YACF Ecosse - anyone fancy a wee 200 this Sunday - Edinburgh/Musselburgh start

[MercuryKev]

Plans have changed and I'm now free on Sunday and the weather forecast looks good.  An YACF Ecosse riders out there who fancy a bit of DIY 200 action.  I'm open to suggestions for routes but have had a couple of routes Ok'd by our esteemed DIY rep both starting in Musselburgh:

1) Musselburgh>Moffat>Selkirk>Innerleithen>Musselburgh

2) Musselburgh>Biggar>Innerleithen>Dunbar>North Berwick>Musselburgh (copyright Mr M Foley 2009  - day 2 of his DIY 600km run)

Anyone interested in tagging along on one of these? The numbers in viamichelin indicate that both routes would support an Edinburgh start but Mr Eck isn't around to validate this.

[Captain Zep]

I will be mostly painting my house gutters/soffits etc.    See you on the following Friday in Crossgates though (for 10mins before you shoot up the hill).

Z

[recumbentim]

NO!

[Maverick]

I'm off round the Kingdom Come this weekend as the forecast is good I may or may not have company ^^^^^^^^ 

[valkyrie]

Mr Eck has also approved a GPS DIY for me - Bo'ness - Lochearnhead - Comrie - Dunning - Yetts O'Muckart - Kelty - Kirkliston - Bo'ness

Clearly a better route 'cos it goes through Comrie! You're welcome to come along on Sunday if you fancy a change of scenery. It's my first go at a DIY by GPS so I'm quite keen to do this route.

[Cyclops]

I'm free on Sunday. Either route looks good although if we go for Option 1, I propose we draw lots and the loser has to climb the "Mur de Selkirk" to get receipts for everyone

[MercuryKev]

Valky, I'm not going to have access to the car on Sunday so a Bo'ness start wouldn't be a goer but thanks for the offer.  By the way the DIY GPS process is so much easier that the card and receipt system. Once I finish my paper cards I think I'll use that for all DIY routes under 400km.

Cyclops you have pm.

[Tinez]

Gents

I've made plans to head out with the Ernsts for a modified nippy sweetie.

I'll keep an eye on this thread tho' as my last solo 200 was a version of the nippy sweetie and i'd prefer to start on the 'right' side of edinburgh.

[MercuryKev]

Tinez

Cyclops has agreed to tag along and the plan is to head on on my option 1 route - Musselburgh>Moffat>Selkirk>Innerleithen>Musselburgh.  This route was approved last season by Eck so there isn't a problem with distance etc although if you wanted to tag along (and you'd be most welcome) you'd have to put in an entry form.

I've suggested to Cyclops that we meet on Sunday at 08:30 at the Old Craighall Petrol Station

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=EH21+8RE&hl=en&ll=55.926269,-3.061237&spn=0.033709,0.07699&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=18.252022,39.418945&z=14

If you're interested I can also provide the route/track for gps but it is a pretty obvious route.

[Cyclops]

I forgot to say 8.30 at the services is fine by me.

See you there

[Tinez]

i'm gonna head out with corstorphine's premier tandem team this Sunday.

see some of you next Friday for 400km of Fifey bike fun

[MercuryKev]

i'm gonna head out with corstorphine's premier tandem team this Sunday.

see some of you next Friday for 400km of Fifey bike fun

Well have fun drafting them on the flats.  See you next week.

[Maverick]

i'm gonna head out with corstorphine's premier tandem team this Sunday.

see some of you next Friday for 400km of Fifey bike fun

Sorry for the delayed response and thousand yard stare when you passed me outside Milnathort this morning. I'd been battling the wind on the Kingdom Come since 4pm on Saturday.

[valkyrie]

I'd been battling the wind on the Kingdom Come since 4pm on Saturday.

Maverick - you really need to watch what you eat on the longer audaxes.

[valkyrie]

Cracking day for an audax! Left Bo'ness at 7.20am and had an easy ride up to Callander where I stopped for a magnificent Steak & Black Pudding Pie from the bakers there. Fantastic! Traffic from there up to Lochearnhead was a bit annoying but nothing too dangerous, but from Lochearnhead onwards it was quiet roads, beautiful scenery and serious heat. Good to see Loch Earn in daylight after twice passing it in darkness on the Kintyre 600 a few weeks ago. Great roads from Comrie to Dunning, although it took me about 10 minutes to get a gap in the traffic so I could walk my bike across the A9 dual carriageway. Common of Dunning seemed longer than I remembered it, but that always seems to happen with me and hills. By the time I reached Kelty I was so thirsty I left my Look outside a shop while I queued for a couple of bottles of juice. Luckily it was still there when I came back out and I'd a nice run down to the bridge. Wind got up a bit for the last few kms so I had a headwind from Kirkliston home, but even that couldn't detract from a brilliant day's riding.

[MercuryKev]

Cyclops and I also had a great run today.  A fast blast down to Moffat for brunch before have a lovely ride across to Selkirk.  It was amazing how much nicer the roads were when  it wasn't raining a blowing a gale.  Hard to think that only 2 months ago we rode along some of these roads on a miserable EPE.

There were a fair few bikers out and about but the traffic was generally light, with no nutters to cause concern.  We had afternoon tea Selkirk style - Leek and tattie soup and a roll - before rolling along the Tweed, using the quite southern road, to Innerleithen where some excellent ice cream was consumed.  The drag over the Piper's Grave was a wind free formality and before you knew it we were back in Musselburgh.  More like this please and thanks to Cyclops for the excellent company.

[Cyclops]

Excellent day out although I felt a bit disorientated by the warm, sunny weather. We even appeared to win the CRC MTB marathon in Selkirk although the marshals standing in the road waving frantically seemed a bit perturbed when I told them to get out the way and rode round them.

It's a long time since I've needed two ice creams on a ride although I'll be sure to take my birth certificate and passport next time to comply with Caldwell's strict flavoured ice cream policies.