a Ridgeback Velocity
An excellent choice. The Bike Station has had a few of these bikes go through donation, refurbishment and sale five or six times before they wear out. Essentially bomb-proof.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
Have you started cycling since 2010? Why?
(43 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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That bike is the prize in the national cycle to work day competition, from Cyclescheme. National Cycle to Work day is in September. You need to know the exact date to enter the competition. (They tell you the exact date on the Cyclescheme website)
Posted 6 years ago # -
That bike is the prize in the national cycle to work day competition, from Cyclescheme.
Wouldn't be seen dead on such a clunker mate. Italian full carbon and Campag or nothing.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I started cycling in 2010/11 when my work brought in a cycle to work scheme. At the time I was travelling from Slateford to the Bush Estate so the opposite way to most of the traffic but up some hefty hills. My intention was to cycle 1 day a week but quickly moved to 4 days a week, quit the gym and lots tonnes of weight and became a bit evangelical about cycling.
I've since moved out to Midlothian and have a much shorter cycle of 1.5 miles on wide open roads (that still results in at least 1 horrible close pass a journey). Strangely living rurally on easy roads far fewer of my friends seem to see bikes as a mode of transport than when I lived in the city.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Iwrats you appear to be espousing mutually contradictory views again? No law against it.
Posted 6 years ago # -
"Strangely living rurally on easy roads far fewer of my friends seem to see bikes as a mode of transport than when I lived in the city."
I'm not surprised, I'm sure there are many reasons inc 'bus service rubbish' (perception or truth?) 'need car 'cos everything is so far away', 'traffic'...
May be worth a new thread(?)
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Iwrats you appear to be espousing mutually contradictory views again?
You should see the inside of my head. It's a mess.
How about we compromise and put a Campag groupset on a much-loved Ridgeback Velocity?
Posted 6 years ago # -
The main issue with rural vs urban cycling that I've found is that it's not necessarily quicker to cycle the way it can be in cities, removing one big push factor. Also high car ownership is the default. You can also ended up stranded and on your own if something goes wrong - I've had some long 'walks of shame' after getting a flat.
Posted 6 years ago # -
The buses slow down dramatically once you leave the city limits as they route the bus through all the many towns and villages. And yes its often far quicker to drive than it is to cycle. Parking is also less of an issue rurally - after 5 years I've yet to see a traffic warden.
Weirdly though its still the safety issue people talk about first when they say they couldn't possibly cycle
Posted 6 years ago # -
Exercise. I hadn't exercised regularly since school (~15 years). Tried running, gym, etc, all got boring very fast. I had a revelation one day that I used to be in good shape because I cycled everywhere. I fetched my old mountain bike from my mum's house and started commuting.
The first few times I cycled up Dublin Street I thought I was going to die, but I stuck at it because the return journey took about 3 minutes.
Posted 6 years ago # -
"The buses slow down dramatically once you leave the city limits as they route the bus through all the many towns and villages."
I read an interesting piece related to this topic. They were talking about how winding buses through residential areas creates hostile conditions on what should be quiet (probably also filtered) roads.
Their solution was to limit buses to main roads and create hubs with bike parking on the outside of residential areas. This would also make buses much quicker, possibly even more frequent.
Posted 6 years ago # -
1991 - can still feel recent to me. I'd come to Edinburgh from sunny Luton. Had packed a bike in the car, one I'd picked up at a car boot sale. I hadn't used it much, a couple of exploratory trips in flat Bedfordshire. Decided to go exploring one day from my Oxgangs abode and ended up on the path to Ratho. Was met by an elderly gentleman out on his bike and he stopped to talk to me. He told me about a cycling club called the CTC and their Sunday runs suitable for beginners and that was me started. The gent's name was Edward Zoller and he was 90 when I met him. I read on the CTC Lothians & Borders site that he passed away aged 92, a day when he had picked up a new wheel for his bike, and that he had been instrumental in the CTC and in the founding of the ERC. Glad I got to meet Jack Murdoch and his wife Ena who were taking the beginner runs (we went for 'drum-ups' - no cafes required!).
Anyhow, my participation has probably been more off than on since then although I had a couple of years or so with a very nice (and easy) 30 mile round trip commute, most of it along the Firth. Just back from my latest off spell and really enjoying the challenge of losing weight and improving fitness for an upcoming sportive.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I don't have a watershed moment with cycling, really, because I've never really not cycled. Perhaps one moment. My family has no history of cycling, apart from pre-me commuting to work. Cycling wasn't a leisure pursuit, and certainly wasn't a sport, except for my late uncle, who did 5-hour centuries.
I was given my first bike when I was about six. After my RSW14 broke in two I had a succession of bikes but never more than one at a time, going from children's bikes to a ten speed to a mountain bike. I cycled the two miles to school each day, apart from a lean period of a couple of years when I walked instead (but I rode my bike at other times). When I started university I rode there every day. It was about six miles each way – that was a long distance, like, proper commuting! – and for the first couple of weeks I remember it absolutely killed me. I remember my throat getting dried out and my heart going like the clappers.
After wearing out yet another pair of jeans, I discovered lycra shorts. A couple of years later I discovered SPDs.
Towards the end of uni when lectures were more sporadic, sometimes I cycled home mid-morning, and then back again in the afternoon. I went mountain biking on afternoons off and at weekends. Then I discovered slick tyres for mountain bikes, and from my diaries at the time I was knocking out some pretty decent average speeds.
I had another lean period between uni and work, and then another sort of lean period when I bought a car, went power mad for a few months and then got fed up with driving, because driving meant I wasn't exercising.
Got rid of the car, bought a bigger car expressly to transport bikes up and down the M1 and M6, then gradually got fed up of having-a-car because I was more in the habit of taking the train instead. Bought a motorbike and got rid of the car, which I actually liked very much but it was too big and it was feeling its age.
I've never been drawn to competition cycling, possibly because I was brought up with Songs of Praise rather than Grandstand. But if you combine engineering with competition cycling, I'm there.
Posted 6 years ago #
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