Jan and Klodi's Party Bus - part II **off topic discussion**

dahat

Work bonus arrives this week and I'm a new employee I'm quite surprised to be getting it even if it's a 6 month payment, still a decent amount.

Now to decide what bike related goodies to get, new stem, shoes and club gear high on the agenda. Can't beat a good spend on essential bike stuff.

robyntmorton

Everything to do with cycling is essential!

dahat

robyntmorton wrote: »

Everything to do with cycling is essential!

Exactly, even the Mrs is starting to believe so and she doesn't cycle.

Winter shoes and Summer Shoes- purchase justified
New club gear- Racing and training gear- justified
New Helmet- Racing and Training helmet, justified
New Stem- have to match the saddle- justified as everything must match as much as possible.

Alek

Unknown Soldier wrote:

And the Snow/Ice Tyres, which I took off last week, are back on the bike...

I am afraid we may have summoned this... I also took off my snow tyres last week :-o

robyntmorton

Am I allowed to blame you for this, or will the mods give out to me for it :P

CramCycle

robyntmorton wrote: »

Am I allowed to blame you for this, or will the mods give out to me for it :P

Fire away, I blame the two of them for far worse.

Alek

To derail this this thread from the worrying direction it's heading in, I would like to thank two boardsies, PeterX and irishrover99, for completely selfless help in getting my rear hub sorted. Within a day from posting about the problem, I was offered new bearings and a custom made bearing pusher for free, and was able to get the wheel repaired in the evening. I owe you one guys, shall we meet in appropriate circumstances

Chuchote

We have an excellent new cafe in our area, in a row of shops that's been mostly shuttered for the last eight years - shops and cafes open, totter along for a while and close, because there's no passing trade.

It's an area where thousands of cyclists pass every morning, in the epicentre of Dublin cycling, the place which has the highest bike usage in the city.

A row of bike stands would give this cafe a 1000% better chance of surviving and thriving - a proportion of those cyclists would stop for breakfast or a takeaway if they could lock their bikes directly outside.

But (bear with me, I do have a point), there's no official place where the public can request a row of bike stands. This -

http://www.dublincity.ie/main-menu-services-water-waste-and-environment-waste-and-recycling/litter-graffiti-and-pollution

- would be the obvious site for such requests, but it doesn't facilitate them. Could we start a political push by cyclists for the facility to request stands?

Thud

try http://fixmystreet.ie/ I got a pothole filled within a few weeks on putting in the request.

Chuchote

Normally this

http://www.dublincity.ie/main-menu-your-council/isupport

is better than fixmystreet, which just sends the reports on to the council. They've fixed Beaver Row, which was dreadfully dangerous for cycling, after requests - it's recently been resurfaced beautifully. They sent people out to remove ugly tagging on a local road.

The only place they have never repaired is the dangerously patched surface of Leinster Road from Harold's Cross to Rathmines - perhaps they think it's too big a job.

In fact, I see a place for reports on "street furniture" on that site, and it would be easy enough to use that for requests for bike stands.

tomasrojo

Judging by some comments on Twitter, Seán O'Rourke is being as fair and balanced in his discussion of the restriction of private cars on Dublin's quays as he was in his discussion of the minimum passing distance law.

wanderer 22

Anyone use that new cycle lane in Phoenix park? I'm not sure of the surface, seems like it could get quite slippy - there was a lot of standing water on it yesterday evening while the adjeacent road was mostly dry.

Chips Lovell

Agreed. I'm going to stick to the road unless going contra-flow. Also, they've bollards out at the moment but I imagine parking will be difficult to enforce long term.

I'm delighted they resurfaced the road though. Trashed a wheel in a pothole there one dark night last winter.

Doctor Bob

Chuchote wrote: »

We have an excellent new cafe in our area, in a row of shops that's been mostly shuttered for the last eight years - shops and cafes open, totter along for a while and close, because there's no passing trade.

It's an area where thousands of cyclists pass every morning, in the epicentre of Dublin cycling, the place which has the highest bike usage in the city.

A row of bike stands would give this cafe a 1000% better chance of surviving and thriving - a proportion of those cyclists would stop for breakfast or a takeaway if they could lock their bikes directly outside.

But (bear with me, I do have a point), there's no official place where the public can request a row of bike stands. This -

http://www.dublincity.ie/main-menu-services-water-waste-and-environment-waste-and-recycling/litter-graffiti-and-pollution

- would be the obvious site for such requests, but it doesn't facilitate them. Could we start a political push by cyclists for the facility to request stands?

I've noticed small clusters of cycle parking cropping up recently in sensible places- outside Noshington on SCR, outside the Spar opposite Griffith College, outside The Swan on Aungier Street. Seems like someone in the Council is thinking the same thoughts as you. Not sure how you can propose sites, but you could do worse than ask a local Councillor to raise it for you at, e.g. the Transport SPC.

magicbastarder

colm18 wrote: »

Anyone use that new cycle lane in Phoenix park?

where is it?

magicbastarder

the cycle lane, i mean. i know where the park is.

RayCun

magicbastarder wrote: »

where is it?

its in Phoenix Park

RayCun

sorry, couldn't resist

It's on Wellington Road

CramCycle

RayCun wrote: »

its in Phoenix Park

Generally cycle lanes in Phoenix Park are located between parked cars and footpads.

magicbastarder

RayCun wrote: »

sorry, couldn't resist

It's on Wellington Road

that's the one people are complaining about on the commuting & transport forum so. complaints about the road surface, at least.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057673418

smacl

Alek wrote: »

I am afraid we may have summoned this... I also took off my snow tyres last week :-o

Same, don't really want the hassle of putting them on again, but want to get out for a spin tomorrow. I need the wheel fairy to pay me a visit and give me a nice set of spare wheels I can leave permanently adorned with snow tyres for such occasions.

Alek

Is there a risk of snow tomorrow morning? Forecast gives around 4-5C for Dublin Mountains...

magicbastarder

Tonight

Bitterly cold tonight with minimum temperatures of 0 to minus 4 degrees Celsius. In near calm, a severe frost and icy stretches will quickly develop, along with dense freezing fog in parts too. Becoming dry in many areas, but further well scattered wintry showers too, with locally light accumulations. There is also the risk of more persistent rain moving up along the east and southeast coast later, possibly turning to sleet or snow here, especially on higher ground towards morning.

from met.ie

wanderer 22

That's Alek off to Kippure then.

smacl

Alek wrote: »

Is there a risk of snow tomorrow morning? Forecast gives around 4-5C for Dublin Mountains...

Roads wet up there today so possibly icy tomorrow, could be dodgy enough on slicks.

Chuchote

Doctor Bob wrote: »

I've noticed small clusters of cycle parking cropping up recently in sensible places- outside Noshington on SCR, outside the Spar opposite Griffith College, outside The Swan on Aungier Street. Seems like someone in the Council is thinking the same thoughts as you. Not sure how you can propose sites, but you could do worse than ask a local Councillor to raise it for you at, e.g. the Transport SPC.

I may be partly responsible for the Noshington ones. I was walking my dog in the triangular park in Harold's Cross when Noshington was about to open a branch there, and met what I assume was the architect and builder. I happened to have printed out an article I was reading on the beneficial effect of bicycle parking on cafe patronage and got talking to them, and handed over the article. A couple of weeks later the cafe was open - with bike racks on either side of it. These have been heavily used, and may have persuaded the company that cycle parking brings coffee-drinking customers.

magicbastarder

i just popped over to the shops, and was passed by a guy on a road bike - cycling into the wind - wearing shorts and a short sleeved cycling top. he was probably heading off to wrassle some bears while showing chuck norris the best way to chop wood.

Hungrycol

On my commute over the past month I thought I was getting weaker on the bike but then realised it's the start of the racing season. The commuting tempo has noticeably picked up :eek:

dastardly00

The end of Dwars Door Vlaanderen and Stage 3 of Volta Ciclista a Catalunya are live on the two British Eurosport channels right now

detones

Every morning on my short commute I tell myself I'm going to go easy today. Slow pace. Keep the shirt from getting sweaty. Arrive in style. Then another commuter appears and passes me or goes through a red light while I'm stopped and I loose the run of myself go full gas and end up in work in a sweaty heap. We men are a stupid lot.