Has this been mentioned on CCE?
Seemed to just ‘appear’ last year too -
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
“City centre roads closed ahead of Edinburgh’s Let’s Ride”
(22 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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I'll be going along for a pootle. I probably won't bother registering; I did last year, which was pretty pointless as others have pointed out.
I'll try and bring a friend or two; I went last year with a friend and her parents who are scared of cycling on the closed roads.
Posted 5 years ago # -
They do well to be scared of cycling on the closed roads.
The problem with this type of event is that it brings in to close proximity riders who have either no experience of and/or no idea of how to ride in a group.
How do the organisers cope with this? Not very well - according to their website, "you can wobble, zig zag and stop as much as you like".
A chance to foster responsibility towards one's fellow cyclists? I would have expected better from Scottish Cycling.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I enjoyed it last year, although it was a little frustrating due to the aforementioned veering around. I have a prior engagement this year.
Posted 5 years ago # -
It was a fun enough event last year, pootling around on the Elephant Bike, and I have the hi-viz with my nom de plume, but this weekend I shall be at the York Rally.
Posted 5 years ago # -
"The problem with this type of event is that it brings in to close proximity riders who have either no experience of and/or no idea of how to ride in a group."
Surely the same could be said of POP which uses some of the same closed roads. If you want to head out in a chain gang perhaps this isn't the place to do it.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Indeed, but I don't recall the PoP organisers urging participants to ride in an irresponsible manner.
Posted 5 years ago # -
"The problem with this type of event is that it brings in to close proximity riders who have either no experience of and/or no idea of how to ride in a group."
True, but you can usually spot those riders, and it's not really designed for people to be going at speed anyway. Of course there's always some people zooming along at 25 mph...
Posted 5 years ago # -
When I did this last year I don't think it bore any resemblance to riding in a group akin to a competitive cycling event. My eldest went round 3 times on her single speed and wobbled and zig-zagged and knocked me off and it was joyous. As there are very many young riders on this who have the opportunity to ride around traffic free, I would say it's not a bad idea to alert people to the fact it is not a competitive cycling event but one in which various inexperienced riders will be unpredictable.
Also - enjoy the blissful comparative silence of sitting outside on Buccleuch Street and George IVth bridge.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I don't think that there would be much, if any, sympathy extended towards a confident cyclist who collides with a less confident one at this event. I might join in for a lap or two, but will be taking it quite easy whenever I am close to any obviously less confident cyclists.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Posted 5 years ago #
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If you are riding with small children beware the pothole next to Greyfriars bobby. During pop it swallowed almost the entire front wheel of a 14" bike throwing the poor lad over the bars.
Posted 5 years ago # -
If it's still there, has anyone reported it? They're usually pretty quick to fix obviously dangerous potholes, even if it is just by dumping a metal plate over it.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I didn't report it at the time and as I'm not regularly in the area I don't know if it's still there and needs reported or not.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Urgh. I made the mistake of reading the comments section on the EEN article.
Off to pour bleach in my eyes now.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Agreed, jdanielp. My concern is the "advice" being given to the less confident who will be quite capable of affecting each other if behaving erratically without any involvement of the confident types.
My assumption is that this event is intended to encourage the non- enthusiast to use a bike as part of normal day to day life. If wee Johnny gets ca'd off his bike because someone does something silly it's not going to encourage the average such parent to allow their offspring to cycle in the big wide world of traffic (of course they won't consider a mass of cyclists as traffic, which they are).
Posted 5 years ago # -
The correct thread for today's event - last of EdFoC.
Weather looks good. Must have been nice for RTTS ride.Posted 5 years ago # -
I just enjoyed three relatively chilled out laps of the main course, although I opened up the speed somewhat when I had free space ahead. Aside from a couple of minor issues with people coming to a halt on gradients or joining the route without bothering to check behind, it was lovely.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Is this what our promised 'car-free Sundays' could look like? (I say that, then remember that I had to stop twice this morning, once on Lady Lawson Street to let general traffic flow between West Port and Grassmarket and once on Buccleuch Street to allow three private vehicles to access Buccleuch Place. So that's not entirely 'car free' after all...)
Posted 5 years ago # -
We're at Bike Station tent in village. Doing reclined circuit now on tandem then back to stand around. Saw customers on variuos rigs...
Posted 5 years ago # -
I was milling around from 12:00 till 14:30ish with a couple of friends, though only spotted Kim (Though he's also pretty much the only one that I'd recognise).
Got 3 laps in - I was slightly surprised at the amount of traffic at West Port / Lady Lawson Street - I had to stop there for several minutes on every lap.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Without cars to keep them in check, pedestrians were all over the roads I was trying to cycle on (Marchmont to Hanover St) on Sunday afternoon. Junction of Princes Street and Hanover was horrendous with jaywalkers who paid no attention to cycle traffic (which is tricky to manage when you are crossing tram tracks and checking for potholes).
Posted 5 years ago #
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