My Activity Tracking
500
kms
My target 300 kms
I'm taking on the 100 Miles Challenge this year to support Social Bite
I'm taking on the 100 Miles Challenge this year to support Social Bite break the cycle of homelessness, completing 100 miles throughout September and finishing on World Homeless Day on October 10th.This challenge will raise vital funds to expand the innovative work of Social Bite in providing homes, jobs, and food. Social Bite believes everyone deserves a safe place to call home, that a job can be truly transformative for someone who has experienced homelessness, and that food is one of the most powerful engagement tools to help signpost people to access the support needed.
I would be grateful if you could support my fundraising efforts with a donation to this page.
Every £20 donation could help Social Bite to provide x4 meals for people experiencing homelessness.
Together with your support, we can truly help break the cycle of homelessness.
My Achievements
Set up a fundraising page
Updated Profile Pic
Self Donated
Received 10 donations
Reached my distance goal
Smashed it! Reached my fundraising goal
My Updates
2025-10-02
Saturday 4th OctI spent the afternoon and evening visiting Dundee with my bicycle, partly to contribute some OpenStreetMap edits and become more familiar with Dundee before the State of the Map EU conference there in mid-November, and partly to visit the Mills Observatory.
After some refreshment and food at a pub (one bowl of soup, one alcoholic pint, one low-alcohol pint, and some water), I noticed that I had approximately an hour before my train departed, and decided to make a quick detour via the peak of Dundee Law before boarding the train home.
Approximately 10 miles of riding; perhaps a little extra including the ride home from Waverley (although I walked more of that than I usually might).
Share
2025-10-01: Cargo Bicycle Tool Transport
Saturday 4th OctAfter a regular workday (3.5 miles riding to work and home), I had
some (pre-cooked, batch) food at home before heading out again to do
some cargo bicycle ride volunteering with the Edinburgh Tool Library.
This
evening a small group of us transported some equipment from the Tool
Library's soon-to-be-relocated Leith Custom House site to a storage
location in Granton.
Including my ride home
afterwards, I'd estimate the volunteering segment as about 16 miles - so
perhaps 19.5 miles total for the day.
Share
2025-09-30
Saturday 4th Oct Another fairly standard workday; I attended a nearby event within walking distance in the evening. Share2025-09-29
Friday 3rd Oct A fairly standard workday, with a visit to Leith to run an errand during the day. Approximately 5.5 miles total of riding for the day. Share2025-09-28: DIY scouting continues (successfully)
Friday 3rd OctA recent bathroom toilet seat failure at home -- although
non-critical thanks to some redundancy -- seemed worthwhile to address
this weekend.
Detouring from the previous day's Critical Mass ride had not yielded the replacement part that I hoped it would, and so I rode to some hardware stores near Murrayfield to find out whether they might have the required part.
One of them referred me to the other, and indeed I found what was needed - and replaced it with some help from my housemate.
Two miles or so each way, with a slightly scenic detour around Murrayfield park between the two stores - so perhaps 5 miles in total.
Share
2025-09-27: Critical Mass
Friday 3rd OctAlthough I almost forgot about it, I joined the Edinburgh Critical Mass ride - at least until Craigleith Retail Park (where I stopped to attempt some shopping; foreshadowing my upcoming update about the following day).
This was a ride along the Roseburn Path - one of two possible routes that are under consideration by Edinburgh Council for an upcoming tram route.
I rode approximately 10 miles, the first half of that with the group - I didn't manage to catch up with them after visiting the shops.
Edit: ...and I also briefly visited a hardware store in Morningside earlier in the day, so that's an additional mile, making 11 miles.
Share
2025-09-26
Friday 3rd OctA fairly standard workday again, except that today I attended a lecture in Edinburgh's New Town after work - despite forgetting to bring a coat/jacket for the ride home (it's not Summer any more...).
5 miles or so total today.
Share
2025-09-25: Beans on Screen
Friday 3rd OctThis was an enjoyable day, visiting Easterhouse on the edge of Glasgow for two food-related film screenings as part of the Take One Action film festival, with an accompanying introduction to Nourish Scotland's work on their Public Diners project.
I took the train through from Haymarket to Easterhouse with my bicycle, and rode from the station to the venue and back (approximately a mile each way). Combined with riding to Haymarket and home, I think that totals about 4 miles.
I'm unlikely to note this anywhere else, so for the record: the event included a simple and tasty dinner, that also included bread, from a restaurant called Qasba.
Share
2025-09-24
Friday 3rd OctThis was a fairly normal workday, and I cycled to the pub after work. I made fairly good progress on a sudoku puzzle during a meal on the way (at another pub) there.
Although I cannot precisely remember - not from drunkeness, solely because I feel like I've been busy recently, I am relatively confident that I cycled home after a short evening at the (second) pub. I think this partly because I also have a sense that I may have neglected to pay for a round of drinks that evening.
Share
2025-09-23
Friday 3rd OctA fairly standard workday, aside from the fact that I attended an event in the Grassmarket after work, and so I parked there around lunchtime and collected by bicycle after the event to ride home.
As a result, a slightly shorter-than-average cycling workday. 2.8 miles or so.
Edit: ...or it would have been, except that I also decided to visit the Edinburgh Hacklab, for the first time in a long time, the same evening. That likely added another 1.5 miles to my riding for the day. So: 4.3 miles total for the day.
Edit: ...or it would have been, except that I also attempted to collect a coffee machine from a friend in the morning. That added approximately one mile each way return. So: 6.3 miles total for the day.
Share
2025-09-21
Friday 3rd OctAlthough maybe not completely over my recent cold, today was my birthday and happened to coincide with an enjoyable outdoor drinking event with friends (I did warn them about my cold!).
I wasn't sure whether I'd stay for more than one drink, so I rode my bike to the park thinking that I might ride home after saying a few brief hellos.
Multiple drinks and a visit to the pub later and - despite some moderation by drinking water - I didn't feel in shape to ride, so, I returned to my bike, unlocked and walked it home and enjoyed a curry.
Only a mile or so's riding this day.
Share
2025-09-19
Friday 19th SepFor the past three days (16th to 18th inclusive) I have had a cold, and have not been bicycle riding. Today I had my scheduled appointment to bring a bicycle in for repair at the Leith Cycle Co, and was able both to ride it there and also to ride it home after the maintenance was completed same-day.
Edit: this was in fact the 22nd of Sept, not 19th of Sept as originally posted.
Edit: no, in fact it really was the 19th.
Share
2025-09-15: return from Paris (OpenFoodFacts)
Friday 19th Sep Returning home from business travel - another 1.2 mile estimated commute, this time apparently only 12 minutes -- probably because I didn't make an eejit of myself by cycling down one of the station exit ramps on the bicycle (in my defense, it is ambiguous in the app's map whether the parking is at Waverley Bridge level or station platform level -- but I could have known better from my knowledge of the station layout, and will report the problem to Voi).Share
2025-09-12: outbound to Paris (OpenFoodFacts)
Friday 19th Sep An early start! Up and out at 6am for what appears to have been a 16-minute bicycle ride according to Voi's ride receipt feature. Not much more than a mile - I would guess approximately 1.2 miles.Share
2025-09-11: Linux Cafe Day
Friday 19th SepOn Thursday 11th, I worked from the office as normal, although I did decide to try to complete an errand in the afternoon, and rode to Leith to complete that before the end of the business day.
A quick stop for some sustenance at the esteemed Pierino's followed that, to support a bicycle ride along the Hawthornvale and then Goldenacre rail trails to reach the New Town for an evening with the Edinburgh Linux Cafe (that I volunteer with), hosted by the Edinburgh Cine and Video Society.
After an enjoyable evening there (dampened only by one frustrating-to-debug issue later deemed to be a 32-bit processor compatibility problem), I cycled home via George Street and Lothian Road to get an early night before work-related travel the following day (Friday 12th).
Share
2025-09-09
Friday 19th Sep As far as I can remember, my bicycling activity this day was fairly unremarkable - to and from the office near Waverley Station, as per usual currently.Share
2025-09-08
Friday 19th SepThis was mostly a regular commute day - except that I decided it would be worth taking my secondary bicycle to the Leith Cycle Co to enquire about maintenance for it, because despite using it over the past week or two, I hadn't used it for a few years before that, and I wanted to get it repaired by a professional.
That's approximately 3.5 miles for the commute, plus a slightly-less-than-two-mile total roundtrip to the bike shop. Let's say 5.5 miles for the day.
Share
2025-09-10: Bicycle Repair Day
Friday 19th SepMy day-to-day commute bicycle had been out-of-action for some time due to a snapped derailleur hanger; although my local Edinburgh Bicycle Co-Operative's weren't able to take on an immediate repair (it's Summer, and bicycle repair is in demand), they were able to let me know about the nature of the failure and to identify a matching replacement hanger within a few days.
That all happened at the end of August -- but on the 9th and 10th I was able to collect the replacement hanger and derailleur from the shop, and had made a booking at the Edinburgh Tool Library's Cycle Kitchen to repair the bicycle myself with some assistance from the volunteers there.
As far as I'm concerned I didn't ride to the Cycle Kitchen - I did coast downhill on some off-road sections, but a lot of the time I had to walk the bicycle as it wasn't ridable without a functioning derailleur.
Thanks to the help received at the Cycle Kitchen I was able to get the bike fully repaired -- sans perhaps some indexing tweaks -- and rode home via Regent Road - approximately 3 miles.
I can't remember precisely, but I think I worked from home that day. So that's a total of 3 miles for the day.
Edit (~15 mins or so after posting): no, I did also use the repaired bicycle to ride to the pub after getting home and snacking on some home-cooked pierigo (thank you, Kate). I walked the bicycle home later; it is a relatively safe and short (1 mile or so) journey, but I didn't fully trust my own repairwork, and had had a few drinks.
Share
2025-09-06
Sunday 7th SepYesterday, a friend and I cycled from our homes (the outskirts of Edinburgh, and Edinburgh Tollcross) to Beecraigs Country Park in West Lothian after meeting for breakfast.
The purpose was to learn some mountain biking - my friend rode a mountain bike, and I hired one for the day.
To reach the park, we cycled along the Union Canal from its Edinburgh terminus (near the Cameo Cinema) to Linlithgow, stopping for a snack/lunch at a cafe along the canal near Linlithgow before diverting uphill to the park itself.
The mountain biking was great fun, although we did experience one or two mishaps and maybe missed out some of the Red Route that I had intended for us to follow. We completed approximately half of the Purple and Orange trails that appear on one of the Beecraigs maps, and in combination with some other cycling around the park to reach the start and after the finish, I estimate that we rode at least 5 miles on the trails.
In combination with 20 miles each way along the canal, I'm entering Sat 6th as 45 miles of riding. This takes me over my initial 100 mile goal! So I will ratchet that up to 200 miles and continue.
Share
2025-09-05
Saturday 6th SepYesterday (Friday) morning I had an errand to run in Leith, so I set off in that direction on my bicycle in the morning. On my return journey towards work, I followed some of the old rail trails through town, and rode through St. Mark's park (stopping momentarily to check the weather) and then onto Leith Walk northwards towards Waverley Station.
I decided to add some hill-climbing to the journey home after work, and cycled up the mound, sometimes both racing ahead of and falling behind an electric mobility scooter rider.
A few of Edinburgh's new bicycle share scheme riders were out and about as I approached the Meadows on the final segment home.
Share
2025-09-04
Thursday 4th SepSimilar to Tuesday, this was a fairly standard bicycle commute day for me. It does push me beyond the 50 mile halfway point though.
I will recalibrate to figure out how realistic a more ambitious mileage goal could be. It would be nice to achieve that in combination with bringing other people along for the challenge, though.
Share
2025-09-03
Thursday 4th SepTonight despite some inclement weather I did some volunteer cargo bike riding for the Edinburgh Tool Library. This involved ferrying some tools from their Meadowbank location to their repair department in Leith, and from there a nested round-trip to their Portobello outpost before returning to Meadowbank.
The cargo bike has an electric assist unlike my normal pedal bike. My mileage and time on it are imprecise because I did not record a GPX trace while using it. I've cautiously/pessimistically estimated the totals to be about 9 miles over the course of 90 minutes or so.
Today's activity included a regular bicycle commute to work after lunch, and an extended ride home from the Tool Library's Meadowbank branch.
Share
2025-09-02
Tuesday 2nd SepA fairly unremarkable day, today - my standard commute into and back from work, and a brief ride for an errand in the afternoon. It seems my bike computer didn't begin tracking until I reached Forest Road or thereabouts on the way into work. I haven't attempted to add on that missing distance - it was less than a mile, I estimate.
Share
Getting Started
Monday 1st SepIt's September, so after some warm-up riding over the weekend, I felt like making some early headway into my initial 100 mile goal. Based on today, perhaps I can do more, but we'll see how it goes.
I work in the afternoons at the moment, so with fairly clear weather and comfortable weather today I set off for a morning ride before 10am, and completed a clockwise loop down the Roseburn Path (passing some nice new bicycle path infrastructure near Russell Road) before climbing up McDonald Road (where I used to live, many years ago) and up the Mound to return home via the Meadows.
To get to work, I added a detour through Holyrood Park to add a bit of distance.
Finally, after work I decided to do an anti-clockwise ride around town; first down the hill to Leith, and then joining the Hawthornvale Path up to near Goldenacre and then up Broughton Street and again up the Mound to return home.
Just north of 23 miles clocked on the bike computer, in a little over two hours.
Share
Better not all be on the flat!