Mr fimm and I went to the Humbie Hub on Saturday, my first visit. A very nice 75km round trip - out through Dalkeith and Crichton, nice coffee and a cheese and tomato sandwich sat outside in Humbie, return via the River Esk path (which I'd never ridden before) to Musselburgh and Portobello prom where I allowed myself an ice cream even though it was threatening to rain. Home along the NEPN where it looked as though it had rained rather harder than it had in Portobello...
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
The "I had a lovely ride today, thankyou" thread
(2685 posts)-
Posted 4 years ago #
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"Mechanics all trying to find the right mix of behaving at work and showing mad skillz."
@IWARTS Does it mean you are were cycling alongside but off-track, preferably through a bog?
Posted 4 years ago # -
@bill
I was not present in either the IWARTSian or Overlander personae. Cycling was sober, sociable and responsible.
Should really have insisted on finding a bothy in Bingham.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Went down the Lyne valley from Romano Bridge this morning
Lovely, some traffic but not too bad
Posted 4 years ago # -
I'm not going to start a new thread for this, and this is the closest relevant one I could find.
If you can't be bothered to watch all of it, just the first 30 seconds will give a picture of the technology and then from about 7 minutes you'll see why it's here.
(And before you smirk at the waste of German taxpayers' euros, note that half the kit in the film was funded with your taxes :-)
Posted 4 years ago # -
TWIST, TWIST, PONTOON
Posted 4 years ago # -
Had a nice pootle out Broxburn way since I needed to swap my mum's car for my bike. Several very good passes - passing fully on the other side of the road, and nobody overtaking on solid white lines, which surprised me.
On the flip side, is it just me, or is the path in Dalmeny Estate substantially worse than it was a month ago? There seems to be a lot more loose stones and it looks like a JCB has driven along the path (deep tyre tracks on either side), scooping up the surface layer and depositing it loosely on top.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Did a clockwise loop of East Lothian today. Along the coast road from Musselburgh to North Berwick, then back via Haddington and Humbie. Stopped for coffee/cake/soup at Steampunk in North Berwick and the Humbie Hub.
Thought process should have been "Take it easy to North Berwick, it'll be hillier on the way back", but instead was "Woo, this is nice and flat, let's go fast!"
No really bad passes on the coast road, but too many people don't know what the solid white lines in the middle of the road mean.
Got a high five from a kid on the Pencaitland path, then realise his brother behind him wanted one too, and I wobbled a bit trying to do so, before realising it was a bad idea. Their mum didn't look impressed :(
Posted 4 years ago # -
@frenchy, lovely out there
In honour of le tour, we did @Druidh (he don’t post here no more) route Col de Climpy
Which goes from Balerno to B7008 down toHarburn then at dog trust road out past Ned boulting’s parents house then right instead of left at the model aeroplane turn and down to A706 then right left down to A71 then right left down to addiewell. I christened this the Addiewell Shuffle. Then backroad from addiewell to the main fauldhouse road (third healthiest place in uk according to useless Scotsman survey) then into darkest north Lanarkshire and down to THe Headless Cross. Then up through wind farm to the south Lanarkshire hamlet of Climpy. Druidh used to claim there was a village of same name in French alps that le tour goes through. From Climpy up to forth then right left to the lovely wee cut through to braehead then down to carnwath via the Carstairs esker. Apple pie then home. Sun even came out
Posted 4 years ago # -
Took my protege (my old boss who has retired and bought himself a croix de fer) down to Crammond, mostly off road - meadows - canal - WoL Path, saughton Park, murrayfield, Russell road (traffic mellow) NEPN to beyond drylaw, down the silverknowes to Boardwalk Cafe. £5.80 for an espresso and an Americano which the waiter spilt when putting tray on wonky table. Sorry, sorry they said but then appear to have topped up with tepid water. Jeez would have been trouble if I was paying as in give us two free coffees. But the protege does not like a scene and was paying. We then bowled along to Crammond then cycled to Edinburgh College at Granton.
All good, lot of new additions (ramps, wild flowers better surfaces) to this route since the CCE outing to Crammond Island. At college followed cycle signs which was fine as I know my way around West Pilton. Yer standard tourist tho, I wonder.
Over the Redbridge back up to Gorgie. The long awaited link from there to canal would be good. As would the canal to meadows link.
Took the protege back to meadows, he seemed happy. Came back up WoL path. Mostly off road. The lift bridge was being used as passage across canal late morning as the work is on the temporary footbridge side today.
Posted 4 years ago # -
up early Sunday, pedalled from the dacha (SE of Hawick), via Innerleithen back home.
Heeded the collective forum advice and took NC1 from before Bonnyrigg to avoid the awful down/up at Lasswade - it was generally really good, if a little longer.
Lovely breakfast in Innerleithen before tackling the granites.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Met a friend at Garvald pub to watch a few tennis games before we headed home together. He had ridden from Edinburgh while I had arrived from Coldingham. Neither of us knew the pub existed before we arrived there. Well worth a visit if it's beer rather than cake you are after.
We then took a wrong turn on the way home but being in East Lothian that was a positive.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@acsimpson - I know that wrong turn after the pub - Specifically and generally. Nice hills
Posted 4 years ago # -
@gembo, thankfully the wrong turn wasn't specifically in either Garvald not Gifford. It was more of a "I think we were meant to turn a mile or so back" shoulder shrug kind of wrong turn.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@acsimpson, not too bad then
Posted 4 years ago # -
Glorious morning, so I went out to Gladhouse reservoir. Lots of people seemed to have the same idea. Some swimmers there too.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Meandered out to fala dam via esk path for a party this afternoon. Found great road from just east of Pathhead - empty, quite hilly, went past an enormous mansion. Came back the same way later until Pathhead - saw two big hares. At pathead turn I went to Pathhead then Ford and into Dalkeith that way, avoided kamikaze ginger and white cat. Observed many people I thought were in fancy dress in Dalkeith, maybe gala or maybe like that every Saturday? Much war paint.
Made it along frogston road with little incident,
Grand day out
Posted 4 years ago # -
A friend is on holiday this week and talked me into joining him for the trip to where they are staying. I'm not sure I realised quite how far Cromdale is before I agreed to join him. It's just north of Aviemore and because we didn't fancy the A9 that left us going over Glenshee and the Lecht.
We started with a meander through Fife, passing Loch Ore, Loch Leven and the up over Glenfarg. I'm told I got a little moody coming down as the descent was anything but free flowing. A second Breakfast at Bridge of Earn lifted our moods and kept us going.
North of Perth our software took us past Perth Racecourse. It was a lovely quiet road cutting several miles off the A93.
Unfortunately my chain jammed in my wheel on a short climb just before Cairngorm National Park. It wasn't until we starting considering if the outdoor centre 5 miles ahead would have a freewheel removal tool that I eventually worked it free with such a jolt that the valve bruised my arm (now I know wny presta valves have caps).
Before tackling Glenshee we stopped for toasties at the Glenshee Pottery which were very nice. Glenshee was hot and windless so with the summit came ice-cream.
With the perfect conditions we were rapidly past Braemar and turning towards the Lecht. Unfortunately my bike decided to have another stop when the tyre blew out of the sidewall. We patched it up as best we could with a tube patch, piece of cardboard and scrap of old inner tube I had in the bag. Remarkably it held up to the end of the ride.
With over 100 miles in the legs the frequent climbs of the Lecht began to burn and it was too late in the day for anywhere to be open. However a cafe somewhere before the final climb had an outside tap to refill out bottles. The last push is notorious, starting at 20% and only relenting slightly before arriving at the top where we celebrated with a dram.
The descent from the lecht is fast but as those who have ridden it know unlike Glenshee it has interuptions. One in particular interruption spikes up to nearly 20% again for one final hard push before a fast decent and gentle ride to Cromdale.
With a good mixture of type 1 and type 2 fun and thankfully no sunburn we made it before our target time of sunset.
A total of 230km plus change and a little over 3000m of climbing is a satisfying tally.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@acsimpson - great adventure
Posted 4 years ago # -
How busy is the road to Braemar?
Posted 4 years ago # -
@acsimpson
Fantastic. Love the grumpy descent and rugged field repairs.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Bravo. I concur that Bridge of Broon is an unwelcomed interruption to the Lecht descent.
The mental challenge is to remember that whilst Glenshee & Lecht are the major climbs there are several other tasty climbs on that route, which would be a major draw on their own right if they were nearer to civilisation.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Where is the nearest outpost of civilisation to Bridge of Brown?
Posted 4 years ago # -
Does Tomintoul count as civilisation? I had an excellent bacon roll there once. This almost made up for Bridge of Brown.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Iwrats, in your eyes I would say that Bridge of Brown is civilisation. There is a tea room (albeit closed when we passed).
The one at Cock Bridge was similarly closed but as I mentioned has a very welcome outside tap.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Yes. Bridge of Brown is a metropolis.
Posted 4 years ago # -
What a ride acsimpson.
I pootled round by Lauder on Saturday. The town was heaving as it was their common riding. I stopped for a snack on the road towards Blainslie and was accosted by an "ex-builder". Dear god he was miserable. Hated the riding, hated Lauder. I made my excuses and left.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Took my protégé out for pootle this morning (my old boss retired and bought himself a very nice Croix de fer). this was our 5th outing and he is now up to 25 miles. Passed by most folk on my commute (going the wrong way) - we went to Juniper Art Land from town.
We arrived at the side entrance 9.30. Does not open til ten
For some kind reason they let us in (good as he was due back in town by 11.40 - we were early as it turned out). We pootled around saw a lot of sculpture were even directed to the amethyst cave which now has a big puddle on its floor - by member of staff.
Bit cheeky I know. Anyway we only received one row. Car coming in as we were leaving. I was pushing on the grass to let car pass (as many many cars had done, looks like everyone goes early and the front gate is open). Driver declined to pass. she stopped, rolled down her window and said you can't cycle here. I said I am not cycling I am pushing the bike. Is that ok? She said no, I mean you can't cycle here it is a paid park. I said ah, I see, in which case we will continue to leave by the gate 100 metres up the road if that is OK? Three cars behind I think pressured the member if staff into moving on. In almost all ways she was of course only doing her job. Fair number of new pieces, well worth going out for a LOOKSEE
Posted 4 years ago # -
@gembo it makes glad they didn't stop me and I didn't have to explain myself when I went through it last November when my normal route was closed. It was an eerie experience to cycle among those land sculptures in dark.
Posted 4 years ago #
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