| Club Runs Programme |
| Stay at the Hut |
| Any old YHA sheet sleeping sacks? |
| For new members |
| Rights |
| Edinburgh Toughies or what? |
| Bike Week |
Hello - is anyone out there? If you read the last issue of Cycle Forth you had better read this one as well. There are a few changes of policy and activities as well as some changes in people to contact. No, there's not been a palace revolution, just a bit of re-thinking and some correction of errors.
March and April were in general fine dry months, if a little windy. May came in with cold showers. By the time you read this it will be high summer and your bike should be raring to go. As well as all the special events - bike fests, sponsored rides, bike-to-work etc. - your club does invite you to come out on its club runs. Some CTC sections have only one run every 2 weeks. In the summer (May to August) we have 4 each week. If you have not been on one, come and try it. We know all the excuses - "You'll go too fast for me", "It's too far", "I like to go fast, you crawl along", "My bike needs repairing" - but even among those who do go out with the club regularly some like to go fast on good surfaces, some like to potter along rougher tracks, some even have bikes which are not mechanically perfect (!). We are a pretty mixed bunch, and if you join us it won't alter the mix too much.
To try to make it easier there are a few things we have done
1. On Tuesday evenings it is likely that a few will want a 'stretching' ride while some will be 'occasional' cyclists who are not used to demanding cycling. We will meet at the Commonwealth Pool and plan to have two sections one of which will take a more gentle approach to the whole business while the energetic ones can go off and do their own thing. We will always cater for the slower rider as much as we can.
2. We started at the beginning of the year having a Sunday 'later start' ride. These will continue for the rest of the year, and from June they will always be on the THIRD Sunday of the month - the start time is 10:30 and it starts from the Commonwealth Pool and picks up at a second point on the way out of the city (about 20 minutes later). The idea is that this ride will be slightly more leisurely than normal.
In the last issue there was an appeal for members to volunteer to lead rides. What response did we get? Guess. The offer still stands. In particular Tuesday evenings (contact Mike Harrison), Sundays (contact Jackie Howlett), Saturdays (contact Finlay Cairns), oh! and Peter Martin is still on the sick list, so Wednesdays are technically leaderless at the moment - though Finlay is doing a good job as No.2. Seriously, it's too much to ask that one person be available every week of the year to lead the same ride, but a good ride does have a leader, so we are not looking for people to 'organise' every Sunday/Sat/Wed/Tues ride but to actually lead on the road.
David Easingwood-Wilson has taken on the task of co-ordinating the runs programme. Talk to him if you have any ideas, or are able to help.
Some more Car-Assisted-Runs are scheduled. The next one is Saturday June 1st when we meet at 10:00 in Melrose. Another Wednesday one is at Kinross on Wednesday July 24th (not the same route as last year I hope, which included the Path of Condie after a relaxing afternoon tea in Dunning), and the final one of the year is Saturday September 7th when we meet in Dunblane. As usual, please try to arrange transport early, and don't be afraid to ask if you need a lift.
Our own hut at Polmood (on the A701 just south of Broughton) is now open again, but we have very few bookings. It can be used by any groups of cyclists, provided that there is a member of CTC in the group.
To try to promote its use, and to get the DA members to use it more we have planned two club runs to use the hut. The Wednesday run on July 31st will go to the Hut. Members can ride out on Wednesday and back on Thursday. If you want to go earlier and stay, say on the Tuesday night and have a local day on Wednesday, or extend your visit at the other end and stay until Friday morning, that can be booked. The other one is a weekend with a Saturday night stay on June 8th. Similarly, there are days either side which can be booked.
Do any members have the traditional Youth Hostel sheet sleeping bags (which they are no longer using now that they are provided in all hostels) they would be prepared to give to us to use in the Hut? Up to now most members have had their own which they take to use in the Hut. We realise now that some of the younger ones will not have these, and that we will need to provide them for some people. Please give them to Jimmy Murray if you have any spare ones.
If you are a CTC member you should receive the magazine "Cycle Touring and Campaigning" from CTC every two months. There is now a Scottish insert "Cycle Talk" in every issue. Please read it - there is no point in repeating here anything which all the Scottish members can read in Cycle Talk.
If you are not a CTC member and want to find out more about CTC and membership, then look on the CTC web site (www.ctc.org.uk) or phone the membership department (0870 873 0061) or email them (membership@ctc.org.uk) for a leaflet.
To all those who have joined CTC in the last year and are in the Edinburgh area - welcome!! We normally write to new members within a few weeks of their joining CTC to let them have a copy of Cycle Forth and to welcome them to our activities. Because over the last year we have not been having monthly updates on membership we have not been able to do this. So if you thought that CTC was just 'something in the south', please be assured that we are here and welcome you to anything that's on offer. The main time for meeting other members is on the rides, so do join us - it may help you to select a suitable ride if you phone the runs contact first.
In the last issue we reported on the decision of the AGM to continue with the Monday evening Clubroom sessions, despite no Social Secretary to organise these having been elected. Some of the Committee members have stepped in and arranged a few events which had a moderate attendance. However, it has now got to May, and still we have no-one to plan a programme for next winter. At the last Committee Meeting it was agreed that unless we have someone by June we will not be able to run the clubroom in the winter of 2002-3. So if you want a clubroom programme, now is the time to volunteer! Further announcements in the next Cycle Forth.
This project has now supplied 400 working bikes to needy individuals, schools, and other groups to help people get on their bikes. They are always looking for donations of usable equipment and also for helpers to work on the bikes. It's open Saturdays 1300-1600 and Tuesdays 1930-2100. Find them on the web at www.castlecliff.org.uk or phone 07887 500667.
We have received the following letter from Paul Gallagher:
My name is Paul Gallagher and I am the Volunteer Organiser at Bonnington Resource Centre. We provide a service to adults who have a learning disability and one of our most popular and successful groups is the cycling group. The group consists of 7 members and two staff, 5 of the members use two wheel bikes and two others use three wheelers ( one of whom is half way through a course to learn how to 'go' a two wheeler). We mainly use cycle paths in the Lothians and Fife, though we have managed two successful camping and cycling trips to the Trossachs and Buchan.
What we would now like in order to progress is a volunteer who would be able to come with us and share our fun. The group cycle on Tuesdays from 10am until 2.30 pm providing the weather is suitable.
I am contacting you in the hope that you may be able to point me in the right direction to find such a person!
It sounds a really good project, and anyone who can help, please contact Paul directly at Bonnington Resource Centre, 200 Bonnington Road, Edinburgh, EH6 4NL
Tel: 0131 555 0920 Email: bonnington.vol@unisonfree.net
Web Site: www.bonnington.org.uk
We have a few (very few) DA cloth badges left. The cost is only £1, and Richard Russell has the stocks.
Congratulations to Grampian DA who won the Carter-Ruck Trophy for the biggest percentage membership increase of all UK DAs in 2001 of 17.6%. The third DA was Highland with 13.1%. Why was Lothian not up there? Have you recruited any members recently? (See the heading 'Cycle Talk' for how to get membership recruiting leaflets).
There's an awful lot of information on the web, including a lot about cycling. Although a lot of our members are not computer users, the ready availability of computers in libraries means that more and more it is possible to give a web reference and people can access the information readily. For the cost of a stamp you can get twice as much information from the web, and make sure that it is the information you actually want. For larger items, downloading from the web (even with the cost of printing it out) beats getting an order form, writing a cheque, sending it off, being out when the carrier attempts to deliver…… I recently downloaded and printed the Scottish Executive's £10 "Scotland's Transport - delivering improvements" in about 5 minutes at a total cost of about £1 including printing.
You will probably all know that a major part of the Edinburgh Waterfront development plan is to improve the transport infrastructure by installing a tram line which would be a circle from Haymarket, along Princes Street, down Leith Walk, along the front to Granton, and then back along the Roseburn Path to Roseburn, thence back to Haymarket.
Right from the start the Council has promised that the Roseburn Path will still be open to cyclists, pedestrians [and dogs]. We have all applauded this, but some have doubted whether there would be room. Now a member of staff at Heriot-Watt has had his students surveying the line and taking measurements. With a double line there is apparently even enough room on the Roseburn Viaduct over the Water of Leith for us all, so that's good news.
Thanks to the members who responded to the survey. There was a good response of about 66% - far higher than normal. In addition to the answers to specific questions, the general comments were also useful. The report has been to the West Lothian Access Forum and was well received. It seems that landowners and tenants in the area have the same problems with the roads as tourist and leisure cyclists do, so we might see some action. Whatever landowners may think of the access legislation and the problems there might be with unmanageable use of tracks and hill-paths by bikers and riders, when it comes to public roads we are definitely on the same side.
DA riders in other parts of the country are softies. That's my conclusion, having talked to people from other parts of the country. OK, they may ride faster than we do, they may cover more miles, but they are always stopping! They stop at a café for morning coffee, then they stop at a pub for a pub lunch, and possibly even stop again for afternoon tea. When I tell them that the Lothians DA never (well, hardly ever) uses pubs or cafes (except for the dainty afternoon teas), certainly not as a regular thing at lunch-time, but instead lights a fire and then uses it to boil water for the tea, or sets up Primus stoves and whatever the weather - even snow or ice - stays outside, these statements are met with incredulity.
Granted that since the Foot & Mouth last year the opportunity for going off the road into coppices was curtailed, and I haven't seen Richard's Primus out this year, so perhaps we are not as tough as we were. However, although the "Wrinklies Group" (otherwise known as the Wednesday Ride) has scheduled cafes for the drum-up, with the milder weather this last winter more people have been taking pieces with them, and on many occasions no-one has felt the need to visit a café.
As the weather is not always kind, we have been thinking of a new ploy. This is to have a number of places where we could get out of the rain, but not have to spend a lot of money on buying food. What we are looking for are places like small community halls in villages which we could hire for an hour or so on a Wednesday lunch-time. If we had one of these in each area (East Lothian, Mid-Lothian and West Lothian say) then we could make these the regular drum-up spots during the winter months. We have one almost set up, but if members know of places we might be able to use, please tell Finlay Cairns.
Spring seems to be the time for conferring. Peter Hawkins went to a conference in Nottingham on 'Cycle Friendly Infrastructure'. So successful was this that it is being repeated shortly and the repeat is already sold out! Cycling around Edinburgh and the Lothians on a daily basis you may moan about the condition of the roads, the traffic which often prevents even bikes getting along Princes Street at the West End, other road users (in my case mainly pedestrians!), but in fact Edinburgh has a UK reputation of being cycle-friendly - so you can imagine what some places must be like! Steven Norris - chair of the National Cycling Strategy committee - was the keynote speaker, and he gave more or less the same speech as keynote speaker at the Cycle Campaign Network Conference which Mike Harrison attended in Dorchester at the end of April. It's well reported in the May CCN Newsletter (on the web at www.cyclenetwork.org.uk), but he outlined 4 major themes
| Thurs 13 June | 0800-0930 | At Ritz Grill, Lochside Crescent, Edinburgh Park. Free Breakfast provided by the Grill. Contact: Mark Symonds 662 1635. (Yes, this is the Thursday in the week BEFORE Bike Week!) |
| Sat 15 | 1000 | Club Ride from Commonwealth Pool |
| Sun 16 | 1000 | Club Ride to Yellowcraigs Park (Dirleton) starting from Commonwealth Pool, picking up at Fisherrow Harbour |
| Sun 16 | 1200 | BIKE FEST in the MEADOWS (includes procession through Princes St, leaving
Meadows about 1345) If you’re not out on the ride, please join in. |
| Tuesday 18 | 1900 | OPEN RIDE from Commonwealth Pool – beginners, hesitant, competent, experts, children with parents, anybody and everybody |
| Wed 19 | 0800-1000 | Bike Breakfast at City Chambers. Free breakfast plus all the usual stalls, competitions etc. Contact Jackie Howlett 664 0526 |
| Wed 19 | 1000 | Club Ride to Dunsyre starting from Firrhill (why not go to the Bike Breakfast first?) |
| Sat 22 | 1000 | Club Ride from Commonwealth Pool |
| Sat 22 | 0800 + | Lepra Sponsored ride to ST ANDREWS |
| Sun 23 | 1030 | Club Ride to Rumbling Bridge starting from the Roseburn Path (Glasgow Rd. bridge) |
Remember that Bike2Work is 'not just for Christmas' - instead of a National Bike-to-Work DAY this year it's a Bike-to-Work WEEK, the idea is that you can do it on any day (or even every day) and that employers wanting to organise something can choose the day which suits them and their workers the best. So you can 'Bike2Work any day and every day'.
