anyone cycled the wicklow way?!

mark k

hey thinking of cycling the wiclow way soon and just wondering roughly how long long it should take!!and also would any one have any tips !?and would it be more up hill if i started from clonegal

Alun

You should look into the legality of it first. I'm not 100% sure of all the ins and outs but MTB's, quad bikes and motorbikes are banned from large sections of the Wicklow uplands (they've been putting up new signs at entrance points to upland areas recently), and I believe Coillte have regulations regarding such things on their lands too. Not that anyone in this country takes a blind bit of notice of such things though :mad:

There have been a couple of threads about it on the cycling forum.A quick search and you'll find them.I wouldn't worry about the legality of it,there aren't too many rangers.Anyway quads and scramblers do far more damage to the land than a couple of push bikes do so I can't see why they're banned.Why not ban all walkers while they're at it...

loobylou

It will be more uphill starting from Clonegal, 25metres in fact.

Cabaal

Deleted User wrote: »

There have been a couple of threads about it on the cycling forum.A quick search and you'll find them.I wouldn't worry about the legality of it,there aren't too many rangers.....<SNIP>.

While I;m aware that its abit different to speeding is this not like saying its ok to speed because there's not to many Gardai around, if its against the law then people should respect this

Cabaal

Cabaal wrote: »

While I;m aware that its abit different to speeding is this not like saying its ok to speed because there's not to many Gardai around, if its against the law then people should respect this

Well I guess it all comes down to ethics in the end.The number of rangers is irrelevant I would still mountain bike there even if the place was crawling with rangers.The way I look at it the mountain bike community here is extremely small while the walking community is extremely large.A couple of hundred mountain bikes would never do the damage thousands of walkers would.So in my eyes as long as I'm not effectively harming anyone or the environment I can't see the problem.It's scramblers and quad bikes that effectively harm the environment and I can't understand why mountain bikes are thrown in the same category.

If everyone was to obey Coilltes laws there would be no mountain biking scene in this country.Even the Ballyhouras/Ballinastoe/Oughterard loops would never have been built.If a law is completely nonsensical I will not follow it.The law against speeding is a perfectly sensible law,protecting lives.While speeding you are endangering other lives so I would never do such a thing.

I guess in the end everyone has different ethics.Some people will obey all laws without questioning them,others will overlook them and others will evaluate them according to their set of ethics,mine are that as long as I'm not harming anything I'll do it.If I was to follow these laws I wouldn't be able to engage in 2 of my favourite hobbies,which is something I can't possibly imagine.

Alun

Deleted User wrote: »

If a law is completely nonsensical I will not follow it.The law against speeding is a perfectly sensible law,protecting lives.While speeding you are endangering other lives so I would never do such a thing.

I'm not sure I follow your logic there. In the case of your example of speeding, someone, somewhere, who presumably knows a lot more about such things than you or I do has decided that a particular road needs a specific limit, and you seem perfectly OK with that, accept their expertise in that area, and obey the relevant law. On the other hand, in the case of a law that happens to inconvenience you, you're not prepared to accept the opinions of people who equally, are experts in their own field, i.e. that of nature conservation and footpath erosion, and have decided that mountain bikes should be banned from certain areas. It all smacks of double standards to me, unless you're convinced that they either don't know what they're talking about, or are just doing it out of sheer bloody-mindedness, neither of which is very likely.

Note that I personally have no problems with MTB's on forest tracks and don't really understand Coillte's policy on this, but they've no place on wet, boggy uplands typical of most of the Wicklow Mountains IMO.

Fair enough,call it double standards or whatever you wish.I'm not an expert on footpath erosion by any means but I try and use common sense where I can.If the track is well paved i.e the tracks down into the River Dargle Valley(unsure of correct name) or the railway sleepers across White Hill I can't possibly see how a few bikes can cause a sizeable impact on the erosion of the paths.The same for hard packed solid ground i.e the climb towards Djouce.The way I look at it the laws are in place for as you say wet boggy land.This is the only possible place I can imagine bikes would cause a certain element of erosion.I guess I'm just making an assumption based on my own judgement,this is just the way I live my life.

For example I was cycling the Old Kenmare Road recently.If you are not familiar with this it's a walk from Killarney to Kenmare via an old track from the 1800's.It is situated in the Killarney National Park and therefore cycling is banned.Infact the road is extremely well paved following rocky tracks for the most part.The only part where bikes could possibly cause damage was a muddy singletrack area of about 500 metres.This time the ranger caught me on the road.I reasoned with him and assured him I'd walk the only muddy area and he had no problems with that.Like I had assumed this was the only bad area.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if I follow these laws strictly I will lose one of my most valuable hobbies,even though these laws might not make complete sense to me I follow them without question and my life is far more miserable
or
I evaluate the laws for what I can and make my own judgement on what impact will be caused.I cause as little impact as possible avoiding/walking boggy areas.My life is far better off and neglegible damage is caused to the environment.

If in some peoples eyes this makes me a selfish/bad person let it be.

Cookie_Monster

As the Wicklow Way is a designated walking route it is illegal to cycle it.
If you do decide to do it anyway, I'm sure you will run into quite a few walkers who will stop you and tell you this also.

Been on quite a few hikes where I've seen people stop and give out to cyclists being where they shouldn't.

There are plenty of other places you can legally cycle so why bother with the WW anyway, I can't imagine its exactly condusive to biking, particularly around Glendalough with the stepped boarding

dogmatix

mark k wrote: »

hey thinking of cycling the wiclow way soon and just wondering roughly how long long it should take!!and also would any one have any tips !?and would it be more up hill if i started from clonegal

If you do decide to cycle the way - could you let us know how you got on? I'd be interested to hear what how you enjoyed it, difficulties encountered and any confrontations with walkers!

Cookie_Monster

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

There are plenty of other places you can legally cycle so why bother with the WW anyway, I can't imagine its exactly condusive to biking, particularly around Glendalough with the stepped boarding

Nope,there are hardly any places we can legally cycle.We are banned from all Coillte forests.The only legal mountain bike trails are the commercial ventures of Ballyhouras,Ballinastoe and Oughterard.Although these are welcome they aren't exactly any challenge.There are no natural obstacles at all and this just makes it too easy.The Wicklow Way is perfect for mountain biking.There is fantastic terrain especially around the Ticknock-Ballinastoe part.There are fantastic steep rocky technical bits,lovely climbs and a really fast sleeper descent.I really doubt anyone cycles around Glendalough anyway with the amount of walkers there.

Evil Phil

I've seen a few clubs go through Glendalough and the seemed to be having a whale of time.