I’m Back Cycling Around Edinburgh

This week has finally seen me get back out and about Edinburgh on my bicycle. It’s been close to four months since my bike was working, and while I could lay the blame at a few places, I’ve just not been able to get round to doing some repairs on it since the back tyre was punctured two days before leaving for Le Web 3 back in December. Last weekend I gathered all the bits needed to sort it out, and spent a merry two or three hours chasing punctures around the tyre, before giving up. Went out and got a new inner tube, did a quick 2 miles mid week to check everything out, and yesterday headed out for an hour’s ride around Edinburgh.

This city is pretty good for cycling – part of that might be the fact that where I stay is directly on the cycle routes, between the two main arteries – one that heads into the city center (before working its way to Glasgow), and the other that takes me out along the Forth (and continues to Inverness). Not that I can manage runs of that length yet.

I’ll be keeping track of my routes using a lovely Google Maps hack site gmap-pedometer, which allows you mark out routes, gives rough distances, a rough guide to the elevation, and generally lets you remember where you’ve been. Here’s the route I took yesterday; from my place, up through Crewe Toll to Roseburn, down through Dean Village, along the Waters of Leith to Cannonmills and back home. Touch under 8 miles measured on the bike (and 7.1 on the site, it’s going to underestimate slightly).

Consider this my version of Fatblogging. Mileblogging anyone? And if there’s an applciation for my phone so I can tape it to the handlebars and take a geo-tagged picture every minute, it would make an interesting video I think.