National Route 75: Maryhill to the Falkirk Wheel

Green and pleasant land behind Possil

After 2 months of rain we get an outbreak of sun and so decide to ride to the Falkirk Wheel, a route along the Forth and Clyde Canal to it's meeting point with the Union Canal.

We start at Maryhill (with a few of the usual confusions over direction) and are soon upon the first attractions of the route. The back-ends of Possil and Milton amaze us with their country-like greenery. For those who don't know Glasgow: these places have never had anything good said about them; they are synonymous with gangs, crime, drugs and deprivation. The canal-side is busy with groups of men, all 'taps aff', some fishing, some exercising the family staffie, some peeing in the bushes. It's your typical Glasgow summer scene, but weirdly lacking in threatening behaviour or violence. Maybe it's too early in the day, or maybe it's the shock of the sun, but everyone is cheery and pleasant.

We continue along, enjoying the flatness of the towpath. In the long straights we try out our top speeds. I am sure the un-named bike is faster than Thor, but he gets away from me every time. We stop for lunch on a pleasant bend and enjoy our repast (big thanks to Big Jamie at Cafezique).

Lunch: Thor, the canal, the never-absent-from-a-Scottish-lunch tablet, me enjoying a sandwich

After lunch we come across some fine planting. Gardens have stretched up beyond their bounds and have given the towpath a bit of their exuberance. Thank you gardeners of the canal-side for this surprise.

Finally, some hours after setting off, we reach our destination, the Falkrik Wheel. It's an amazing piece of modern engineering joining the Forth and Clyde Canal to the Union Canal. There are some small versions of proposed larger kelpies here looking majestic. The Wheel itself has leapt directly from a Picasso sketchbook.

The view from above the Wheel, where the Union Canal reaches an end in mid-air, is spectacular. On this day you could see all the way to the Cobbler. Amazing. And to top off the amazingingness of the amazing day, we caught the train home and all the staff of ScotRail that we encountered were friendly and helpful. Maybe they were from Possil.

Local bike shops: are they all bodgers?

I have limited experience of cycling and very little experience of bike shops. But once again I take a bike for repair and get a bodge job done. Does this word exist in Scotland or England? Where I come from it means a botched or kind of slaphazard job. 

The other half's newly acquired Union is taken to a new local bike shop because a pedal keeps falling off, the thread on the crank seems stripped. The bike shop guy replaces the crank. But after this, the crank and pedal on the other side can no longer clear the chain guard. So the bike shop guy's fix for this is to remove a bit of the chain guard. His explanation is that the bike must have been left leaning on something. But when pressed further his only answer is 'dunno'. So the pedals turned fine before he touched it, but don't now but he has no explanation. Nor does he have any proposal to fix, beyond taking more bits of the chain guard off.

The Union, a fine Dutch ride

I'll take the Union to a different local bike shop.

The other shop can be pretty bodgy too, but they are cooler and more friendly so I don't mind so much. On my own bike they have bodged my gears a bit. My Shimano 7 gear shifter jammed. They replaced with an 8 gear shifter. It's what they had in the shop. Another time they replaced my chain but then couldn't get it so it would go on to my super-low gear. "No-one could use that gear anyway" they told me. Well, as a person who likes to ride up all inclines without getting out of my seat, I could use that gear. But the guy was cool and I didn't want to appear to dorky with my stay-in-saddle style so I live without my super-low gear. Now I am down to six gears on my eight gear shifter.

As far ask I can tell this is normal bike shop service. Perhaps bike repair is not about perfection but more about making do. Perhaps I should learn to do this bike fixing myself.