Coming out of the Christmas holidays and dealing with the pressures of work, I could really do with some positive stuff about cycling. So here is your opportunity to cheer me and others up. Hopefully this thread won't sink too fast!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
The positive thread
(37 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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Park SPK-1.
Looks lovely.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Well...
The thing is you know (some of) the positives as you cycle to work and choose your route according to the weather and get exercise and check out the wildlife and report here and find like-minded people.
But that's probably not what you had in mind when you started this thread!...
Posted 11 years ago # -
New year sales - got some bargain tyres from planet x on their way to me this week.
Posted 11 years ago # -
You haven't fallen off your bike yet in 2014! ;)
Posted 11 years ago # -
There's an unicycle for sale at Soul Cycles. One of you folk could buy it and come to a PY session wearing a clown outfit. That would cheer me up.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Calling Uberuce!
Posted 11 years ago # -
Today as I was leaving work, ten to five, there was still light in the sky and a blackbird was singing near the bike shed. A sign of things to come :)
Posted 11 years ago # -
I'm glad this thread exists as I've recently lost several electrons.
Now, where's my coat....
Posted 11 years ago # -
I have a lovely ride home today, thank you*. It was calm and clear (albeit still dark). I love trundling along the tow path in the pitch dark in my own little pool of self-generated light.
*I'm sure there's another thread for this somewhere ;-)
Posted 11 years ago # -
Funny story: One of the first velocipedes brought to Britain from France (in 1868) was taken to the workshops of an innovative engineer called James Starley who spontaneously invented the now time-honoured response to seeing someone's new bike: "We all gather round. Mr Turner, our manager, "Ole Starley" the mechanical genius, myself and a few awestruck officials...Yes there the thing stood; no one ventured to touch it When Starley first did touch it he lifted it up and complained about the weight".
Quoted in It's All About the Bike by Robert Penn.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Thank god with our modern materials we are able to make very light yet strong bikes, which has of course completely put an end to all this weight weenie nonsense...erm...
I look forward to a future utopia where you still have to chain your bike up, not because of crime, but because it'd blow away in a light breeze. Oh how we will laugh then at our carbon fibre nonsense that meant the whole bike weighed more than a single kilogram.
Anecdotally, the biggest shock I have ever seen a roadie in was when I invited him to lift up my stupidly overbuilt and overaccessorised touring bike, this was before the panniers went on as well.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Amir, be happy that what you ride is called a bicycle. You could have been setting off to work tomorrow on your dandy-horse, pedestrian curricle, dandy-charger or pedestrian accelerator.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Let's see, no wind this morning, spiffing slipstream from the no25 heading down Dalry Road, most lights were green, incredible sunrise behind Arthurs Seat, the canal was looking stunning, the light is just getting right for good helmet cam films, and as I was slowing up along Buccleugh Street I got passed by some charging roadie who ran a red light ahead of me, which cheerfully changed just as I got to it.
A wonderful commute, with a little self-righteous smugness thrown in - definitely a good start to the day.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Yesterday (as with almost every day) I had the opportunity to reflect upon the outstanding beauty of the city we live in; cresting the new Tram / Cyclist / Pedestrian bridge at the end of the Broomhouse Path heading citywards I was struck by the setting sun illuminating the walls of the castle, with all the spires and other paraphernalia of the Royal Mile thrown in for good measure. I stopped at the peak of the bridge to savour the moment and happened to glance back at Stenhouse Drive. which in turn presented a view of the Pentlands which joyfully framed the huge queues of traffic on the road below.
I then kicked off and whizzed down the hill, freewheeling the majority of the new path and savouring the exhilaration of the crispening wind.
We should all stop every now and then to reflect positively on the fact that for all its issues and all our campaigning we still live in quite an incredible city, one which I am proud to call my home.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@Cyclingmollie citydandyhorsingedinburgh has a nice ring to it.
Posted 11 years ago # -
@Cyclingmollie You could have been setting off to work tomorrow on your dandy-horse, pedestrian curricle, dandy-charger or pedestrian accelerator.
I suspect there would be
less argumentfewer argumentsless debate about segregation had pedestrian curricle or accelerator stuck...Robert
(who much prefers being a cyclist to being a bicyclist)Posted 11 years ago # -
Ah well now...here's a thought for you. I've had to drive to my current job in an automobile for the last few weeks. It's the first time I've had to do this, and I'm no spring chicken. I can report that it's unremittingly horrible. Cars are sold to us with the fantasy of control, of ‘nipping through the traffic’. The reality is that as a driver you have almost no control. You’re just another obstacle, and the real rate of progress across Edinburgh is twelve miles an hour at best. It’s just guff.
Now, with Greenroofer’s kind help, I should have access to the cycle facilities here tomorrow or Monday. I’m looking forward to my first cycle in to the office more than you can imagine. No matter the rain, the wind, the cold or the behaviour of the poor people trapped in their automobiles, cycling is an almost unalloyed joy.
You get fit, you get to work on time, you get to eat what you want, you get your mind into that happy state of relaxed alertness, you get to say hello to people you meet, you get to park where you want, you get an adventure every day and you get around without propping up medieval Saudi theocrats, Iranian despots or Nigerian kleptocrats.
Fifty years from now, people will wonder how, with nothing but our weird outfits of helmets and Goretex and hi-viz, we dared pioneer a transport system where the bicycle is the first and best option for anyone able to pedal one – kids, oldies, chief execs and bin men. You’re a hero of the future!
Posted 11 years ago # -
Wonderfully inspiring. Thanks!
Posted 11 years ago # -
Positively knackered.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Positively knackered.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I sense that none of this is really helping @amir. it is a low time of year I think. Do you want to meet up to get in some Audax training miles?
Posted 11 years ago # -
Cycling and cake are always a good antidote. Thanks @cyclingmollie, free Sat or Sun?
Posted 11 years ago # -
@amir I could be tomorrow. Do you want to go Midlothian or East Lothian?
Posted 11 years ago # -
East Lothian might be best - possibility of snow showers
Posted 11 years ago # -
Okay, I'm thinking out along the coast to Aberlady Bay, then via Fenton Barns and White Kirk to East Linton and cake at Smeaton. Then back by the single track road past Hailes Castle, and then Haddington and Cousland. 70k.
Posted 11 years ago # -
what sort of pace are you guys going to aim for?
Posted 11 years ago # -
That sounds great, cyclingMollie. Start from by you?
Not sure about speed, arobcomp. I've been feeling a touch tired this week. Probably above 15 mph average but below 17?
Posted 11 years ago # -
Yes, that would be fine. What time - 9ish?
Speed would be c.25kph i.e. winter base mile/long steady distance.
Posted 11 years ago # -
"
Speed would be c.25kph i.e. winter base mile/long steady distance.
"Crikey, that would be summer, having a really really good day pace for me.
Have a good ride.
Posted 11 years ago #
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