Edinburgh (UK)

I'm gonna be in Edinburgh this Sunday afternoon. I don't need to be
anywhere till Monday.

I'm bringing a unicycle, so I figure I'm going to ride somewhere Sunday
afternoon

I'm getting there at 2pm, and staying right near the station. Looking
at the map, the Pentlands looks like the obvious place.

Anyone from Edinburgh know anything about them? Is the good riding
obvious from 'the map ' (http://tinyurl.com/oqv4m) or do I need to find
some local knowledge?

It looks like about 5 miles ride from the city centre to them, I can
cope with that, and it'll be nice to see the city, but it might make
sense to get a bus for that bit at least in one direction so as to get
a bit of riding in, has anyone done this, and did you have any
problems? The 37 bus appears to go from the end of the road to the
hostel I'm at to Penicuik, although it does take a long time about it.
Would that be a good place to start riding?

I'm not sure how far this ride will be, probably 20 miles or so, but
does anyone fancy coming riding, either this ride, or round Edinburgh
some time on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm gonna be a bit erratic
as to when I'm available, although Monday morning is pretty free, early
morning (ie. 6ish) the other days is a good one, and I think Tuesday
evening might be okay too.

Anyway, post up here before Saturday, or give me a call/text on 07905
696427

Joe


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Anyone?

I've got the maps and stuff for the muni sorted so I'll be riding for
sure, but it'd be cool to go riding with other people anyway.

Joe


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If you have a few spare minutes you could try the 'Arthurs Seat
Challenge' (http://www.arthursseatchallenge.co.uk/index.htm). It says
on the site that someone has done it a before on a uni but that just
means theres a time for you to aim for!


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domesticated ape
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domesticated ape wrote:
If you have a few spare minutes you could try the 'Arthurs Seat
Challenge' (http://www.arthursseatchallenge.co.uk/index.htm). It says
on the site that someone has done it a before on a uni but that just
means theres a time for you to aim for!



Hmmm. That might just be possible. Looks like the first person was on a
29er with a narrow tyre, but also looks like they weren't very
unicycley - so I might have a chance on the 26.

Joe


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Pah, that challenge thing was easy.

5 min 49. On the muni with the tyre at 18 PSI. And I started too far
back and finished too far forwards, I thought it was from the water to
the water rather than just on the road and I didn't have the web to
check. Oh and I had a headwind.

Not really all that steep to be honest, nothing like as steep as the
road at the start of Snowdon. On a muni you're more limited by how fast
you can spin rather than by running out of power. Someone should come
and try it on a coker with 110s, I reckon you could get a quite decent
time on it.

The muni was cool, I'm well jealous of people who live in Edinburgh,
only 5 miles ride to some great big hills. Rode up 'Allermuir Hill'
(http://tinyurl.com/eeg78) and 'Castlelaw Hill'
(http://tinyurl.com/lgu8g). Both were super steep, and rather big
(about 1600 feet), I think including riding from the centre of
Edinburgh the ride had about 2000 feet of ascent, was about 2 hours
uphill, 1 hour downhill plus half an hour of malt loaf time. Had some
fantastic crashes on the downhill including one flying slide when my
uni hit some sheep poo on a really steep bit, leaving my foot on the
inside of the crank and me coasting down the hill for several metres,
and some good ones on a bit of trail that has been 'improved' by
dumping several tons of rocks and gravel on a super steep downhill.
Ouch. The weather was fun, it was pretty windy, like really really turn
you off your course windy, and never quite rained, but kept threatening
it.

Made me ache this morning too, I haven't done such a sustained up or
downhill for ages, and when you do rides like this on your own, you do
tend to keep going rather than stopping much.

Joe


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Sounds like good fun Joe! I'm glad you told us about the crashes as if
they were the best bits of the ride. As long as you're not seriously
hurt, it often seems like they are the most exciting things - probably
when you're going fastest too.

And with that as inspiration (and the small point of having a few
sizable mountains in mind...) I shall retrieve my muni from my office
and go and ride it.

Sam


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Well done Joe, I thought the challenge wouldn't be too difficult for
you, but still probably worth a go. Now you've set a higher standard
for everyone else too!

The muni sounds good too, there's a scary amount of contour lines on
those maps!


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redwelly wrote:

And with that as inspiration (and the small point of having a few
sizable mountains in mind...) I shall retrieve my muni from my office
and go and ride it.




Here is some useful nutritional advice.

Joe


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domesticated ape wrote:

The muni sounds good too, there's a scary amount of contour lines on
those maps!



Arrrr, there be hills in them there hills.

Joe


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