G is for Gravel

Gravel track in Lennox Forest As another one of my lockdown routes, I decided to have a look at a curious gap in my knowledge to the north of Glasgow. Although the road to Lennoxtown is one I've ridden many times on the way to some Crow Road torture, I'd never done much looking around. Just to the south of Lennoxtown itself sits the Lennox Forest, nestled within which are a fairly scary old psychiatric hospital, and the Celtic football club training ground.  Like any quest for gravel riding, my first obstacle was trying to find an interesting way to get there from the city. My route of choice for this ride was to nip up to the Forth and Clyde Canal at Maryhill and head out towards Torrance - not exactly rugged off-road riding, but still an improvement on tarmac. From Torrance, I'd head up towards the waterfalls at Blairskaith on some pleasant single lane back roads, before beginning the climb proper up to Lennox Forest.  When the track leaves the tarmac, it's a bit of

As a mountain biker from my teenage years, I'd developed a pretty strong anti-SPD sentiment, based mostly on which of the world cup DH racers clipped in and who ran on flat pedals. Poring over Mike Rose's photos on the pages of Dirt magazine, it was an easy choice - all the cool riders were on flats. Clipless pedals were the preserve of the skinsuits and peakless helmets brigade, who were sucking all the fun out of downhill and making everything a wee bit too... serious.  My first pair of clipless pedals were Look road pedals that came on a second hand Giant Defy. I still remember vividly that most inauspicious of starts - nipping along to Dales Cycles to buy a pair of Specialized shoes and a set of Look cleats, and barely making it ten metres from the front door before forgetting how to unclip and finding myself in a heap on the pavement on Calgary Street. After a wee while, I changed over to Shimano pedals, and found myself getting on a wee bit better with those.  Whe