On The Road Again.

       Well Tuesday was a mild day, a bit overcast, but no rain and little in the way of wind. So who wouldn't want to get out on the bike? First time in quite a long while since I had been on the road, recent outings have been along the Forth and Clyde canal, it's relatively flat, (its been a rotten year with one thing and another), so nice and easy.

      Today it was cycling round and round the Lowmoss area, back on familiar roads round my patch, and it was great to escape the canal. I suppose, as far as cycling goes, I have covered too many road miles, over too many years, to be anything but a bike "roadie". When I started cycling cars were an oddity, one would roll past every now and again, today, it is an endless convoy of tin boxes of all shapes and sizes, flashing past you, sometimes at frightening speed and dangerous close, they call it progress. 

      Glasgow recently hosted the European cycling championships, and I suppose you could say of the council, "Didn't they do well", whole swaths of road were repaired, potholes were sorted, sunken drain covers were fixed. Sadly it was only the roads to be used by the professional cycle racers. All that repair work for a couple of hundred cyclists, when the city has thousands of cyclists that  use the roads on a daily basis and nothing is done to fix the multitude of potholes, crack and broken tarmac, sunken drain covers, on the roads all over the city. I think they got their priorities dreadfully wrong. Surely the citizens of Glasgow deserve as good a treatment as cycling visitors. Then again, the big spectacle is all about big money, and our city council will always pay homage to the big bucks. Ah, that's capitalism.

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Two Stables And Not a Horse In Sight.

       What has happened to Scotland? Glorious sunny weather day after day, "Aye, we'll piy fur this, mark ma words."  However, in the meantime let's grasp it while we can. Still trying to get some miles in my legs, it was back to the Forth and Clyde Canal, stretching it a little each time out. What a great afternoon, the canal was busy with walkers and cyclists, as well as the odd boat chugging its way along, with people sunning themselves on deck. I was also delighted to see a group of school kids canoeing their way along the canal. I passed two "Stables" but not a horse in sight, they are both now eating houses. One Lambhill Stables, where I saw the canoeists, the other, The Stables near Kirkintilloch, in the past, I have sampled its hospitality and it was very pleasant, both were busy.

 I never got this at school.

Lambhill Stables.

The Stables near Kirkintilloch.

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A Second Start.

 

       After a very late and false start to my cycling season about a month ago, I was hit with some more problems. So feeling good and Friday being a beautiful day, start number two was scheduled. So Stasia and I set off for the same very easy, and very short, relatively flat run along part of the Forth and Clyde canal. I can't believe it is halfway through May and I am just starting (again) my cycling season, what a crap year. However, once again that wonderful feeling of pumping the pedals, looking around at the countryside and enjoying the brilliant weather. Being a weekday, the canal path was not that busy, at the weekends it can be a bit of a nightmare as it very popular with walkers, runners, families, dog walkers, couples with prams and of course cyclists, it is not a wide path. It was also good to see that the canal was relatively busy with various pleasure craft. A stop off at the Stables, a favourite watering hole on the canal bank a little before Kirkintilloch. A great afternoon, and the legs didn't complain too much, but seem to have forgotten the word "pace".

Some "canalfarers" at rest.

The bridge at Kirkintilloch.

The Stables, a pleasant watering hole on the canal near Kirkintilloch. 

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It Doesn't Always Go To Plan.

        Thursday was a pleasant day, a wee break from the usual wind and rain we have been getting. So good opportunity to get out on the bike, over the last month or so, I have been out once and on occasions twice a week as weather permits for a fair weather cyclist. Usually it was round the Campsie area, on a recent visit to Bishopbriggs I noticed a cycle path that went through a kids play area and on through some trees. With my twisted logic I assumed that it would continue meandering down towards the Forth and Clyde canal. So that was my plan, set off from Bishopbriggs along the cycle path on to the canal to Kirkintilloch, and then decide which road to take from there. Nice and easy through the kids park, into the tree area, then faced with a rather steep incline of a footpath/cycle-track. That's where I bumped into these three guys, they looked quite surprised to see me.

       At the top of the incline, disappointment, the cycle path didn't continue, it was onto a road, I was now in a housing estate. making my way through an area I didn't know, finally arrived at the main Bishopbriggs, Kirkintiloch road, a road I always try to avoid. The traffic was horrendous and every couple of hundred yards or so, a set of traffic lights. Before Kirkintilloch, I decided that I had had enough, and headed back to a café in Bishopbriggs and home. A rather short and not my most enjoyable outing, that will teach me not to assume anything, but check things out first.

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