Since the last Cycle Forth in September and the AGM in November, your Committee has been busy planning events for the coming summer. There’s a lot to tell you about, especially things to put in your diary, plans to be made. Do it now, and do come and join in. We have almost 1100 members on our lists in the DA. That’s fine, but we’d like to see more of you at the events. You don’t often get a chance to go to the AGM and Annual Dinner without any serious travelling. This year take advantage of the opportunity. Mark the end of CTC’s 125th year in style. The AGM is open to all members (remember your membership card) free of charge. The dinner and prizegiving come at a cost, but you won’t have to pay much to travel - you can even park your bike in the hotel’s underground car park! We would like a good Lothian representation there.
Below are the ones where you should book in advance. Cost and who to apply to are given in the various notices.
| 20 April | Bill & Jenny Brockie |
| 24 April | CTC Annual Dinner |
| 28-31 May | KM Rally |
| 6 June | Vets Rides |
| 12-13 June | Trossachs Weekend |
| 20 June | Lothians Day Out |
| 24-25 Sept | Caputh Weekend |
| 25 Sept | 3 Glens Explorer |
|
Open to all members (bring your membership card with you)
Speaker: David Begg
Booking form in “Cycle” (Feb/Mar)
Join our visitors on one of two rides
“The City of Edinburgh” – our own open-topped tour
“Further Forth” – from Arthur’s Seat to South Queensferry
Visitors to these events like to meet local cyclists and see a bit of the locality so come and join in. As most will want to get away fairly smartly in the afternoon to get home, the rides are arranged so that people can easily drop off to get back to the station or their cars. Unlike our normal rides, we will be stopping for morning coffee and lunch!!
On 11th June (strictly speaking the day before the official start to NBW) Lothian’s CTC District Association is going to head up to Scotland’s first national park. This area of outstanding natural beauty offers a treasure trove of cycle paths and quiet roads ideal for exploring by bicycle. This year Darren Mirfield has offered to organise this trip. Darren says “Folk just love it up there and it is a sheer joy organising trips to this park. There is a good variety of trails, breathtaking scenery and a cracking set of friendly tea shops and pubs to ‘refuel’ at. You can even take your bike on a steam boat.”
The weekend will offer a variety of rides between 19 miles and 40 miles, on cyclepaths and quiet roads. The rides are tailored to suit beginners. The pace is leisurely. No one will be left behind. The routes are away from most traffic and have no big hills. All rides will be lead by experienced cyclists keen to promote cycling.
The types of bikes best suited to these rides are hybrid bikes and mountain bikes. Touring bikes with tyres of 32mm width or more will also cope well with the terrain. Bikes are available for hire from ‘Wheels’ which is the hostel’s bicycle shop. Prices start from £12 per day.
The Trossachs Backpackers, 1.5 miles from the centre of Callander will provide the base. This boasts the comfort of B&B accommodation with the convenience and freedom of a hostel. Darren speaks highly of Mark and Janet who run the place. “I’ve always been made to feel welcome and feel thoroughly spoiled every time I visit.”
The communal kitchen is very well equipped with 3 cookers and 2 fridges. There is a large lounge are plenty of space to relax after a good day’s cycling. All dorms have en suit bathrooms. Prices are listed below and it includes a continental breakfast and free tea and coffee at any time.
Beds have already been reserved for Friday 11th and Saturday 12th June 2004.
Bed per night in large dorm £13.50 includes breakfast and hire of sheet sleeping bag
Bed per night in smaller dorm £16.00 includes breakfast and hire of sheet sleeping bag.
Total up the number of nights and the number of people in your party/group and send a cheque to Darren Mirfield, 4, Wellington Street, Edinburgh, EH7 5ED with contact details which can be either your address OR phone number OR e-mail address and how you intend to travel.
Within a fortnight of receipt of your cheque Darren will send out a detailed information pack.
More detailed information can be found on the internet at http://www.mirfield.me.uk & further enquiries can be made preferably by e-mail to darren@mirfield.me.uk
If you are without internet access phone 0131 556 3112 there is an answering service where you can leave any questions and Darren will get back to you as soon as he can. Sometimes he picks up the phone too.
Following the resounding success of last year’s Autumn weekend at Melrose, Mike Bonar has booked a weekend for the DA at Wester Caputh Independent Hostel near Dunkeld, staying on the nights of Friday and Saturday 24/25 September. 12 places have been reserved but additional places may be available. The hostel, which is self-catering and costs £12 per head per night, comes highly recommended and there is some magnificent cycling in the vicinity. The hostel website www.westercaputh.co.uk is worth a look. Come and explore Highland Perthshire in convivial company. Bookings to and further details from Mike Bonar (441 7573) or e-mail mgbonar@btinternet.com
It’s Tri-Vets year again. To get the certificate you need to be over 50 and do the 100 miles, but we would like supporters, and also welcome those who are nearly 50 and want to practice for the future. CTC Scotland has also decided to do an alternative route which is only 50 miles and even one of 50k. There’s subsidised coffee, and also an evening meal available. All 3 rides are registered as DATC events. Details here.
Some good news! Have you seen what has been done at the bottom of Cultins Road recently, in conjunction with the opening of nearby Edinburgh Park station? For years we have campaigned for this bit of old road, with its bridge under the railway, to be opened up for cyclists - it’s the only crossing of the railway for a long way, and it links Edinburgh Park and the Gyle to Sighthill, Wester Hailes, the canal, and all the SW suburbs.
For years the bridge was flooded and almost impassable, except for tinkers burning copper wire and strewing rubbish around. Now it has been drained, given a tarmac surface, and new paths built to link it to Edinburgh Park. They even dropped the kerbs at the barrier where the path exits/enters onto S Gyle Crescent.
No sooner was it built than they dug part of it up again, for work on the guided bus route - but we were told about this, and it will be fully restored, and access will be maintained while work is in progress.
Edinburgh for CyclistsAs spring gets going and bikes start to come out of the shed, readers might like to take advantage of a special offer on ‘Edinburgh for Cyclists’ (and the Spokes map of the city). The 90-page booklet has an introduction on how to get the most out of cycling, and then a thesaurus of routes into and around the city, discovering all those bits of path you never knew existed! Yes this is a voyage of discovery into the hidden Edinburgh! The book is well illustrated, and caters specially for students by describing routes between all the different sites of each University. It is designed to be used in conjunction with the cycle map of the city produced by Spokes. The book is available to readers at the special price of £3.50 including p&p (normally £3.95), and the book plus map in a wallet for £7.50 (normally £7.95). Cheques payable to Spokes (Education) should be sent to 118/1 Stenhouse Cres., Edinburgh EH11 3HU. |
Know where you are going for your cycling holiday? Do you have the maps?
The DA has sets of 50thou maps for the whole of Scotland and a few bits of England, likewise 100thou maps. These are available on loan free of charge, except that the user pays any postage costs. Alternatively they can be collected/returned by hand to the Sevretary in Leith.
We also have a lot of Bart’s 1/2” maps. We are prepared to sell these, in one lot, or in batches or singly. Neil Robertson is currently sorting them out. We could run our own electronic auction (eBay look out) or if members are not interested we might actually offer them on eBay. If you are interested in these, please talk to Neil and make an offer.
The Hut needs its outside painting. We will be calling on volunteers once we think we have some warm dry weather. Please call Ashley if you would be prepared to volunteer a day at a weekend.
The City Council are proposing a ban on cycling along part of the A90 from just beyond Cramond Brig up to the Forth Bridge. CTC are opposing this on various grounds; it is a busy road, we agree, but the lanes are wide, and experienced cyclists can cope with the traffic. A ban looks bad for a Council which is supposed to be promoting cycling as the healthy and sustainable alternative; it also sets a bad precedent; and the alternative offered is longer, hillier, narrower, slower and bumpier than the main road.
Commuter cyclists, like motorists, want their journey to be as short, direct and smooth as possible and if a ban is enforced, we should be given an alternative which is every bit as good.
Local Right-to-Ride representative Peter Hawkins recently timed both routes to see how much difference there is. The main road took him 18 mins out and 17 mins back; the alternative route took 23 mins out and 22 back. Five minutes difference doesn’t sound much, but the Executive wants to spend £0.5 billion on a bit of motorway in Glasgow to save motorists less time than that! Now if they’d spend that kind of money on cycling we (and the environment) might all be a lot healthier!
If you use this route yourself or know someone who does, or if you agree we should protest, please write in to your local Councillor objecting to the proposed ban, and let Peter know you’ve done so - tel. 0131 443 6712 (he can help compose the letter if you wish!).
We have decided to make a bit of a splash this year with events on every day. In fact for the first weekend you even have a choice!
We have a weekend away booked for the Trossachs (details elsewhere but places are limited, and will be opened to non-CTC members if not taken up by you, so book now).
If you are staying in town, the Saturday ride will be to the Hut. I’m sure that a lot of members have heard of it, and may even have seen it as they drive past in their cars, but never been inside; so why not join us on that day, and have lunch at the Hut. It may tempt you to use it for an overnight stay.
On the Sunday we are doing a bit of outreach – a short ride designed for those who are not club riders, ex-racers or the like. It will be about 2-2½ hours and use cycle facilities as much as possible and go at the speed of the slowest rider. Mike Harrison will lead this, and doesn’t want the ride swamped by lycra and racing bikes, but if you have friends or neighbours you think would enjoy this or benefit from it and want to bring them along then you will be welcome. The plan is to repeat the ‘show’ doing the matinee at 10:30 and afternoon run at 14:30.
An event for everyone! When Marion Lawson is not riding her bike, she is often away Orienteering. We have persuaded her to apply these skills to provide us with an evening of cycle orienteering. We have not had a Cycle Treasure Hunt for a couple of years, and think that this should be an interesting alternative challenge. Do come and have a go.
An evening ‘Come and Try It’ event which is advertised to the public. Again it is targeted at those who are not regular club riders, but it’s also the way several new members have come into the club in recent years. We would like to have at least two groups on this evening to cope with the range of abilities we expect. We might even find time to stop at a pub!
The club ride which is to Heriot Water will start from the City Chambers. Bring packed lunch.
Some call it discrimination! Men are allowed to make the tea or buy the drinks, but not go on the ride. I’m not sure if they are allowed on the route to help with punctures or not. The idea of this is to have a route-card provided and go as you please, but there will be one or two group-starts with an experienced leader if required. The route will be mainly within the city. Details are not finalised yet, but we will probably arrange to end up in a café or pub.
Bikes not essential. Bring along a dish (cold, savory or sweet) and a bottle and share it with the rest. Pure social, with the minimum of organisation required. It would help if you could tell Evelyn Law what kind of dish you plan to bring so that we don’t have 30 trifles and 2 sausage rolls.
A normal Saturday run – but hopefully some of the new people we have met during the week may want to join us. Promised that it will be as advertised – a “Saturday Saunter”. After all, you will have been gorging yourself the previous evening, and will want to save your energies for the following day.
We started the CTC’s 125th year with the Gifford Rides which everyone said were so
good and “why don’t we do this more often” that we thought we would end
the 125th year with the same. Well, it’s almost the same. We will concentrate on
three rides 50k – the most popular last year – the 100k and 125k. The routes
will be similar, but not exactly the same, and unfortunately the hall at Gifford is in use
for an Art Exhibition (open from 12th to 20th – do call and see it), so our
afternoon tea spot is the Village Hall in EAST SALTOUN. The cost is more than last year,
but most of the profits go to support the local community activities and the DA gets
enough to cover its costs. Those of us who use church and community halls on winter
Wednesday rides certainly appreciate them, and we know how important community halls and
churches are in rural life. So please support this Day Out as well as you did last year.
The cost is £5 per head, and we do need bookings in advance. Click here for booking form
| Date | Day | Event | StartLocation & Time |
| (11)-13 Jun | (Fri) - Sun | Trossachs Weekend | See article |
| 12 Jun | Sat | Albert Watson Memorial Meet | Commonwealth Pool, Edinburgh 10:00 |
| 13 Jun | Sun | Come & Try It Rides | Commonwealth Pool, Edinburgh 10:30 & 14:30 |
| 14 Jun | Mon | Cycle Orienteering | Commonwealth Pool, Edinburgh 19:00 |
| 15 Jun | Tue | After-Work Wander (non-members welcome) | Commonwealth Pool, Edinburgh 19:00 |
| 16 Jun | Wed | Wednesday Club Ride (Club Ride + visitors) | City Chambers, Edinburgh 10:00 |
| 17 Jun | Thu | City Tour des Femmes (non-members welcome) | Commonwealth Pool, Edinburgh 19:00 |
| 18 Jun | Fri | Pot-Luck Supper | TBA |
| 19 Jun | Sat | Saturday Saunter (Club Ride + visitors) | Commonwealth Pool, Edinburgh 10:00 |
| 20 Jun | Sun | Lothians Day Out (50k, 100k, 125k) | Fisherrow Harbour, Musselburgh, 12:00, 10:00 & 09:30 |
Advance Notice: Sunday 25th Sept
“Three Glens Explorer” Audax/DATC
Members are asked to observe the Highway Code, to act with common sense and display courtesy to all other road users.
We normally ride in pairs, but when traffic conditions dictate we form single file by the inside (left) rider moving forward and the outside (right) rider slowing and slotting in behind.
Sometimes, singling up is done as a goodwill gesture to following cars who think we ought to be in single file – as it simply spreads out the line and does not always help them to get past safely. At other times it really is a sensible safety measure, e.g. on long bends and where there is a narrow road with a double white line. Vehicles ARE allowed to cross a double white line in order to pass vehicles which are travelling at less than 10mph, but if we are in single file it helps them to pass safely.
Within the cycling group, vocal and visual signals are important - from the front to the back for turns, potholes and especially sudden changes of speed, but also from the back to the front for following traffic and dropped riders.
AROUND THE WORLD with BILL & JENNY BROCKIE
