Tell us about your new improved government regulations compliant cycle part II

Kevhog1988

Cack out with the club for the first time since covid restrictions. Ended up doing my longest ever cycle and picked up a pr on the way home from town even after 70k :0 . Football training must be doing something for the fitness.

https://www.strava.com/activities/3816319054

positron

Garmin has really dropped the ball with backups (or lack of). I bet a lot of CTOs are now on daily conf calls with their IT teams regarding backups and ransomware. What a mess!!

However it's easily enough to manually upload the activity from the watch straight to strava -

https://www.strava.com/activities/3816612917/
Buncrana-Drogheda, 207 kms with approximately 1500 meters climbing.

Once again the wind was against me for best part of the way, but now that I have had some time with the new bike (Specialized Diverge Comp), slow puncture fixed and tires pumped up to my preference, bike is just sublime - smooth and responsive. I love the front suspension. But I might change the 38c tyres to some road 32c's.

paddydriver

Ransomware generally not a case of just restoring from backup.. maybe when on a small scale it is, but for a big operation like Garmin they cannot take chances. Its likely the hackers were on their network a long time planning this so once it kicked off Garmin likely shut everything down and have had to slowly bring stuff back online in order to see if it is impacted also.

Unfortunately these conversations, about security and cyber attacks etc, will often only happen in detail after an event such as this. They seem to be trickling back online this morning - can see activities finally populating for last week but think will be a tough time for Garmin at the moment! Lot of questions being asked and answers to be given.. not pretty!

magicbastarder

I was once in a meeting where one of the attendees mentioned he'd been working in Maersk in their cyber operations centre when they got hit. There was a collective gasp in the room, that could have brought down the entire company were it not for a flukish stroke of luck that they had one DC offline when the **** hit the fan.

RunnerDub

First time to post, I think. Back on back after layoff.

Got 40k in yesterday city to Malahide and back.

Tough head wind back 😡

https://strava.app.link/nDmE1X54s8

81k @ 27.5kph with 1200 of climbing in a very strong wind. Toughest spin in a while on a very hilly route.

zindicato

57.8 KMS with this two, two punctures in an hour going home had to walk nearly 4 KMS til we found a bike shop got spare tubes....they weren't pleased waiting for daddy.😂

.red.

Got my first 50km done today.
Again, loosely picked a route and detoured off it badly with a few hills I struggled on, I persevered and got up them slowly.
Ended up going thru Crookstown, Beal Na Blath, Cappeen, Terelton, passed the Danone factory, around onto the N22 and home.
My phone is acting up so Strava only timed the route instead of mapping it but thankfully had the trip computer on the bike.
51.02kms, averaging 24.6 kph, 124minutes.
I'll never win any races but happy enough with that.

brownian

Despite being a Wicklow resident, born and bred, I have to hand it to Cork and Kerry for serious excellent road riding. Yesterday's ride a case in point. From the last available self-catering cottage in Ireland, in Kenmare, I took the the back road to Kilgarvan (S of the Kenmare River). In a couple of km I chased a hare for a hundred yards up the road, was very nearly bitten by two dogs, and had to wriggle my way past a herd of running cattle, including one large and well-equipped bull.

All this as a prelude to the wonderful Borlin valley, which was scenic, well-engineered and traffic-free. After all the rain, waterfalls were in full flood, and looking great. The descent to Glengarriff was a thing of further joy. What a great ride - I look forward to the parallel road back, even if it's over the Priest's Leap

From Glengariff, set off into a stiff headwind - me going West, the wind going East. Some hours of struggle later I stopped for (surprisingly poor) soup and sandwich at the Allihies Museum (@km 100). From here, I hoped for a handy tailwind all the way home. The road out of Allihies, heading for Eyeries and Ardgroom is truly lovely...but feck me, it's steep in places...several places. And it does not all go East (wind from west).

Nearly wrecked by the time I got to Lauragh, and a long enough climb out of there (on the 'main' road) made me suffer a little. Fortunately, the rest of the spin into Kenmare was handy enough.

156k, 2200m, average speed too low to remember (I blame the headwind).

Still - fantastic country. Did the Healy and Caha passes over the last couple of days - great great roads.

velo.2010

Headed for the Slieve Bloom mountains today. Parked up in Portlaoise and cycled out via Mountrath, over Wollftrap and into Kinnity. Had a peep at Kinnity Castle, where I found a couple trying their hand at a spot of archery. I got a good laugh from them when I asked if they were going to represent Ireland at next year's Olympics.

I made my way to Clonaslee and the climb up to The Cut, the sign for which was crudely edited to read something quite different! I must mention that I didn't plan to take in the Glendine Gap but will endevour to mark it off the list next time I'm out that way; time was tight and I had to get back.

The road back from Mountrath to Portlaoise is excellent and soon enough, I was back in Portlaoise after 93km of scenic and reasonably challenging cycling. Finding MacDonalds in Portlaoise is another challenge but the perfect way to end another escape to the country.

I'm enjoying these jaunts that are within an hour or two of home and provide something more interesting than a few hours around Kildare or Wicklow. All being well, I'll be off to the West in the next week or two and hope to take in the Great Western Greenway and Achill Island.

RunnerDub

Evening spin to howth summit, strong southern winds nearly blew me off the cycle path.

Couple of years since I done this spin, tough as ever 😡
https://strava.app.link/nGH7PrQfy8

dinneenp

First spin on my new bike, Canyon Endurance AL 7.signs weren't good when I realised I'd fitted bottle cage upside down.
40 mins into cycle got a puncture.was on a downhill with a bit of grit, pebbles but didn't spot when pierced the tyre. And there I was before cycling, impressed at how thin the tyres are.
Will look into the 'puncture resistant types of it happens again.

Tony04

The stock tyre isnt that bad on the endurace afaik are yours sure you have the tyres pumped enough? sounds like a pinch flat

secman

Lumpy one tonight, out by stepaside, up to the blue light, Enniskerry, Glencree to viewpoint and back home.
56km, 858m up and 23kph avg.

Tired legs, 3 lumpy spins on the trot, Sun, Tue and tonight .

a148pro

Did the first half of the Grass Routes Gran Fondo yesterday, runs from Tip town into the Glen of Aherlow, where it goes on a circuit of soul warming bothereens with grass growing down the middle. Gorgeous views of the Galtees towering over the value.

Could not recommend this route highly enough. Its an easy day jaunt for anyone on the Dublin Cork train line as Limerick Junction is about 15 minutes cycle from the start. Its easy to get your bike on the train even without a booking there's a storage carriage at the front.

You can download a GPS of the full route from the link below, but its actually really well stencilled on the ground from the start at the Eastern edge of Tipp town to Anglesborough. From then on navigation is easy enough.

Easy to loop back to Tipp town for the train back and a shorter route if desired.

Feck all traffic, gorgeous scenery, lots of heritage along the way.

Food at Aherlow House, Bansha, and a tiny cafe in Galbally

Route:

https://grassroutesgranfondo.ie/route/

https://imgur.com/MdoCGrF

https://imgur.com/rpCaF0g

https://imgur.com/N88bHin

dahat

Would you get away with 25mm tyres on that route?

a148pro

dahat wrote: »

Would you get away with 25mm tyres on that route?

Yes. They market it as suitable for 23 - 25. I did it on 37s yesterday but that was clearly overkill. I will do it again on 26s at some point. Standard country road surfaces some potholey bothareens but no worse than your average Irish roads.

dahat

a148pro wrote: »

Yes. They market it as suitable for 23 - 25. I did it on 37s yesterday but that was clearly overkill. I will do it again on 26s at some point. Standard country road surfaces some potholey bothareens but no worse than your average Irish roads.

Great stuff, live near enough there to plan that route at some point after racing season.

a148pro

dahat wrote: »

Great stuff, live near enough there to plan that route at some point after racing season.

Well its a perfect treat cycle as opposed to a training or speed cycle. Bear in mind the route is only marked from Tipp Town, not in reverse

Weepsie

So was doing a 3 days to Wexford thing, stopping off at oh / in laws enroute, then a friend then home.

Loaded up the touring bike, perhaps too much for such a trip but away I went, I wanted to see what it could do.

5 mins from home. Thunder and absolutely p!ssing rain. Quickly donned my shakedry and let it pass while I waited at a bus stop.

Onward, I pressed. No more rain, but streets, and cycle lane was streaming. Got as far as church Street and I'm convinced I've left the back door unlock. I turn back, get a puncture, fix my puncture, get home, another puncture. Aaasrgh.

Another tube, I rationalise my packing and decide on bringing a lot less things. The door was in fact locked. Bloody typical.

Take 2. Same again, cautiously through the streets in case I had hit glass earlier. Get every light between glasnevin and Dundrum and then feel like the distance to Enniskerry has been increased. Maybe at Shane Ross's urging.

I curse him and continue on my way. At this stage regretting the 2nd coffee I horsed into me when I went back to check the door. Enniskerry arrived , finally somewhere to remove that regret, and remove it I did.

I opted for the non scenic route today. Carrying 2 full panniers, old long hill didn't seem appetising. Sun announced itself in blazing fashion as I turned away from Powerscourt. I stopped to ingest fuel and apply sun cream and then a got stuck behind a tractor. Once the drag ended however, I started to enjoy the day.

I had sandwich in roundwood. Made earlier in preparation for this moment. Sandwich decided to go down the wrong way. The ensuing coughing garnered many a state so I left in quite a haste, fearing my covid app would start alerting and get chased out of town. In my haste my phone flew out of pocket and suncream jumped from bag. I gathered them up and got going

Originally my plan was to take on the Sally gap, but the earlier delays cost me nearly 3 hours of slow meandering. I made for Rathdrum via Moneystown (the name is a lie). A half decent rolling road, especially with 35s on the bike. I'm not sure if I've ever taken this route, but it brought me the calm I needed.

Rathdrum came and went and I was making haste for Aughrim. My original ETA was 6pm thanks to many planned stop, then pushed out to 6.30 with basically none.

Rolled in at 6.20 with 86km done at a semi respectable 20kmph (my bike is a tank) and was quickly fed and wateref.


Considering how wet I got earlier and my bike was overloaded I'm considering calling it the Edmund Fitzgerald

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/moZAqAzJz8

Not sure I'll be able for 140 km bike ride home on Sunday

Kevhog1988

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/V58Ru4dUB8

Lovely spin with the cousin until an absolute muppet in a camper swerved in on top of us because we were 2 abreast less than a km from home. Brought the young lad to gaa later and met the same buck down to see his grandchild play. Challenged him and he tried to tell me it was against the law to ride 2 abreast. Really ruined what was an enjoyable spin.

positron

Beautiful day (or morning at least) for bike rides.

Last night I had planned a ride in Komoot to visit the stone where Cu Cuchullian made his last stand (legend is that he was wounded by his own spear because of jealous Queen Maeve's sorcery, and he tied himself to this rock and Maeve's army couldn't advance because they were afraid of him - the sight on him standing there was enough to stop them on their tracks. Day's later a crow landed on Cu's lifeless body and that's when the army figured out he's dead - or so goes the story. Anyway, I think it's a fascinating story, and even more fascinating that all these years later, there's still that (or a) stone standing in the middle of a field that appears to be in full cultivation). But just 20k from home my phone ran out of charge. More of Queen Maeve's sorcery no doubt.

So I did a quick tour of the roads I already knew, feeling fairly confident that the stone might still be there for a while. As usual with countryside around here, absolutely stunning views, reasonably flat and usual horrible road surface (especially between Ardee and Collon).

About 100k all in all, 540m elevation.

https://www.strava.com/activities/3852559385

I will be back to visit Cu's stone for sure.

RunnerDub

Just a random spin around Dublin.

Check out my activity on Strava:
https://strava.app.link/20HuFWp3C8

RunnerDub

Random spin around Dublin

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/20HuFWp3C8

smacl

Decided to head out Kildare direction today rather than my usual spin around the Wicklow hills, taking in backroads around the Curragh, Punchestown, Nurraghmore and back via Ballymore Eustace, Blessington and Ballinascorney for 127k with 1.3k of up. Found the first half a bit lackluster, so need to refine the route before doing it again avoiding the N81 bit. Got in the door just as the rest of the family were heading off for a swim, so joined them for what was a lovely cool down. Lots of cyclists out today and ended up cycling and having a natter with another lad for a few K which made that second half of the spin seem a fair bit faster. Really need to get my act together and join a club or regular group one of these days.

Thargor

Came back down the coast from Sandymount out home to Bray today to see the new cycle lane in Dun Laoghaire for the first time, very impressive, actually a shock to see something so well done in Ireland. Packed with bikes aswell and pedestrians staying off it, probably because its so obviously a bike track and not some mixed use crap. Imagine if the whole city was bisected by a few uninterrupted lanes like that coming in from the North/South and West? You'd increase cycling 10X overnight. Hopefully the supreme court decision/Greens in government/EU fines/social distancing on the buses will finally see some movement in that direction.

FCB1899

A very pleasant 2 hrs on the Great Western Greenway today,been wanting to do this for a while so glad to tick it off.

ted1

Just under 70km Ballymoney to black water and back.

Was doing 300km a week before Covid. But since working at home I barely get out. Fitness levels are way down. Found it a struggle at time’s

secman

Headed into Gorey for meet up, out to Arklow, woodenbridge, Meeting of the waters , ballinaclash and up the Shay Elliott, Rathdrum, Meeting of the waters , woodenbridge, Arklow Gorey and home.
128 km avg 30.1kph and 1012 meters up. Tired legs.. 4 lumpy spins in a row.

secman

ted1 wrote: »

Just under 70km Ballymoney to black water and back.

Was doing 300km a week before Covid. But since working at home I barely get out. Fitness levels are way down. Found it a struggle at time’s

Thats a heavy road in parts , lots of little drags and a few ramps, Kilmuckridge to Blackwater is a long drag. Great training route in fairness, never easy, bit like the lakes at blessington.