CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

Must be summer

(33 posts)
  • Started 10 years ago by chdot
  • Latest reply from Charterhall

No tags yet.


  1. chdot
    Admin

  2. steveo
    Member

    Its not raining yet...

    Posted 10 years ago #
  3. chdot
    Admin

    "Its not raining yet..."

    See other thread -

    http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=10229

    Posted 10 years ago #
  4. alanr
    Member

    I hope it's not selfish to wish for rain, but it does give you free cooling on the Lanark Road ascent up to Gillespie Crossroads. I hope we get some decent lightning tonight, and not merely rain. It certainly is nice out there ..

    Posted 10 years ago #
  5. SRD
    Moderator

    Just wishing I had shorts (a) it is sticky (b) better for riding in rain, when I remembered that my baggy cycling shorts were here in office.

    ta da! first shorts-wearing of the year (run for your lives)

    Posted 10 years ago #
  6. MeepMeep
    Member

    No scaring the natives, SRD!

    Posted 10 years ago #
  7. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I'm hoping this recent combination of sun and showers will be better for the garden than last year's combination of showers and showers

    Posted 10 years ago #
  8. steveo
    Member

    Well its doing my grass a world of good. Just need to try and hack it back so I can mow it now. Any one got a goat I could borrow...

    Posted 10 years ago #
  9. steveo
    Member

    Its not raining yet...

    ...is now...

    Posted 10 years ago #
  10. allebong
    Member

    Was on the train from Glasgow earlier this afternoon. Thought I was coming down with a fever, the sweat was dripping off me like mad and I kept getting those horrible hot flushes that make you want to heave. Just after the ticket inspector had come through she went on the tannoy...."we apologise for the temperature in the front coach, this is due to an air conditioning fault"....so at least it wasn't just me melting down. This was past Linlithgow so there wasn't even any point in moving to the next car.

    I did rather enjoy the cycle from Haymarket though, for once I welcomed the drizzle. Excellent way to cool off even in cotton clothes.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  11. lionfish
    Member

    Just about to cycle home - looks a little damp out there...

    Posted 10 years ago #
  12. Greenroofer
    Member

    Little bit OT, but the other guide to summer is the number of bikes out. Did this video for a project I'm involved in at work, but I've never seen so many people on bikes on Gogar Station Road: it must be the POP effect (and it being summer!)

    http://www.naden.de/blog/bbvideo-bbpress-video-plugin -->

    [+] Embed the video | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQk9SxgeaZM

    " target="_blank">Video Download
    Get the Video Player

    It is interesting that with this 'critical mass' on the road, it actually becomes quite tricky for cars to get past.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  13. chdot
    Admin

    "quite tricky for cars to get past"

    Really ought to be closed to motors - just a rat run.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  14. HankChief
    Member

    The first thing that needs to be fixed is the road surface on Gogar Station Road. (Once there is a nice surface, then it can be closed to traffic...)

    CEC have assessed the road condition but it doesn't rank high enough to be resurfaced...

    Don't know the specifics of how the assessment is done, but I think that not having a bus route going down it counts against it and that no consideration is taken of it being well used by cyclist (and 'rat run' cars)

    Not a fun road to cycle down in daylight and truly scary during winter commutes.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  15. Dougie
    Member

    Must be summer, my shoes were still wet from Monday when I put them on today

    Posted 10 years ago #
  16. MeepMeep
    Member

    My barometer is how busy the changing rooms are and free space (or lack thereof) in/on the bike racks.

    The abysmal road surface is very evident even on the video but I can't say I'm shocked. More apathetic. Given the quality of some of the repairs on the roads I've seen over the past few months (e.g. "let's dump a load of tar here, lads - it's alright, we'll leave the traffic to pit it down"), nothing short of a complete overhaul of our roads is likely to sort them out. Tempted to say that we've passed the point of no return with many of them.

    Also wanted to note the nice wide berth the Citroen people carrier gave you all c. 0:51 in.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  17. SRD
    Moderator

    just got caught in hail on the links. again. this time in shorts and tshirt. OW.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  18. MeepMeep
    Member

    It looked (and sounded) particularly vicious through the window. For once I'm glad I'm still working at 19:10!

    Posted 10 years ago #
  19. Greenroofer
    Member

    @MeepMeep. Just as everywhere in Edinburgh, most of the people in cars are considerate and doing their best. In my video they were coping well with a difficult situation of four bikes spaced out along a narrow road. I ride the route every day, and I'd say that was the norm: it's not pleasant, but most people give enough room. Probably about once a week someone does something a bit stupid, and about once every couple of months I get a fright from something really stupid. Even on the ride on this video, though, at about 1:50 (hard to see because it's speeded up) I had to assertively take a very strong primary position because the car behind me was gunning its engine in preparation for trying to squeeze through beside us on the single-track bridge. You'll see it come flying past after we'd crossed the bridge.

    @chdot: my solution to your suggestion is a single bollard in the middle of that same bridge over the railway.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  20. allebong
    Member

    Count this as good news: Freelands road is being resurfaced. Went out to Ratho by the canal this evening and decided to come back this way. There was a rudimentary barrier setup at the Ratho end - didn't think much of it so kept going. Just past the housing estate there's a brand new and very lovely surface been laid down. It runs as far as the farmhouse here:

    http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll=55.927859,-3.369587&spn=0.004803,0.013937&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=55.927859,-3.369587&panoid=eeGKGx_o01-dL2lhF_mdNA&cbp=12,254.88,,0,1.73

    There's a proper 'road closed' sign at this end, but the work is 99% done, and I slid past easily on the bike:

    Compare that to the previous surface as seen in google...much better. Hopefully this whole area will be getting redone.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  21. Snowy
    Member

    @SRD Me too. Ow indeed.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  22. AKen
    Member

    CEC have assessed the road condition but it doesn't rank high enough to be resurfaced...

    I don't know how repairs are prioritised but a quiet, dead-end road I use(up past Baberton Mains to Donkey Lane) recently had all the pot-holes fixed - and properly fixed too, not just with tar dumped in them. The stretch of road serves about 5 houses. More often than not, when I use it, there's no motorised traffic at all.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  23. Charterhall
    Member

    They said on the news yesterday that this has been the coldest spring since 1979. Can anyone remember, what was the rest of that year like ? I'm hoping that somebody will be able to tell us that after the cold spring the rest of the year was glorious !

    (I was still at school in 1979, it was the year before my O-levels, I've no recollection of the weather. And anyway it was before I became a settler).

    Posted 10 years ago #
  24. amir
    Member

    My recollection of the seventies and early eighties was that all summers were warm and sunny and that the winters were cold with snow good enough for sledging.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  25. fimm
    Member

    Wasn't '79 the year they had a drought? Or was that earlier?
    The only thing I remember from '79 is the election of a certian Prime Minister. Mind you I was only 7 years old...

    Posted 10 years ago #
  26. SRD
    Moderator

    "My recollection of the seventies and early eighties was that all summers were warm and sunny and that the winters were cold with snow good enough for sledging."

    Yup. Pretty much.

    My bit of Canada almost as affected by gulfstream as here though, and past two summers have been decidedly dodgy.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  27. crowriver
    Member

    '76 was the drought. '77 very hot summer too, lots of snow in winter. 2000AD came out, Star Wars too.

    '79, I don't remember the weather being particularly noteworthy. I do recall Ska music in the charts and Quadrophenia at the pictures sparking a Mod revival.

    Posted 10 years ago #
  28. '76 was hot hot hot (my mum mentions it from time to time as I was born in the May of that year, so she had a rather heat-uncomfortable newborn for the summer).

    Swarms of ladybirds on the pavements (as in really, truly proper swarms).

    Posted 10 years ago #
  29. Baldcyclist
    Member

    I'll happily take this cold spring in return for a warm summer, at least it's been dry! Mind you the start of last year was dry too, and it was about this time last year that the rain started, and didn't stop for 6 months...

    The 70s, yep, endless summers, and snow that came up to your thighs when walking to school (which was still open).

    Posted 10 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply »

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin