Two of us intrepid Walkers’ cyclists elected to make use of the Saturday sunshine to push the boundaries of leisure cycling.

Colin Doyle and my good self (Sandy had wussed out on the pretext of a wedding and Alan and Matthew were unavailable) made a 55 mile round trip from Milton in West Dunbartonshire, taking in three lochs in the process.

Our route included making our way up to Balloch, Loch Lomond on the N7 cycle path which is rapidly becoming familiar territory to me. From there we went onwards to Tarbet via the West Loch Lomond cycleway. It’s the first time I’ve used this route and I was impressed as I had heard horror tales of the A82. The cycleway offers a much safer alternative and is a combination of the old shore road and a roadside path up the side of Loch Lomond from Balloch.

We then took advantage of the relative quiet to cycle the short distance on the A82 over to Arrochar for a pit-stop – appropriately enough at the Pit Stop Diner -before heading down Loch Fyne to Ardmay. Our good progress throughout the day suffered a slight set back at the steep hill at Portincaple, but the uphill struggle (well, Okay – the uphill walk) of these particular adventurers was rewarded with a fast descent to the last of the day’s three lochs – the Gareloch. The last leg back through Shandon and Helensburgh was conducted at a steady 16mph, and these “leisure cyclists” arrived back at Milton with over a century of miles clocked up between us. Colin claimed 55 miles while my extra miles to and from Erskine gained me 65miles for the day. Lovely sunshine and lovely scenery. Splendid!

the bonnie banks near Luss

Pleased to report my bum no longer looks big in lycra

As posted previously, I have recently become a ride leader for the Sky Ride initiative and over the past three weeks I have been undertaking several rides in statu assistant leader rather than as a participant. My inaugural ride was somewhat of a baptism of fire when I was asked to stand in as assistant leader on the recognised most difficult ride on the south side of Glasgow. Then a major skelp along Mosspark Boulevard to assist on a second ride – the “skelp” beng necessary as the morning ride had overshot its allocated time considerably.

However, today I undertook my first ever ride as yer actual leader rather than assistant het, on the second of two rides through the “redeveloping” east end of Glasgow. Nice groups. Had an interesting encounter with some neds in Shettleston who, after I firmly requested that they remove themselves from the middle of the road, said I should be riding a broom rather than a bike. I must take after my mother after all. It was a reasonable ride although some small children and a couple fo very unfit adults meant that we had to go a lot more slowly than the ride level implied. However, all duly delivered safely back to the start point. Phew. Look forward to the next ones.

My fellow ride leaders were also amused by the etiquette and environmental awareness of the River Clyde Walkway jakies who, rather than smash them or leave them lying around, bag up their empty Buckie bottles and hang them on the railings awaiting collection by Glasgow’s finest midgie men. If only the rest of the citizenry would follow their example.

Ride Guide extraordinaire