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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.

CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting

31. lionfish
    Member

    Wow.

    Hope you've recovered from the experience.

    I've wondered for a while how deep the canal is, but never wanted to find out myself... now someone's done the research for me :)

    Wouldn't have happened if I was wearing hi-viz

    -- why not? How did this happen? I'm intrigued so it doesn't happen to me too!

    The time I fell off my bike was by the canal. I was sober, it was night, and my front wheel some how wedged between two cobbles under one of the bridges, can't really explain how it happened. Was going really slowly anyway, so was no biggy. And I didn't end up in the water.

    Anyway, good luck finding the glasses, maybe a fishing net might help? Or maybe you could recruit the kayakers.

    I'm afraid I'm away for the week, so can't help with a search party, but minimoth might be able to lend a hand.

    EDIT: Also, thanks for admitting the canal-experience on here :) I might have kept it quiet myself :D

    Posted 11 years ago #

32. chdot
    Admin

    "why not?"

    Good question.

    Though I think the original statement was cross-thread irony.

    Posted 11 years ago #

33. lionfish
    Member

    @chdot: Ah, I've not been on the forum for a few days, and this thread caught my eye first!

    Posted 11 years ago #

34. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Muppet.

    That is all.

    Posted 11 years ago #

35. chdot
    Admin

    "Ah, I've not been on the forum for a few days, and this thread caught my eye first!"

    Not to worry, can't find the thread I think I had in mind - something about the use of language by the police. I think something like 'keep you safe'.

    Incidentally, watch out for this year's campaign of free hiviz and lights coming to a cycle path near you - when the clocks go back.

    Posted 11 years ago #

36. Min
    Member

    I've wondered for a while how deep the canal is, but never wanted to find out myself... now someone's done the research for me :)

    Put it this way, the capsize drill for the local rowing club is this:-

    Stand Up
    Walk to the bank
    Throw socks in the bin

    Posted 11 years ago #

37. chdot
    Admin

    "Throw socks in the bin"

    Is that symbolic or do they absorb all the nasties in the canal...

    Posted 11 years ago #

38. Min
    Member

    Obviously you have never fallen into the canal. There is about 12 inches of really gruesome sludge at the bottom. It doesn't wash out.

    Posted 11 years ago #

39. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    12 inches? Surely you just disappear? :P

    Posted 11 years ago #

40. chdot
    Admin

    "Obviously you have never fallen into the canal."

    True.

    Fell into a pond once.

    Wasn't really concerned about my socks (I was about three).

    Tend to avoid water that might be deeper than me.

    Posted 11 years ago #

41. chdot
    Admin

    Or possibly deeper than knee.

    Posted 11 years ago #

42. fimm
    Member

    @chdot, was it this thread and the quote "it is extremely important for cyclists to take the appropriate steps to ensure their safety"?

    (If one was being very naughty and playing devil's advocate, one could suggest that cycling next to a canal while not totally sober was an inappropriate step...)

    Seriously, glad you're OK, Uberuce.

    Posted 11 years ago #

43. Min
    Member

    12 inches? Surely you just disappear? :P

    I'd give you a smack for that. If I could reach..

    Posted 11 years ago #

44. chdot
    Admin

    "If one was being very naughty and playing devil's advocate, one could suggest that cycling next to a canal while not totally sober was an inappropriate step..."

    That's not being naughty...

    Posted 11 years ago #

45. Uberuce
    Member

    I'd have got away with it if it hadn't had been for those meddling chicanes. Or more sensibly if I'd just gone straight home without the light-testing detour, or, actual sensibly, if I'd walked the bike home, which would have taken all of ten minutes.

    Lesson learned. Ah well.

    Posted 11 years ago #

46. chdot
    Admin

    "was it this thread"

    Well spotted!

    Yup.

    Of course it may not have been the one that I assumed U was (ironically - I presumed) referencing!

    Posted 11 years ago #

47. earthowned
    Member

    But is the bike OK? ;-)

    Posted 11 years ago #

48. Uberuce
    Member

    Bike: fine.
    I would have take the pub bike, but its back light is out, so I took the Genesis fixie instead. Doesn't seem to mind that it's been immersed, nor does my eye-broiling new NiteRider 650 front light, back light or computer.

    Head: couple of forehead scabs and the imprint of my good glasses on my cheek.

    Phone: getting power but screen isn't quite dried out yet. Will put in rice tonight.

    Glasses: still very lost.

    Posted 11 years ago #

49. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Says a lot about Mr Uberuce that, firstly, having taken a dunking in such circumstances he's willing to post up the experience; and secondly that when the inevitable heat comes for doing something daft such as riding along a canalside while drunk, he will accept that heat.

    Not something I'd do while suitably inebriated (I'll draw the line at a couple, maybe three, after that it's walking time); but at least on the canal the likely only person you'll hurt is yourself (though there's the potential to knock someone else into the drink).

    The problem with decrying drink-cycling is that there's not a limit, unlike for driving. You can get done for being drunk in charge of a bicycle, though that involves a polis man seeing you and being of the opinion that you shouldn't be riding. Mind you, there's a clear inference in the act of falling in the canal... :P

    Posted 11 years ago #

50. Darkerside
    Member

    The badger attack theory would be the perfect defence then...

    Posted 11 years ago #

51. Uberuce
    Member

    I suspect a drookit and slightly blood-spattered Uberuce ranting about hordes of attack stoats and battle badgers lying in wait for unwary 4am cyclists might not be the most credible witness.

    Posted 11 years ago #

52. ruggtomcat
    Member

    Sounds like Uberuce to me...

    Posted 11 years ago #

53. Greenroofer
    Member

    On the subject of gentlemen on bicycles on the towpath while under the influence of alcohol, I passed one this evening near Meggetland.

    He was an object lesson in why you shouldn't drink and cycle. As he raised his can of Special Brew to his lips, his bike wobbled alarmingly across the path, and I can't imagine that holding the can did much for his braking ability either. I would also have thought, while I'm on the subject, that the vibration would have meant he was drinking more foam than beer in each mouthful.

    So remember, folks, don't drink and cycle!

    Posted 11 years ago #

54. kaputnik
    Moderator

    don't drink and cycle!
    
    What about drinking then cycling?

    Posted 11 years ago #

55. Greenroofer
    Member

    I don't know about drinking then cycling. That's a question that Uberuce is probably better qualified to answer...

    Posted 11 years ago #

56. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Well he did pass (fail?) the entrance exams

    Posted 11 years ago #

57. Uberuce
    Member

    I wonder if your entry to the Hall of Cycling Infamy expires after a long enough period of sensible riding...

    Probably not, but my drunk cycling career is over, either way.

    Posted 11 years ago #

58. SRD
    Moderator

    btw, small enquiring minds here wantto know if you've recovered. srd

    Posted 11 years ago #

59. Uberuce
    Member

    Alas not. My phone is still poorly, and I suspect the battery-life sensing circuitry of my NiteRider light isn't functioning properly either.

    The biological parts of the Uberuce Bicycling System weren't badly damaged in the first instance, and were repaired by Thursday or so.

    Posted 11 years ago #

60. SRD
    Moderator

    cycled past there the other day and wondered if it would have been worth dredging with a garden rake? Can provide a rake if you want to have a go.

    Posted 11 years ago #

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