Cycling Dublin to Carrick-on-Shannon advice

dario28

Thinking of doing this route on Friday , http://goo.gl/maps/GiuFj

Would it be safe enough , presume most traffic will use the M4 now

Fridays wind is going for Westerly 19 km/h , would that have much of an impact on speed ?

Raam

I have cycled similar, but I was mostly off main roads. I'll dig out my route.

No Pants

I've gone as far as Summerhill/Trim and back, roads were fine, as was the traffic behaviour.

Raam

Something like this. Smaller roads for most of it, hardly any traffic.
http://goo.gl/maps/AnR31

dario28

Raam wrote: »

Something like this. Smaller roads for most of it, hardly any traffic.
http://goo.gl/maps/AnR31

Cheers - only issue on this one will be getting lost

Raam

dario28 wrote: »

Cheers - only issue on this one will be getting lost

Fair point. I used a Garmin with the route loaded on to it. If you don't have the use of one, then you can do with your original route or else you can take back roads and aim for towns...

Summerhill - Trim - Delvin - Castlepollard - Edgworthstown (or Granard if you want to stay more north) - Mohill

Or something like that.

dario28

Raam wrote: »

Fair point. I used a Garmin with the route loaded on to it. If you don't have the use of one, then you can do with your original route or else you can take back roads and aim for towns...

Summerhill - Trim - Delvin - Castlepollard - Edgworthstown (or Granard if you want to stay more north) - Mohill

Or something like that.

could use my iphone and google maps

ya reckon the 19km/h westerly wind will have much of an impact ?

Raam

dario28 wrote: »

ya reckon the 19km/h westerly wind will have much of an impact ?

Depends how awesome you are.

No Pants

dario28 wrote: »

Cheers - only issue on this one will be getting lost

What I do on spins like that is write down the names of towns and the road numbers and tuck it into my glove.

ford2600

dario28 wrote: »

Cheers - only issue on this one will be getting lost

Keep it simple. Get up very early, eat well and get on road.
Don't religiously follow a gps route. Have a rough idea of your route.
Ask when your not sure, enjoy don't worry about speed wind or anything else.
It will be one of best days you have this year.
Enjoy

bambergbike

I've done a (mostly) backroads route from Swords to Sligo that seems pretty similar to Raam's. It was pleasant and quiet** and didn't have really terrible surfaces. Basically parallel to the M4/N4, but trying to stay north of it to avoid the bigger towns, but without ever going too far north and ending up in Cavan. I planned it on google maps but can't find the link now, just the file with the four screenshots I printed out and taped to my handlebars. They show:

1. Swords - Dunshaughlin - Kilmessan - Robinstown - Athboy
(If you keep Navan somewhere to your right and Trim somewhere to your left, you will end up in Athboy more or less automatically. Remembering the towns that will be on your right and left at any given point is easier than just remembering the villages you will pass through.)

2. Athboy-Delvin- Castlepollard - Lisryan-Ballinalee

3. Ballinalee - Drumlish*** - Mohill - Keshcarrigan**** - Drumshanbo - Keadue

4. Keadue - Ballyfarnon - Ballygawley - Sligo

**The R road to Dunshaughlin was pleasant and quiet because I left Swords at seven o'clock on a Sunday morning.

***I ran out of a steam a little bit on a little rise somewhere around Drumlish (before Mohill), but then I crested it and could see all the wind turbines in Leitrim and started to feel I was practically home already. My legs came back and I got home earlier than anybody was expecting me and found myself locked out.

****Nice place, Keshcarrigan. The nice lady in the local shop assured me that it was no distance from there to Sligo. She said her son had cycled from Keshcarrigan to Killarney and climbed off his bike in Kerry looking for a game of tennis before his shower. Or something like that.

Have fun!

Red Kev

Cycled that route before but stuck to the old N4 from Mullingar to Dublin.

Most of the roads are busy but fine, there is a hard shoulder virtually the whole way except for the 10 miles from Edgeworthstown to Longford. Use the old route through Roosky and Dromod as well as the new bypass doesn't have a hard shoulder and it's a bit of a drag strip at certain times. I also do a diversion through Drumsna and Jamestown because it's a much more scenic route than the new road. My route looks like this.

Near Dublin I stay on the bypass around Lucan and go down to cross the river at Chapelizod and in that way but I guess you're familiar with that route.

I take about 7 hours, breaks included, I'm not the fastest cyclist, on a typical 80-100km run around here I'll average 22 km/h which includes breaks.