Hello, I'm back ...

Was expecting to read great tales of cakes etc, and found nothing had actually happened ...
Jimgow, I'm one of the Easties who in the past arranged quite a few rides, these were mostly in my backyard, east & middle of the central belt ... the reason being mainly that I know the roads reasonably well, whereas I wouldn't know the west at all, apart from the cyclepath between Balloch and Bowling, and pretty much all roads on Bute, Arran and Great Cumbrae ...
As for joining the rides out west, I would have loved to do those that were organised, but I couldn't make them, due to date clashes, the odd stinking cold, no access by public transport (we don't have a car), or not being up to the mileage that was planned... there was never a "couldn't be bothered" reason ...
The islands are great places to cycle, but it takes about 3 hours each way to just get to Arran from Edinburgh by train/ferry, so not really suitable for a day trip from the east
To those planning rides ....if you were to map out shorter rides (40k-40miles), these might appeal to a larger number, and allow newbies who have never been on a CC Ecosse ride (or not-yet-fully-fit-bies like me) to join in ...

We've had the best turnouts for rides of about that length in the past. Just my 2 p ...
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