Tell us about your cycle Yesterday.

tomasrojo

I think it's SI 273 or 274 of 1998. I'm not sure if saying something very specific like "Yes, Garda, it's all laid out in SI 273 of 1998" would sound cheeky and make your situation worse.

EDIT: 274, it was.
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1998/en/si/0274.html

14. (1) A cycle track shall be indicated by traffic sign number RUS 009 or RUS 009A provided in association with traffic sign number RRM 022 (continuous white line) or RRM023 (broken white line) which latter signs may be marked on the right-hand edge of the cycle track or on the right-hand and left-hand edges of the cycle track.

ian_rush

Beasty wrote: »

I think they should monitor the road continuously - hopefully that should help protect my KOM (don't think anyone will be able to do it along the cycle path at 55kph)

If Strava accepts the cycle path as the same segment, a southbound cyclist on the path won't have to do 55kph to beat the KOM.

g0g

Had a fantastic cycle early this morning and trying out a few hills I've not been up before. The Bohernabreena route into the Dublin Mountains is such a nice change from the normal Cruagh/Stocking Lane climbs, and it's so much quieter too. It was after seeing Jimm using that route on Strava that I decided to give it a go - I love that feature of Strava helping you get new ideas!

Came across what must have been the Mick Byrne on the way along Djouce - nice to see loads of people along there as it's sometimes quite quiet. I gave the climb in Rocky Valley a go for a laugh - my god that is one short/steep climb!

Added a few more climbs on the way back past Johnnie Foxes to the viewpoint. A nice change from the normal climbs anyway!:)

Slogger Jogger

Very nice cycle today which took me from home in a loop through Woodenbridge, Avoca, Ballinaclash and over the hill to Ironbridge before heading home. Kindly souls sitting out with food and water for a Sportive that was in progress gave me some water on the hill above ironbridge, thanks guys. Should have brought me lighter bike. MTB was a bit heavy on these uphills.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/182532569

allez

tough day in the heat but very worthwhile. Killiney to Laragh and back via the r115 into enniskerry and then into glen cullen and descended home. managed to tag along into a small group for a good few km into enniskerry but lost them after i stopped for a well earned coffee. the climb from enniskerry to glen cullen is bloody sadistic nearly died. manged to complete the cycle in just under 4 hours.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/96740521/?open_ive_done=1&new_route=1

nomdeboardie

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Yes. I'm a reasonable person. As we spoke several walkers passed on the cycle lane. I pointed out to the Garda that I need to take my safety and their safety into account and, as I often average 40kph there, it would be unsafe to use it. He said that he wasn't interested in my opinions on safety and that I was legally obliged to use the cycle lane. (It's one of those segregated ones above road height and it's too short to be practical anyway).

It gets better - He said that if I encounter pedestrians or other obstructions on the cycle lane I should telephone the Gardai instead of breaking the law.

He asked for ID. I didn't have picture ID on me but said that I cpould produce a driving licence/passport later. He then stated that I was lucky that I didn't have my driving licence with me as he could have got points added to it for this cycling incident. Unbeliveable!

Gaah! :mad::mad::mad: (Actually, there's no "smiley" mad enough)
This was enough to prompt my lazy *** to finally send a message to Varadkar re the mandatory use revocation. I know it won't get a response, but gotta try. At least someone might see the subject line. The more hassle DOT gets about this the better.

Re "said that I could produce a driving licence/passport later": do you mean that you were told to report to the station with a driving licence/passport
And does that mean they could still put points on your licence?

*spit, fume, outrage*

Envisages Wishbone Ash greeted at the station by Sergeant Pluck, who asks, "Is it about a bicycle?"

Wishbone Ash

nomdeboardie wrote: »

Re "said that I could produce a driving licence/passport later": do you mean that you were told to report to the station with a driving licence/passport
And does that mean they could still put points on your licence?

No - I offered to produce ID later but he didn't take me up on it.

RacoonQueen

Re: cycle lane usage. Usually stay on the road myself and have been passed by guards numerous times without any hassle. But, my question is, sometimes there'll be cycle lanes on the path yet signs up on poles for a bus lane/cycle lane. Which one am I meant to use? :pac:

nomdeboardie

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Re: cycle lane usage. Usually stay on the road myself and have been passed by guards numerous times without any hassle. But, my question is, sometimes there'll be cycle lanes on the path yet signs up on poles for a bus lane/cycle lane. Which one am I meant to use? :pac:

Ha - one of the many conundrums...these would certainly be useful if you got harassed by the law in the vicinity!

jumpgun

nomdeboardie wrote: »

Gaah! :mad::mad::mad: (Actually, there's no "smiley" mad enough)
This was enough to prompt my lazy *** to finally send a message to Varadkar re the mandatory use revocation. I know it won't get a response, but gotta try. At least someone might see the subject line. The more hassle DOT gets about this the better.

Re "said that I could produce a driving licence/passport later": do you mean that you were told to report to the station with a driving licence/passport
And does that mean they could still put points on your licence?

*spit, fume, outrage*


Envisages Wishbone Ash greeted at the station by Sergeant Pluck, who asks, "Is it about a bicycle?"

Have also sent an email to Varadkar. The more he gets the better.

clod71

Best average speed ever on my commute...

Colonel Panic

Found two 1cm rips on the sidewall of my new Gatorskin last night. How does that even happen? Anyway, LBS didn't have any in stock so I layered some duct tape on the inside and pumped it to 70psi.

My commute today was mostly me worrying about the little bulge in the tyre and the thing blowing out!

tomasrojo

Colonel Panic wrote: »

Found two 1cm rips on the sidewall of my new Gatorskin last night. How does that even happen? Anyway, LBS didn't have any in stock so I layered some duct tape on the inside and pumped it to 70psi.

My commute today was mostly me worrying about the little bulge in the tyre and the thing blowing out!

Old deck-chair fabric makes a good tyre boot. Or if you clean and cut up an old toothpaste tube. General advice with boots though is not to leave them in place too long before replacing the tyre; days, I imagine, is the absolute maximum time that would be advisable.

mp31

clod71 wrote: »

Best average speed ever on my commute...

ah go on.. you're dyin' to tell us I can tell..... go on tell us, go on...;)

manwithaplan

mloc31 wrote:

clod71 wrote:

Originally Posted by clod71
Best average speed ever on my commute...

ah go on.. you're dyin' to tell us I can tell..... go on tell us, go on...

If it's over the number in mloc's username, well done. If it's over the number in yours, you'd want to ease off on the juice;).

buffalo

Yesterday: left Drumcondra about 10.30, swung by the parents' to pick up the bottle of sun cream that I never bothered bringing to my new abode, then back north to the R132. Blazing sun, bit of a headwind. Over the Nag's Head on a Swords GP recce, looking out over the view thinking, "I wish I'd brought a camera with me". About 20mins later I realised I had brought a camera, but I wasn't heading back up for the sake of a photo!

Bumped into Mr Grieves, also on a recce, and an Usher rider doing the same. Along the back road past Man O' War pub to Balrothery, and up to Cross of the Cage to watch the Rás. bcmf is there as always, working hard this year. Meet my friend's grandad, who I thought raced the Rás back in the day, but turns out his prime was before the Rás. Cheer on the Orwellians, making my way down the Black Hills climb, snapping pics all the while. Soak in the atmosphere in Skerries, meet Glennamaddy on his way home, watch the podium presentations, tea at a friend's house, then back home with the tailwind. 120km all in, home around 7pm.

Tomorrow: just booked a halfday from work, going to head down south again, want to hit the Wicklow Gap for the first time since blorg dropped me on a fixed gear. :pac:

I fkn love cycling.

doozerie

Am still in Connemara so went for a spin locally tonight to loosen out my legs after the Tour de Connemara yesterday. Felt okay walking around today, but discovered once on the bike that my legs had nothing in them, it took my 45mins or so of pedaling before they started to feel normal. Weather was great, scenery was great, legs started feeling good, what could possibly go wrong? In a word, Cateye, or more appropriately, in a colourful phrase, phuckin' Cateye.

I decided I'd check the distance from a nearby beach to the house we are staying in. Glanced at my Cateye Strada wireless as I went past the beach, before starting to hammer it home before it got dark. Less than 2km further on I glanced at the speedo again. It looked odd. Missing even. Bastard! About turn and spent the next 20mins scanning both sides of the road looking for something green and white and very small. This is at least the 3rd time this poxy speedo has taken a header from the bike and on the other occasions I was able to spot it lying on the side of the road when I went back for it. Not this time. I have the same model of speedo on another bike, which has never fallen off, this one works well when on the bike and no doubt continues to enthusiastically try to provide useful info even as it fester in a Connemara ditch. What is it with Cateye, the internals of what they produce are usually fine, the plastic bodies or mounts are usually of a substantially poorer quality and often lead to the demise of otherwise working lights or speedos in a relatively short space of time.

Connemara, you still rock, even though you ate my speedo. Cateye, you've sucked a lot in the past, and you still do!

smacl

Sixth trip in five days over the sally gap for me yesterday evening, with the breeze a bit stiffer than it's been. Dropped an email to Wicklow Co Co roads, suggesting they should really throw a few buckets of tarmac into some of the deeper potholes. The descents are more like slaloms this year.

buffalo

smacl wrote: »

Sixth trip in five days over the sally gap for me yesterday evening, with the breeze a bit stiffer than it's been. Dropped an email to Wicklow Co Co roads, suggesting they should really throw a few buckets of tarmac into some of the deeper potholes. The descents are more like slaloms this year.

I find the bright sun and the resulting shadows on the road makes it pretty tricky to spot the potholes amidst the dappled shadows. Hit a nasty one a little bit after descending Glenmacnass the other day, just couldn't see it 'til I was in it.

buffalo

Pissed off I didn't get Olympic tickets, decided to take it out on the bike... in a good way. Half-day from work, head south via back of Marley, decide to see how I perform time-trialling along the straight by the car park, and then up Blackglen Road (of course, my Garmin decided not to bother recording until Stepaside for some bizarre reason, oh well).

Through Enniskerry, down Lovers' Leap, passing our very own Mr Sherlock (I should clarify, he was going up, I was heading down. He was probably still going faster than me! :P But I'll be very disappointed if he doesn't post in the boardsie sighting thread!) and then on up Calary Hill. Just relishing the day at this point - overcast, but warm. Light breeze to cool things down. Roundwood, Laragh, up to the Wicklow Gap. Twice cars decided to overtake me while there was oncoming traffic - I don't know if they couldn't see, didn't bother to check, or assumed there'd be nobody coming, but I don't know how their mirrors didn't clash the second time.

Pushed myself all the way the Wicklow Gap, passing two struggling riders. They laughed as I passed, I took that as a good sign that they were amazed at my speed while they were wobbling all over the place. Turned right through Valleymount, slowed to admire the view of the lakes, and stopped on the bridge. Powered hard from Blessington to Brittas, to see if I could beat my own time for this segment: http://app.strava.com/segments/671338 but missed it by eleven seconds!

Popped up Seskin Hill on the way home. Second time, but didn't record a time the first time, so pleased to get within the top ten with this effort.

Coming back through Harold's Cross, cable for rear derailleur snapped. Lucky it was that late in the spin! Have to add fixing that to the to-do list, after moving house. gah! Going to be a mental week. At least it's nice out!

nomdeboardie

buffalo wrote: »

I find the bright sun and the resulting shadows on the road makes it pretty tricky to spot the potholes amidst the dappled shadows. Hit a nasty one a little bit after descending Glenmacnass the other day, just couldn't sit 'til I was in it.

Yup, tree-shadow-dappling is scary - was freaking me out on descent from Glencree to Eniskerry a few days ago, especially as I'd only cycled that way once before and wasn't familiar with the locations of the potholes :eek:

cdaly_

Also makes you very hard to see from a car. Descending from Glencree to Enniskerry the other day there were times when I couldn't see Rughdh behind me with the sun and shadows.

smacl

cdaly_ wrote: »

Also makes you very hard to see from a car. Descending from Glencree to Enniskerry the other day there were times when I couldn't see Rughdh behind me with the sun and shadows.

I've hit a few nasty pot holes on that descent myself, and really don't enjoy it much any more as a result. Prefer the Powerscourt turn off these days even with the extra grunt of lovers leap at the end. Maybe a boards petition to Wicklow Co Co roads dept is in order to carry out same basic maintenance on the more dangerous holes in the road.

buffalo

Decided not to do the club league last night, and just get an easy spin into the legs. Flew out along Clontarf promenade cycle track, up Howth a couple of times, and then ugh, that wind on the way back. Little ring all the way home, and still felt like I was in my highest gear. Can't wait to get dropped this weekend.
Views were great last night though - perfect visibility, lots of light.

smacl

Nice spin back up from Enniscorthy to Dublin yesterday evening, backroads via Bunclody, Carnew, Aughrim, Rathdrum and Laragh. 120k in 5 hours, which the cateye swears gave me an average speed of 26.5kph, though I know better. Does it not know we stopped in the hippy cafe for a coffee and bun?

Lusk Doyle

This was actually just over three weeks ago. I hadn't intended on posting but when I saw the thread up on the first page again I thought why not.

I would recommend this event to anyone. It's a pure pleasure from the rolling road closure from the motorbike marshals, to the beautiful coastline, including the nice climbs that anyone can get over to be honest.

Watch out for the crosswinds that tail the pack out and can result in extra work if the lads in front of you ain't paying attention!

It's very long but enjoyable all the same.

If you are planning on doing this in the future I would recommend arranging it through a tour operator and stay in San Remo afterwards as the return journey to Milan is long and you won't get back until after midnight having started at 7am!

hardCopy

Took my first spin up the right hand side of the church in Howth on Saturday morning, awful stuff. Tried sitting down, front wheel starts to rise, stand up, rear wheel spins.

Of course now that I've finally done it, it'll have to become part of the routine whenever I head to Howth.

50KM covered with 3 ascents to the summit.

NeedMoreGears

Cycled into Dublin yesterday on my trusty frankenbike* against a reasonable wind plus a bit of rain. Felt generally crap and quite weak.

Cycled into Dublin this morning on my trusty frankenbike against a reasonable plus plus a bit of rain. Felt generally good and reasonably strong.

Yesterday 57:30

Today 58:30

What gives?



*Frankenbike : giant rock frame pulled from the sea (complete with rusty front suspension), brake cable outers recovered from one of the kids bike, 2 wheels x ex Halfords something or other mountain bike, new (yes new!) brake and gear cables, handle bar ex another kids bike, front shifter from a box of old junk, 1/2 gallon of penetrating to get the thing moving again

seamus

Traffic lights. The difference between a really good run of lights and a really bad run of lights can be more than ten minutes in my experience.

Morrisseeee

NeedMoreGears wrote: »

Yesterday 57:30

Today 58:30

What gives?

You...............need-more-gears :pac: