Braving the unseasonal weather, we headed out for the first bike tour of spring 2013. Although the season of bloom has officially started, snow is still covering the hills around Edinburgh.

The bike rides we offer in Edinburgh follow parts of an extensive cycle network that run like arteries through the city. They offer an escape from urban life, with beautiful greenery and diverse wildlife and are maintained mainly by either the council or by volunteers like Greener Leith (www.greenerleith.org.uk) and Edinburgh City Cycleways (www.innertubemap.com). Unfortunately, these paths are also subject to misuse and rubbish dumping, and need to be cleaned up regularly.

The Tartan Bicycle Company and family visited the Scottish Bike Show at the Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow on Sunday – Had a fantastic day and got some great feedback about TBC from many of the organisations featured… Sustrans and CTC.

After several months of designing, scratching of heads and redesigning, we’ve at last got our printed material and the all important car stickers, ready to be distributed to the unsuspecting masses on the Royal Mile.

We take an afternoon off tour guiding and take our bikes into Edinburgh to join in on the long awaited Pedal on Parliament 2013, to promote safer cycling.

Roger and Lizzie, a lovely couple from Los Angeles, arrived in Scotland for their vacation with a well planned itinerary of what they wanted to see and do during their stay.

Edinburgh and most of Scotland has been blessed with glorious sunshine, pretty much every day for the past two weeks and things have began to step up a gear or two for the Tartan Bicycle Company…

Another eventful three weeks have flown past since our last blog entry and with it Summer has officially arrived…

Apologies for the lack of blog postings over the past couple of months, it’s been a busy summer here in Edinburgh at The Tartan Bicycle Company HQ with bicycle tours.

Forget Mark Beaumont; not that I want to take any of his cycling achievements away from him or anything, he is a true ambassador to our beautiful sport after all. But please spare a thought for the unsung heroes of cycle touring, such as our wonderful friend Margo Denholm.