CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

Pint in Stirling

(11 posts)
  • Started 8 years ago by I were right about that saddle
  • Latest reply from cb

  1. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    I had a rendez-vous for beer and curry in Stirling last night. As part of my post automobile commute fitness drive I thought it might be amusing to travel up by bicycle and take the train home. I ain't no roadie and my bike is in its off-road tourer configuration so I figured I'd take the canal to the Falkirk Wheel which I'd never seen up close and then osmose through the back roads into town.

    The canal was fine and as expected - mixed surfaces with some sections a total plowter. The Avon aqueduct was impressive - never seen that before. As ever with the canal there was a lot of wildlife - yellowhammers and a greater spotted woodpecker were highlights . A swan had a think about attacking me but couldn't be bothered in the end. Lots of the time I'd no real idea where I was.

    The people spotting was good. Maximum Spaceman was out without dogs but with stick, trolley and very attractive young companion. At the Falkirk end I met an oddly shaped man on a high-speed mobility scooter decked out in Union flags. He had a small child facing him in his lap and was singing The Sash at the top of his voice. I checked the undergrowth for hidden cameras. There was a guy smoking a Camberwell Carrot at the midpoint of the Rough Castle tunnel. He returned my cheery greeting with the immortal reply "s'happenin, pal?". I checked the stonework for hidden cameras.

    At the end of the canal you just seem to be totally dumped into the road system. No attempt to help with onward journeys despite that being a clear cycle hub. I just had to neb it with the help of the OS map. Falkirk seems not to be cycle-ready. Two people in cars shouted obscenities at me for the apparent crime of claiming my actual right of way in quiet suburban streets. I guess the usual rule is that you just get out of the way if you're on a bicycle.

    Turned out the old A9 was the only way to get to Stirling in time. There's a hard to spot but nice cycle path from Bannockburn to Stirling but it peters out and dumps you on one of the grimmest urban dual carriageways I've ever seen. I went to see the old bridge over the Forth for a bit of Bravehearting, then took the urban cycle path back in to town but it petered out and dumped me on a grim urban dual carriageway after a display of unnecessary tactiles that would gladden the heart of CCE.

    Last train back to Edinburgh had four, yes four bikes on it. Two lovely tourists from Eastern Europe, me and a sulky local. I got the tourists to defy the conductor and just stack the bikes up. They'd just cycled over the Lecht on single speeds in a howling gale, so I duly bowed to them as minor deities in the touring firmament.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  2. wingpig
    Member

    Hmm. How many times did you get to the "sod this stupid surface, I'm baling out onto the roads" stage on the canal before giving it just one more chance, or finding that there was one of the slightly better sections just ahead?
    Whenever I've gone anticlockwise round the round-the-Forth route the signpost pointing further along to Stirling has always looked tempting, but time constraints have meant I've always come back over the Kincardine bridge. Presumably the south-bank-of-the-Forth bit of the round-the-Forth could be used to head west, where even the hilariously off-road bits through Hopetoun/Blackness are never as bad as the lumpier bits of canal?

    Posted 8 years ago #
  3. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @wingpig

    Just the once did I contemplate abandoning the canal. I'm quite stubborn once I've engaged in a thing, though quite diffident about engaging. I got to like the canal during my year at the Death Star and I thought it would be interesting to cycle the entire length of it.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  4. cb
    Member

    "oddly shaped man on a high-speed mobility scooter decked out in Union flags. He had a small child facing him in his lap and was singing The Sash at the top of his voice"

    That's possibly the best bit. But in what way was he oddly shaped?

    Posted 8 years ago #
  5. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @cb

    Tiny head.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  6. gembo
    Member

    @IWRATS you can get to Stirling from Edinburgh off road but not the way you went. As Wingpig mentioned you go to Fife then head west on a cyclepath, if you follow it assiduously you get great downhill to Culross. Then you have to go up to New High Valleyfield where I once saw haircuts being advertised for four pounds, goes to Tulliallan, also past the battle of Longannet (1973, when miners could still win strikes using flying pickets) into Alloa on a closed main road then schlep it to Clackmannan. Gets a bit ropey as a path right down at the forth after that (had to push bike about a mile) then last bit into stirling on main road but no dual carriageway.

    Took us three leisurely hours

    At train station on way home the actor from Gregory's Girl who hitches to Caracas where there are six women for every man was standing next to us on the platform. He was older but spottable

    Posted 8 years ago #
  7. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @gembo

    I did wonder about that side of the water. Next time I'll give it a go, though I fear farce in finding the start of this path from the bridge. Three hours beats my five hours (with lunch and cake stops) by some margin.

    I haven't paid four pounds for a haircut for some time now.

    PS Just discovered odd triple wound like claw marks on the back of my left calf. Maybe the swan did attack and I didn't feel it? TCP and micropore.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  8. gembo
    Member

    THree hours from Balerno

    path is signposted from the bridge, you go to Rosyth and Charlestown, quietish off road or beside busy road. I have a sustrans Round The Forth map. Going back on the south side might be ok now with the Blackness castle route after grangemouth

    On the wound, perhaps tiny head sash man has a colleague AntMan who he has trained to attack and inflict small injuries?

    Posted 8 years ago #
  9. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    @gembo

    The wound had bled but dried totally. It must have happened early on. Maximum Spaceman often sports mystery head wounds. Coincidence? Thread drift? You decide.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  10. paddyirish
    Member

    IWRATS- if you can face the hill up to Dunfermline, the old railway line to Alloa is a lovely surface and much easier going. Cycle path round the Forth is more scenic, but quite a bit slower. You may be able to skip from High Valleyfield up to this path through a series of woodland paths, but you'd probably want fatter tyres for that bit.

    I looked at these routes when I thought I was going to work in the same Industrial estate as you were and reckoned that Dunfermline- Alloa was the way to go. No comparative distances/timings, however.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  11. cb
    Member

    My (early morning, largely pre-traffic) route to Stirling was: canal to Ratho; backroads to Winchburgh; B/A roads to Falkirk; A9 to Larbert; backroad from Torwood to Stirling Services junction, then main road into town.

    Average moving speed 16.2mph (super fast for me)
    Max speed 33.2
    Moving time 2:30
    Distance 40.63 miles
    (All according to a Cateye Mity2)

    Posted 8 years ago #

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