Car-Free DayMonday September 22nd is the European Car-Free Day and a part of European Mobility Management Awareness Day. EMMA is specifically aimed at commuter-travel and personal travel plans, encouraging people to try out and implement sustainable ways of getting to work/school.
Edinburgh has decided to go for the Street Festival approach on the day before (Sunday 21st September) and do nothing officially on the actual day. So come along to George Street for the Festival on Sunday, and then go and do the real job of going to work by bike or on foot or public transport on the Monday.
The Forth Yacht Clubs Association has some 30 member clubs, only one is inland. The rest cover the Lothian & Fife coasts from Dunbar to Anstruther. You can get in a boat and visit all of these (if you can get the tides right). But what if you are not a sailor? How can you do it on foot or by cycle. Many of you will know the Fife Coastal Path. Quite a bit of it is part of the National Cycle Network (even though the bits at Dalgety Bay are not very cycle-friendly). But what about Lothian? Certainly no continuous coastal route there. And what if you want to follow the Forth upstream of the Forth Bridge?
Both the Forth Estuary Forum and Sustrans are keen to develop a route following the Sustrans principle of making paths accessible to people from where they live.
Early in June Tony Grant from Sustrans led a party on a Trailblazing Ride to use bits of paths which already exist and try out bits which might be improved to create useable paths and explore routes on land which is currently not available to the public. Over the 2 days (lots of stops for photographs) a group of about 24 maximum at any one time (though there were about 40 people in total took part for some or all of the ride) travelled from Edinburgh City Chambers via Cramond, Dalmeny, Hopetoun, Blackness, Bo’ness, Grangemouth, Larbert, Cowie, Fallin, Stirling (overnight), Cambuskenneth, Alloa, Clackmannan, Limekilns, North Queensferry and back to Edinburgh.
Hardened explorers will probably have used most of the roads and tracks we went on, but a lot of it will be unknown to many. It’s an interesting route and one that tourists could appreciate, but probably not one that the typical club rider would want to do all at once – not enough tarmac!
Cycle Talk (August and October issues) contain additional notes on this event.
Why not do a Doors Open tour on your bike?
| East Lothian | 28th |
| West Lothian | 14th |
| Edinburgh | 27th |
| Mid Lothian | 6th |
| Fife (Dunfermline area) | 14th |
| Glasgow | 20th-21st |
| South Lanarkshire | 14th |
Details of places open are on the web at www.doorsopendays.org.uk or leaflets in libraries etc. for each local area.
District Association Touring Competition to you and me. This is like an Audax but without the competitive pressure. I know that Audaxes are not meant to be competitive – only a personal challenge – but you wouldn’t always think so. A DATC label can be attached to a variety of other events as well. Many DAs run several each year. One of the ideas is to encourage people to go out for a pleasant ride in a different area from their home territory, but of course a DATC event can be ridden by the locals too. If you do several and meet various other conditions you can accumulate points and there are annual prizes on a UK basis. Last year two Lothians members had their names in the prize list – Duncan Peet and John Connaghan.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, the DA is collaborating with Audax to support a DATC event on September 28th. It starts (08:30) at Dalmeny Village Hall (next to the Church). Send Peter Hawkins (118/1 Stenhouse Crescent, Edinburgh, EH11 3HU; 0131 443 6712) the entry fee of £4 if you want to join in. We hope to see quite a lot of members taking part as it’s some time since we last had one of these.
The DA has maps for the use of members. A complete set of 1:50000 maps was given to the DA in 1985. While these are, of course, getting out of date in many respects, they are still very useful. For several years, Don Johnson looked after these but reported at several AGMs that no-one had made use of them. The Committee has discussed the options – replace with new ones (no, too expensive), sell them off (is it worth it?), give them away (but who to?), throw them away (wasteful). They are not old enough to be antiques, but too old to be definitive. Solution – now we have no clubroom – the Secretary can keep them in the spare bedroom (together with all the club archives!).
The Secretary has used at least 10 of them this year. They ARE useful. And they are available to any member at no charge – except that if you need them posting to you, you will have to pay the postage both ways.
The Annual General Meeting of the Lothians District Association will be held in Saughtonhall Community Association Hall, Saughtonhall Avenue at 19:30 on Monday 17th November.
After the AGM there will be a chance for some informal chat and refreshments.
Volunteers needed to help twice a year with distribution in Comely Bank, Gorgie, Annan
‘How does this concern us? It’s the other side of the country!’ – I can hear the comments. Well, as many of you know, the Lothians DA covers people in a triangle roughly South Queensferry – Lindisfarne – Dumfries. A few south of the Tweed are in because all TD postcodes are included, even though some are nearer to Newcastle than Edinburgh. The problem is in the South-West. It’s wild country down there, a bit of a no-man’s-land, and technically those to the east of the Nith (roughly) are attached to the Lothians DA, while those to the west to the Glasgow DA.
Thanks to the effort put into it by John Taylor and his friends in the Galloway Cycling Group there’s a stronger presence of cyclists now, and with the help of the local council and tourist organisations a lot of cycle development. For organising events in particular, it would be much easier if all the D&G CTC members were in the same DA.
There is discussion going on at the moment about forming a new Section (not a DA) for that area which would bring all the members into one group.
Was this the event of the year? You will have read about it and seen the pictures in Cycle Talk. Were you there? If not, do you realise what you missed? Nice weather (despite the black clouds in the morning and the brisk wind in the afternoon), excellent scones and buns, and best of all the company of a range of cyclists – young, old, male, female, the regulars with calloused bums and the newcomers with sore bums!
‘Why can’t we do this every week?’ some asked. Well, we think that’s a bit much to expect, but we are certainly planning to do something similar in the spring/early summer of 2004. We want to keep away from the first weekend in May (and anyway, we have just heard of another CTC event for that weekend).
So keep a day free next year and come and join us, wherever we decide to rally - at the moment we are thinking of the last day of Bike Week in June.
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Bike Week seemed a bit flat this year. It may be that the Gifford Rides took all the interest, but they were intended for existing cyclists. Bike Week is trying to get new people out on bikes, whether for sport, leisure or utility. We didn’t get as many out for the Bike Week Evening ride as we usually do, and the Edinburgh BikeFest on the Meadows didn’t see as many people as usual. Yet nationally the Bike Week organisers report success. Do we need a new approach here in Edinburgh? |
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Remember, there will be no other newsletter between now and December, so put the lunch date in your diary NOW and send off a cheque (payable to Anne Carter). No booking taken without payment. |
WANTED
Phone: Ray Resilion 0131 554 9252 |
| September 7-28 | Doors Open Days |
| Sept 21-22 | Car Free Day(s) |
| Sept 28 | DA Touring Competition |
| Oct 11-12 | Melrose Weekend |
| Oct 25 | East of Scotland Reunion |
| Nov 17 | AGM |
| Dec 7 | Christmas Lunch |
Special Offer for CTC members
The recently published ‘Edinburgh for Cyclists’ is a comprehensive 90-page booklet about cycling in the city. Over 50 routes are described, including many which are off-road, and the rest using cycle lanes, bus lanes, quiet roads etc.
Introductory chapters give advice on topics like buying a bike, what to wear (i.e. gear, and gears!), basic maintenance, cycling with children, bike shops and regular bike events.
Use the book to explore the city’s green corridors and discover a hidden Edinburgh unknown to those who only use the roads.
The author, Peter Hawkins, is a former secretary of CTC Scotland
Normal selling price is £3.95. CTC members can take advantage of a special introductory offer of £3.50 including p&p, OR get a book and a copy of the Spokes Edinburgh Cycle Map packaged together in a wallet for only £7.50 including p&p (normal price £7.95).
Send cheque payable to Spokes (Education) to: Spokes (Education), 118/1 Stenhouse Cres., Edinburgh EH11 3HU.
The new edition of the Midlothian Cycle Map was shortlisted for the Dynamic Places Scotland awards for 2002. The map received a Commendation for promoting cycling and for the innovatory presentation of information for cyclists. The winning award went to the Falkirk Wheel but it’s nice to see humbler efforts getting some recognition!
Spokes’ East Lothian map is now available from bookshops, but if you get it from a Spokes stall (e.g. Car-Free Day) there is usually a discounted price.
You have punctured. You tell your slower club mates to carry on and you will catch them up. So you do, but it took much longer (and they get much further) than you expected. How did that happen?
Wich school algebra you can work it out.
Suppose you (A) average 15mph compared with the 10mph of your clubmates (B), and you stopped for 12 minutes. In 12 minutes your clubmates cover 2 miles. Call the distance to catch up x miles and the time it takes you y hours.
Then for (A)
x = 15y (i)
and for (B)
x – 2 = 10y (ii)
Substituting (i) in (ii) we have
15y – 2 = 10y
5y = 2
y = 0.4 = 24 minutes
Substituting y = 0.4 in (i) we have
x = 15 x 0.4 = 6 miles
Moral: Make sure you know exactly where your mates are going before you send them on their way!
Norma Brearley writes:
I have been asked to organise a reunion of all cyclists from the East of Scotland from the era of approximately 1940/50/60/70s. The Clarion Cycling Club had a small get-together a couple of months ago, and 26 people turned out. It was a most enjoyable evening, hence the request for a much larger event. There will only be background music, so that there can be plenty of chat.
Please do come along. As it will be difficult to judge how many will come, no food will be organised on this occasion, so please do eat before you arrive!
However, if this evening proves to be a success – which I am sure it will be – perhaps we could do it again, when food could be organised.
Please give us your support. The only cost involved – apart from drinks – will be £1 per person to cover the cost of the hire of the function suite.
We look forward to seeing you on the night. As the function suite holds only 100 people, please get in touch to let us know if you will be able to come, by telephone to Norma on 01968 677117 or norma.brearley-at-ed.ac.uk.
If you have old photographs to share – please bring them along.
| Eddleston Village Hall | on the A703 just south of the turning to the Meldons on the right-hand side of the road | NT242470 |
| Bolton Village Hall | On B6368 on the west side of the road at the south end of the village | NT505699 |
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Hopes Hall, North Berwick |
Forth St. (north side, near Church St) | NT552854 |
| East Calder Church Hall | south side of Main Street | NT005772 |
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Low Port Centre, Linlithgow |
Hut on north side of Low Port site (opposite new building). Blackness Rd - opposite Tesco | NT086679 |
The good weather this summer has certainly brought out the cycles, and numbers on the runs have improved. Unfortunately the Secretary lost the runs notebook (last used at Oxenfoord, but missing the following week) so there are no hard statistics for a period of a few months. Quite a number of new people seem to have become regulars on both weekend and mid-week rides – and they are not all retired!
Tuesday Evening Rides: finish at the end of September and re-start informally in April and formally in May.
Wednesday Rides: As last winter we will use Community Halls, but not exactly the same set as last year. The Harburn Hall is undergoing refurbishment, and we have obtained two West Lothian replacements. One is the East Calder Parish Church Hall (on the south side of Main Street, and the other is a hut opposite the main building at the Low Port Centre in Linlithgow (LPC is opposite Tesco’s in Blackness Road). The plan worked better than we expected and with no financial burden on the Club. See table above.
Saturday Rides: These continue as a ‘traditional club ride’ of a moderate distance over the whole day – though I suspect that as quite a number include a morning coffee stop at a regular church/community coffee morning there is some sluggish riding in the afternoons sometimes. If it’s not a morning coffee stop, then it’s an afternoon tea & scones one.
Sunday Rides: There does seem to be a demand for rides which don’t take all day, and there’s a regular group of Sunday riders which includes a significant proportion of newer (and younger) members. So the Sunday rides recently have been shorter (in time) though not necessarily slower and easier. However, this is probably the ride that any newcomer wanting to try a club ride for the first time should join. There is more likely to be someone who will chum them home if they don’t want to stay with the group; it’s likely that it will never be all that far from home; and again members of the group will adapt more easily to the needs of the newcomer. We still support the Spokes ride on the first Sunday of the month – meeting at 10:00 at the Usher Hall.
If you have any suggestions about runs, please speak out. Especially if you would like to come on runs but there is something that puts you off we would like to know what it is. If you have never been on a run with the club, why not try it?
Take food (sandwiches) and drink. Don’t rely on cafe-stops.
Newcomers welcome - but suggest you phone leader first to get an idea of the likely speed/distance/time of the ride. The leader will help you find the right ride for you.
Details can be found on the pages runs/events and runs list
