February's ride to the Reservoirs

We had a large turn-out for this ride - 26 people despite the February chill and slight drizzle.

Feb 2011 ride to Reservoirs

Alan led us on a fairly direct route out of Edinburgh, up Colinton Road (quite busy when there are parked cars in the bus lane) and then up through Bonaly to the reservoirs: Torduff, Clubbiedean, Harlow and Thriepmuir. It felt like a lot of climbing! (Someone calculated about 1000ft of climb overall). And some of this track is quite rough, however even those who came on bikes with thinner tyres seemed to manage all right and made it to lunch without incident.

After a nice lunch in the pub in Balerno (they had soup-and-sandwiches on the menu for us), we headed back into town along a Very Muddy Water of Leith path, then along the canal. My white bike turned black! It was almost all downhill though, which was a welcome relief after the morning's uphill sections.


View 20milers Feb11 to the Reservoirs in a larger map

Next month (12th March) I (Livia) will be leading the group out to Cammo with lunch in Cramond, then return along the Waterfront and back through Leith. Not nearly as much hill climbing, except at the very end when we have to get back to the middle of town. There will be a couple of very short stretches of busy road, but most will be on quiet roads and tracks.

February's route

Our leader this month will be Alan. His current plan is to take us out towards Colinton and Bonaly, and then alongside the Pentland reservoirs, and down to Balerno for lunch. We'll then have a nice easy return trip to town by the Water of Leith path and the Union Canal.

 

The route involves some short stretches on main roads, and a couple of moderate climbs, both of which will be out of the way early in the day. After that, we can expect some excellent cycling along quiet lanes and paths, with fine views of the Pentland Hills for part of the way.

 

The total distance will just about 20 miles, which we'll take out our usual gentle pace.

 

As always, the route should be regarded as provisional. If the weather turns bad, we might choose a shorter route, as we did in January.

The next rides

The next ride is Saturday 12th February, led by Alan.
The March ride is Saturday 12th, led by Livia.
The April ride is Saturday 9th April, led by Chris.

Details / destinations to be confirmed, check http://www.cycling-edinburgh.org.uk/ nearer the time.

Snowy January Ride

It just goes to show that you can't keep a cyclist inside on a lovely sunny January day, even if there's an inch of snow on the ground and the temperature is hovering around freezing. Nine of us turned up for today's ride (although one dropped out with brake problems early on). We changed our original intended route (out to Riccarton and Colinton) in favour of a short ride mainly on roads (which were generally snow-free) down for coffee etc. in Leith.

Snowy January ride to Leith

Andy Hunter led us down Chambers Street and down the Royal Mile, pausing in front of Canongate Kirk to view the stag's head with a cross between the antlers on top of the church. We then detoured slightly into Holyrood Park, where the Bupa Great Winter Run championship was going on (which mainly seemed to consist of an amplified keep-fit class (or perhaps keep-warm class, given the conditions) and lots of banners. We stopped outside Holyrood Abbey for a quick story (King David and the Stag) before carrying on to London Road and Easter Road to Leith Links and then to the Shore, where we found Mimi's Bakehouse (newly opened and full of very yummy cakes). The party then headed back up Leith Walk - a very short ride in total but in glorious sunshine, and leaves us with daylight still to enjoy the snow.

Today

It looks a bit snowy (and I'm in Leith, so presumably there will be more further South) but I'm just about to head up to Middle Meadow Walk. Once we've seen what the paths and roads are like we might decide to go for a ride or we might find a coffee and cake shop.

Tomorrow's ride

The weather forecast is a bit borderline for tomorrow: Metcheck for example are currently promising a nice sunny day around 0degrees, however other places are suggesting that there might be a fair amount of snow falling before then.

Mike & I aim to be at Middle Meadow Walk as normal for 10.30 tomorrow, however we may decide to cancel on the spot if the weather is bad.

So the upshot of it is... the ride isn't cancelled at the moment but if the weather's nasty then it doesn't make sense to go for a fun ride: no one wants to get hurt! The general principle of 20-milers applies, in that you are responsible for your own safety and wellbeing and if you don't feel that it's safe, then don't come.

However I really hope that the snow holds off and we all have a glorious ride tomorrow. Andy (Storybikes) is planning to take us out to Riccarton and Colinton, about 17 miles in total.

December's ride cancelled

Update - December's ride is Cancelled (unsurprisingly) because of poor weather conditions.

However we hope to add an extra ride in the New Year to make up for this. Our next regular ride is Saturday January 8th 2011.

Please keep an eye on the http://www.cycling-edinburgh.org.uk/ website for more details.