel, the tire. You put it in the inner tube. It goes in the inner tube. But mine does anyway. Anyway, so uh yeah, I spent money on other things, but that one seems to be the best thing. So, I’ve got panas on my bike. And uh I’ve also got a bike trailer. I love the bike trailer cuz when I go camping, I haven’t got to worry about weight. I can carry tons of stuff trailer and it really is so much easier especially on electric bike. It’s superb. I seriously recommend a trailer if you’re going to be in fact I think it’ probably be cheaper to buy a trailer than spend the extra money buying super light equipment and uh and then having to worry about the weight of everything all the time. The only downside to a trailer is that when you go through some u bicycle lanes and stuff, um it can be awkward to get through the gates when you’ve got the added length of the trailer to the back of the bike. So, you might have to detach the trailer and that is a pain. There’s no getting around it. However, I’d rather do that and not have to worry about weight than spending lots of money buying super light kit that uh yeah. So, uh anyway, um trailers in the summer going on holiday. Fantastic. So, we’re heading down towards the seafront and I will switch you back on when we are closer to the pier. Burnback pier. Here we are. I think it’s going to need a lot of work. That’s going to take more than a liquor paint. So, uh anyway, Bernbeck Pier, it’s nice to see that uh the council are looking to um do it up. It looks as though they have um managed to gain some leveling up money from the government, which uh it’s true. They’ve done well to get money out of this government. 20 million pounds from the leveling up fund. Part of our ambitious place making vision. Well, it’s good that they’ve got the money and it looks as though it’s going to go towards Bernbeck Pier, Grove Park, as well as Marine Lake, the town center, and finally the Tropicana and Wayfinding. So, uh, that’s all good news. Let’s hope that the money is spent wisely. To be fair though, local authorities over the years have had their funding decimated and all of our public sector services have been absolutely hammered thanks to our our government over the last uh 20 years or so. Um anyway, could talk for hours about that. I don’t know why we find it hard to tax really wealthy people in this country, but uh anyway, that’s for another day. So, this is Bernbeck Pier and uh as you can see, well, you probably can’t, but in the background, we’ve got Cardiff over there. And then if we head further up, we’ve got uh Newport and uh over to Wales. But uh anyway, Burnbeck Pier, we’ll keep an eye to see how that progresses over time. So anyway, onwards. Right, we are now coming down onto the Prominard area. This is uh the National Cycle Route 33 if anybody’s interested. And uh I decided there’s a cafe called Dr. Fox’s Tea Rooms and uh they do a rather nice coffee and a panini and I think that’s what I’m going to have a coffee and a panini. So, uh we’ll head for the tea room. Dr. Fox’s Lovely day. Not very windy. Looks as though the season and uh hardly a breeze. Isn’t retirement great? Every day is a Saturday. I kid you not. Anyway, I don’t know if you can see the uh pier in front. Oh, maybe the tide’s going out. It’s going out. Okay. By burn pier. It’s obviously uh more uh more of the water by the uh the old pier. Anyway, I digress. So, we’ve got one cafe here which is very nice called Stones. We will go there another day. But as far as today’s concerned, we’re just going to carry on. Is it open? Is Dr. Fox’s tea rooms open? It’s not. Maybe we will go to Stones then. Let’s have a look. Let’s have a look what’s happening here. So, today is sorry, we’re closed for essential maintenance. [Music] Okay. Right. I think we might have to go to Stones, which is equally a nice place. God, what a squeaky break I’ve got. I am going to have to do something about that squeaky brake. The only problem I’ve got is where do I lock the bike? Anyway, here we are at Stones. Okay, so here we are inside Stones. Just give you a quick overview as to what it’s like. Very nice food, very friendly people. It’s quite a large cafe and uh there’s loads of seating area. And I am on table two. I like table two because I can see my bike outside just out there. So, here is a quick look at the menu. Yeah. Breakfast served from 9 till midday and hot drinks. [Music] That’s the address there. Contact number Stones Cafe. Very nice and lunchtime menu. [Music] My coffee is on its way. Fantastic. Lovely. Thank you very much. [Music] [Music] [Music] That was good. Okay. Yeah. So that uh that was Stones as you can see behind me cafe. Very nice. And um just over there to my right is where you can find Dr. Fox’s T-rooms, but unfortunately closed today. But anyway, I thought this would be an ideal opportunity to show you how I lock my bike up in public. So, one of the problems is that if you get a D-lock, if they can’t crack the Dlock, then what they’ll do is they will saw a gap through your metal frame of your bicycle or in this case on the um on the rail there. They’ll just saw that cuz it’s softer. the metal softer than the D-Lock. Although the D-Lock is very good quality, they will just uh find the weakest link, which is probably going to be the bicycle frame, and then they’ll just break it up for parts and stuff. Anyway, so my solution is I have a wire lock, which has got quite a decent um pad lock on it, key operated. So, is this foolproof? Definitely not. But it’s going to take a short amount of time to get through that. Once they’ve got through that, they then got to get through a chain lock. This one here. Okay. Is that going to be easy to get through? Yes, it will. However, it all takes time. So once they’ve done that, they still can’t move the bike. And the reason for that is that I’ve got a lock here on the disc brake. So you’re going to have to look hard to find that one. And then if you have found that one, the next one you’ve got to find is this sit lock here. Okay. And on top of the zip lock, I’ve also got a gadget attached to the bike that sends off an alarm if it detects movement from the bike. Uh an audible alarm and uh makes the right racket. So uh I have got one, two, three, four, five things now. Um, all of them are quite cheap, but when you add them all together, it’s quite a robust system and it’s going to take time for somebody to identify all four locks. And of course, they’re going to move the bike. So, you got the audio alarm as well. So, a lot cheaper than just spending 150 quid, £100 on a DLO. not as robust as the D-lock. However, the D-lock, you go for the weakest link, which will either be the bicycle frame that you cut to release the D-lock and then walk the bike away, or they’ll go for the um pole or whatever the D-lock is attached to, if that’s the weaker link. So, you know, there’s no ideal answer, but I just think that uh the more obstacles you put in the way, the more likely the longer it takes them to um to take the bike, the more chance I’ve got at um catching them at it. And certainly with the um audio alarm as well that uh works on motion movement. Uh I think that’s pretty good. I think that’s pretty robust. So, that’s my answer anyway and it seems to work well. Anyway, so what we’re going to do now is we’re going to uh follow the um prominard and the cloud’s coming over. We will go all the way down to uh near uphill, turn around and then come all the way back again. And we will then go along the old toll road through to Q Stoke. That is the plan. So uh I hope you liked um Sans the cafe uh sorry Stones what we’re talking about and uh onwards. So, here we are then along the Prominard. Looks as though the um sun’s hiding from us a bit. That was a lovely meal at uh Stones Cafe. I had a bacon and bree and uh cranberry. It was uh very nice. Nice bit of salad as well and a coffee. Can’t remember how much it was, but didn’t strike me as being overly expensive. So, uh, if you are in Western, um, you get a nice view at Stones Cafe. It’s a decent size. I’d say it’s about twice the size of Dr. Fox’s tea cafe, maybe slightly bigger than that. Um, but, uh, a nice place if you’re visiting to stop off and, uh, have something to eat there. Anyway, in front we’ve got the winter gardens and I still got my squeaky break. Marvelous. And uh sun’s coming out now. Looks as though we might get a bit of rain later on. So, we are uh approaching the front of the the pier. Going past the winter gardens now. Quite nice uh time of the day. Now it’s uh no school kids around so lot less uh traffic on the uh prominard. Anyway, I shall keep quiet for a bit and uh we’ll enjoy the view of the prominard. [Music] Hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] to go back to each other. So, here we are at the end of the prominard. Um, that’s the car park on the beach. Squeaky brakes. It looks as though we’ve got a hovercraft that might be going out. So, this is a British hovercraft. Engines on. Fans going around. Up it goes. Heat. Heat. I don’t know how well this is going to come out. I just noticed another hovercraft. This one’s yellow. The other one was red. How cool is that? Tidal. Tidal Pro looks pretty cool. There it goes. How wonderful. So, the other hovercraft is miles down the beach. So I think what we’ll do is we will head back along the prominard. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Okay, I think uh we’ll go onto the road now and um we’ll go the roadway back. We’ll head for the toll road and uh we’ll get a bit of speed up. We’ll go the toll road back through Q Stoke. Wow. Yeah. So this is the old toll road when I was um probably about 10 45. No, it’s about 45 years ago. I can remember we’re from the Midlands and we would travel to Western for the day and we came along this road and it was a toll road then. hasn’t been a tall road for quite a long time, but in those days it was a toll road and I can remember dad paying some money and we got a ticket that permitted us to travel along this road. This is a nice way out of Western. Very green as you can see. And this will take us to Q Stoke. And we got Sand Bay to the left. And the sun’s gone in. Marvelous. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Here [Music] we are coming into Q Stoke. [Music] [Music] Why? Why? Why we reverse out? Marvelous. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Music] Right. So, this is where you would turn left if you were doing the peer-to-peer. I started my peer-to-peer video just down the road from here. So, if you haven’t seen it, and you’ve got 40 minutes, I can’t remember how long it went on for, but uh that’s a good video to watch. Not that I’m biased, of course. Wonderfully edited. Kind of edited. You learn as you go. Hopefully, this one shouldn’t take as long to uh to edit. Right. Well, we’re coming back into uh housing estate. So, we’re almost home. Um, so just to confirm, we uh we left home and we went along the top road. Oh, what a squeaky brakes. Dear me. And we went to um Bernbeck Pier. I got a motorist behind me that’s itching to get past. Itching. Got to get past. Got to get past. And uh anyway, we went to Bernbeck Pier and then we had a lovely sandwich and a coffee at Stones Cafe. Dr. Fox’s uh tea rooms is equally as nice just up from Stones Cafe. Then we went along the um Prominard down to the south end part where we saw the hovercraft turned around back along the uh Prominard heading northbound and we’ve come across the uh along the old toll road through Q Stoke. done a round circle. So, hope you enjoyed the video. Like, subscribe if you do that sort of thing. And I should look forward to uh new doing another video soon. Thanks for watching.