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Category: Bike Rides 2005
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Frustratingly, the January ride involved a ride to my house for Mince Pies and coffee, due to seasonal weather. We had a lovely Spokes Ride in lovely Scottish Winter weather (yes, we do get good weather now and again!!). Thanks you to all who attended to make this a lovely friendly ride to Leadburn Inn. Special thanks to two people in helping me replace the inner tube on the back wheel after a puncture on the way home. Replacing the tube wasn’t timed, but I was told later that it was under four minutes, so not quite Formula 1 standards just yet then!!!!!

Beautiful weather, we left the Usher Hall after Mark had pumped up his tyre, at about 10:20, we headed along Grindlay St, Spittal St, Lady Lawson St., through Main Point, along Lauriston St. and Lauriston Garderns. We took the Meadows cycle path to Buccleuch Street, wher we headed out to Mayfield Road and up Kirk Brae. We then followed Lasswade Road to Lasswade, then we took a right to head up Polton Road, through Poltonhall. Rather than take the Rosewell Bypass, we went through Rosewell. Kids exclaimed “There’s an old man init!!” as they noticed Mike’s recumbent. We then followed the A6094 for a couple of km, then turn left to head for Mount Lothian. This minor road gave excellent views of the wind farms on the Moorfoots and to Soutra in the distance on our left. The sun had come out, and no breeze was felt as we winded along.

At Mount Lothian, we turned right on to the B6372, then left back on to the A6094. At his point Chris had a puncture. I left him in the capable hands of Rosemary and Julie, who fixed the puncture for him!!!!. The rest of us travelled on, going through Howgate, and out to our lunchtime destination at the Leadburn Inn.

We al had an enjoyable lunch. Hardy souls had their sarnies outside, before retreating to the warmth and comfort of the south facing conservatory. Lamia complained that people at her work, she is an architect, complained that her beautiful designs sometimes “just didn’t stand up”, although it was generally agreed that standing up is a good thing for buildings to do. Bryan continued explaining about his trip to Spain, and we discussed “events” on previous Spokes’ Rides, especially trips across Cauldstaneslap, mainly in winter. We also chatted about lovely Summer Rides.

Returning to Edinburgh was the straightforward, some people opted to return early. The rest of us had coffee, and some had cake before slowly heading back along the A701 through Penicuik. I had a puncture at New  Milton Farm. We went past dolly the Sheep’s birthplace, then past the Dick Vet’s and then along Seafield Moor Road to join the A702 at Hillend. At Fairmilehead, we went our separate ways home.

I may organise a couple of weekends this year with a bike bus, unfortunately, it can only hold 5 people and 5 bikes (6 people including the driver). A couple of people expressed an interest in this. If I do arrange a weekend, then a deposit will be required for all people who book.

The next Spokes’ Ride will be on the 6th March, the last winter Spokes’ Ride and the last GMT Spokes’ Ride. Hopefully the weather will be just as kind.

And if you don’t come cycling with us next month, you’ll be another month older when you do.

Ride Stats

Total Distance:    49km
Average Speed:     17.5km/h
Time on the bike:   2 hours 49 minutes
Total Climbing:   752 metres
Temperature:        4 to 6 degrees Celsius
No Maximum Speed, as my computer needs a battery, and recorded a maximum speed of 409.5 km/h. But we didn’t all go that fast.