This ride will take us down the River Clyde, starting off on the North side and using the Loch Lomond path, then crossing the Renfrew Bridge and joining the path along the A8 towards Bishopton.
The last Commonwealth Games in 2014 was a watershed moment for cycling in Glasgow. It marked the introduction of the city’s first hire bike scheme – Nextbike. That bigger Games had a lot of road closures, big crowds of pedestrians and some decent weather, which helped make cycling the best way to get to many of the venues. It introduced a lot of people to cycling in the city. Including The Herald sports writer Graham Speirs, who wrote: “cycling will live in the memory as a spin-off of Glasgow 2014”.
Fast forward 12 years and Glasgow has a new fleet of e-bikes from Voi, which are easier to use (once you get going!). The city has more high quality cycling infrastructure, including some brand new sections in the West End and city centre. There are also fewer venues to get to. So, it should be easy to cycle to all of them?
Major masterplans for the Clyde and a riverside Glasgow neighbourhood. Waterfront development in Argyll & Bute and road/path surveys for most of Strathclyde. Plus a few strategies for East Renfrewshire. One of the East Ren consultations ends soon…
Our longest ride of the year will be to Edinburgh via Bathgate. Previously, we have done rides to Edinburgh starting in Airdrie, but this one will be cycling all the way. We will set out via the East End of Glasgow, climb steadily up to Coatbridge and Airdrie, and then join the railway path to Bathgate.
On Sunday 07 June, 5 of us set off on our ride to the sea. Out through Govan on roads some of which were new to us and then we joined the cycle route as we got nearer to Paisley. The rain started just short of Lochwinnoch, making it a good time to get into the cafe.
Seven of us set off, some weeks ago now, from the SEC and made our way north through Kelvingrove Park, North Woodside, Firhill, Possilpark, Parkhouse, skirting Milton and then Bishopbriggs to reach the Forth and Clyde canal.
A few miles along the canal towpath brought us to Kirkintilloch for a refreshment/toilet break, before we turned off the canal path towards Milton of Campsie, cycling past hordes of bluebells and wild garlic.
We continued past Lennoxtown to reach Strathblane. Then it was the major hill up to Mugdock Country Park – not many bikes there, but lots of cars in the carparks – these people don’t know what they are missing.
This ride will follow an old favourite route – the Strathblane Railway Path. We will leave through North Glasgow and Bishopbriggs to join the Forth & Clyde Canal to Kirkintilloch.