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Saturday
the 27th January
I had to go to Edinburgh for the weekend so thought
I would take my bike for a spin in the back of the car. So on Friday
morning I headed to “Glentress” but when I got there I decided I
couldn’t be arsed with it as I had been many times before so kept on
along the road to “Inerleithan” 6 miles down the road as I have been
planning on going there for a while.
I arrived in the car park in the pishing rain and got ready and set of
up the trail which started of with a steep climb where I managed to get
about half a mile before I got a puncture “not a great start”! So fixed
flat and carried on, it was a 5 mile climb not to hard but not one for
the unfit.
Nearer the top I emerged from the forest out onto “Minches Moor” it was
blowing a gale and the sleet was coming in horizontal so I was happy to
start down the other side a short bit of twisty fast downhill joining
onto a fire road for about a mile until I came to the next downhill
section which was closed for repairs so had to follow a diversion which
took me to a 2 mile downhill which was fast with lots of sweeping
corners and drop offs ending back in the car park rather muddy wet and
cold but that’s all the fun of it.
On Saturday I decided to take a spin up the “Pentlands”. I rode from the
flat in Morningside up Lothian road through the busy traffic and decided
I would rather ride along the top of the cliffs over the “Carsaig”
arches a foot away from the edge in a gale. I headed up the hill at “Hillend”
and had to push the bike most of the way up to the trig point. I met a
man half way up who muttered something about bad publicity for bikes but
it was windy and I couldn’t really here what he said so I just smiled
and carried on.
“I later discovered there is a voluntary ban on bikes in the winter to
avoid cutting up paths” At the top there was a hoer of a wind but a
great view over all of Edinburgh it makes it look small. The trip home
was good it was on a track round the back of the hill which led back to
the main road and home through the town.
Only problem with riding in and near Edinburgh is you never go far
without meeting someone, give me Mull any day...
Bryan's Bits
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