Conference noted::bicycle

    I reckon that you'll have trouble renting quality bikes anywhere. One
    place that does rental in Edinburgh is:
    
    The New Bike Shop
    14 Lochrin Place
    +44 31 228 6363
    
    Arran is sometimes described as "Scotland in Miniature". It is
    very beautiful, and you need to go a lot further North to see its
    better. The coast road is 55 miles long, with some masty hills where
    it cuts inland. There are also 2 roads across the island, both involve
    300metre hills
       Getting there - 1 hour ferry from Ardrossan on the mainland, 5
    crossings each way daily. There's also a 30-minute crossing from
    Cloanaig in Kintyre. From Cloanaig its 65 miles up the coast to Oban.
    Ferries run by Caledonian Macbrayne, head office in Gourock.

    I concur with Alan about the difficulty of hiring decent bikes - you
    might want to consider taking your own bikes, if this is feasible.
    A lot of the tourist places rent out mountain bikes but, not being A
    mountain biker, I couldn't comment on the quality.
    
>2a) We've never done bike touring and were planning on relying upon trains
>and buses to get around.  If we decide to tour, would we be able to rent
>panniers that would fit our rental bikes? 
    Trains and bikes don't mix too well in scotland in that you often have
    to reserve the bike place on the train...
    
    
>) Are there a lot of club rides going on in August?  Are foreigners
>welcome?  Is there a way of finding out where and when they're held? 
    Funnily enough, I don't know much about the club scene in Edinburgh (I
    fall between the CTCer and the racers), but the chain gang will still
    be going out on Wednesdays and there will be a collection of 10's and
    25's if you want to compete.  For club runs I normally just go into a
    shop and ask.  People I have met have always been welcoming (and being
    English, I am a foreigner)
    
    Alan and I have a collection of decent runs out of edinburgh from 40
    to 130 miles - let me know if you want more details.   For other places
    there are too many to enumerate I would warn against main roads, in
    particular the road through Glen Coe and the road from Crainlarich to
    Oban, although spectacular are very fast, very busy and very
    frightening.
    
> (good reasons include things like the fact that we will
> probably not be able to get a place to stay, due to the Festival) 
             
    When do you plan to be in Edinburgh ?  The festival starts on the 14th
    of Aug (which, no coincidence, is the day I leave) and lasts 4 weeks.
    Prior to this date finding accomodation on the day will be hard, 
    afterwards it will be impossible.
                          

>>    Trains and bikes don't mix too well in scotland in that you often have
>>    to reserve the bike place on the train...

	But you'll still be told to 'Awa wi yae, ya Sassanach scum afore I
  gi yae ane oan the napper' by some British Rail guard, demonstrating the
  benefits of a comprehensive PR course. Regardless of what the nice, polite
  British Rail assistant tells you at Edinburgh Waverley, what you actually
  get to do, is another matter. Generally, if their's a guard's van then you'll
  get to put your bike on it, if it's a new sprinter train, forget it. Sadly,
  90% of the services that you'll want will be on Sprinters...

	Go for Arran, it's probably the best daytrip you'll get for the bike.
  But don't go this weekend. It's going to be filled with a hoard of screeming
  teenagers fainting at the sight of Marti Pellow's bum when Wet Wet Wet take
  to the stage at their free concert on Monday. However, if you want any Class
  A drugs to relax you before that big race coming up, get yourself over to
  Arran this weekend...   :*)

  Graham.

    Thanks for the info so far.  We did find a place to stay in Edinburgh,
    during the Festival, so we may check out the bike rental shop 
    mentioned in .1.  We may also be in touch about getting some routes off 
    the main roads - as far away as possible from Festival traffic.
    
    We will probably rent mountain bikes on Arran, which will be a new
    experience for us road riders.  I'm looking forward to it.  
    
    Other than that, we'll stick to hiking.
    
    Jan
    
    P.S.  We're bringing plenty of Gore-Tex, in the infinitesimal chance
    that it could rain...

    
>>    P.S.  We're bringing plenty of Gore-Tex, in the infinitesimal chance
>>    that it could rain...
    
    You'd be better with sub-aqua gear...  :*)
    
    Graham.
    

    Will we be able to rent helmets or should we plan on bringing our own? 
    I don't look forward to lugging helmets around with the rest of our
    stuff, but I'll sacrifice convenience for safety.

    I'd bring my own.  I am not aware that these are rent-able and you'd
    never be sure that the last rentee hadn't bounced them.

    We're back from the trip.  We were able to rent bikes on Arran and did
    the 55 mile ride around the island.  Alan was right - there were some
    nasty hills.  The worst (20% grade) were short, but there were plenty
    of long climbs to test our endurance.  I was not pleased to see that my
    rental bike would not shift into the small chain ring - I rented it
    specifically for the granny gear!  The one stratch of flat land we had
    was down the coast, where we faced a strong headwind the whole time.
    
    We're lucky that the weather held out.  The day before we had been
    drenched while hiking up Goatfell and I was stil chilled.  Within 5
    minutes of returning the bikes the skies opened and it started to rain
    - I was so glad that we hadn't made any more stops along the way!
    
    We also rented bikes in the Cotswolds.  Just can't get enough of hills,
    I guess.  Lots of ups and downs, but so little traffic and such pretty
    towns that it was really nice.  We hit one downhill that made all the
    uphills worthwhile.  It must have been a mile long and fast.  I only
    wish we had had our road bikes!
    
    There was no opportunity to ride in Edinburgh - too many buses and
    tourists in the city and so much to do that we didn't have time to get
    out of the city.  We also didn't ride in Devon, mostly because we were
    intimidated by the narrow roads and hedgerows.
    
    Bringing our helmets worked out well.  Besides the safety factor, they
    provided us with a great conversation starter when we saw other
    cyclists.
    
    Thanks to all who gave me advice.  It helped make a fun trip even
    better.
    
    Jan