just spent probably my scariest day ever in me lorry ! Delivering EMPTY curtain siders to Salford in Manchester, via Wigan ......I havnt seen as much underside of a trailer, while moving !!!Offside wheel of cab was on the white line,and the trailer nearside wheel was in the hard shoulder, at 50mph !Police pulled us off the M6 for a while but many trucks blown over,but still we actually saw a couple of caravans !!!
still a couple of yorkies and alls well !
be safe ! Scott
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
Red Alert!
(232 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
-
@Splitshift, *shudder*, rather you than me mate! Glad you made it home safe.
Off to do some online shopping now and price fence panels and posts..... :-o
Posted 12 years ago # -
Jeepers. My Dad and I were getting buffeted something rotten in his pretty slinky low lying Subaru estate, so I would be wallpapering the inside of my punders if I'd been in an artic.
Posted 12 years ago # -
thanks ya,all! @smudge,fenceposts, dont get the metal spikes that mean you just buy shorter posts , i did , but only once !!
scott !Posted 12 years ago # -
Part of a tenement stairlights/cupola a few houses down flew away and landed on our block (Bruntsfield): 3 broken windows (one in my flay) and 2 broken car windscreen in the street. I didn't try Roseburn path to commute today. Anyone checked?
Posted 12 years ago # -
My Block of Junkie Street was on the news all day after bits of masonry started coming off the castellations on the old coop building.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"the old coop building"
That'll be above the flat were Russell Hunter used to live.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I didn't try Roseburn path to commute today. Anyone checked?
Roseburn path was all clear from Roseburn to Five ways. I cycled this this morning. Looks like wind is picking up again a wee bit.
Posted 12 years ago # -
We drove back from holidays nr Loch Tay yesterday having no idea of the apocalypse we were about to enter (until we turned on the radio about half an hour down the road).
We were dodging trees down the A9, then it got so fierce I had to hide behind a milk lorry (we had kayaks and bikes on the roof rack). Came off before Stirling to avoid a big shut section of the M9 to find mass flooding and trees all over the wee roads, then back on to the M9 just a junction or two before it was shut again!
No damage to the flat but a tree in the dump behind the garden has been half-tipped and may be threatening our fence...
Posted 12 years ago # -
That was a nasty wind on the way home. I felt the need to wimp out and walked between the Gilmerton roundabout and the bypass. The cross was v tricky. A car actually stopped to ask if I was okay - had bike and kayak rack though (Dave?)
note that the university weather station has changed the way wing is presented.
http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/abs/Weathercam/station/latestweek.htmlPosted 12 years ago # -
"note that the university weather station has changed the way wind is presented"
nice!
Posted 12 years ago # -
note that the university weather station has changed the way wing is presented.
Actually, this is the original style of presentation that Dr Vieno and his IT bods changed in 2010 to showing just one dataset. I certainly preferred seeing both the instantaneous and average trends, though a rolling average over consecutive time periods based on the current view would be useful too. Good to see both trends again, though.
Posted 12 years ago # -
our powers been flickering tonight (EH16)
had a right little mini storm around 9pmPosted 12 years ago # -
Well we've been lucky over the last few days. No harm asa far as I can see but a lady in our street's house has lost most of her cappint tles from the apex of her roof. Our neighbour across the road has had one or two dislodged. A house as the entrance to our street has had their fence flattened!
Our neighbour behind us (in the other street) had their trampoline trying to climb of the 7ft hedge into our garden. It dissapearded after I went out to pin and weigh our trampoline down so I went to investigate and found it being blown towards their patio doors. The wner came out in shorts, slippers and a thin dressing gown after I knocked on the door and found no answer. We made his trampoline - or what was left of it, safe and his garden furniture also. The worst we have has was a little bit of trellis come down whch was the top of an arec between our bungalow and garage. If its calm tomorrow I think I'll get the ladder out to check on the roof tiles.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"our powers been flickering tonight (EH16)
had a right little mini storm around 9pm"Yep, same in EH15. Kept expecting the power to go at any time (smug in the knowledge that the heating and cooker are both gas).
Posted 12 years ago # -
EH9 OK, maybe it helps being next block down from Sick Kids?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Our tenement has seen another bit of (brand new) lead flashing become dislodged from the stair cupola. It is still sort of attached, but by one bolt only and lying at a jaunty angle. I hope we don't get a repeat of this before it can be repaired, as the skylight leaks now when it rains. Not sure it would survive another storm.
I noticed two nights ago a huge bit of zinc flashing had come off the roof of Leith Walk Primary and impaled itself on railings: pierced right through. The next morning at 9am it had disappeared. Either the council teams are very efficient or the local metal thieves are up bright and early, I can't decide.
I was caught out by yesterday's high winds. I had bussed out to Gladsmuir, East Lothian to pick up a Gumtree-tastic cheap folding bike (Yeah, I know. Not another one surely? Yes. It was a bargain and I couldn't resist. See pic below). Wind was raging by the time I arrived, but I had prepared a plan to cycle in the wind and rain to Longniddry station just 2 miles away. Wee folders don't seem to suffer the sail effect of larger bikes (lower centre of gravity, small wheels) and not only was it downhill most of the way, but there were hedges to shelter me from the worst of the crosswinds.
Alas when I arrived at Longniddry I had just missed the train back, oh great nearly an hour to wait. The zinc and perspex clad shelter was rattling and creaking very ominously as the winds got up to speed, especially the metal roof, one bolt looking a bit shoogly. Another cyclist arrived, similarly stranded by the high winds: there's a time and a place to cycle back to Edinburgh, and 50mph plus headwind lashing rain into your face is not it! Our train was late, and decided to hurtle past without stopping, presumably in order to get to Glasgow Central that bit quicker, leaving four passengers cursing on the platform. Another hour to wait! I considered folding the bike and lugging it onto the bus, but I'd missed that too!
So another wait on the spartan Longniddry platform, with the wind howling around us. At least there was some cyclist solidarity to make the helplessness of the situation more bearable. Boy were we glad to see the next train actually stop and let us on!
The new North Berwick trains are very high tech and nice. Cycle provision is rudimentary but efficient: just some velcro straps hanging between a row of fold-up seats near one door.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Potentially warning of iciness tomorrow, Queen Street was gritted this evening, in that there were small centimetre-deep puddles of grit at irregular intervals along the leftmost eastbound lane, culminating in a broken-down gritter blocking the right-turn lane at Picardy Place.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@Crowriver, lovely looking wee bike, I'm turning gently green ;-)
Posted 12 years ago # -
@Smudge, thanks. It was one of those moments. Browsing Gumtree, as you do, not really looking to buy anything and then, hmm what's this? Once I realised it had hub gears, dynamo hub lighting, and the seller was asking only 50 quid that was it: those components are worth more on their own!
I am surprised by how good the bike actually is. The stem, bars and oversized seat post are all aluminium alloy, which makes the bike reasonably light: it really is an 'Alu Bike'. Coaster brakes took a bit of getting used to but seem intuitive after 10 minutes or so. The rear dynamo light even has a standlight function which keeps it lit for around 4 minutes. The front halogen has a button so you can switch the lights off during the day. The bike has hardly been used: not a scratch on it, some small dents in the front mudguard (aluminium of course) and some minor scuffs on the rear carrier, that's it.
After doing some digging on the interweb it seems these bikes were sold at Tchibo outlets: the bike has a tiny 'TCM' logo on the head tube, which is their own label brand. Tchibo's an odd retail experience, they used to have stores in the UK but I don't think did that well. Buy some coffee, food, and here's a weekly retail 'theme' to select quality goods from: this week it's cycling and outdoors! Aldi do a similar thing with their weekly specials but are a bit downmarket in comparison.
The folding bikes have pretty good write ups in the German language reviews I've seen. Certainly it feels sturdy and well built. I think it was originally €350 or so new*. They have a more basic folder too with bottle dynamo and cheaper component set for around €200: a few of these have been on fleaBay recently.
I think this 'Alu Bike' will replace the Raleigh Swift as my commuter steed. It has many of the features I would, in retrospect, have liked for the Raleigh. Takes me a bit further towards the higher end Dahon or (dare I say it) Brompton experience but without the price tag.
Seems they still have the product on sale in Germany: re-badged and now in black, different tyres and dynamo, still €349. http://www.tchibo.de/Alu-Faltrad-p200023532.html
Posted 12 years ago # -
Was just out on the Ute, carting the Xmas tree and assorted decorations to the garage until next year. The wind is fair getting up speed just now, not exactly storm force but some nasty sideswipe gusts. A good evening for hauling cargo to help keep a straight course...
Posted 12 years ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.
posts
