Gearing up for the season.

Multiday tours with Scottish Bike Touring begin in March and run through till October.  Between the end of one season and the beginning of the other I look for new tours for the upcoming season, get them on my social media sites and check the bikes.

New tours for this year include two Outlander themed tours, an Edinburgh based day tour and a multiday Fife locations tour which can be done as a point to point tour or as a hub tour being based in Kirkcaldy.

Still on offer are firm favourites the Island Adventure tour and the Great Glen way.

Who are the tours for?  Honestly anyone with even a base level of cycling fitness can come on an SBT tour.  An addition to the website is a ride level guide which describes the ride so you can decide if it is for you.  The tours are taken at an easy pace to allow you to soak in the views and soak up the atmosphere.  If you don’t fancy riding in a group that’s OK too come on an individual tour.

If you don’t see a tour which fits what you want get in touch and we can design a bespoke tour.

Full details can be found on http://www.scottishbiketouring.com

 

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“Off” season at Scottish Bike Touring.

It has been a little while since I posted but that does not mean that I have not been busy.

All of my bikes got a good clean and going over at the end of November with my Ridley Orion road bike ending up on the turbo.  Happy to say that there were no problems with my bikes just another year of scrapes and bumps.

I decided that my website was looking a bit tired so decided to give that a makeover.  Not being used to sitting at a desk for hours on end I broke the work into manageable chunks stopping when required.  I have had good constructive feedback from some viewers so please feel free to log on to http://www.scottishbiketouring.com and give me more feedback.  The site is still undergoing some work but you should be able to navigate through it ok.

As well as the website I was going over the rides on offer and decided to revamp some of them and introduce some new ones.

Two new offers are city and off road bespoke tours in and around Edinburgh.  I was asked to do this last year by a client and it was a really good ride.  Built to the clients requirements this can be as long or short as the client requires and take in a lot of sights.

Another new tour is based totally in Fife.  The Outlander Fife locations tour.  I have been riding this during the holidays and watching the series for background.  This tour can be done in two ways either as a normal point to point tour or as a “Hub” tour returning to the same accommodation each day.

Hopefully it will not be so long before my next post.

 

TTFN

An Aussie odyssey

In late September my website rec’d a hit from an Australian web address.  I replied but it got bounced back.

I had another hit same name different e mail once more it got bounced back.

There was a phone number so I gave it a call and spoke to Kelvin in Australia!

He was coming to Europe and would be in Edinburgh for four days and he wanted to spend one of them visiting the Falkirk wheel!

We agreed a date for a tour and also that he would call to confirm date and time when he arrived.

A call was made and a date and time set.  We set off for the Falkirk Wheel at 1000 on the 6th October and after negotiating the Edinburgh traffic we arrived at the Canal basin and the beginning of the Union Canal Path to the Falkirk Wheel.

Kel was from Sydney and a Primary school teacher and keen to learn some local history as well as having a bike ride.  We came through the final tunnel and as soon as Kel saw the top of the wheel he let out a whoop.  The next hour his body may have been in the café but his mind was outside and as soon as the wheel started operating he was out looking at the wheel.

After food and drink and a final look at the wheel we headed back t Edinburgh.

Kel had really enjoyed his ride almost 70 miles and although the Union canal is a contour canal we recorded over 2000 ft of climb.

 

SBT does the Five Ferries

Start timeThe Five Ferries is an iconic Scottish road cycle on the west coast of Scotland.

Regarded by many as a one day challenge and indeed run as a challenge in one of it’s guises, the Five Ferries is a approx 100 miles long, you travel on Five Ferries, two islands and 3 peninsulas.

There are a number of ways to cycle this route my preference is to start at Ardrossan and get the ferry to Arran and head south around the bottom of the island.  Arran has a spectacular coastline and it is laid out before you as you head around the island.  This is the longest cycle leg with the most climb and is an ideal stopping point if you want to do the ride over 2 days rather than 1.Climb from Brodick

Ferry number 2 takes you from Arran to the Kintyre peninsula and a ride north to the village of Tarbert an ideal lunch stop.  You have cycled 50 miles by this point and climbed almost 4000 ft!  Alas if the group speed is not sufficient to build a cushion its no lunch and straight on Ferry No 3 to Portavadie and the Kyles of Bute.Tarbert

If you would like some luxury rooms for an overnight stay this is the place!  This is the third cycle leg and the scenery is just awesome.  You cycle round the Kyles of Bute to board ferry No 4 at Colintraive travelling to the Island of Bute.  A short fast 8 miles sees you in Rothesay for the final ferry to Wemyss Bay and the final ride to Ardrossan.

This is not an easy one day ride and the added pressure of ferries to catch with the chance that they might be cancelled for one reason or the other makes it an adrenalin raising ride!

There is plenty to see on this tour I would recommend that you take your time and take the two day tour and as I said there are a number of ways to do this ride it can be shortened reducing the 100 miles to something more like 80.

 

 

 

 

Waterways C2C (West coast)

Possibly the shortest and easiest C2C route in the country starting at Bowling to the west of Glasgow and stretching across Central Scotland to Leith this is a relitively flat route almost exclusively on Canal or cycle paths.

I alighted from the train on a bright and dry morning to begin the exploration of the route from Bowling to Leith.  Today I was stopping at Falkirk as I have already done the Falkirk to Leith leg before.  At the basin in Bowling there is a bike shop and a cafe and the start of the route.​

​The surface is tarmaced and in good condition and makes for pleasent cycling.  The first points of interest on the route are the Dalmuir drop lock, the first in the UK and the Beardmore sculpture.

The canal winds it’s way through Knightswood, Kelvnside and Bishopbriggs finally leaving Glasgow and heading for Kirkintilloch and Kilsyth.  Wildlife is rife along the canal I saw these two just lazing around by the bank!

I made my way past Auchinstarry Basin the surface still in great condition towards Bonnybridge and Falkirk.   I stopped for lunch at the wheel and made my way to the station and back to Fife.

A great ride this part of the C2C. Was 31 miles with 1000 ft of climb.

SBT at EdFoC 2017

After last year’s festival where I dutifully turned up every day I had decided to try and cut travel costs by asking clients to prebook and prepay.  Unfortunately some foreign clients seem unable or unwilling to do this,, not quite back to the drawing board at least the prebooking was working.  I spoke too soon as I was travelling to Edinburgh for the first booking my e mail pinged with a message from my clients to say that they couldn’t make it!

I did not have a totally wasted day however as I went to the Fringe office and got a couple of programmes for a wee thing happening in August!

Both tours last year had been quite long so this year I decided to have a short tour, Waterways of Edinburgh, and a long one,  Innocent railway and Rosslyn Chapel, running them on alternate days.  By far the most popular was the short tour with bookings on three days. I will admit to this being my favourite even with diversions for flood defence work at Murrayfield.  I had no bookings at all for the longer tour and one request to do a tailored private tour for a father and 2 sons.

The Waterays tours went very well with a Norwegian, a Brazilian and a Turk taking the chance to be introduced to the Union Canal and the Water of Leith. 

 It was a joy taking them along the canal regaling them with tales of Burke and Hare and the local area then  as we travelled along the WoL explaining about the John Muir way and the NCN which we are lucky to have.

Dean village proved the point of much snapping and gasps of appreciation.

I enjoyed all of their company and it was a shame to leave them.

The bespoke tour morphed through a few changes until it ended up being a mix of trails, railway and pump track.  I met the three American riders at the Scottish Parliament and after explaining my plan for the trip headed off towards Salisbury crags.  After the crags we went around the back of Arthurs seat for a view of Duddingston Loch and the Pentlands and then headed for the Skelf Bike park.  The final destination was Liberton which we reached via the Innocent Railway and Craigmiller Castle.

Events wise the only one I attended was Spokes Big Breakfast.  There was plenty on, you could get your bike marked by the Police, your chain cleaned and a few samples of cleaner and lube and of course free breakfast rolls.