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.
I didn't appreciate the Plum on the black and yellow bike who sped through the "slow" section of the Roseburn Path going for the overtake just at the point where the children want to get to the stairs up to the School. I had slowed as there were children on both sides of the path, but that didn't seem to matter to the Plum.
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A young woman this morning on a very nice black retro step through with hub gears, kerb hugging along shandwick place, cycling through a ped crossing on red, cycling through the bus only signage on West maitland.
I winced as she hugged the kerb again through the Haymarket Terrace roadworks, allowing overtakes way too close.
If you have the confidence to ride through red lights and through bus only roads you really should develop the confidence to ride in primary when necessary and secondary at other times.
Me. My chain has started slipping over the last week or so, so yesterday I ordered a new one plus new cassette, should arrive later this week. At Gilmore Place/Home Street junction this morning, waiting to turn right, lights change, I stand up and pedal, chain slips massively, I completely lose balance and fall over in to the left lane of traffic. Very fortunately there were no cars (or they had stopped in time), I got to my feet and dragged myself and bike off across the road. Scraped knee, bashed elbow, bruised ego. My thanks to the cyclists who checked I was OK and apologies to them for the expletives directed at my bike as I lay in the road. Note to self: order new chain etc *EARLIER*
Shoaling cyclist who stopped in front of me and one other at the red light then didn't move off on green.
Child in tears in our primary school office as some cyclist had run into him. No idea of details I was merely passing through dropping an envelope and overheard someone explaining what had happened - nobody got the cyclist details so looks like they didn't stop. Ashley Terrace area, any witnesses?
Super speedy commuter guy at the Electric Bridge in Musselburgh this afternoon who forced through the gap between myself and my daughter who were cycling side by side. Child on the inside, me on the outside.
An admittedly sarcastic 'Oh, was I in your way?' from me elicited a raised hand and some remark. I'm trying to think it might've been apologetic. We make mistakes, sure, but...that kinda seems an easy one not to make...
@Mandopicker1 - bit of a long shot, but what time? My colleague commutes that way, would have been heading east over the bridge around 15:10 today and has become unhealthily obsessed with his Strava times.
Well today it was me. Cycling along the canal in the rain towards Sighthill with recently topped up disc brake fluid where the slightest touch locks the back brake when suddenly a cyclist appeared from under a bridge and I didn’t hear a bell as warning. It was windy so I may just have not heard it. Looked like we could collide so I pulled on the brakes, locking both wheels and skidding out of control on the wet (possibly leaves) before colliding handlebar to handlebar with the other cyclist with my right hand between both sets of handlebars. Fortunately they weren’t hurt and my throbbing hand and wrist have mostly recovered.
My apologies for the collision if anyone knows the other cyclist and kind of semi-avoidable unfortunately and I now appreciate that wet leaves/paths have a lot less traction than normal and I need to not panic and slam the brakes on. I wasn’t going particularly fast but maybe too fast given the conditions, so I was much slower on the way home.
@urchaidh - hmmm, probably around 3:40pm. The chap we encountered certainly had been hitting the pace hard judging by his 'glow'.
I have been noticing more electric bikes out and about so far this autumn. I have overtaken a couple of cautious e-bikers on the towpath in the mornings this week and have been overtaken twice (safely, with bell ringing) by the same confident e-biker, dressed in yellow on a quite upright e-bike. In fact, the most recent occasion was this morning. I watched them shoot off under the next canal bridge at close to 20 mph with another bell ring to warn anyone coming in the other direction, but thought that if they don't slow down, they would be likely to come to grief before too long. Another few bridges along they nearly ended up in the canal after doing the same thing before clipping the handlebar of a cyclist who was already under the bridge. I stopped and sympathised with the other cyclist who had also stopped to remonstrate with the confident e-biker, although the e-biker was already leaving by the time I was arriving.
@jdanielp is your confident cat on an upright and tall himself? If so he is over confident and troublemaking e cyclist, cited several times on here causing bovver
Witnessed (another) near-collision at the Craiglockhart P.S. boatsheds this morn. After my own instance of rubbish cycling a few pages back in this thread I have taken to turning left and getting on the towpath nearer the bridge where the view is clear in both directions. No such caution from a be-hi-vizzed chap who sped along from the direction of the school and round the boat shed corner, nearly colliding with a cyclist going eastwards.
@gembo indeed. I have been spotting this person on and off for a while, although twice in a week is unusual and I hadn't specifically considered them to be overly dangerous previously.
@jdanielp, maybe as he is going same way as you ? Whereas he is battering towards me taking up the whole oath at a rate of knots
mouthful of rule#2 abuse on Junction street this morning when I pointed out he'd just cycled through a red and greenman combo. He was really angry, i was laughing which probably didn't help.
@iainmcr that tall lecky guy is fine if you keep out of his way but completely Radge if challenged for instance if you just cycle where you should be and don't get out his way. One day a little radge cat on a BMX will take him out by swinging a sock at him with batteries in the toes.
Because of some plot I found myself waiting for a Bus on Westfield Street this morning.
As a passing cyclist went by her chain and keys jumped off the bike(more bad packing than bad cycling), and despite my shouting she didn't stop.
But I managed to run down the road and reunite here at the traffic lights.
Racing turnip who overtook me on the inside while I was crossing the Mound tram tracks yesterday, nearly causing the pair of us to crash.
He was following the unsafe 40-degree painted track, I was not.
Was possibly me. Coming down the twisty hill of our road I was surprised by the appearance of an actual car (the road only serves only 6 households so I've got used to having it to myself), slammed on the brakes and must have locked up a wheel because the bike went into a terrifying wobble/shimmy for what felt like about five minutes but was probably only seconds. Really thought I was going to be flung off. I have never experienced the like and can only assume it was a combination of a locked up wheel and wet tarmac combined with a loose road surface and no doubt the fact that I was going too fast for the conditions (the dangers of familiarity). I did wonder if there was some maintenance issue that might have contributed but neither wheel seemed loose and my brakes are usually too rubbish to lock up anything... Anybody experienced this?
I should add that the driver of the car was going very slowly and cautiously so I came to no harm, thankfully! Apart from embarrassing myself in front of what was presumably a neighbour (I was too busy staying upright to register the car or driver)
Glad you're ok. Agreed, even tired brakes can lock up the rear if the surface is wet or loose, especially downhill where weight is more forward than usual. I fell off for that reason last year on a gravelly steep track at only about 5mph, front wheel locked and slid out, failed to unclip, glad no-one was around! Local wildlife learned a few new words.
Yikes. Check front tyre, head bearings and underwear but probably just gravel.
I would second the advice to check headset bearings. Rear wheel locking up will usually just drift to one side or the other, not shimmy as in move from side to side (and is much more controllable than a front wheel lock-up - it's actually a useful technique on the MTB for negotiating some of the tighter downhill hairpins at trail centres). If the front wheel locks you'll often be on the ground before you even realise that it's happened.
Apart from the fact that I wasn't going particularly fast, what I experienced matches the descriptions I've read of 'speed wobbles'. This wasn't a wheel sliding one way or another, it was the bike actively yawing back and forth, and it got worse before it got better. It might be the wheels being out of true. I think I'll take it down to the bike shop for a once over.
If I understand speed wobbles then it sounds like that might be the reason. Were you on the Brompton? I think small wheels help them start. Although not the only cause gripping the bars tightly can make them worse as your arm try to fight a wobble. So a did may have made the bike twitch and then gripping the bars tightly causes an oscillation to start.
I have only had them twice (on different bikes) they are unpleasant to the point of terrifying at high speed but thankfully I have ridden them out both times.
No, it was on the touring bike, which I have ridden a hundred times down that hill with absolutely no problem. I think I must have gripped the bars hard as I braked which may have triggered it, possibly combined with things being a bit out of true or something loose somewhere (entirely possible with my bike).
Most people's experience of them seems to be similar - they are terrifying to the point where you start planning how you're going to land when you finally fall off, and yet in the end people ride them out safely. Very confidence sapping though! The advice is to relax your grip (easier said than done), shift your weight out of the saddle, and touch your knee on the crossbar to dampen the oscillation. I've got no idea if I did any of those things in the heat of the moment though
This is a self confession. Please forgive me.
Because it is the first day of the month we had some beers at work this afternoon, which may have gone on longer than expected. Such when a colleague and I left on our bikes at around 7 we discovered that despite 2 working rear lights we had no front light.
Additional caution was taken heading back along the canal. One cyclist heading out did point out that we needed lights. I replied that we were aware of the situation.
Prize turnip this morning on the Telford Path.
I was aware of turnip and friend but didn't feel like coming to walking pace to allow them to pass as I was approaching a ped walking on the left. So moved out right to pass comfortably instead of slowing to wait for me to shift left after I passed said ped, turnip cuts up my inside between me and ped's elbow. His pal did at least have the sense to slow then speed up and catch him moments later.
Not cycling is rubbish.
Hoping physio tells me it's ok to remount tomorrow.
I past a cyclist this morning who I assumed looked unhappy as she was riding uphill. It was only later as my mind processed things that I realised I had been whistling "My fingers are cold" to the tune of Happy Birthday. I hope that they hadn't construed my whistling to be offensive (and I don't like the fact society might take innocent whistling that way).
If it was you then I'm sorry for any offence you felt.
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