CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
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resolvedOn the towpath this morning I overtook a gent (the only appropriate word) on a Brompton. He had a fine pair of tan leather dealer boots, his trousers appeared to be secured by (Brooks) leather clips and he had a wooden briefcase strapped to the Brompton's front carrier.
Extremely stylish, I thought.
One of these; http://www.oldbike.eu/museum/1930s/1934-2/1934-raleigh-gents-26%E2%80%B3-all-steel-irish-cross-frame/ locked up on the crossing island outside the Haymarket Bar yesterday.
I wasn't sure what it was so sent a photo to our resident webmaster who was able to identify it quickly. Apparently a design developed for the Irish police.
Not your usual "cross bike".
Double push. Doh.
A very affable gent by the name of Ken cranking one of these round the Meadows. Respect is certainly due.
Yes. Just met him and Willmington's Cow at QM. Handbike with full suspension made in Poland. WC flagged this machine up on a thread a while back. Uses a kneeling position. Geared with Alfine and Schlumpf for off road use. He knows other often spotted handcyclist Mike.
How does one operate that? I'm struggling to picture which body part goes where.
It's a weird one right enough. Your buttocks go on the seat, your shins on the two drainpipes. You lean your chest on the podium thing and your hands turn the cranks as you climb, you move your chest to steer at this point.
To descend you put your hands on the bars, with brakes and stuff.
I was heading out past Cramond Brig at lunchtime and bumped into long-time Moultoneer Michael Perkins. We had a wee chat, and reminisced about Bike Right at Wooler YH, back in the day.
Yep, handcyclist is my very good friend Ken (he was waiting for me for a coffee at the time!). I had a go, and it's the strangest, least intuitive, hard work experience. But at the same time utter fun (especially when he suggested riding round the corner to bump down a kerb and see just how much the three(?!) shock absorbers smooth everything out.
He's got a road bike coming too, which in more 'traditional' handbike form is a recumbent, and the handcranks are moved in the same plane at the same time (whereas on this monster you are pedalling just like on an upright), with the handcrank also steering.
Ken Handbike_6 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Ken Handbike_2 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Ken Handbike_7 by Anthony Robson, on Flickr
Respect to ken. Also loving the third policeman cross frame to withstand Irish roads, 71in freewheel gear.
Aha, Ken and his handbike must be what I spotted on the track parallel to NMW on my way home from work yesterday.
Yes that was us Kaputnik! We are usually easy to spot as we are brightly coloured and move slowly.
Decided to try Cramond parkrun yesterday for a change (wow so much wind) and was hoping for a spot of clan SRD but I don't think they were running.
A single shoe (with cleat) between the two roundabouts at London Road/Picardy Place. Initially it was heart-in-mouth: I thought I was seeing the aftermath of a collision. But then as I reached Picardy Place roundabout there was a cyclist wearing work shoes and looking with some concern at the open hatch on the back of his trunk bag. "Down the hill" I said. Maybe someone else's entry for Confessions of a Cycle Commuter?
Nicola Sturgeon on my lunchbreak. Coming out the SNP offices near the bar Hemma. Due to my new bi-partisan (JC-NS) leanings, I decline to say whether the Skoda estate our FM got into was correctly parked or not. She was a little grumpy (only first level) so I did not go for the bants.
Heading east on the edinburgh city bypass yesterday afternoon. Guy in a blinged up hatchback tried to force his way into the gap between me and the car in front. Slammed on the brakes so as not to rear end him. Gave him an earful with the horn. The guy in the lorry in the other lane took exception to this car driver and started making rude hand movements out his window at him. And so a five mile display of appalling childishness and dangerous driving ensues. A mile or two of reciprocal insults via hand movements out of their windows. Then the lorry driver starts swerving across the lanes at him, narrowly missing the car. Then the car driver nips in front of the lorry, slams on the brakes and forces all traffic on the inside lane to travel at 30 mph for the next mile. Then more swerving and gesticulations. All because the guy cut ME up.
Stupidity like this convinces me that humans are set for extinction sooner rather than later :)
A 'high two' with Gembo on the towpath earlier. I think I took him by surprise by going for a high five, which I am generally a little reluctant about, as he was giving me a two-finger salute (not that one) as we approached, but he countered with a partially connecting high five.
Realise my post above is on the wrong thread but I don't see any way of editing it out. Sorry :)
yes I was reticent as Jdanielp never spotted me yesterday on busy stretch of towpath
"Realise my post above is on the wrong thread"
Perhaps.
"but I don't see any way of editing it out. Sorry :)"
There's a period when you can edit/alter (or remove) text. After that it's an Admin thing!
If you want to copy and put somewhere else, I can delete above.
@gembo I did spot you yesterday but too late to react. I was mostly concerned about anticipating if anybody from the cycle train, of which you were part, might decide to pull out to pass given that moments beforehand a cyclist had pulled out to pass a pedestrian and decided to go for it anyway, forcing me to brake to avoid cycling into them.
@chdot thanks, have copied it to the rubbish driving thread where it belongs.
Forgot to mention that I spotted unhurt in the Meadows yesterday lunchtime. I saw a big Surly touring bike approaching and part of my brain made a fuddled assumption before facial recognition circuits kicked in.
I was sheltering under a big tree in the pouring rain waiting for a friend to arrive.
Chap heading along Glasgow Road this morning on a very cool looking yellow drop-bar folding bike. Looking online I think it was probably an Airnimal - never seen one before.
I had my longest chat to date with Lilac Helmet Lady this morning. I'd stopped at the end of the Slateford Aqueduct while she walked the final section with her bike and then greeted her as she passed me, enquiring as to why she had stopped cycling across in recent months. The reason turns out to be that she now has clippy pedals and had a moment early after switching which put her off cycling across... This is the very reason that I haven't tried such pedals, although I did swap to 'open' toe-clips in spring, which I'm finding mildy beneficial in terms of my pedal posture.
I also spotted a narrow boat which was about to be craned from a flat-bed truck onto the canal at the Bridge 8 Hub.
Oh, and Big John is about to go for a three week holiday to Japan and was enquiring if I had ever tried sushi so I recommended it as being even tastier than cooked fish. He didn't seem entirely convinced but I think he will try it.
This morning, a stoat (I think, not sure on my small predator knowledge), trying in vain to catch a rabbit outside Edinburgh Park station. Rabbit definitely had the speed advantage, and the stoat gave up when I appeared on the scene on my bike.
A group of canal people and police on the towpath near the top of Gibson Terrace by the 'spider' sculpture (the reason that I know it is a sculpture and not a climbing frame is because it has quite recently been fenced off). I slowed down, rang my bell and squeezed between them, at which point the bonnet of a BMW poking out of the reeds to my left caught my attention and immediataly answered my question as to why they were there. Looks like it had been reversed/pushed in backwards or maybe ineffectively parked at the 'box' flats and then floated west a little.
Cycling west along the canal path near Harrison Park yesterday morning - Charlie Reid.
STV is reporting it as an Audi A1 in the canal - I know that BMW and Audi drivers are indistinguishable to many, but the logos aren't so I'm not sure how I saw it as a BMW given that it was so close. Odd! https://stv.tv/news/east-central/1360121-abandoned-audi-with-private-plate-pulled-from-union-canal/
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