There's a café in Selm Muir Wood? (I had to look at the map to work out where Selm Muir Wood is.) That's random. It would have been somewhere to try to cycle to sometime...
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
The "I had a lovely ride today, thankyou" thread
(2685 posts)-
Posted 1 year ago #
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Yes it only opened recently. Look up Selm Muir Cafe on Facebook.
Posted 1 year ago # -
So, following a discussion here earlier in the year, I can confirm that it's possible to ride from Edinburgh and tick off both Lowther Hill and Great Dun Fell in one ride.
The 'loveliness' of the ride probably depends a bit on how much Type 2 Fun you enjoy...
Up early, and on the A70 in the dark to Carnwath and Thankerton, thence to Abington and up to Wanlockhead. The climb to Wanlockhead is always nice, on a lovely and smooth road. Lowther Hill is an interesting challenge, but it doesn't go on so long that it stops being enjoyable.
Then it's a lovely swooping descent to the M74 and the B7076 to Moffat. Some of this is nice, but on some bits the surface is awful and there are some dreadful cycle facilities (here) and (here) to pour invective on.
Then on to Carlisle, with a convenient pitstop in McDonalds. I found a new route (to me) through a park that gets out to the east of the city while avoiding the dual-carriageway roundabout hellscape of the city centre.
Some glorious roads (randomly selected during my route planning) headed south and east of Penrith, closing in on Great Dun Fell, which was shrouded in cloud. Dusk was falling as I headed up. My thighs began to protest at the climbing, which seemed harder than I remembered (but there were 110 more miles in the legs than last time), and I did resort to walking up the steepest bits. As I pushed upwards, the wind rose, the rain started, the mist thickened and darkness started to fall. The radar station finally loomed out of the mist, I sheltered behind the buildings getting my kit ready for the descent, listening to the wind roaring in the towers around me and wondering if this was Type 2 or Type 3 Fun.
I felt my way down, clutching the brakes and wrestling the bike against the cross winds. Then the mist cleared, the lights of Cumbria spread out below and I realised that the only wind was that from the descent, so I could finally let the bike run free.
The final 20 miles to Penrith passed pleasantly (apart from some heavy rain), interrupted at one point by two police vehicles on blues (but not twos) absolutely tanking past me. Penrith Premier Inn was warm and welcoming and totally unfussed by a bedraggled cyclist and dripping bike.
A nice route. 168 miles and ~13,000ft of climbing. If you're tempted, maybe do it in the other direction. This would have the advantage of putting the bigger climb nearer the start, (although the downside is that the final 50miles through Lanarkshire are pretty short of any facilities).
Posted 1 year ago # -
Chapeau. Epic day out.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Absolutely stunning work. Having climbed them both in the same year I marvel at the effort required to climb them both in a day. It's a remarkable amount of climbing when you consider than 100 miles of it is reasonably flat.
I'd love to follow in your footsteps but having climbed them both on clear sky days I'm not sure I would fancy the opposite experience.
Who will take up the challenge of riding both and returning to their own bed?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Chapeau to Greenroofer.
I did my traditional pre afternoon Banff Mountain Film Festival ride with a pal.
This time we did the Go East Lothian Trail, a mainly off road trail designed by Markus Stitz, designed to introduce families to bikepacking. At 63km it is a perfect for its task- a wide range of farm tracks, cycle paths and singletrack, with maybe ~10km on quiet roads. There were lots of potential beach stops on the way out and you are never that far from a cafe.
There are points where you can cut corners if little legs had had enough. The idea is that the riders can overnight near Dunbar either camping or Glamping. My highlight was a lovely flowy wooded trail about half way between East Linton and North Berwick on the way back.
Wind got up during the morning and there was a decent headwind as we headed west to Dirleton, but we then got blown back to North Berwick the last 5-6km.
Re the Banff festival, a film on mountain biking with dogs in the afternoon programme alongside Danny Macaskill's Slabs video- looked great on the big screen, but I've seen it too many times. Felt the making of part would have added to the show.
Evening programme had a short on Mountain Biking n Cappadocia and a poignant film of Rab Wardell's WHW Fastest Known Time. Apparently it was very good - will make an effort to see that.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@Greenroofer great riding! Very impressive!
We were walking the hills up Talla reservoir on Saturday and enjoyed the view of Lowther Hill radar. We could also see the Solway Firth and the Lake District peaks but don't think we could see Great Dun Fell.
Posted 1 year ago # -
A couple of months ago I discovered the existence of the North Berwick-Anstruther ferry. So yesterday I cycled round the outer Forth - Edinburgh to Anstruther along the south Fife coast, then back to Edinburgh from North Berwick.
It was a lovely day, cycling along bits of Fife I'd not been to before, a nice rest and a chippy in Anstruther, seeing the sunset from the middle of the Firth of Forth and then a night-time cycle back from North Berwick.
Would definitely recommend The ferry only runs during the summer and yesterday was the last one of the year- starts again in April. It also only runs about once a fortnight - doing a sailing in each direction morning and evening. Cost £15, bike was free but needed to be booked in advance, as there's not that much room for them on board. Bike was also outside during the voyage, so seawater in the drivechain is inevitable.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@Frenchy - thanks for sharing. What a fantastic route!!
Posted 1 year ago # -
@Frenchy thanks for sharing the info! I saw your route on your Strava and was wondering how you got across!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Set out today for an inaugural training ride with my eldest, with our hope for cycling the Badger Divide in May.
A noon start was suboptimal for making the most of the daylight, but hey ho. We headed up to the Canal and WOL path to Bonaly and then up past the reservoirs to Cubbiedean for lunch with a fantastic view over to the bridges and hills behind.
My son especially enjoyed being given responsibility for the garmin which included following the preset route and counting down the distance to go - which was not decreasing very fast, but the sun was shining and spirits were high.
Up and over Maidens Cleugh was a bit icy but nice to finally get a descent. The road up past the reservoirs was icy and treacherous in places, with great delight had once we got to -2c in the shadows.
Green Cleugh had a couple of challenging river crossings with added to the adventure of the expedition and gave me a wet foot...
Cresting the summit gave us knowledge that it was all down on the way home although we had seen the end of the sun and the garmin gone on to nighttime mode, we should have had enough light to make it home.
However, having been enjoying ourselves so much we decided to stick to Plan A (which had assumed an earlier start time) and so we dropped down to pals in East Calder for a hot chocolate and some warmth.
Properly dark when we left and you could see a marked increase in frost on the roads/cars. We took it gingerly down to Calderwood, where we headed through the country park towards the canal. It was properly dark in the trees, not helped by 2 of 3 front lights having already given up the ghost.
The canal was relative delight with a decent ice free surface and easy navigation with the 1 remaining light and the moon giving us a helping hand.
We made it home as tea was being dished up, with 38 miles done in below freezing temperatures in an elapsed time of 7 hours and lots of stories to share.
A great day out and a decent starting position to build from. Badger Divide (Inverness to Glasgow offroad), will see us doing a 40-60miles per day for 4 days, so hopefully with some more training we can keep it fun rather than gruelling...
Posted 1 year ago # -
Did you see any other cyclists? We did a rather ginger road cycle to Kelly Syke in the morning which stopped at the Kelly Syke gate. Cause too much ice. We saw no other cyclists.
Excellent routes, sorry about your wet foot. Though seems a minor detail.
Clubbiedean’s cafe only going to open Saturday and Sunday for rest of winter.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Rather lovely ride yesterday on hired mountain bikes in Thetford Forest. Did the blue and red loops. A blast. Amazingly did not fall off despite achieving Ludicrous Speed on a couple of occasions
Posted 1 year ago # -
A big ride West to Carnwath today (taking advantage of the weather being decent for this time of year and the UCU strike). The first half wasn't so lovely being mainly into a 20+mph headwind and about 3000ft of climbing and the stop off at the Apple Pie bakery (as recommended by gembo) arrived just in time. Wow, what a selection of pies! I played it safe and ordered a macaroni pie. The homeward leg, although still a bit of a slog having expended so much energy on the outward leg was a bit easier and the return leg along the Moor Road was so much more pleasant than the outward leg!
Looking forward to heading out that way again as the weather improves (or at least the wind drops!)
Posted 1 year ago # -
@mcairney, excellent news, The Pie Abides. We don’t eat the pies though.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The rhubarb pies are good. Although as one friend pointed out photos of it looks like a scotch pie with jam.
Any news on their cafe?Posted 1 year ago # -
No news on a cafe (I didn’t even realise it was on the cards!) will need to make another trip to sample the sweet side of their menu
Posted 1 year ago # -
The wee rhubarb pies are very different from scotch pies. They are nice and contain no cow eyelashes
Posted 1 year ago # -
I took my foot off the gas yesterday to ride Markus Stitz's Go East Lothian Trail (https://bikepackingscotland.com/eastlothian/) with my son and Dad yesterday. It was ideal conditions to travel slowly down the coast from North Berwick to Dunbar and then return inland.
The route is a great mix of quite roads and tracks of varying widths and surfaces with only a couple of short bits on the busier roads where they are sadly unavoidable.
As time was marching on we headed directly back from Preston Mill rather than going via Dirleton and then were having so much fun at the playpark in North Berwick that we missed our train home.
I would definitely recommend the route to everyone other than the most dirt averse riders. Other than in very wet conditions it's passable on a road bike but I would recommend something with a bit of nobble on the tyres to for maximum pleasure.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Tried to cycle brompton up 16 per cent hill out of Ilkley up to the cow and calf and over Ilkley Moor to Burley in Wharfedale. Was also fun coming down.
Posted 1 year ago # -
My current ‘project’ is making various bikes I haven’t ridden for a while rideable. So I can remind myself why I want to keep them (or not).
Today it was the turn of my 1985 Moulton AM.
Was once my ‘every day’ bike and so pretty heavily used/abused.
Gave it a wash, blew up the tyres hard and discovered it’s basically in good nick and fast FUN!
It got set aside when I got bored with drops and wanted wide straight bars (again).
Deserves some attention to the cosmetics.
Is it ‘worth’ new paint/powdercoating.
Probably.
Decisions.
Posted 1 year ago # -
TODAY'S ride was lovely. Yesterday's a bit too much of an epic...
The plan was an overnight adventure with my boy. Nothing too extreme to start with...
We didn't get off to a good start when our planned departure was delayed to a badly timed nosebleed and the 4 miles to Haymarket had to be done in 20mins. We made it, just and then had fun getting our reserved bikes on the train (see other thread).
Alighting at Dalwhinnie we got stopped by the National Rail gate :( and had to take the long way round to the Ben Alder path.
Steady progress up to Loch Pattack which look tempting for a swim and onto the Culra Bothy. So far so good...
We then had our first puncture caused by the regular drainage on the path made up of large square edge rocks with a gap between them of 15-40cm. Perfect for getting snakebite... I put in the spare tube and patched the original.
Progress was very slow going with stopping and lifting over every drainage ditch and climbing out of the valley, so I was getting worried we might be cutting it fine for dinner at the b&b.
And then disaster, another puncture and no matter what I tried I couldn't get air in the patched tyre, I feared the pump was gubbed.
Nothing for it but to walk/carry the bike from there... Garmin said 12 miles to go - at least it was a nice night...
Frustrating that I couldn't benefit from the downhill or ride through the boggy parts of the route.
No phone reception or chance of help so we just had to plod on and hope that there would be a dinner for us whenever we did arrive.
Finally got back onto a proper track again at Loch Ericht and fearing we could be well into twilight if we didn't make progress, I decided to stuff the tyre with grass and see if we could ride again.
It worked okay ish. Not great for turning but could make progress at 5 or 6mph in a straight line or downhill.
Finally got to the b&b at 10pm and they couldn't do enough for us, so a huge recommendation for Bridge of Gaur Guesthouse.
Definitely counted as an adventure but was harder work than planned. The Highlands were glorious and the weather very kind.
After breakfast I set about removing the grass and found that I had only fixed one half of the snakebite and they're was another gash hiding along the seam of the tube.
Got that fixed and heading the short distance to Rannoch Station and our train home - we had planned to come back via Corrour but played it safe.
The ride to Rannoch Station was lovely as we had 2 working bikes and more fabulous scenery - glad to be heading home and in one piece. The train ride is pretty special too.
Roll on the next adventure...
Posted 11 months ago # -
More epic than the ride I had on Sat.
First part South Gyle Station to Inverleith.
Mostly signed Quiet Route then NEPN.
Several miles across west and north Ed with little traffic. Plenty places (esp junctions) where it should be better to have any chance of attracting many more people to use bikes.
Than Inverleith to Meadows with competent 10yo.
Roundabout route to avoid the traffic inc Leith Walk ‘path’ (not finished…) and a bit of pavement.
Plus short section of Royal Mile just solid with fractionally moving traffic.
Then Critical Mass.
As ever, sections where the traffic was holding up the bikes.
Not least South Bridge where a bunch of buses was delayed by ever changing traffic lights.
All fun, but really, CEC has a long way to go!!
Posted 11 months ago # -
@hankchief, glad you made it have ridden down to Loch Pattack with Cider Tom and camped. We marveled at the ruins of houses there and the route to corrour./rannoch station.
That was before the rail gate. can you not fling bikes over?
We also had a snakebite at weekend which was the middle of three p words on the same tyre not mine but my tubes feature.
First I think was the over inflation of those stupid skinny tunes. Second was I think caused by a Nick in the rim and also rim tape wearing thin, (my first spare tube used here) third was snakebite caused by metal levers. So my last donated tube was put in very carefully and with plastic levers. We then crossed the Spey and made it to Buckie where the bike shop did not sell Road tubes. We then made it to Cullen for the Skink There was then big debate about going on to bike shop in Port Soy and hoping it sold tubes which would have made the route 100km or risking it by heading home. As the typhoonforecast lashed us on the way home and the winds gusted more than 40mph we made the right choice, made it home meeting the remnants of the sportive down from Cairngorms ski lift to Windswept brewery of Lossiemouth, those cats were looking pretty gubbed at the end of their 100km despite having a massive tailwind. Next day made it to Findhorn and back without mishap. Reminds me to buy tubes.
Posted 11 months ago # -
A mini-adventure for me today - cycled to Roslin along the Gilmerton-Roslin path - as I've done dozens of times previously.
Today, however, I had a dog in my bike trailer!
I bought the trailer about five years ago, but it's only in the last month that we've felt safe enough to actually put a dog in it. The difference is ~20m of path being built, allowing us to get to the Gilmerton-Roslin path without going down Drum Street.
Posted 11 months ago # -
@Gembo. £30k worth of fencing says you can't just fling your bike over.
You have 2 choices though.
1. Cross the footbridge at station onto the platform and at the far end is a wee gate into a field and you can work your way back. Or;
2. Go out onto the main road and down to the filling station and make use of an underpass half a mile south of the crossing.
We went for the 2nd option, which wasn't horrendous but is kinda pointless just to avoid a level crossing.
@Frenchy - great to hear. It is the small things that can make the difference. (Once the big things have already been built)
Posted 11 months ago # -
Those gates do look impregnable.
Knew about the back to dalwhinnie route. But not the field.
Even cider Tom might struggle.
We left carstairs junction one Saturday on the closed to cars road that goes to Pettinain only to find the HERAS fencing was up as building new bridge for cars over the Clyde. Waste of Money. Local dog walkers had cut the cable ties so was easy to get through until the last section near the workies compound. That involved a field. However, it gets worse. On way back from Douglas Cider Tom tried the reverse only to be spoken to by the Iain paisley voiced robot in the brazier thing as he mounted the parapet THE POLICE AND THE OWNER KNOW YOU ARE HERE.
I suppose in two years when they reopen the road some drivers will have a short cut again maybe 13 a day.
Posted 11 months ago # -
I can relate...
I had a Dalek voice going crazy at me recently outside the cruise ship terminal when I followed the tram line to Newhaven. It was quite insistent that I was up to no good, so I just whistled and kept on cycling...
Also back in the day I was cycling a route in Northumberia that I'd plotted route on my Garmin. The weather slowly deteriorated until it was a full on snow storm.
I was nearly home and went to take the river route East out of Rothbury only to find road closed signs. I thought I'd be alright to get round the blockage and pushed on, only to find mine were the only tracks in the snow.
At the inevitable Heras fencing I was disappointed to see they had done a proper job with fencing going 50yds through the woods on either side. Who were they expecting do try to overcome the fencing?
Reluctantly I conceded defeat as the risk/reward seemed decidedly against me given the snowstorm and had to backtrack to Rothbury and then over the hilly route to Alnwick, which at least kept me warm...
Posted 11 months ago # -
The hilly route from Rothbury to Alnwick is lovely on a summer’s day.
The WoL path is tarmac (well some sort of ashphalt) and No HERAS now until at least The Bathroom warehouse site which @neddie forced to open its gates to the world. Short kicker then up to his Mattness. He is against the paving of the path but I think it is fab.
Posted 11 months ago # -
@Hankchief
"I decided to stuff the tyre with grass and see if we could ride again.
Did that last year. Held out for 8 miles out of Glen Isla on an old Bike Coop MTB.
It worked okay ish. Not great for turning but could make progress at 5 or 6mph in a straight line or downhill."
Glad the adventure settled down. You had a few headwinds!@Frenchy
"Today, however, I had a dog in my bike trailer!"
Can't beat sharing your cycling with a friend.Posted 10 months ago #
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