New bike: Cycle trip 1

Date: 14th March 2012
Length of route: 10.0/16.1km
Route: Old Aberdeen-Bridge of Don-Middleton Park-Parkhill Wood-Danestone-Old Aberdeen
Difficulty level: Easy

As I've had my new bike a week now, I was itching to give it it's first proper test ride and really stretch it's legs, but didn't want to go out without proper mudguards etc. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any mudguards that fit it as the design of the bike is of such a new frame design, they don't seem to have designed optimal mudguards for it. Nevertheless, as today was a nice sunny afternoon, I decided to take it out into the country and stretch it's legs.


Starting out on the well-trodden road down to the Don Street bridge, I stopped to snap the picturesque cottages glinting in the sun looking over the river, before carrying on to the Balgownie road. Instead of staying on the Balgownie road, however, I took a right onto the Scotstoun road leading North of Aberdeen which heads out into the rural hinterlands on the edge of Aberdeen city. The Scotstoun road is a long straight rolling road which gave the bike a chance to get going without having to constantly stop at the lights.


On the right hand side as you go up the Scotstoun road appears to be a strange white dome on a long stick, I'm not sure what it is but it looks like some test centre for NASA or something - though I'm sure it can't be. Aberdeen and NASA doesn't seem a logical combination somehow.


After continuing some way up the B road to Scotstoun, the sun seems to be getting ready to set, and as I don't have lights for this bike yet, I decided to take a left at the White stripes road, with the added advantage of even less traffic, albeit with a few more pot holes and rough surfacing on the road. As I approached 'urban' Aberdeen again, the road became a pleasantly long and winding downhill, where the bike really came into it's own. It handled the corners very nicely even at some speed, perhaps better than when it is going slowly, since this bike isn't designed to peter along at 5 m.p.h. I noticed that there were some very nice houses in the midst of trees on the edge of Aberdeen, which gave a very nice effect in the sun - it's a shame central Aberdeen can't have a bit more 'green' character like this.

In order to make a quick return home, I came back onto the Balgownie road and took the main A road of King Street back to Old Aberdeen, but it's clear the bike is far more comfortable on lighter trafficked routes, with a few corners thrown into the mix. Next time, I'll definitely be looking to give the bike a proper run, but this was just a test run to see how it performs at speed, something the bikes handles very well - although you can still feel some effort on hills, compared to either of my other two bikes, this one really does glide.