@Baldcyclist I especially like calling breaks "rest bites".
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
The "I had a lovely ride today, thankyou" thread
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Posted 10 years ago #
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@Baldcyclist - good to know. If I was going to try it on my current config, the smallest gear I have is 39/28, and it sounds like that's a massive struggle up what appears to be a 19% gradient. I'm not entirely sure whether there's any issues with changing chainset to a compact if your bike has a braze-on thingy; I know you'd need to move the front mech down to take into account the smaller ring sizes, but would that be possible with braze-on? Now I think about it, surely it must?
Posted 10 years ago # -
I'm on holiday in Brora and have hired a mountain bike for a few days. Fantastic just dawdling along with the river brora on one side and almost no cars. Sunburnt knees though so I'll need to remember sun cream tomorrow :)
Posted 10 years ago # -
Nice one, Baldcyclist. I went up the Bealach on my yellow Giant (the one that I did the Snow Roads on). I have no idea what the gearing is. I had to walk the last straight before the switchbacks. I could have managed the slope, and I could have managed the headwind, but I couldn't manage both at once. I'd started out from Torridon, and found the ride back round the peninsula rather more challenging than I'd anticipated...
Posted 10 years ago # -
A couple of cheeky lunchtime laps round Arthur's Seat, followed by an ice-cream and now I don't feel much like riding home....
Posted 10 years ago # -
Have another ice-cream first...
Posted 10 years ago # -
Did some pootling today. Went from Balerno to glenbrook, then along Lang Whang for a short spell them up to buteland / temple then on to leith head. Then back down to Cockburn hill then along the rigg road and up beech avenue, which was a bit of a climb then back down to the bird hide. Golden eye, and huge trout being the highlights. Then back along the rigg and back down to Balerno. Came hme and had an espresso, clearly think I am in a Rapha advert
Posted 10 years ago # -
Another great day cycling. Took the train from Brora to Golspie then cycled the back road back to Brora. Misty and cool in both Brora and Golspie this morning but scorching up in the hills. I have to return the bike tomorrow but I should have time for a last birl on some roads nearby.
Posted 10 years ago # -
With all this lovely weather, I decided to take today off and went on a lovely, slow ride along the Peebles to Innerleithen cycleway. It's actually improved since I first went on it -nearly all tarmacked now.
Very hot day but slow cycling is a great way to keep the heat down - there must be an optimum speed!
Tomorrow we're planning to try out the Dunfermline to Clackmannan route.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Sorted by CEC's South West Team.
Needs people to ride it.
Posted 10 years ago # -
One of the thing I use Strava for is for challenging myself - that and scaring old ladies on NEPN (not true)
They have a thing called Gran Fondo, where you attempt to ride an 80mile ride every calendar month.
If you succeed you get a badge on your strava page and the option to buy an overpriced jersey.
Now up to this point, I had done all 6 this year, but for various reasons I hadn't done July. I was planning to do it yesterday, but I fell asleep on the couch watching the tour and never got round to it.
So tonight (after work) I set out to do it. I left home at 5.30pm and heading out to Linlithgow,Avonbridge, Caldercruix, Shotts, Carnwath.
It was great in the sunshine and the Lang Wang was lovely as the sun was setting over the hills to the North. It always a nice feeling when you top Harpperig and know that it is down hill all the way home. I also like the landing lights on the A70 which guide you into Balerno.
I still had a few miles required, so I headed down to the Prom and saw the lights of Fife twinkling on the Forth. I even made back before my 11pm curfew.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@hankchief
Good to squeeze an 80 miler into the working day as it were and in a neat space. When wind is from south west and you get to the top of the hill at Harperrig it is a great feeling to know you can get into a high gear and smash it back to Balerno.
Did you by any chance take in any of the bits of North Lanarkshire with links to Alexander peden? If so and on your return from Carnwath you glanced to the south of the pentlands range then you could call the route The Covenanters Way?
Posted 10 years ago # -
Pride cometh before a fall...
It was a lovely ride on Monday night, BUT I've been completely trashed ever since. I think a mixture of dehydration and not eating enough after the ride has done me in.
Going to sleep so soon after finishing meant I didn't have my usual post-ride feeding and drinking frenzy, which often last hours...
Think I might stick to weekend long-rides...
Posted 10 years ago # -
Such a nice day today that I diverted through the Hermitage of Braid on the way to the office. Pootling through a herd of labradors I was offered the advice 'best take it easy' by one of the herders.
Unless you're engaged in a knife fight with a mortal enemy that is a universally good principle. Fly Walk and the railway snicket completed a near totally off-road commute. Good cycling.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Such a nice day today I decided to go to Carnwath to my beloved apple pie bakery for a wee rhubarb pie and a cup of tea. Avoiding Woolfords at the moment because the road has been trashed by wind farm lorries and SPTE have taken their bus shelter back after twenty years of no service.
So stayed on Lang Whang until tarbrax then down to polkelly where I first encountered an inspirational chap on an electric bicycle. We admired the day together and I headed. Off to auchengray and then down to level crossing road and up the esker to Carnwath.
Public loos now locked due to cutbacks. Apple pie bakery great but cyclist slipped on way to their loo. So when doctor's surgery is open you can use there.
I digress, the chap name of Hugh from Falkirk (altura varium jacket leckies price) arrives at the apple pie. He has an illness (possibly something like MS?) so has two sticks to help him walk. He moved from a diamond frame to a mixte 18 years ago and now a step through. As he said, what else could he do, he is not sitting in the house looking out the window.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Despite my tiredness, I had a lovely extended commute in this morning from Dalkeith. Not through Musselburgh as usual but along the country lanes and paths of Midlothian. Fair bit of climbing but almost no cars seen until outskirts of Edinburgh.
Route went via Cockpen along the lanes by but not through Carrington to pop out on the A6094 just south of Rosewell. Cross straight over to the road past Roslinlee to the Roslin Glen, up to Roslin (can't believe that's 16%), along the new path to Gilmerton, turned left on Captain's Road then into KB.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@gembo I've also met Hugh at the Apple Pie a few months ago. Top gent. He liked a scrambled egg roll if I remember correctly. I asked him about the sticks and he has a problem with his foot where it droops. Marvellous leccy bike though - I'd not seen one close up before.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Indeed, they had no sausGe so he went for scrambled egg roll (would have fed small family and followed it up with big scone.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Went down south last week for a bit of camping and one morning set off early to ride from Swanage to Christchurch via the chain ferry - thoroughly beautiful wee ride. The promenade between Poole and Christchurch is closed to cyclists in summer between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., but here's a terrible video of a stretch between Bournemouth and Christchurch at around 8:40ish in the morning (I think)… I took it irresponsibly with my phone camera but as you can see there were very few people about - just me and Greta Garbo in the trailer and a few runners.… amazing really. Stopped for a swim shortly after this bit which was also amazing…
Posted 10 years ago # -
I'm just back from a week in the ancestral home, and got out for a couple of decent rides.
First was another crack at the Bealach http://app.strava.com/activities/177362203 which took me the reverse of Baldcyclist's and Fimm's route. I did the south climb a couple of years ago, so I had the brilliant idea of doing the north side this time, underestimating how much the ride round to Applecross was going to take out of me.
By happy cooincidence I bumped into my Dad's best man and his wife, who were over from New Zealand and having lunch at the pub in Applecross. I forgot I was disguised as a MAMIL so confused the hell out of them by walking up and asking to join their table, until I removed helmet and shades.
I should have waited a bit for the excellent and massive plate of fish and chips to settle before heading uphill, but really the problem was that it's just a big brute of a climb, the only Category 1 I've attempted. My goal was to make it to the top without stopping, which I had managed a few weeks previously on the Cairn O'Mount but only just. This was a harder climb and came after 60 miles of Highland lumpiness, as opposed to the Cairn's 25 miles of gentle Tayside rolling.
The gearing on the Croix just isn't low enough for me to sit and spin and I just don't have the fitness to stay out the saddle and honk up a climb that long. I had to stop six times to let my legs de-acidify, which was more of a problem than being short of breath, although I most certainly was. I enjoyed the latter half of the climb much more than the first, since after my first rest that was it - mission failed, so I could stop burning my legs to a crisp and just go at whatever pace I felt like, which was miserably slow compared to all the other people who've climbed the Bealach and Strava'd themselves.
Next ride was a repeat of one I'd done before. The downside of the ridiculous eye candy that is the Highland terrain is that there are very few roads and consequently very few routes around any given base. Another is that the roads are so narrow and winding that you rarely get the chance to let the brakes off and drop like a stone; even when you know the surfacing and bends are fine, you never know if there's a car oncoming. The surfacing up there was generally excellent; they're so lightly trafficked that the tarmac stays buttersmooth for years.
Anyway: next ride was http://app.strava.com/activities/177362162 going up over Ratagan-Glenelg, Kylerhea and back through Skye. The descent from the top of the Ratagan climb to Glenelg is surely one of the best in the country, and the view that rewards you after the Kylerhea climb is magnificent. I actually found the A87 on Skye quite benign compared to my last couple of rides there; usually people revert back to crappy driver mode on it, as opposed to their single-track mode where they're actually pleased that you're on a bike since that's less hassle than a car.
God bless the mountain bikers for taking up 1x10 and 2x10 gearing in a big way; it means I can put a hell of a lot more teeth at the back of the Croix without having to buy new shifters. I'll need a longer cage derailleur but that's not a bank-buster.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Lovely post, @Uberuce, thanks.
Posted 10 years ago # -
*tips hat* The dark cloud is that I've just discovered Shimano's 10-speed MTB kit is incompatible with my shifters, grr. Apparently 9-speed rear mechs will shift 10 gears, but I might just see if putting a wider cassette in will do the business. I've definitely got room for two more teeth, and possibly four, and I'm not that desperately overgeared.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I did my first ever Sportive today, 67 miles of the Galloway Recycle from Kirkcudbright.
My legs are complaining a bit but at least we had good weather. I hope the forecast is wrong for those on TotB tomorrow.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I took the train to Kilmaurs near Kilmarnock in order to go to the village of Fenwick where my grandmother grew up in order to photograph the War Memorial which has the names of her two brothers on it. Then I cycled back to Edinburgh:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/561061040
which was very nice as I mostly had a tail wind :-) I can tell that I'm not really as bike fit as I have been as I was quite tired by the time I got home. It was a lovely sunny day, though, a delight to be out.Posted 10 years ago # -
Quite a lot of the Gembo clan buried in Fenwick graveyard.
The Glasgow to Edinburgh 100 miler goes that way but is a bit of a slog as first thirty miles into the wind to get to Fenwick area.
Posted 10 years ago # -
I had a wander round the graveyard - it is a lovely wee kirk. I was interested by the Covenanter graves. I don't know if any of my ancestors/relatives are actually buried there - the people who lived there didn't originate from that area.
Posted 10 years ago # -
The Covenanters liked a blasted spot. The annual conventicle in southern uplands might even still be going. Fenwick moor, the Ayrshire hills, slammanan plateau at harthill etc.. The Covenanter's grave is quite bleak in the pentlands though the battle of rullion green memorial near flotterstone is worth a look.
Not sure why currie doesn't have a plaque. At this spot the murderous tam dayell set off up kirkbrae with 3000 men to slaughter 900 poorly equipped and fractious Covenanters.
Spotted in currie, near the riccarton arms but on the other side a tiny plaque on a house on the main road, white outdoor artex/Harling cottage. Used to be the schoolhouse.
Posted 10 years ago # -
It was yesterday morning, and it was only a couple of miles, but it was a blast...
For complicated logistical reasons, there wasn't enough room for me to come back in the car from the National Gallery of Modern Art with the rest of the Greenroofer family. I took the Brompton in the car, and the car and I left the gallery at the same time, heading home to Morningside. The car stopped at one point to post a letter. I took a route to Lochrin Basin and then rode along the towpath to Harrison Park. It was Saturday morning, and I didn't go fast on the towpath: it was too busy.
Stopped at the Gray's Loan/Colinton Road traffic lights, I saw that the car with the rest of the Greenroofers was just one car in front of me. I hammered up Myreside Road and Craighouse Road and got to the front door while Mrs Greenroofer was still parking the car.
If I'd ridden quickly along Gilmore Place/Harrison Gardens, I'd have got home before them.
I was out of breath but very pleased with myself...
Posted 10 years ago # -
This morning I had a puncture when I went to get the bike. Therefore, I was late leaving for work. But it was worth it.
I'd got as far as Clermiston Road while heading along St John's Road, and sat behind another bike. Upon green, he took off and I struggled to keep up. Less than a minute later, another cyclist went past me, then a 4th cyclist appeared in front of me from a side street. By this point we were nearly at the zoo. The 4 of us were fairly leathering it along, and I was desperately trying to warm the leg muscles up enough to catch them. However, by the time I got to Balgreen Road, I figured they were all gone.
I then came across a guy on a fixie while heading to the lights at Western Corner, and had by this time finally overtaken the first guy I'd seen. Then, a few seconds after I got to the lights at Western Corner, I realised that all 5 of us were sitting in the ASL.
What happened next was magic. The first 3 took off like lightning, I slipped off my pedal, but by this time I'd realised why I'd been struggling to keep up before; I had mistakenly not been in the big ring. Now that I was, I caught the 3 in front, the guy behind was clinging to me, and the 5 of us rode like a well-oiled TTT towards Roseburn. It was, quite simply, awesome.
Once at Roseburn, we all went our separate ways. Not a word was said between any of us, but for that 60 seconds of TTT, it felt like we'd been riding together for hours.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Despatched to Fort Kinnaird to buy pet supplies (we're in Musselburgh), the 'but you could go on your bike' offered a (modest) ray of sunshine.
With my cross bike now knobblied up for an aborted trip out this morning, I rolled off up the cycle path by the Esk, thinking I'd go up by the University an over by Newcraighall or something. A few attempts at riding along little trails beside the path suggested the new tyres might be pretty nifty.
However, the route was mainly going to be a tarmac affair. Or was it? On the way towards Musselburgh Station I espied the opening of a trail tucked away amidst modern new build, diving under a railway bridge. A vague glimmering of memory, a recollection of riding down a very stony, gravelly path on a chunky hybrid almost 10 years ago, clutching the bars for dear life.
Eschewing tarmac, I found the track was just as I recalled.
Rough. Gravelled. Great!
Cyclocross knobblies zipped along the track and it felt (to me at least) like I was on some hidden or undiscovered trail. Deciding not to take the fork up to the Uni, I followed the track as it curved further away, taking me over a small bridge and then down a lovely straight track. I quickly discovered this was a cobbled lane, now overgrown and traversed by 4x4s and probably the odd tractor.
Well barrelling down the cobbles proved immense fun, offering my own little Paris-Roubaix fantasy. Trying to cross from the right to left tractor rut almost resulted in an almighty spill but somehow I stayed on the bike. Just. A passing dog walker smiled a slightly greeting, evidently bemused to see a 'racer' bike rolling down the track.
Now somewhat lost, the sight of the marshalling yard offered some notion of where I might be, so I bashed on up a hill and duly emerged in the industrial wasteland immediately behind Newcraighall. Aha, so that's where that road goes...
I trundled down to Forth Kinnaird, suddenly pleased that a mundane shopping trip had become a mini-adventure.
Posted 10 years ago #
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