Royal Canal on a Road Bike

Don't mind tree routes or bad surface, some photos online look like there are sections where it passed under bridges and looks like there's about a foot width of room to squeeze under or fall a good drop into the canal?

When you do the online booking you can also book seat with a view of your bike. Reality is that the seat bookings are rubbish, they never put the name on the seat. You may get a seat beside the bike - usually happens, or there could be approx 105 randy students crowding out the carriage :)

So, bring a cable lock just in case and remove anything easily pocketed like lights.That said, I've never had a problem!

Also, make sure that the chain is on the biggest back ring to keep the derailleur above the rail that the wheel sits in on the rack.

If you want to go for the real belt and braces approach then fit the Schwalbe marathon plus and stiick slime filled tubes inside . A bit pricy but practically bomb proof .

I am not sure how to add a link to a post but if you Google. “Slime filled bicycle inner tubes “ it should bring you to several relevant sites.

Basically they are inner tubes that contain a quantity of liquid sealer so in the event you getting a puncture a small amount of this liquid leaks out and seals the leak. A bit like blood forming a clot. In my experience this substance will stop all but the bigger leaks

The tubes are exactly the same as normal ones and you pump and maintain them in the normal way.

Another option is if you already had good inner tubes is to buy a can of this sealer, remove the valves, pour the sealer into the tubes, replace valves , pump up and off you go. It’s a bit more messy than simply replacing the tubes.

As I said originally the tubes are quite expensive but they give great peace of mind.

Btw I presume the best time to hop on these trains (to maximise space likelihood for the bike) out to say Enfield or Mulligar is .... mid week mid morning? I'm plotting the return leg from Mulingar back to Maynooth and then take the Maynooth train back into town. Will do the same for Skerries train soon...with Waterford also in my plans

fyi bus eireann is much improved in recent years. I cycled down to waterford one day recently and hopped on the hourly service number 4 - I booked it when I was in Carlow and had a better idea of my arrival time and the bike goes in luggage storage which hardly anyone uses - it's €5.

It seems to be an issue in that area, seemingly down to a lack of monitoring of the opening of lock gates, from what I can gather.

It's not the normal way that canals are fed. They are normally fed from lakes, rivers, fend and similar through feeder canals, sluice gates etc.

At least, I've been up and down portions of the Royal, Grand, and Barrow Way, and I've never seen pumping of that sort happening.

Further to the above post, there seems to be 4 spots where pumping is an issue (so more pumps than I previously thought)

Here's the relevant piece for Ireland from the above article

Back-pumping on Ireland’s canals

Waterways Ireland are looking at improved back-pumping systems at four locations. Richmond Harbour on the Royal Canal has an old pump delivering 225 l/s from the Cramlin River, and the 11.6 kW installation is only 75% efficient. The dedicated pump house will be re-engineered to host two pumps. The Grand Canal is supplied with water from the River Brosna into Shannon Harbour over locks 35-36. Here too, the pumps are old and affected by ongoing difficulties with weed, debris and blockages. An old 1994 pump delivers water from Lough Allen across Drumshanbo and Drumleague Locks to maintain water levels for navigation on the Lough Allen canal. The fourth pumping station is at locks 16-18 on the Grand Canal, where the pumps are relatively new but system controls need to be optimised; variable speed drives could improve efficiency.

I always do greenway starts from Maynooth unless someone tells me the path is fixed from dublin to Maynooth !

For anyone either from the area, or having completed the Greenway; planning on heading out towards Cloodara in a few weeks. The plan is to camp for the night when we get there, then cycle back the next day. The question is, does anyone have a good spot for wild camping, as I don't know the area at all

Correct!