CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Leisure

Innocent Tunnel game

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    One great thing about the Innocent from the top of the tunnel is the 'endless' slope.

    On days like today (no wind), and in no particularly hurry, it's fun to enter tunnel down the slope, through the barrier, stop pedalling and glide.

    Speed increases initially and gradually drop as you come alongside the back of Duddingston Loch.

    I ran out of momentum here -

    and kicked a small cairn of leaves.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  2. Nice. I'm heading back that way tonight - might give the game a whirl. At the very least I'll look for your 'cairn'.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  3. cb
    Member

    This all makes me think... where is the longest continuous downhill route in Edinburgh? Does it start on Arthurs Seat? Or maybe Fairmilehead?

    Also, what route gives the longest freewheel? This could have bits of uphill in it - so long as momentum can carry you over them.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  4. chdot
    Admin

    "At the very least I'll look for your 'cairn'."

    It's a 'reasonable' way along the Bawsinch wall (I didn't go for 'max' down on the drops) just before that short section of patching.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  5. "This all makes me think... where is the longest continuous downhill route in Edinburgh? Does it start on Arthurs Seat? Or maybe Fairmilehead?

    Also, what route gives the longest freewheel? This could have bits of uphill in it - so long as momentum can carry you over them."

    Hmmm, good question... I reckon with a clear run you could freewheel from the eastern end of Princes Street, down Leith Street and Leith Walk and make it some of the way to the Shore. Maybe.

    Or Arthur's Seat round to the Parliament.

    Liberton Brae?

    There's a long run down from Craiglockhart as well...

    Posted 14 years ago #
  6. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    Anth: "I reckon with a clear run you could freewheel from the eastern end of Princes Street, down Leith Street and Leith Walk and make it some of the way to the Shore. Maybe."

    If you started at the Castle esplanade (parking attendants permitting of course) you could probably freewheel to the left turn onto North Bridge and if you didn't scrub off too much speed I think your momentum would carry you to the east end of Princes Street.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  7. cb
    Member

    "If you started at the Castle esplanade (parking attendants permitting of course) you could probably freewheel to the left turn onto North Bridge and if you didn't scrub off too much speed I think your momentum would carry you to the east end of Princes Street."

    Ooh, I like. Someone needs to try this (at 4am)

    Posted 14 years ago #
  8. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    Ooh, I like. Someone needs to try this (at 4am)

    I know, it's tempting.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  9. ruggtomcat
    Member

    surgeons hall to the docks, no bother :)

    Posted 14 years ago #
  10. The little rise to North Bridge might kill that one? (if I'm thinking of the right place).

    Castle Esplanade, a 4am CCE freewheel race!

    Posted 14 years ago #
  11. ruggtomcat
    Member

    I will be out and about at 4am too, dont know if i will be sober tho...

    Posted 14 years ago #
  12. wingpig
    Member

    If you stayed out of the bus lane along Leith Walk and posted marshalls to allow a clean run across to Constitution St, if you hadn't had to brake at all downhill you could probably make to at least Queen Charlotte St before the flatness thwarted you.

    Top of the Roseburn Path down to Granton ought to be possible (though with an initial pedal to start off and not starting from as high above sea level as the esplanade), though you'd need a very good line round that left-hand bend after the bridge by the park to get as far as the slope onto the road, though that would provide enough acceleration to get across the roundabout and back onto the cycle path whence it would be downhill the rest of the way.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  13. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Ooh, I like. Someone needs to try this

    I think we need a posse! Surely if we find the highest road point in Edinburgh on the map the challenge is to get to the lowest without pedalling!

    A fully loaded tourer might help to get over some of the intermediate inclines.

    Sounds like an activity to be carried out after we manage to arrange the Caley Sample Room buff-a-thon

    Posted 14 years ago #
  14. druidh
    Member

    A fully loaded tourer might help to get over some of the intermediate inclines.

    Some of us are carrying additional ballast all the time. I propose a handicap system.....

    Posted 14 years ago #
  15. cb
    Member

    ""At the very least I'll look for your 'cairn'."

    It's a 'reasonable' way along the Bawsinch wall""

    I went to look at the new path today; on the way I decided to try an Innocent Freewheel.
    I fell short of your leaf cairn by about 20m or so. Didn't build a 2nd place cairn though...

    Posted 14 years ago #
  16. Min
    Member

    That sounds about where I stopped this morning. I reckon we had a bit of a headwind though as the urge to start pedalling came a lot sooner than normal.

    Not sure how Anth intends to play on his fixie!

    Posted 14 years ago #
  17. chdot
    Admin

    "I fell short of your leaf cairn by about 20m or so."

    You probably had a slight headwind today. (Ah, Min confirms.)

    And perhaps a bigger rubber 'footprint'.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  18. steveo
    Member

    Kirk Brae would be a good one, if you could get out to curie you could get a fair ways. Just need to manage that turn at the bottom of kirk brae with incredible skill to carry enough speed for the up hill but not wipe out...

    Posted 14 years ago #
  19. wingpig
    Member


    Too dark to see any leaf-cairns. Got to about twenty metres before the ex-bridge, twenty metres past where the path swings out from the wall, in line with where there's a tree on the left which has fallen against another tree...

    ...just before a couple of trunk-only ex-trees whose branches have all snapped off. 55°56'16"N, 03°09'08" from a reading pronounced "accurate to 36m" on my phone, which isn't very helpful.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  20. Kirst
    Member

    I played this morning, against a bit of a head wind. I got just past the bit on the left where there's a small path branching off, where they repaired a bit of the wall last year. The leaf cairn is still there but I was pedalling by then.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  21. spitfire
    Member

    I am up for the 4am posse thing (which is starting to sound like a Critical mass) I can go to the 24hr pure gym afterwards and then go on to work :)

    Posted 14 years ago #
  22. rosscbrown
    Member

    So I tried this at 1pm today. Probably possibly but in the day time traffic and the signal timings won't allow it.

    I'll come along for the 4am posse thing, sounds fun :-)

    Posted 14 years ago #
  23. cb
    Member

    I checked the map and it looks like The Castle to Leith was easily the winner for length. 4km or thereabouts I think.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  24. chdot
    Admin

    Did the Innocent again today. Slight headwind so I put my head down a bit more than last time. .

    Stopped a few yards short of previous glide.

    Marked both with a 'chalk' line - stone under leaf pile.

    I also recognised the tree in Wingpig's photo!

    Posted 14 years ago #
  25. ruggtomcat
    Member

    anyone see the flowers laid on the path once you cross the road into the scheme?

    Posted 14 years ago #
  26. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    I tried this afternoon about 4.30pm. I stopped about ten metres short of your chalk line chdot.

    ruggtomcat: I saw the flowers. Might be for the motorcyclist who died on the path near that spot a while back.

    Posted 14 years ago #
  27. ruggtomcat
    Member

    a reminder of where you are cutting through...

    Posted 14 years ago #
  28. Min
    Member

    Yay, beat chdot's marker! Didn't have any chalk but made another wee leaf cairn, this one is harder to see.

    I didn't see the chalk marks?

    Posted 14 years ago #
  29. Kirst
    Member

    There isn't a chalk mark. It's a "chalk" mark - a leaf pile and a stone!

    Posted 14 years ago #
  30. chdot
    Admin


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