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Apart from around the Scottish Gibraltar 'rock. 🙂
How far do you want to go? Innerleithen and back is a good haul.
distance? to NE Fife? St Andrews? or out to sunny Dunbar in E Lothian? borders maybe?
E Lothian would be a good first stab, plenty of variety.
When I first got a MTB I seem to recall pooling down to Galashiels and back, it's not /far/ but I was pretty done then..
Ideally a circular route say 40miles where I can avoid any dangerous A roads
If you only want 40 miles, one of the problems is 25% or more of that just being about getting to the edge of the city and back.
It might be worth using the cycle paths to get to the bridges which is pretty quick - I used to do that as a commute. You can then head west round the coast on minor roads taking in Blackness Castle then to Linlithgow. You'd get a decent climb south east over towards Broxburn before being able to pick up the cycle path from Broxburn past the airport and then the (surfaced) canal tow path back to the centre - again it used to be my commute and was pretty quick.
yeah agree with oldbloke - you need to get in and out of town and that sucks up some miles.
lately I have been doing a lap of Arthur's seat to warm up then heading out of town via Dalkeith and some smaller B roads which cross / track the A68. There's a T junction with the A6093 just E of the A68 - from here you can head towards Haddington and into E Lothian or turn off at the B6371 then look for the B6368 which is a fun road. You could turn back at the A7, that would be about 40 odd miles there and back I think.
more ideas here
[url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/edinburgh-park-and-road-ride ]http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/edinburgh-park-and-road-ride[/url]
Join something like the Edinburgh Road Club, they do a few organised runs that get you familiar with good road routes. I think there's a Saturday (maybe Sunday) morning ride from the Commonwealth pool.
As above - a good portion of that 40 miles will be getting out of anc back into town. I'd first of all look at your starting point and then find something East or South West depending on what got you out quickest.
East Lothian is a favourite with the ERC and offers some quiet roads as the A1 soaks up most of the faster through traffic.
Heading South West through Balerno will take you a bit longer to escape the "city" but is, again, very popular with roadies.
Starting out at crammond and follow the cycle route over the bridge, then through aberdour, up the bin hill and round the back of KDY. 48 miles with no major roads.
or...
a Loop of the bathgate alps via kirkliston...around 42 miles if you start in balerno currie area.
I have a few GPX files if you want them. Obviously you need to get out to the starting point first, which can add on 5 miles either way dependent on where you are based.