My spin today...

Top Dog

Nire Valley again. Like cycling along rivers at times. Would have been drier if I'd gone for a swim. Still good fun though.

Top Dog

saccades wrote: »

K Capital Cup Rd1 - typical Seymour tech course, enjoyed it but I need to race instead of plod.

Whats a Seymour tech course?

saccades

Top Dog wrote: »

Whats a Seymour tech course?

A tricky technical turn followed by another before you have completed the first, ad infinitum, climbs on tiny ledges/ruts up a hill with steps. Just another level of trickiness on the level or climbs, descents are generally pretty nice and flow well.

He once took me out for a spin down a trail he had built, when we got to a hairpin he balanced on the front tyre and span around the 180 whilst I stared at the back wheel up at head height and crashed into the undergrowth. The hairpin was too aggressive to go around without the endo.

He's also a sound fella and the most polite at overtaking in a race.

Peter T

Yere made of good stuff. I stayed inside all day. Rally stages were cancelled for the limerick forestry rally, rallycross was cancelled in mondello and they cancelled the road racing in tralee. Snow was supposedly 4 inches deep in spots back by camp

Gerry

Ended up going to ballinastoe. Full suss still in refurb so took the xc bike. Friend of mine says we'll do a few enduro rails later, ok I says. Got there late so had to go full gas to catch them and then did the coillte loop, then we went back up again though we were freezing to death.. pushed up stage 3 and went down half of stage 4 and half of stage 5. Was tough going on the hard tail but the only fall was onto snow, all good.

Wanderer78

Top Dog wrote:

Nire Valley again. Like cycling along rivers at times. Would have been drier if I'd gone for a swim. Still good fun though.

Is there many single tracks in the nire?

cjt156

saccades wrote: »

K Capital Cup Rd1 - typical Seymour tech course, enjoyed it but I need to race instead of plod.

Bit cold.

How did the chap on the uni-cycle get on? Saw him at the start but lost track of him after.

Top Dog

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Is there many single tracks in the nire?

Good few alright - should be able to find a lot of them on Strava Segment Search. Fair bit of climbing, but more than worth it (IMO anyway )

saccades

cjt156 wrote: »

How did the chap on the uni-cycle get on? Saw him at the start but lost track of him after.

Averaged 53min laps, he struggled in the low hanging forest a bit, I caught him up on my first lap as I'd hung back in the juniors with the nipper as it was her first race.

Impressed me with his skills.

cjt156

Good lord, fair play to him for having a go!

Peter T

Nice Little article about him https://outsider.ie/challenges/biking-blitz-on-a-unicycle/

Peter T

Got a little spin in round tracton today after work. Went down with the intention of just checking the place out with the wind forecast I hadn't really planned on doing anything. So got down there not much wind so pulled the bike out the boot. Did the first little single track down to the bridge and basically had no idea where to go from there. Climbed up onto the road and peddled for home thinking its best leave it for another day. Met a guy down by the barrier and got chatting and he ended up showing me around. Had great fun as its nice and technical and a world apart from what I'm use to. He gave me some good tips and to be fair was very patient showing me around while all this ate into his training time. A successful evening spin, learnt a bit more and gained more confidence going down the real steep stuff. I think a dropper post is on my list of things to purchase though

steamsey

Peter T wrote: »

Got a little spin in round tracton today after work. Went down with the intention of just checking the place out with the wind forecast I hadn't really planned on doing anything. So got down there not much wind so pulled the bike out the boot. Did the first little single track down to the bridge and basically had no idea where to go from there. Climbed up onto the road and peddled for home thinking its best leave it for another day. Met a guy down by the barrier and got chatting and he ended up showing me around. Had great fun as its nice and technical and a world apart from what I'm use to. He gave me some good tips and to be fair was very patient showing me around while all this ate into his training time. A successful evening spin, learnt a bit more and gained more confidence going down the real steep stuff. I think a dropper post is on my list of things to purchase though

Gotta love those random encounters when someone shows you around. The random locals I met at Rostervor were very good to me a few months back and it made the trip.

Droppers are great - there was a thread on them here - https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=107897642

FWIW - my reverb has been great for 2 years straight now

Wanderer78

steamsey wrote:

FWIW - my reverb has been great for 2 years straight now

Look after them though, I'm after wrecking mine

saccades

Managed 45km of proper cycling over the last two days.

Same spot twice but might as well have been completely different talking into account the rain.

Heard a twang on a drop and have discovered a loose spoke on the new build.

/Much cursing and the like.

I currently only have a 30 year old garage queen kona with slicks that's "ready" to ride and I'm supposed to be taking the kids to ballinstoe on Monday as training for round 3 of the K Capital Cup up in buncloudy.

If you see an idiot with kids in tow do wave and laugh.

Peter T

Was out for a wet and muddy day in Ballyhoura. Did a few laps of the skills loops to warm up. Struggled with the rocky switchback on the second skills trail, I keep running wide and run out of space. Might have a bit more confidence to attack it in the dry so time will tell. Plenty of logging going on, fyi "tech 1" is closed

covey123

Peter T wrote: »

Struggled with the rocky switchback on the second skills trail, I keep running wide and run out of space. Might have a bit more confidence to attack it in the dry

Never like that one in the wet!

Was out there myself but on the red away from trail centre by the wind turbines,loads of climbing but good few natural trails,found a nice short steep one running alongside a fireroad with a couple of natural pumps and jumps so definitely getting back to session it

saccades

Kids enjoyed the inner loop at ballinstoe, loads of other parents around too.

They are really starting to get confident and maintain their speed which is great to see.

Shame biking.ie was closed as I fancied a coffee, I guess numbers are down since ticknock opened up so it's not worth opening up (or someone had a really good Paddy's Day...).

Top Dog

saccades wrote: »

Shame biking.ie was closed as I fancied a coffee, I guess numbers are down since ticknock opened up so it's not worth opening up (or someone had a really good Paddy's Day...).

Crazy to think they wouldn't open for a Bank Holiday as its bound to be busier than usual.

ianobrien

I managed 26km around the Glen of Aherlow yesterday. Plenty of mud along with hiking the bike, getting lost, suddenly loosing front tyre pressure (on a tubeless tyre?), etc. Climbing up mud covered trails is not fun when at the top you have about 50m of flooded trails to get through.

Great fun coming down the hill though!

(I did do a bit of a reccie run the day before alright, 12km of taking my ease)

saccades

ianobrien wrote: »

suddenly loosing front tyre pressure (on a tubeless tyre?)

Used to get this on narrower rims, pressure would slowly drop over the weeks since setting up until there wasn't enough to keep the bead in the rim when rolling corners/berms and rip the tyre off.

Would happen more often if there was a ding in the rim.

GoHardOrGoHome

Went to Ticknock for the first time in years. I was struggling to the last climb after taking the right after the masts when I heard someone approaching fast from behind. Older guy went past on an ebike and said thanks as I had pulled over. I thought that was great, using technology to let you keep enjoying the trails when the climbs are getting a bit too much.

Anyway I catch him on the downhill (I'm not a speed demon) and I'm making a fair racket with rocks skidding and brakes squealing but he doesn't move aside. Then we come to a big open area and he still doesn't let me pass. Then he comes to a switchback, sees me and lets me pass.

That's when I see he has earphones in! Bear in mind he had just passed me on the uphill so had to have thought I'd be catching up with him soon. What's the etiquette on that? That type of technology doesn't work on shared mountain bike trails in my opinion.

Was so surprised when my arms were killing me the next day!

rizzodun

GoHardOrGoHome wrote: »

That's when I see he has earphones in! Bear in mind he had just passed me on the uphill so had to have thought I'd be catching up with him soon. What's the etiquette on that? That type of technology doesn't work on shared mountain bike trails in my opinion.

The problem wasn't the e-bike, it was the headphones.

Gerry

Nah not cool. As you say the noises from a bike and rider going quickly are significant, you'd want fairly decent headphones at a high volume to block it out. The cool kids all use Bluetooth speakers by the way

iwillhtfu

Gerry wrote: »

The cool kids all use Bluetooth speakers by the way

Christ I hate these things out on the trails I'd almost prefer the lad with the head phones in. I was out on a spin recently with a lad that had one and played gangster rap for an hour we all pulled the pin early as our heads were melted.

Peter T

I cant understand people that "Must have music" when out for a ride or run etc. Like are they so unstable that their own thoughts might push them over the edge ? :pac:

prunudo

iwillhtfu wrote: »

Christ I hate these things out on the trails I'd almost prefer the lad with the head phones in. I was out on a spin recently with a lad that had one and played gangster rap for an hour we all pulled the pin early as our heads were melted.

One of the reasons I like mountain biking is being out in the peace and quiet of nature. Last thing I'd want to hear is someone else's idea of great music.

Possedion

took crappy spill on the metro section this am... those double bumps. cracked my helmet. glad had full face bell super.

prunudo

Possedion wrote: »

took crappy spill on the metro section this am... those double bumps. cracked my helmet. glad had full face bell super.

At least you didn't get badly injured, helmets are cheaper to fix than heads.

xxyyzz

A fun little loop I rode on my lunch break today