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.
Almost that time again! Who's riding Saturday's LDTT (or its 100k sibling)?
Also, here's a shameless plug for the Xmas Tour of Midlothian if anyone's at a loose end over Xmas:
https://audax.uk/event-details?eventId=9212
Best wishes to all for the new season!
Looking forward to next weekend. Currently planning to go down by train
Next weekend is the COP26 demo for anyone cycling through to Glasgow or hoping to use trains throug(non the west this might be something to take cognizance of.?
Looks like bus shelters will become even more important for those on longer rides...
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Two-thirds of Scotland's phone boxes could close under Ofcom plans
Ah, so that’s what phoneboxes are for.
They are only really planning to take the phone away.
If a strategic cycling asset, adopt it.
https://business.bt.com/campaigns/communities/adopt-a-kiosk/
There must be a barista somewhere who wants to downsize from a police box - serving cake and coffee to the rain drenched audaxers.
My memory of GPO phone boxes from the 50’s and 60’s is of composed of the wonderful aroma of urine and stale tobacco and the visiting cards of what seemed to be mainly French ladies offering various extracurricular services
Hopefully they will not be used as a cycling asset for any of these purposes
Looking forward to reading @amir's and @edinburgh87's recollections of the Saturday's Tour of the Ochils!
Tell us how bad it was before you conclude that "it wasn't too bad".
@amir is probably best placed to comment, having completed it (I neglected to charge my front light). Could have deployed the usual Audax stoicism and found a charger or replacement but decided to call it a day and ended up with a 100k loop of Fife. Was the worst combination of wet and cold (-2 to 0) which eventually overcame my winter boots. Have given myself a head cold for my troubles too!
A bit of an epic.
Started with a lot of faffing. I arrived in time for the earliest start, but then realised I hadn't the holder thingy for my Carradice saddlebag. Went to the start to withdraw. Returned to car with the intention of going for a shorter ride. Then realised that wearing a cycle jacket plus waterproof, I had 4 large pockets. Crammed two tubes, levers, tool, food, overgloves, etc in and returned to the start. Another 1km in, decided I didn't need my cafe lock and returned it to the car. So left 30 mins later than planned.
The weather to start with was beautiful, heading west from St Andrews. But in the sheltered minor road higher above Ladybank, it became black icy, and I edged along for about 2km, walking some bits. Just before the big descent into the strath, the ice was really bad. Apparently a couple had come off there earlier. Although still sunny, there was a huge black cloud rolling in, complete with rainbows. Moderately heavy shower, but over soon enough. During this section, I cycled with someone for a few km, but it was a lonesome day otherwise.
Once arrived at the hillfoots road (A91) past Milnathort, the rain came back on and increasingly heavy all the way to almost Stirling. It was only about 2 degrees so not too nice and with a strong headwind. Like @edinburgh87, my waterproof winter boots filled up, and I put my overgloves on too late. But around Stirling the rain disappeared and snow on the hills could be seen.
A first proper stop in the lovely Doune. Just a quick sandwich and emptying of boots. I couldn't get my gloves fully back on for sometime, until they dried a bit - painful fingers. The wind had back to the north and strengthened further, so the lovely route through Braco to Auchterarder was hard going. Finally,at Auchterarder the route started to agree with the weather a bit. The route along the south of the Tay is always a delight - first time in the dark for me. My overall speed was low for me, but I didn't stop as long as usual.
Overall - what a lovely day out! Well it beats shopping anyway
Sounds a great ride, if a bit too cold. Some of my favourite bits of eastern Scotland to cycle. Feeling inspired to go on a longer ride round those parts - but will wait for better weather.
@Murun... also rode the ride and judging by his Strava summary had a tough time of it.
@acsimpson if Murun is who I think it is, yes a tough day and did well to get around
Thanks @edinburgh87 and @amir for your reports. Definitely sounds like a tough one.
@acsimpson is Murun the person who stayed overnight?
@bill @amir yes that was me
Have bored people enough on Strava so a few lessons learned and observations:
1) Gatorskins are rubbish tyres in the cold and ice - slick and too unsupple
2) I don't bounce as well as I used to (twice)
3) The Carse of Lecropt is really not very flat
4) The 2nd info control was at Archie Stirling's country pile (Scottish Voice nutter etc)
5) If you get a new powerpack cos you can't find the trusted one, RTFM so you know the USB-C port is input only and take appropriate cables. Otherwise you won't be able to charge your phone which will lead to search parties (almost) later
6) If you can't find the cause of a puncture, don't put a new tube in and hope for the best (to be fair, I knew this, was just cold and lazy and nearly got away with it)
7) 6 goes double if you've got a spare tyre waiting in your saddlebag to be put on
8) After pt 6 goes wrong, don't use a C02 inflator on your 2nd last tube in the cold and wet as it will weld itself to the valve (maybe knew/cold/lazy)
9) After 8 goes wrong, hope the pump doesn't stick to the valve of your last tube, and if it does, definitely don't break the valve head off getting it stuck in the pump and putting it out of action
10) St Andrews in the winter in cycling gear at night is amazingly cold
11) A working mobile is almost required to find a phone box these days
12) A working mobile is almost required to find a hotel or B&B at 11pm at night these days
13) If you do find a phone box, it will be out of order, be vandalised or eat your money
14) If you find a fifth phone box, you might be lucky and be able to place a call to your worried wife
15) From the phone box, you might spy a hotel that's not Rusacks or Hotel du Vin and require a second mortgage, AND has one single room left
16) In the morning, while fixing your bike, if you meet a French chef very interested in proceedings, don't mention you've stayed in the hotel and had one of his breakfasts and he will give you a top-up of coffee & croissants (think he thought I'd slept in the phone box. To be fair, I probably looked like I'd slept in the phone box)
17) After returning to Edinburgh by train, when alighting, if by any chance your rear tyre is flat this time, just be glad it got you as far as Leuchars
Here endeth the learnings
Sounds like quite the adventure, glad it ended safely. Definitely almost foil blanket time by the sounds of it.
I've often wondered what it would take for the foil blanket to be broken out. Think that tale is sufficient tbh.
@Murun
I am laughing with you (hopefully)
OMG @Murun - even worse than I imagined.
I was unlucky that 8 & 9 happened after the last other riders had passed. All passerbys offered help at both punctures but I thought I was sorted
I've often wondered what it would take for the foil blanket to be broken out
Hope never to find out, but do carry one.
@MB - sounds like quite trying conditions...
I carry a foil bag, rather than a blanket, as my experience of foil blankets in emergency situations is that it's very hard to keep everything covered and anything not covered tends to feel very cold. I carry these. I believe the official technique is to put it on head first, with a small hole at the top for breathing, and not to lie in it, but to sit on something insulating with knees against chest. The other thing I started carrying for 9 months of the year, after reading the Ultra Distance Cycling book, was a down jacket. Not heavy, but warm.
I think that any incident requiring the foil blanket to come out of it's packet is probably ride ending. If things are that bad then it's likely an ambulance (or other emergency collection) has been called.
Can anyone tell me the rules for doing a DIY (Mandatory) Audax which is partly off road? The submission page says that the route has to be on open public roads. Does that mean the route cannot deviate along a footpath or through a forest track for example?
Also how convoluted a route would be considered acceptable? I'm wondering just how much square bashing I could get in while also riding a 200km DIY.
P.S. @Greenroofer, thanks for the survival bag suggestion. I have ordered one for next time I'm out in the cold. I might also pack a down jacket instead of an emergency merino layer as it's much easier to put on over the top of what you are already wearing.
@acsimpson those 6 bullet points are copied straight from the calendar event entry form and aren’t, I think, relevant to mandatory DIYs (I think of them as the ‘this is not a sportive’ clauses). Plenty on YACF seem to have ridden DIYs partly off-road.
One thing to consider is that the validation is pretty automated so the full route will need to be ridden as closely as possible even if over distance, so all the out-and-backs (if any) will need to be done despite trees down, GOMLs etc
Subject to the above, I think you can be as convolved as you want.
With Mandatory DIYs you can have as much off-road as you like, even 100% of the ride (now there's a challenge!). Obviously, advisory DIYs don't work for off-road as the shortest possible route varies depending on an individual's willingness to go "off-path".
Routes can be as convoluted as you like but remember you have to plot and then follow them. The only thing to remember is you're not allowed repeated laps. A series of laps with minor changes to each one in an attempt to make them sufficiently different isn't going to pass.
DIY validation is not automated at all, it just likes to give that appearance.
Technically not an Audax as didn’t bother making it 200k long but that brings back memories of @bill and my long ride last winter entirely within the City of Edinburgh. Wouldn’t fancy it on today’s “back to normal” roads!
"DIY validation is not automated at all, it just likes to give that appearance."
Thanks Cyclops. I did not know that.
Thanks all. I'm assuming it's not allowed to have two mandatory DIY entries for the same day and choose which to ride based on conditions during the route.
However, am I also correct to assume you can leave the route and come back to it at the same point. So if there's an unknown loop in the Pentlands which might be too boggy for instance you can leave it off the planned route but still ride it. Or indeed any Veloviewer squares with unknown access arrangements.
@acsimpson I'm really not sure. I'm tending to think it might be OK as there is nothing to prevent a rider entering 2 different calendar events on the same day and deciding on the day which to ride (although maybe bad form in these number-restricted times). Probably best to ask the question of a DIY validator.
If it was OK, you would lose the entry fee on one of them unless you withdrew by midnight the night before however
I think your second point is correct but IANA expert.
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