Trail Talks: On Your Doorstep (POV Biking Vlog – Episode 57)

*Today we’re taking it slow and steady and exploring the park, right on my doorstep*

Welcome to Trails O’Life! In this biking vlog series. we do everything from relaxing gravel paths to muddy bridleways, this is all about enjoying the ride, the views, and having a good chat along the way. Join me every Wednesday and Saturday for a trip through lovely natural surroundings from the comfort of your house, all in lovely 4K 60fps goodness.

✅ *If you’re enjoying the content* please consider dropping a like and subscribe! It really helps the channel grow.
➡️ *SUBSCRIBE HERE:* https://www.youtube.com/@TrailsoLife
🍺 Show your support and get involved: https://patreon.com/TrailsoLife

### // IN THIS EPISODE

We’re taking it slow today, with a scenic ride through Dearne Valley Park, taking the occasional turn off the main path to look at the views. It truly is a lovely bit of natural land and hopefully you enjoy the journey with me!

### // TIMESTAMPS / CHAPTERS

0:00 – Towards the sun
4:23 – Dearne Valley Country Park
6:40 – Wednesday Rebels
9:19 – Into the woods
16:10 – Riverside
18:02 – Offroad
22:42 – New objective
24:37 – Scrotes
25:30 – Storebound

### // WATCH MORE FROM TRAILS O’LIFE

📺 *The Full “Trail Talks” Playlist:* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wmAO-P1eUM&list=PLV41u9BadgFsBtDr3Yias1sWBuS7FmAbd
🏞️ *My Favourite Ride So Far:* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0Ib67ceOPk
🗺️ 🗺️ *Cycling Across Every Bridge in London:*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT8vttTZWFY

### // MY GEAR & KIT

My Bike: Carrera Vengeance E (for now)
Main Camera: DJI Osmo Action 4
Drone: DJI Mini 4 Pro, DJI Flip & DJI Neo
Microphone: DJI Mic Mini
My Tracker: Fitbit Charge 6 & Strava

### // CONNECT

Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/147847208
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trailsolife
Patreon: https://patreon.com/TrailsoLife

### // ABOUT TRAILS O’LIFE

Trails O’Life is a UK-based cycling channel focused on chilled-out bike vlogs, scenic trail rides, and discovering the best routes (and pubs!) our countryside has to offer. Whether it’s mountain biking, gravel riding, or just a simple cycle along a canal, my Trail Talks series is all about escaping the daily grind and enjoying the journey.

Perfect for those who love cycling, nature, and exploring the UK (and sometimes beyond!)

#TrailsOLife #TrailTalks #eBike #Yorkshire #CyclingVlog #vlog #mtb

Hello episode. You know what? I’m going to go out of this field. Why not? [Music] It’s getting to the point now where I have to YouTube what episode I did last or what’s been uploaded so I know what I’m doing. Right. Episode 57. Okay. And I’ve got no plan and I’m just going towards the sun for a lovely lunchtime stroll. Sun’s out. Uh it is it is quite cold, but I don’t know. I just fancied getting out and just having a quick hour before me day continues. Uh yeah, when sun’s out like that and it’s uh very green, it’s hard not to want to do something. So I actually don’t have much to talk about today. So it’s going to be very wing it in the moment of the thing. But yeah, I’m going to probably make my way over towards D Valley Country Park and just do just do some little laps of there and see what there is to there is to look at. [Music] I was looking at my calendar and obviously I’m going holiday already very soon and I’m like, “Oh, wow. I need to get like it’s got like four episodes out very quickly.” So, I best get a move on or I’m going to You guys are going to be without one on a particular particular day. So, I’ve got today planned. I’ve got another little ride on Friday going to my mom’s for Halloween. Uh me mate Alex is coming up well coming down from Halt Whistle to have another another Saturday ride with me and I should be able to get one more in. We’ll see. [Music] Yeah. Uh I’m finding it hard to do rides at the uh in the evening because it’s it just looks doggger, doesn’t it? That the quality is just awful. What’s the point in going through all effort of filming in 4K and messing around color grading and blah blah blah just for it to look pixelated mess. So, I’m not going to do a lot of it. Or at least not until I get this new new action cam. We’ll see what happens. I’m going to go a long river. That’s what I’m going to do. Did this the other day, but the other way around. Today is a very water-based water-based episode. [Music] Um, what was I going to say? Uh yes, here we go. So, I was talking to Phil the other day and uh he said sometimes when he watches my episodes on telly, like obviously they’re all full 4K and whatever, but it says they look proper pixelated and shitty. I’m like, what? When I render my episodes off, I I give them a quick skim through, make sure it’s all okay. I’m like, right, sound. And on the actual PC, the file that I’ve I’ve used, I’ve exported, they’re usually about between 18 and 25 GB, they look absolutely perfect. And I mean, crisp crisp beyond belief. I upload them to YouTube. However, YouTube’s got another thing coming. And they’re basically just YouTube’s compression system just absolutely butchers it and makes it look shike. It might be because I’m a small channel. It might be because of something else. But I’ve been doing a bit of a a bit of searching and apparently there’s two two compression types and one is like a premium compression. Um, and there’s certain parameters you’ve got to hit before it’ll do that. So, I’m going to try export my next video. This one proper chunky. I mean, like 180 megabits a second. I’m going to upscale it to 8K. Even though it’s only 4K, I’ll just double the scale of the composition, render that, do a little test, and see if it works. I don’t think it will, but we’ll see. [Music] Right, we’re following this river. Going to keep going that way. For some reason, I was thinking of just going across the grass, but doesn’t look very enticing, but we’ll give it a go anyway. Not much of a grass rider, [Music] barrel rider. We’ll see what there is. I don’t think there’ll be anything, but So, we’re now in Durn Valley Country Park. And obviously, you’ve seen me go around this place a million times. Uh, is that accessible? doesn’t look it, is it? It’s a bit dingy, but you know what? We’ll go for it. We’ll go for it. [Music] Oh, I’m only doing this cuz I’m fully fully covered. Not in any shorts. Oh, duckies. I’ll do. No. [Music] Uh, I just come straight back out. Okay, no worries. Anything but the beaten path. [Music] I don’t really want to go too close to all yobs down at the skate park laughing at me with me silly camera on fact. Yeah, I’ll just bed up here. Oh god, they look too hard. [Music] Realize I’ve been doing pretty a It does actually look quite nice down there. Realize I’ve been doing pretty rubbish with my uh 75 mile a week goal. I don’t think I’ve hit it for a few weeks. So, I’m going to try and pull me socks up there. [Music] That’s why I’m out. Another reason why I’m out. Even if it’s just a quick 10 mileer today, still helps. [Music] Oh, coming coming away from river now. Pond is closed on Wednesdays. Oh. Oh, it’s a Wednesday. Wednesday. It’s full of rebels. [Music] [Music] Not actually going anywhere in particular. I’m just venturing. [Music] I want to see what’s this way. Never actually walked down here, so might be awesome. Might might take us into the middle of nowhere. [Music] It looks kind of cool. Oh, you know what? I think it might come out. I don’t think it’s going to be accessible by bike, though. Oh, look at this. Yeah. So, I think it comes out at the main road, but little bench, but I don’t think you can do it by bike. I think it gets quite thin, but we’ll have a look anyway. [Music] I’ll go back up up up there. If not, I don’t know. We’ll wing it. Would be kind of useful to know. [Music] if not for riding, just for a walk anyway. Oh dear. Well, um, so I just realized uh last night or this morning I posted my London episode without the animated map at the end and I’m actually quite annoyed cuz I spent a fair bit of time doing that one and uh yeah, I’m just like, “Oh, okay. Okay.” So, I posted the full video on um Instagram and on Patreon if anybody does want to look at the map. It is quite interesting. At least I think so. Yeah. Look at this. I’m going to be able to get through bike. It is exactly back to where we just come, but it’s still worth checking out. Oh, yeah. You can. Perfect. There we go. Genuinely didn’t know this were here. And I’ve biked bike this way bloody hundreds of times. Nice. So, [Music] I think I’ll turn right here and see where this takes us right on my doorstep. Load of new stuff. [Music] Oh, I’m not going up there. What’s this? Local wildlife of Durn Valley Park. PP strailbat. [Music] Um, so it goes up across there. Can I just cut over this little stream? [Music] Not sinking in. [Music] Oh jeez. Ow. [Music] Yeah, I think one of the first days I got the electric bike and I I came through here, I tried going up there, pushed up them steps and I kind of just got a bit stuck and I had to come back down caked in nettles and thorns and all all sorts of stuff. Yeah, look at this. It’s beautiful. [Music] Sometimes it’s nice just to take a step back and explore what’s on your doorstep. Quite like it. Look at it. Oh, it’s partly partly autumn’s fault. It looks so nice about middle of winter or spring. It looks a sludgy mess down here. But, uh, I’m on board for now. [Music] All right. What’s there to talk about? Not a lot, really. Just do this for a bit of fresh air, I suppose. Get out and have a weander. Ah, [Music] thank you very much. Yeah, me uh the crank sensor uh torque sensor is absolutely knackered. I’m really going to struggle. Maybe I can take an inch before I go on holiday and when I come back it’ll be fixed hopefully. Uh steps that way. that I’m not going there. Yeah, today is not about endurance or about speed or about to out. I’m just doing a couple of Well, I’ve just done a bit of exploring. I’ve walked around a lot of this, but a lot of it looks quite similar. It’s easy to forget what you have and haven’t done. Uh it does look really nice though. Sun glistening through [Music] roots trying to kill me at their feet. [Music] Oh, there’s a bit of hill coming up. Can we get to the top or we’re going to be blasted by stairs? Don’t know what’s at the top. [Music] Yep. Yep. Yep. Uh where am I? This is Mont Breton, I think. Um, we’ll go back in there. It’s too plain for me. There a right turn just here. So, we’ll do this. [Music] Yep. Yes. Nice. [Music] Lot of ducking involved. [Music] That’s well nice. [Music] So I do have these brain fart episodes every now and again. I get a very impulsive urge to go out and ride and think that the conversation will just w and flow. But uh sometimes it just doesn’t. But there’s no harm in just looking around as there squirrel, but you can’t see it. But bit of chunker. [Music] We’ll go left here. [Music] I don’t think I’ve been around this bit. Bloody cliffs and everything. [Music] Very uh very cozy. So, we’ve booked a we booked an already to Malta. That’s where we’re going. meet me and Jess for a little uh anniversary excursion. So, I think it’s going to be really nice. Though, we didn’t even know the country existed until uh well, not not existed. We didn’t really know what it were about until a couple week ago. This is very unlike me. Whoa. Oh, I’ve got half a bloody branch in me back of me bike. Okay, this I’ll just fix that, shall I? [Music] I know I can’t go that way cuz it’s straight on to um big steps up the canal. Big steps to left. Okay, so we’ll just carry on. Did like the fact that I rode down these though. [Music] really know what I’m doing. I’m just enjoying it. [Music] Come here, Mac. Hi. [Music] [Music] Packed my bike in the wrong place. [Music] Nice little break. [Music] Not that I need a break cuz I’ve not really done far, but it’s always good to take a minute to take your surroundings in as opposed to disrespecting them. [Music] Where now? Where do we go? Left or right? Like right is a bit dull, but well, no, not dull. Not dull. That’s the wrong word. But you know what? I’m going to go. Yeah. Right. Oh, I’m indecisive. This is why I like to have a plan. [Music] Never been this way to have a we going to come. probably going to come just just uh exactly where I were. Oh, yep. It is. Oh, okay. I’m going to come back that way to get home. So, I’m going to cross over here and go that way and just see what see where see where it takes me, I suppose. Any [Music] little curved path that’s not the path I’m used to, I’m just going to take and just keep going and going and going until we get home, I suppose. Let’s sneak up on this crow. Are you ready? Kaka kaka kaka kaka kaka. Right. [Music] What’s that? It looks like traffic lights. What? [Music] Oh, it’s different routes. I thought it were traffic lights. [Music] Circular walk. Circular walk. Circular walk. H. Nice. I’m going to go um to the canal. Go on then. [Music] You never know what mysterious paths might awake awaiting us. Awaiting us. Don’t know. I’m just going to stop speaking because I uh apparently I can’t. [Music] I do actually have a bit of time off after I come back from my holiday still booked in. Originally, we plan to do a bit of a like a long haul further further a field excursion, but uh yeah, we’re settling Malta. So, we’re looking for really looking forward to I think it’s going to be an awesome holiday, but um I’ve actually still got a lot of time uh time off after I’ve come back. So, I might might might depending on what what I have to do in my own life, I might uh turn right here and see what’s down here. I might um do a special episode somewhere. A bollocks. [Music] Well, we were just over there and I said, “Oh, it’s not that way because of stairs. Just go back.” I feel like a ctographer. There’s a big word for you. I don’t know if it’s the right word, but feel like it is. [Music] [Music] I don’t come this way very often. Usually go up there towards Oakwell. So I’m not 100% sure where we are. Uh [Music] yeah, things that I don’t know, things I could do on that on my time off. I do like the the idea of that triangular bakewell to um Buckston thing. I also like the idea of getting train to leads and doing the canals to Hebdon Bridge. That could be very nice. Um [Music] I don’t know where that goes. Go on then. We’ll give it a go. Just try to not go over the same path. It’s like playing floor is lava with yourself. [Music] Change of plan. Very quick change of plan. Um, my MS needs something. So, I’m going to go going to go do that. I’m going to go fetch you what she needs. So, I’m going to quick bike to Oh, god. I don’t want to get stuck here. I Yeah, that’s not bikable, unfortunately. Quick bike to stay foot and back. So, if you’re in it for the ride, you might as well join me. Ah, where am I? Uh, D Valley. Is there somewhere better I can go? I’m nearly at Asda. In fact, yeah, I’ll I’ll bike to Asda. Oh, I got my chain. Oh, sorry, Lou. [Music] You know what? I’m going to do it. I’m going to go home and get the chain. I’m going to back test for her. [Music] Why not? I’ve got three bars of battery. I didn’t I didn’t charge them since last time I went out. So yeah, these three bars will have to do. Uh I could power back home. Grab me grab me lock. Oh, then I’m opposite way to Tesco. Uh no, it’ll be fine. It’ll be fine. I’ll do it. Fine. Right. Okay. So, we’re going to take this new little route all the way back to back to home, I guess. See, I knew something would come up, some kind of job. I always like it when I’ve got an objective. So, do you guys have any suggestions for uh don’t necessarily have to be a challenge, but any kind of like uh goals or routes that I should try and do or I don’t want challenges that are going to absolutely tan me and and kill. But I I like the idea of just simple things. Uh not adapted to 50 mileer, but I quite I quite enjoy little little time things. Uh I quite enjoy going from one place to another. which obviously is just biking in general. I don’t even recognize as a sentence, but do you know what I mean? Like uh having an objective and a destination. Uh those a lot of the oneway trips that I do. Yeah. I really really like them. No firearms and no motorcycleycling bugger. [Music] I watched a a video on the old social media the other day and it’s a it’s local antique shop uh near me getting getting robbed middle of the night and it’s these two absolute scrots and they’re just arguing and like she actually she actually named him as well. I think she says like Jason or something like that. Touch me again Jason and you’ll know about it. something like that. I was just like, it’s so disappointing, man. They’re kicking and smashing these things through. But the scariest thing of it all, they take some like antique bloody shotguns and stuff. That is terrifying. That in the wrong hands, man. Oh, they are the wrong hands. I dread to think what they’ve done with it. You know what? I won’t put it past and put it on bloody Facebook marketplace for sale. God, humans. [Music] Look, some smoke coming out of there. [Music] Jesus. Oh, that’s not that’s not healthy. Oh god. Well, [Music] I’m going to finish this episode with a very exciting adventure to Tesco going back. This is an excuse to get a bit more sun, I suppose. Yeah. Uh, I got back to get me chain and I were going to check Straa and pause it. I looked at it. It were already paused from like 10 seconds after starting. Well, 45 seconds after leaving me house. So yeah, no data from today, which is not actually it’s quite funny cuz there’s loads like squiggles on the map, but apparently I did it in 45 seconds. [Music] Cheers, buddy. Hey, uh I popped to Range yesterday or B&M, one of them. I can’t remember which one it were. And I bought uh one of those pressure things, you know, for spraying weeds and stuff. So, I bought a pressure sprayer and I bought some weed killer. I went to the counter and the guy was very friendly. Hey, mate. How are you? How you doing? I’m fine, mate. How are you? He’s like, yeah, all good. What are you up to then with this? I just looked at it. I like, well, just doing some it’s going to be sunny for a couple of days. Cold, but sunny, so I’m just going to do a bit spray a bit of weeding. He’s like, all right, mate. Nice one. just like I couldn’t get my head around it or ticket this or or genuinely curious I don’t know did I did I did it mean like generally what am I up to like oh to today having a good day or I thought it meant the item specific anyway dumbh [Music] so yes I uh I remembered what I were going to talk about earlier so today I’ve got me I’m going to a networking event like a business networking event and it’s the first one I’ve been to since uh before COVID uh before the pandemic and believe believe what you want but uh back before Rona I used to be quite oh god calling it rona like it’s now but it’s a obviously global pandemic that killed millions but uh yes we uh I used to be quite decent at networking events and speaking and and doing workshops and tutorials and all that kind of stuff about film and animation and all the things that I love. And for some reason spending however many months we did in lockdown, I just seem to have lost it. I I lost it all completely. And this is kind of like a doing this channel is a bit a bit of a get out and do it and get back get back good at talking again and all that kind of stuff. It’s taking a long time because I’m useless, but yeah. And I went to one networking event after lockdown were lifted. And I think it was a Costa or Starbucks or something like that in one of private rooms about 50 or 60 people there. You took it in turns just to do one minute like elevator pitch what you do and how you can help somebody. And I just crumbled before it was even my turn. Pretended to go toilet, put the cup down, walked out and I was just I could not handle it. I just left. And I’m like well that’s uh that’s a part of me I’m never getting back. And uh yeah, it’s strange to look back. So, I’m a bit nervous about today, but I think I’ll be all right. [Music] Right. BB. [Music] Right. I’ve got like 5 minutes to get home, so I best uh I best bounce. Yeah, I know this has not been uh the most usual episode I’ve ever done, but surely it’s got to be better than none. Then again, I’m very much a quality over quantity kind of guy, but I’m also a uh regularity. Is that the right word? No, that’s not the right word. But reliable. Reliable. I’m never going to get over here, am I? I’m just going to go down to cross road again. That looks to it. It’s too busy to be funny around. Right. So, yeah, like I said, it’s not been uh you know, bells and whistles, but I have managed to get out of the house. I’ managed to get a bit of fresh air, chat to you all lot up for a little bit. Even though it’s a very one-way conversation, it’s still conversation nonetheless. Yes, I’m going to bounce from here and just like cruise along, turn me music up, and then uh go for it. Yes. Hopefully have a good rest of your week and whatnot, and I will see you in the next one. Thank you for joining me once again. Take care. Bye. [Music]