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.
I took myself on a small adventure down the WoL for lunch yesterday and back via some streets I didn't really know and a bit of the Roseburn path. I felt like a 'real' cyclist.
Confession: I love my wee leccy bike to bits, she got me cycling again and is excellent for building range but I think I now love my hybrid more. The (lack of) weight and many gears mean I can do so much more with confidence. I think I'm going to treat her to a super-duper service so I can have her for a very long time.
I just said "awww" out loud.
:)
Big tour of very pretty borders this morning. Biggar to broughton very scenic. Nice cafe stop then dreva climb over to stobo then Meldons and ship law. Bit busy after that. Then nice road to netherurd and back via dunsyre.
One of peloton had his crank fall off on him between the bull (bellowing) llama (quiet) emu (timid) and donkeys (abiding)
Had to phone for the cavalry.
I was smashing it back on Lang Whang fuelled by a Torq Raspberry ripple gel, when his taxi came past (wife taxi)
@iwrats will appreciate this (I think) - rode to Pillars of Hercules campsite today. Am just on my way home in the hot, still dark from a swift half just before last orders in Falkland. A yellow moon is rising, perfectly centred behind the symmetrical bald breast of a hill above the village. Like a glowing, otherworldly witch's nipple. V cool.
Phone pics taken but won't do it justice.
My bird spotting pal spotted a snowy owl last week on North Uist. He was very excited. Set up his telescope started a master class, stopping anyone passing etc.
The local spotter claims the owl is alternating between North Uist and St Kilda
Long way to fly just for bigger mice
The tawny I spotted at the flea Food Shacks was having its owner quizzed by an American. Does it eat foxes.He Asked. She was kind to him and said no, voles mainly.
European Owls are wise they hunt animals that are much smaller than them. American owls allow Russian intelligence to photograph them in compromising positions. Unwise.
Like a glowing, otherworldly witch's nipple
What, exactly, did you have half of in Falkland? That is very pleasing.
Lightweight reclined ride down A7 and back. That's a fast road as averaged 17mph.
Basically a shakedown ride for a new M5 CHR (carbon high racer). Owner had specced up some nice wheels and waited a few weeks for it to be built. My CHR uses second hand non matching stuff from basement. 'Cobbler's shoes' and all that...
He was monitoring the energy use (on pedal power meter) and was amazed at the speed it stayed at with 165w on sections where his other bike used over 240w.
The route wasn't too crazy with traffic. If I had more time I would have gone over Granites but this was instead of driving or training. 25 miles in 1hr 20 on home run - not too bad! Gilmerton road is super shaky as always.
My annual holiday day pass was well used to follow the 2018 world championships courses in the Innsbruck region. I was staying in Alpbach in the Tirol and descended to join the men's time trial course in Reith. Then joined the road race course through the villages before climbing steeply to Gnaderwald and then descending to Innsbruck centre to try the finishing circuits. The first one climbs 500m at 10% to near Paetsch and then drops super fast back to the city centre. Fine to do once, but not 6 times!
The final circuit is extended to include the road to Hoell which climbs 400m at consistently over 20% and hits 28%. I had to walk the last 50m of that section. Another fast descent to the finish and a gentle following of the Inn trail made for a lovely ride. The sting in the tail was needing to climb 600m in 10km to get back to Alpbach. These world champion will get worthy winners, I'd guess Nibali for men and van Vleuten or van der Bruggen for women.
The route was lovely, but the roads did suffer some aggressive drivers. Tirol was good, but Vorarlberg was a lot better. To be discussed in another post.
In Vorarlberg, the infrastructure was outstanding. We based ourselves in Bludenz, the home of milka chocolate (mini- and micropaddy had obscene amounts of chocolate during the annual festival, but that is another story). It is located at the junction of 5 valleys and I was able to explore 4 of them. 3 had outstanding cycle paths, 20-30km long, 3m wide, mainly asphalt with a little gravel. They were all well used by a variety of cyclists (local commuters and shoppers, tourists with panniers and those out for long fast rides), even when I was out at 6am. Also they fed a huge number of MTB trails off the paths.
On top of that we hired bikes as a family ride from Bregenz for a trip on the Bodensee path. Micropaddy and Mrs paddy managed a 15 mile round trip, not bad for a 5yo, and Minipaddy and I did the planned ride to Rohrschach in Switzerland where we caught the ferry for Lindau in Germany. A quick return to Bregenz meant 3 countries in 30 miles and a tired but happy Minipaddy. Interesting that on the ride the Austrian infrastructure was far and away the best, Swiss lagging a bit behind and the 8km of German was equivalent to Scottish.
@paddyirish, good effort, I thought we were doing well with five local authorities in 85 miles but three countries in 30 km very impressive
Run out on twin recliner yesterday. Our furniture covered 34 miles with top in Lanterne Rouge where we met Robin W former owner of Bike Trax.
Continued on up out of Gifford and then turned down to Stenton with some knotty little hills at Garvald etc. Hillfoots trail.
In under A1 and then folded. Scotrail train home. Mrs LB impressed that she cycled routes she never did when she was younger. Tandems are good for that.
Other four bikes on train. Family with 8 and 11 year old cycling JMT over several days. Luckily these electrics have space. There is another wheelchair space but only was stopping once before Edinburgh.
Marine hotel north Berwick tonight out to whitekirk. Lovely wee hamlet. Then back via tanallon castle. Boy racers. Out in force but knew they would be. Great quiet roads,mostly. Beautiful countryside.
@Laidback, being based in Dunbar I know those roads well. Excellent cycling country. @gembo pity the scenic route by tantallon is also the most travelled by motorists. I avoid it but then I'm just a big chicken.
Classic today. Out Lang Whang, down to Woolfords, quite breezy. Before auchengray we took the mud road round to wilstontown road was muddy, for first time in a while. Jinked through the cut through then up to Braehead turned right at the pub. Keep bearing right at all times, eventually you will spot six white alpacas. Keep veering right up the esker and then down rye flats road. At the bottom you are on the A70. Turn right then immediately left through carstairs village. Continue on A70 to hyndford bridge. Cross the Clyde at the traffic lights. Turn right (u can use the mile of segregated path in middle of nowhere, parallel to the a70. When it ends, turn left on cycle route marked biggar you will be on a lovely quiet road, goes to Carmichael at foot of big hill the pedal on Scotland long route used to use, turn right. Follow the road round to Tinto Hill Team Room. I had good Americano and key lime pie. I asked the waitress what was in it but she had no idea. From there go Thankerton, Quothquan, Libberton, Carnwath and Lang wang back to Balerno. 65 miles. Wind turned on way home so we had it in our teeth both ways. The roads beyond Carnwath to Tinto Hill are all great Tarmac and usually quiet. If this is too far. Take the train to carstairs and do the circle. The tearoom is a hut with a verandah. Been there since 1938 but not making a fuss of being 80 as does not want to overshadow the NHS70. The road from a70 to Tinto is gorgeous. There is a little cottage set back in the forest just before the Tinto hill carpark that would make great holiday home. Very plain, white paint Scottish vernacular. I covet.
Took NCN 1 to Kinross today. I learned a few things:
We went to Bute for the weekend. On Saturday the weather was lovely and we had an utterly wonderful ride around the island. Splendid views all around, good food at Ettrick Bay and lots of blackberries at the compulsory top of the hill stops.
Bute is amazing and I'd very much recommend taking your bike there. But I wouldnt recommend the Glenburn Hotel
A very nice spin round the Borders this morning, making a return visit to the Wall of Talla. Left at 0600, just as it was getting light. Colourful sunrise around Penicuik. Pleasant nip in the air, but not cold and not windy. A701, Tweedsmuir, Talla, Gordon Arms, Innerleithen, Granites. You get the picture.
I was taking the fancy bike for its first proper workout, and it lived up to expectations. I've never ridden a bike that hums along before. It's almost as if it had a motor in it.
At the Gordon Arms I met a friendly chap from Aberdeen who had ridden from Innerleithen looking for Peebles... We rode back over Paddyslacks together. The only low point of the ride for me was when I airily said that I'd come over the Wall of Talla, expecting a suitable ego-boosting response from him, but his reply was 'what's that?', which truly put me in my place.
Anyway, grand day out and back in time for lunch.
Took the back roads to Linlithgow, then along the canal path to Glasgow. Made good time despite a consistent head wind.
Several families of swans along the way, including one which was rather grumpy at being literally barged out of the tunnel near the Falkirk Wheel.
I'm half way through drilling my old cranks off my mountain bike, and spokes popped in my front wheel of my crossbike, and I only had an 1.5 hours before bath and bed for babe, making getting a nice ride tough on the roadie.
So I defaulted to Zwift and rode a 40 minute race and a 30 minute pyramid work out. With a fantastic soundtrack on it was genuinely hard graft (which I enjoy) and I enjoyed duking it out with a guy from Fiji, another Scot and an Englishman. Both of whom beat me in the sprint finish after I thought I had it in my legs to start sprinting at 600m.
While I love getting outside (and did so this morning with child in trailer), indoor riding and zwift, and a genuinely great way to enjoy some physical activity when you can't leave the house.
I love the idea that you could sprint from 600 metres out. I led a mate out on the finish of an ERC ride from about that distance. He then came by me with about 200 metres to go and reached the 30 sign first. I had to put up with people saying I'd started my sprint too early when the plan had actually worked perfectly. I'd love to try Zwift but it's a bit too pricy.
If you are going for the record on the Woolfords speed sign ( west Calder Model aeroplane side, the other one does not work) it is imperative to be led out but not too early as the road flattens. Record there to be taken if a N E wind is blowing.
Do uber own Zwift?
Anyone else think the woman riding on Zwift in the advert either side of the Vuelta advert breaks has burnt her nose? Can you get sunburnt doing Zwift?
Can you lead someone out on Zwift?
More importantly, is the cake virtual?
In order of questions asked
No - a strange correlation
Unlikely unless you've gone mad and are zwifting in the sun, in which case you will die of heat stroke.
Yes Absolutely - it takes drafting and weight etc into account
No - there was no cake :(
Trundled across Craigmillar Hill and down the Innocent with some not very cyclish friends who jumped in the sea at Fisherrow for a swim the mad dafties.
One broken chain (totally worn out, repaired), one fall off the bike with scraped knee, one fall on top of the bike when pushing up the Brunstane steps just bruising.
On the Brunstane path heading back I forgot to change down for the steep wee climb, came out of the saddle to do it en danceuse and banged my helmet off a tree branch. National Cycle Network, eh?
Lovely cycle from Dunoon on Saturday. Up to the Bemore Botanic Garden. Lovely walk amongst redwood giants, plenty of red squirrels, splendid fern house and an impossible-to-choose-from array of cakes. Back down to Dunoon and the onto Toward. Spectacular views plus seal watching.
I've been ignoring this part of the world too long. Easy to get to but wonderful.
Out for the first time in weeks on Saturday morning, aiming to just go to Gifford for a coffee then back. Rode out from Dunbar to East Linton via Tyninghame, then at East Linton I met a woman who was out only the 2nd time on her new bike trying to work out the best way back to Haddinton. She had come from Haddington to East Linton on the riverside footpath by mistake and was eager not to go back the same way. I was going by Hailes Castle on the NCN 76 so I chummed her to Haddington, as the expense of some time. Then I turned toward off to through Morehom and the Stenton Gifford road, but I ran into a friend doing some training for a charity ride, and that slowed me down further as we ambled along chatting for a bit. In the end I never did make it to Gifford but I had a nice ride out and didn't fall off my bike, so that's a bonus.
Had the mountain bike out for a rare change yesterday. 18 miles round Dalmeny estate followed by a dark wet return home via Cammo. Missed my friends KOM by 8 seconds, although he did it in better conditions.
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