It depends what you are looking for, but there is a very active ‘meetup’ group for Edinburgh Mountain Bikers. It would seem to be mainly weekend trips to GT, and generally socially paced – but it has over 200mtb members, so could be a good place to meet people?

(I have not been out with them)

EDIT – just a quick thanks to Graham for the SBC recommendation – it was a great club when I moved to the area 8 years ago, and very friendly, but is sadly very depleted these days on the mtb side. 🙁

Should add that there are regular rides organised through the TrailScotland forum

There is a problem in East Lothian. The bad behavior displayed by a minority of road cyclists is causing a lot of ill feeling towards cycling in general & It’s not conducive to the promotion of cycling.

Coastkid’s assertion that riders are riding 5 abreast is correct. I’ve witnessed this on more than one occasion along with other ridiculous behavior. For example; riding on the wrong side of the road in order to prevent overtaking & chain gangs riding en mass through temporary traffic lights that are at red. My wife & young son were given the salute & a load of expletives by ERC & other riders for my efforts in pointing this out. None of them were for stopping to discuss this further !

Sorry, but for non cycling members of the public things like this which seem to be a regular occurrence in EL simply lead to frustration & anger. It’s causing an “us & them” situation & I fear that it won’t end well. This topic comes up in conversation with non cycling friends periodically & I don’t have an answer for them. Displays of bad behavior are exactly that. Someone; probably a cyclist is going to get injured or worse if things don’t change.

£0.02

or Herr Velo

I’m a HerrVelo 🙂

ERC are great, everyone was very friendly and welcoming to me. I made lots of new friends and Lightman used to tow me back to the chaingang on his mtb when i got dropped on the climbs on Tuesday nights 🙂

Go with the ONLY official ERC ride which is the 9.50 development run which will have small numbers and teach you to chaingang, then work your way up the groups. The chaingangs won’t stop if you get dropped or have a mechanical btw but the development run will, as will the social sunday ride (which is slow).

As for the other comments, i’ve heard similar but its like banging your head off the wall – the rides you see aren’t ERC official rides, yes there’s some ERC riders in there but there’s lots of other clubs that join the chaingangs too. In the summer when i’m out more often with the club i have never seen more than 2 abreast.

Hello all,

If you’ll excuse the plug, I’m the owner of Hart’s Cyclery in Corstorphine and do a wee ride out on Thursday nights year round. See my fb page for details of the ride: https://www.facebook.com/hartscyclery

Planning on growing the ride a bit. Will affiliate to Scottish Cycling and race under the shop name this year and I’ve got some kit on order. Also looking to support any talented youngsters so if you know anyone spread the word! So in other words, a shop club in the offing! I’m an MTBer first and foremost so will do organised MTB rides at some point and racing Enduro this year. Feel free to join in any time and pop into the shop for a cup of tea and a chat.

I share some of the thoughts about ERC – it’s too big and doesn’t feel like a cycling club. However, I go out on the Saturday chaingang sometimes (0940) and every time it’s never been more than 2-abreast and never more than 16 in a group; I can’t comment on what other groups get up to.

Cheers,

Graeme (www.harts-cyclery.co.uk)

If you want a relaxed road ride with pleasant folks, I enjoyed the Porto Velo ride I went on a while back. Fairly relaxed pace, coffee stop half way round and a nice friendly bunch. They have a facebook page somewhere and meet at Portobello Prom on a Sunday morning.

A few comments on the West Lothian Clarion above – I raced one of their events a while back and it was all very friendly and well organised. Can’t comment on their club runs though.

I think they split in two on the busier summer Sundays, with the faster guys doing a longer route.

Thread bookmarked for my arrival 😀