CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
Lovely 80km fast spin around the north east (down for brothers wedding)
Saw lots of solo riders but very few RC riders. Mostly lycra types (like me ;) ) on roadies.
There is a really good old railway network that spans most of the NE between newcastle and durham/other places so imagine people who were on more day to day bikes were on those paths which are offroad but a touch gravelly.
I like the torduff clubbiedean route from balerno as very short climb to the top road at the reservoirs then on to the farm track at the end of the actual road (goes round behind the row of cottages, not very obvious until you know it). No more climbing and a brilliant alpine forest like descent all the way to Colinton and then back up the gradual gradient of the WoL path. Not often you get a descent without an ascent
First ride of the year on my racing bike this morning, felt good to be free of panniers and mudguards for a change :-)
OK, not today but was Saturday 25th, yesterday.
Snow Roads 300km. The weather was fantastic!! No cloud all day! Temps in excess of 24 deg C. Great company, even better views, some very hard climbs and some very fast descents!! I'll post a more indepth rep in the Sportive and Audax thread.
@DaveC me, too. :-)
Are you able to walk straight yet fimm? ;o)
Just about, though I'm glad yesterday was a Public Holiday (for me at least). I haven't really had sore legs (just a random sore spot on my foot), I've just been very tired.
You?
Fine now, thought off the bike today ;o) I rode up to my son's school yesterday to meet them at closing time, and the climb up the steep bit was painfull, hence only riding three days this week.
tbh the sunburn is the most painfull.
@gembo - Like that ride too, keep meaning to go back again. Did it with my daughter last year, though we actually started and finished in Bonaly (up WoL first). Her chain snapped 100m from the car, fortunately just as we were returning...
Went for a 10 mile jog round town this evening with some friends - inevitably I'm the one who cycles to our meeting point at QM Loch at Arthurs Seat. So on my way back I'm pretty exhausted and have to granny grind up through the path to Brown street. From there on it flattens out through the meadows and was rather lovely with a tailwind. I tend to bypass the canal and drop through Fountainpark to Gorgie. Now the lights at the junctions of Dundee St > Henderson Terrace > Gorgie road are critical. Getting caught means some serious braking and loss of momentum. But tonight, greens all the way and I was through Gorgie in a flash. Between the tailwind and slight downhill I carried my momentum through an endless stream of green lights all the way to Chesser - thoughts of a nice cup of tea and warm pancakes at home made sure of that.
The other thing was that I appeared to warp into an alternate dream universe where we don't need cycling infrastructure because everyone drives like saints. Literally every single car I encountered was extremely well driven and even the taxis had mellowed out. Must have been the summer air.
The weather we have been having of late is encouraging me to extend the morning commute.
This morning's excursion took me from Dalkeith, up to Cousland, round to Ormiston and Tranent and into town via Musselbugh. Very nice and relaxing (apart from the ups).
102.3km, 23.35 rolling average. I think I'm going to die...I've not done anything near that for years. Essentially just the 702 - Carnwath - Lang Whang, with enough detours to give the distance. Weather wonderful, other than a fairly stiff wind, and lots of friendly cyclists waving hellos!
Marvellous.
Now to collapse in a corner...
Yesterday - Leith to Dalkeith to Penicuik (partly on the walk/cycleway - parts closed for the Borders railway works?). Nice dry paths, did not meet many walkers/cyclists, tbh.
Then over Auchencorth Moss and turn off via Macbiehill to A701, short stretch to Whim then over to A703. Up to Portmore and Gladhouse and home via Temple, Carrington etc.
Glorious, if a little cool higher up. Stopped to admire the remote-control model flyers up on the Moss. Was speeding down to the A701 going over a rough bit of road (surely not) when heard a little metallic tinkling and immediately had to wonder what had fallen off the bike. Retraced and found the bolt from one of my cleats had been shaken loose! Recovered and refitted - will have to check the tension next time.
Great scenery up at Gladhouse, stopped for a few minutes in Carrington to soak up the sun, only to see a horse and cart taking a few people (and dog) on a ride round the local roads. That would be the way to do it.
This was a repeat (near enough) of a ride from last September, I wanted to see how it would compare. 1 hour faster (moving time) - combination of newer, lighter bike, and (older) lighter me!
How it looked to me from my armchair yesterday. Did the loop round Pentlands via Lang Whang and back up to West Linton. Recommended.
Pentlands from Deanfoot road by LaidBackBikes, on Flickr
(childcare Sat n Sun prevented me reporting):
Lovely cycle from mine to Linlithgow to meet an old Uni classmate. We then headed up to Dollar for cakage. Back the same way via Clackmanan and the 76 (avoiding Skinflats) and Grangemouth. We took the steep path up past Kineill House and back over to Linlithgow. 126km.
Laidback said " Did the loop round Pentlands via Lang Whang and back up to West Linton. Recommended.
I like the Lang Wang, but having driven up the A702?? a few times, I try to avoid it, as its full of balmy drivers speeding between Edinburgh the south!
DaveC "A702 - full of balmy drivers speeding between Edinburgh the south!"
You're right there. I was only on it from Carnwath turn off to West Linton and then opted for the Deanfoot back road.
Downside was that I went through the cycling chicanes in Penicuik which have their own problems.
Another nice day out on the LB tandem. Coast road was the route.
Worst bits.
• Trying to find a better way to enter Newcraighall Road because although the Quetzal tandem has gone between the bollards in the past it's always a bit of a squeeze. We took the chdot cut off which is almost good.
• Coming back through Port Seton we got cut up by a driving school car with pupil misjudging our road speed and position. They promptly slowed down and pulled right to park. U-Ken - you should ken better! Should I do a review here or do you think it's mean? U-Ken Driving School
He was followed by an even more stupid driver who cut it even finer. I wonder if that's why he pulled over and the incident was caused by the other driver tailgating him? We had just been shown courtesy by another car wanting to turn in and they had let us out... This may have caused road rage...?
Good bits
• Fast comfortable riding - lovely views through the mist which had lingered.
• Going round the Friendly Society with the colection of model boats.
• Gosford Bothy cafe
• Doing the new coast patch in route along from Esk msiing out Musselburgh High St
• Overtaking a hige line of cars on the Seafield pavement and getting onto teh new section into Leith Links.
• Rodney St tunnel let us get all the way into Stockbridge where Mrs LB had hair appointment.
"We took the chdot cut off which is almost good"
Which one??
The blue path shown here on left that is tarred part of the way and then comes up against and old railway embankment. It's almost good!
[
Blue path cut off to Newcraighall Road by LaidBackBikes, on Flickr
Self and boyfriend went out along the Lang Whang to the West Calder turn, down the hill a bit then across via Achengray to Carnwath - nice back roads there that were new to us and we saw a model plane doing acrobatics. Took cafe stop number 1 in the Apple Pie bakery in Carnwath, then headed on more lovely back roads via Dolphinton, Blyth Bridge, the Lyne Water valley and Romanobridge to West Linton and cafe number 2... home over the moor road. We don't like Penicuik either and took the climb up to go through Auchendinny and then diverted through the Bush estate too which might not be any faster but is definitely nicer.
A lovely sunny day - we'd thought it might be a bit cool and had gone out in light coats, boyfriend ended up with it all stuffed into his cycling top pockets - which fortunately are quite expandable...
Yesterday morning. Was actually having a fairly rubbish ride until my 24 mile commute into the drizzle and headwind was brightened considerably by an attractive female in a black MX5.
I'm sat in a queue in the middle lane approaching a roundabout. She comes alongside in the inside lane, stops long enough to give me a wee wave and a smile, then continues on her way.
May just have mistaken me for someone she knows, but I'm taking the compliment all the same...
An outing for the tandem today, took the off road NCN route through Dalmeny and Hopetoun with minor road detour to avoid the deer-proof, and also tandem-proof Hopetoun gates. At Blackness our curiousity prompted us to investigate the path to Bo'ness, found it a bit awkward on the tandem, had to walk about a mile of it, but nice views so would be happy to do again. Failed to find anywhere nice to eat in Bo'ness so headed over the hill to Linlithgow and the rather excellent So Strawberry cafe. Back via the hills south of Linlithgow and onto Newbridge/Ratho etc. Not quite 50 miles but very pleasant.
Chdot, thanks for the link, that sounds good. Not just the uprade to the Blackness-Bo'ness path, the whole thing, Dunbar to Helensburgh sounds most appealing.
Superb. Strike on with the guards at work, so beat most people in by about 90 minutes using the magical ability of 'filtering past the miles of stationary traffic'.
Got up at the crack of dawn this morning, 6am, in order to give the West Lothian Clarion East Calder clubrun a go. Was well worth the early start, a good turnout, very friendly, 50 social miles including a cafe stop. I'll certainly be going back.
Just back from a glorious little spin on my mtb, along the Lymphoy path to Balerno, the loop around Cockburn Farm, the boardwalk circuit of Red Moss then back past Threipmuir and Torduff etc. The cotton grass at Red Moss is looking absolutely gorgeous, especially under the trees at the far end of the boardwalk.
Ah, I was meaning to find this thread! I've had a couple of lovely rides into work this week. On Wednesday 5 of us from the office cycled out the cycle path via Bathgate towards Ardrie (Drumgelloch station, to be precise). I was impressed with the cycle path which was wide and smooth and had some decent infrastructure (ramps to a bridge over the railway, for example). I think that was the easy bit, though, as the railway runs through countryside and it can't have been hard to add the path in next to it.
Came in at high speed this morning but I think I have a headwind for the return :(
Rode the eighty miles to Forfar to see my Pa, which I've been meaning to do since I became capable of it about a year ago, but never got round to doing.
Only fell off the route of NCN1 a couple of times, which for me is doing extremely well. Weather was rather lovely in that I was already past Perth before the sun started getting tiresome, and there was enough of a cooling headwind that I never felt in danger of overheating.
Hilariously bad bout of cramp later this afternoon, which had the dog hopping around in confusion and me in pain.
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