TJ – to be honest, I’d rather do a hardpack / track ride that was non-technical, than a boggy mess of singletrack that is nasty to ride and I feel guilty for being on. Just being oot on the bike in the hills is good enough for me – throw in some good climbs and I’m happy.

After saying that – I can carry at least 4 people + bikes in my truck, so if anyone fancies somewhere else for a change, I am happy to drive. Niteride at GT?

TJ – it aint about the route… being outside with people of a similar mind is all it needs.

Plus – i have suggested alternatives like Dreghorn circuit racing that you poo-pooed. I think that would be a laugh,

rode with the girls from Hervelo in a group

Dammit!

Your name is now covered in a film of FAIL kit.

Can I just add that there was NOTHING easy or boring about that route today, you just need a certain, shall we say, retrogressive choice of bike 😀

Your name is now covered in a film of FAIL kit.

Just you wait until I make my billions in Carbon Capture and Storage and I’m living the playboy lifestyle with scantily clad women draped over me and Ferrari… oh hang on, that’s never going to happen is it 🙁 I’m sure jimmy’s game for a cuddle though 🙂

dur, everyone knows you go Lambo. noob.

thebikechain – Member

TJ – it aint about the route… being outside with people of a similar mind is all it needs.

I quite agree.

Is Clubbiedean really so delicate? The end stretch gets pretty wet and there’s the bad patch between the bridges but the rest stands up pretty well usually, good drainage and loads of roots, and the wet bits… Well, one is always bad and the other doesn’t usually get terrible. It’s not one I cross off my winter list usually myself except during thaws.

You can definately get a good pentlands ride in on solid surfaces but you do lose the variety a bit I think. But o’course we’ll have some icy weeks where suddenly all those wet trails are deadly fast and iron-hard.

northwind -it was badly churned last time I rode it a few weeks ago – and 20 of us in a posse does a lot of damage.

Having said that I would probably hafve ridden it tonight – but it wasn’t my call and I was happy to go along with the decison made

I have a 30 odd mile flatland offraod circuit we could do one night – all failry robust – town / currie / ratho / south queensferry / crammond

Northwind, I think the best argument for avoiding the Clubbiedean section in the wet is that grumpy farmer who lives at the end of the road, we passed him tonight and he was interrogating us about where we had come from, seemed a bit pissed off at the prospect of us riding the Clubbiedean trail.

Not saying we should let grumpy farmers dictate where we ride, but in this instance its probably worth keeping him sweet, think he’s the same farmer that strung a fence right across Scalextric…

Oh aye, and since a few people have asked… I did manage to make solid contact with the Rangers eventually and did a site visit with Susan Falconer the senior ranger and Martin Duncan the estate manager, at the wet bits of Pistachio… Even started to hatch a plan for a small test-of-concept intervention to fix one of the 2 sumps.

But other things have got in the way for me a bit and I’ve not been able to do anything else about it just from a lack of energy for the project. Entirely my fault and I think after a good start they’ll probably be a bit unimpressed with the dead stop, I doubt I’ll have much cred with them now.

But I do think it could be kickstarted with a bit of enthusiasm and tbh, with someone else at the head of it to put a new face on it.

Oh and just a thought but does anyone know the trails up Craigmillar Castle way? One of their rangers came down to the trailfairies a while back, they’ve got big plans for a Pete Laing-designed build there but I gather there’s already some decent riding.

Sorry, I’ve swamped this thread with posts. Fair points on Clubbie, cheers.

Northwind – nothing operates as slowly as the Rangers. I’d be happy to head up a possé of workers, if it wasn’t for the fact that my name is offically mud with PHRP. Happy to check in some hours working though.

I’m surprised it was so muddy up in the Pentlands. We were up on Benarty Hill tonight and it was mostly frozen. A couple of hours out riding and our bikes were clean when we arrived home.

If you guys fancy a trip over to Fife we could show you some trailz. Blairadam and Benarty.

Happy to represent as the shop if it assists NW. Email tomorrow if you like with background etc.

East lothian trails are always a bit dryer because we dont get the traffic that the Pentlands does, But I get TJ’s point that we dont all drive . I walked the dog from the Braids to Hermitage the other day which has a few wee bits add on Dreghorn and Mortonhall on the other side Newhailes to Mussleburgh or **** It we could just go loco round Hollyrood.. 😀

There is some food for though for us there. I am sure we can keep offroading without being antisocial but it will need imagination.

Makes you think If the Craigmiller site goes ahead It could be a great place to have future TBC rides and link up with Stephen and House Husbands Midlothian stuff which (whispers) is probably better than the East Lothian trails. All In all Its not a bad area to live In If you like to Ride.

Good comments throughout this thread; that responsibility / fun line is a tough one to draw. I’ll commit to leaving many sections alone until frozen / drier – it’s still possible to do a good, fairly ‘weather-proof’ loop, just a bit dull.

Until the Pentlands recover i will mostly be riding around the county here as about 5 or 6 different routes to do that are dry,
Tyningham,Yellowcraig,Gullane Hill loop,John Muir Park,Pencaitland,Longniddry area, and the John Muir Way in various sections….some are quite short loops but i just ride to them and back…
Understand not everyone has transport and for me driving anywhere further west of the Pentlands is a bit of a haul, though TJ`s route sounds interesting, there are trails south and east of the new Royal Infirmary too, muddy at times but being old railway tracks not a real issue about erosion,
also happy to raise a shovel and do a day or two graft with a group on the Pentlands to do my bit for the trails 😮

Lots in Mortonhall, and a good climb/descent on Blackford hill, but lets leave the Hermitage well alone, nice trails hidden away in there but they would definitely suffer from heavy traffic, and there’s a particularly self righteous, grumpy breed of Morningsider dog walker that lives up there.

Blackford – round the Braids golf course (brilliant wee descent tucked away up there) – Mortonhall ‘cloverleaf’ loop – along Caeystane road to Bonaly and take the back entrance to the Dreghorn trails – back home via Craiglockart hill.

Could work out to be a good couple of hours.

Aye cracking ride last night! Agree about the errosion stuff discussed above. I think we need to mix in a couple of other venues so we don’t get fed up of the tougher trails in the Pentlands. We could run a monthly “guest night” and get volunteers to show us round their neck of the woods. Plenty of volunteers so far for Mid Lothian, East Lothian, Fife and the Borders. Also TJs suggestion of the loop via Ratho, South Queensferry and Crammond is good. It’s not gnarly obviously but it does involve decent pubs for a few pints and pub grub! Gets my vote!

I’m with Paul. Pub sounds excellent.
*dispenses a high 5 slap*

Yup, all my idea!

High 5 buddy

Good idea Paul. How come no one else came up with that?

Paul is the cleverest. That’s why.

Och well, you’ve got to think outside the box sometimes.

You are The Curve as they say. So ahead of it and well outside the envelope. Bleeding edge. How do you do it? I am in awe.

Interesting about craigmillar castle. I worked in the parks department of te council when they were securing the funding to do what they’ve done so far, but not seen it since I left. There were a fair few amazing little bits of track hidden away a few years ago, but its not somewhere I would have hung around back then, unless you were into burning out cars and mopeds. There was some interesting stuff around Edmonstone too but not been there since worked for the council either, I think it is all handed over to developers sadly. Some amazing trees in there around the ruins of the house.

PHRP do a pretty good job considering the resources they have, ie, nowt, and the enormous number of park users.

Good to see such a responsible response. Fully rigid singlespeeds all round should make even the duller bits more interesting. I’m happy to take a few folk out round Mid-Lothian as before, think everybody enjoyed it the? But it’d have to be a small group so as not to cause any erosion out here as we don’t have the nicely draining soil that CK has and its easy to lose folk in the woods, especially the ones that think they know where I’m going 😉

So I shouldn’t put the wet screams on the tandem and take it round all the singletrack?

Sorry couldn’t make it last night, sounds like a good one was had…..look forward to experiencing one or more the the suggested routes.

I was worried we had lost you somewhere.

Another time

Nah, don’t think the tandem is the kinda bike you want to take round here. There is a good pub though.

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Just to say cheers all for a nice ride out last night, hopefully it won’t be quite so long until I make it out again.
Dave (new guy on the Dialled morning glory)

Sell me that dialled. Do it.