I don't know about 'lovely' – it didn't feel like it at the time! – but I did some of this the other day.
Follow the red line by beqi, on Flickr
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
The "I had a lovely ride today, thankyou" thread
(2697 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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Balerno to glad house reservoir, glad house to granites, granites to Heriot, Heriot to Soutra Aisle, Soutra aisle to Humbie hub.
Not without mishap, was a day for bad cycling and bad driving.although clearly glorious unless you were sailing on the forth, huge dense cloud ball over the water but not much inland and none where we were.
Now from Humbie hub the roads were closed for the iron man. We ignored some signs but then the group leader cracked and took us on a mad detour. Involved a ford at the bottom of a steep hill which is marked on spokes map. Two came off on the slime beneath the trickle. (There is a cyclists dismount sign for the attentive by nature) From there we pretty much circled back to arrive at Pathead then that great straight road to Dalkeith via Ford, edge head and Whitehill.
From Dalkeith massive tailbacks and rubbish driving but there has never not been this conflict in this area on a Sunday. Dobbie's garden centre seems to make drivers mental.
Highlight might have been the climb up to Soutra aisle. I liked the simplicity of a little farmers cottage made of wood with one door and one window and a shingle roof.
Soutra Aisle is a tiny stone church with a stone roof. Clearly it has seen better days.
Humbie Hub ever cheerful.
East Lothian and also Borders looking very wealthy indeed (the bits we cycled through)
Posted 6 years ago # -
took train to Stow (for work supervision). Cycled up the old coach road as thought there was a road marked on the spokes Midlothian map that would have taken us across to the road off the A7 that goes to Soutra Aisle (in the top 3 hospitals in Scotland in 1164). Farmer's wife said no through road. We then tried to get through to the bridge at the Heriot turn though we knew this was closed. A Roadman in a digger was most emphatic that we could not pass. We went back to Stow.on the old stage coach road. Not that fussed as it is a great road. Despite the farmer who had the fight with the cyclist. Had lunch at the nice cafe in stow. Then cycled up the very steep hill out of Stow and went to Galashiels. Amazing route on a sunny day. Hill farmers living up there at quite an elevation. Train back from Galashiels good half day out.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Extended the usual Lang Whang to B7008 to west Calder, turn left along dogs trust road, 31 mph through Woolfords, sad face on the speed sign, right before auchengray along mud road, wilsontown to auchengray and then Braehead right turn, (normally straight to Carnwath here) down eventually to rye flat road (through big llama farm) left to west end then right past state mental hospital and followed very quiet roads to Thankerton and then half mile further the fAntastic Tinto Hill Tea Room. Then back via quothquan and libberton to Carnwath and thence to Balerno. 62 miles from my house so 78 from centralish Edinburgh. Tinto Hill Tea Room is a hut that has been there since 1938. Not making any deal of the 80th birthday? Not wanting to overshadow NHS probably. Also has wood burner for winter walk. Thurs - Mon opening 9.30 - 3 (4 on Saturday) if small party you can sit on the verandah. If large party I would phone ahead. Tinto hill has road straight up it. If you fancy a nice walk this afternoon whilst football on,I imagine you will have it to yourself
Posted 6 years ago # -
@gembo - where exactly is the Heriot/Stow road closed? Is it possible to get from Heriot to Soutra via the A7?
Posted 6 years ago # -
Yes @Frenchy you can get out on to the A7 coming from Heriot. You are then on it for a mile or two and left turn marked Gilston is the start of the steep road up to Soutra.
No problem there. It is just if you are on the stage coach road out of Stow heading north after Fountainhall there is a bridge being repaired so no way through.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Cheers, hoping to get that way tomorrow.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@chdot, the Facebook page for THT even has a swanky road bike parked up against the verandah in their picture.
Carstairs is closest train stop for sure. That cross country train is also good value. When @acsimpson and I were heading to Carlisle two weeks back we admired the countryside we could see from the train. Lo and behold I ended up cycling around part of the Upper Clude Valley only today.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I cycled to haymarket -train to curriehill- then cycled to puke hill-(Mansfield) which i did in two- then cycled back via balerno water of leith on 25mm tyres which i am very happy about as i was sure i would puncture - the pathway is very dry so all good. The roadway by the RSPA is horrendous and i give thanks to the cycling gods for looking after me today.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@mercury1and2. Nice, I tried to go up beech avenue, after thriepmuir car park the other day (just for the descent) but there was a digger cleaning out the ditches and blocking the whole road.
RSPCA road is rough. Marginally better if you go right along the rig road and turn right at the end. Still gravel and some bumps but not quite so steep going down, though a fair lick can be generated near the farm so you do have to brake in case the farmer pops out. Flat sections of the rig road are alternately smooth then rough and same happens back down at the bottom. Where the Free Company have their piggery/restaurant.
Posted 6 years ago # -
What a lovely afternoon to be out riding a bike.
Went out the Gilmerton-Roslin path, then onto the road, going via Gladhouse, the Granites, Soutra Aisle, Gifford and East Saltoun. Nice mix of roads I know very well (Granites), roads I know vaguely (Mount Lothian, Gifford areas) and roads I'd never been on before (Gladhouse, Soutra).
Missed the Lantern Rouge's opening hours, so got my coffee in the Goblin Ha, and I don't appear to have got sunburn.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I had a couple of days trundling around East Lothian with my OH. Saturday we went along the summer-perfumed Pencaitland path to the end and onto East Saltoun. The Bothy on the corner there is an underused cafe, with lovely fresh baking. My OH has Italian roots so was delighted to find the earth oven outside was fired up ready for pizza ing a wedding. So she was able to avail herself of a wonderful pizza.
Today we started from Haddington, over the old bridge toward East Linton via Hailes Castle. Then to the ever wonderful cafe at Tyninghame. On the way back we hung a left and wheed down the hill to the ford on the Tyne. A gorgeous spot. After Haddington I took a wee warm down, up Morham Bank (chimney Farm there, first time I've noticed) then eastwards past the Garvald turn and down to the cleuch. Back via Morham proper.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Is the Pencaitland path resurfacing finished?
Posted 6 years ago # -
Cyclotherapy:
Saturday: Rode to North Berwick, swam in still, warm seawater under a mediterranean sky. Morning full of just-fledged swallows trying their skills.
Sunday evening: Rode to Joppa Steps, swam in tepid choppy green seawater and air-dried in a breeze so mild it raised not a single goosepimple.
@Arellcat - Cool. Oh, I clicked through and there are more excellent/intriguing pictures there I see. (These beasts are not half as cool as your machine, mind.)
Posted 6 years ago # -
@frenchy yes
Posted 6 years ago # -
Lots of parenting this weekend as the OH went out riding with friends. This is very much an investment for me as my OH increases in confidence + abilities on a bike. Plan is for some much longer baby towing trips to commence soon.
I still managed a ride to the meadows, whereupon I converted the baby trailer to a running buggy and set off to do a 10km run around arthurs seat. Thus completing said run, I rode home and availed myself of a light lunch before a tour de france BBQ.
Yesterday I rode a wee 25 miler out around the Long Dalmahoy Road and up to Harlaw and back. Nice road riding somewhat made more challenging by a strong headwind.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Mr fimm and I set out to do the "Tour de Forth" (out over The Bridge and back via the Kincardine Bridge) on Sunday. When he did it with his friend he lost his back gears; they went to Sandy Wallace Cycles in Inverkeithing where they bodged it into a middle gear and they did the cycle. Yesterday as we were cycling towards Dalmeny my back gears decided to stop working. So we cycled over The Bridge to Inverkeithing but Sandy Wallace Cycles is closed on a Sunday. So we cycled round the Forth anyway.
It was very nice, I really liked all the little villages on the north side, I had not been there before. Coming back, Mr fimm decided he wanted to go up some of the hills behind Linlithgow which I did not fancy having no gears, so I came back through Bo'ness and along some nice new tarmac with a bit of rougher track in the middle to Blackness but when I went to continue following route 76 it went across a field* so I stuck to the road and came back via Winchburgh instead.
(*and that, Mr Bus Driver near Culross, is one reason why we might not be using the cycle path, however pretty it may appear from the road. He was going to other way to us, we were causing him no inconvenience whatsoever.)
Posted 6 years ago # -
Packed overnight and hill gear in to Loch Pattack on Saturday past the James Bond villainesque Ben Alder Lodge. Dinner with a black throated diver family, an eagle and about a kilo of cleggs as company. Ben Alder in full and magnificent view. Madame swam in a river pool so calm you could see the trails of the trout scarpering.
Clouds came down about 21h00, but next day rode up past Culra bothy as near to the Beallach Dubh as we could and dumped the bikes. Randomly bumped into friends doing their 281st Munro. Up onto the fogbound moonscape summit where legend has it bike thieves are staked out for the ravens;
Found a few bits of the Vickers Wellington that crashed there in 1942. Packed out, found the A9 closed by a horror smash and chose to go the long way home rather than wait. Got in at 01h00. Man that is a big, remote hill. Daunting for normal humans without a bicycle.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Cycled the Lammermuirs for the first time on Sunday. Lovely day for it. Lots of quiet, scenic roads. Also some good wildlife including hares, a stoat/weasel, baby grouses and lots of birds I can't identify.
Where are the Granites?
Posted 6 years ago # -
Where are the Granites?
NCN 1 between Temple and Innerleithen.
Posted 6 years ago # -
I'll have to try them out sometime.
Cattle grids: are they safe to cycle across? I was too scared and dismounted for all of them. They all had flat metal bars, so perhaps would have been okay?
Posted 6 years ago # -
I've never dismounted for a cattle grid, and haven't (yet) had any issues.
The Innerleithen road is definitely worth a shot.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@Claire, define "safe"... most people I know will cycle across cattle grids, but there's nothing wrong with getting off if you prefer (I do sometimes which annoys my husband).
Hold your line and carry as much speed as you can (something I find hard). Uphill can be harder.Posted 6 years ago # -
Thanks. If I'd seen someone else cycling across I probably would've just followed!
Posted 6 years ago # -
Not sure I'd trust them when wet, either.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Flat ones much easier than round, but both fine as long as you're going straight on at a speed over wobble/meander. However beware crossing at high speed - I blew up a rear tube piling down a hill in Shetland once. Then I had to change it in a vile cloud of hungry North Isle midges. Without a midge head net. Traumatic memory - haven't cycled in Shetland since.
Posted 6 years ago # -
Some cattle grids are worse than others (bumpier or wider gaps) you can go over fast or slow but do not brake on them. Gravel more of a risk and indeed Fords (they have Cyclist Dismount Signs and often a little footbridge nearby). THe one behind Fala is particularly bad.
Down The Granites. Coffee at No 1 Peebles Road, then round via Cadrona to Peebles and up The Meldons (look out for the Silver Bullet Caravan) takes you to Eddleston (3D map of Scotland worth a gander). Then on main road for a little then up the Shiplaw Road to A701. Right back to Edinburgh via Leadburn, left out towards La Mancha, West Linton Elsrickle etc. Approx 50 miles if you live near Midlothian (Leadburn route). Up to 110 (for the Elsrickle if you live near Midlothian).
Posted 6 years ago # -
Thanks, gembo. I'm in North Edinburgh so could do that route in about 70m I reckon. Perfect for my next training ride. Working towards my first 100 in September (poppy Scotland sportive).
Posted 6 years ago # -
Many cattle grids are fine, but some are terrible. So for that reason I go slowly over those I don't know are okay.
For me, the most likely reason for my big crash on the Lammermuirs a few years back was a front tyre blow out after a cattle grid.
Posted 6 years ago #
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