Dublin spots for longboarding

Eebs

ThOnda wrote: »

I am usually in Phoenix Park and sometimes around the office. Not too much though. Still mostly on flats, not having helmet (I know, I am an eejit...)
I've been recently few times in Marlay Park. There is almost only one suitable road, but it is the closest to where I live. But I am very irregular.

So you wouldn't recommend Marlay park then?
Hmm.. Definately goin to have to have a hunt for more places.

I see some potentially great car parks in UCD but I'm pretty sure if they'll move you on if they see you longboarding.

rage123

Yeah I have just started long boarding

Have found 3 places in the South Side, all at the foot of the Dublin mountains in new housing estates.

Hunters wood
Airpark
Can't remember the last one ahahahh..

Anyone else have places?

Eebs

rage123 wrote: »

Yeah I have just started long boarding

Have found 3 places in the South Side, all at the foot of the Dublin mountains in new housing estates.

Hunters wood
Airpark
Can't remember the last one ahahahh..

Anyone else have places?

Ghost estates must be perfect for Longboarding. Epic.


UCD is pretty brilliant but services will kick you out if you get nabbed.
Dodder park up to Bushy park is all cycle lane/footpath you can use and the cycle path has just been recently paved so it's really smooth.

Bushy park used to have a skatepark but I don't know the story with it now.

CianRyan

CianRyan wrote: »

Cleaning your bearings takes a good while to do it right.

Pop them out of the wheels and take off the removable protective covers.
Have some hot soapy water and leave them to soak for about 5 minutes.
Take them out and throw them into some cold water, the colder the better. The extreme temperature change will knock off any remaining filth.

Take them out of the water and dry them thoroughly, I usually hand dry them and then give them a blast under a hair drier.

And then the most important part, Greasing them up again.
I find speed cream to be the best for this, I've tried other brands but speed cream seem to do the job quite well, there is better but it'll cost a lot more and need to be imported... a lot of hassle.
Speed cream and be bought in pretty much all skate shops.
Use only a little of this on each bearing, put the covers back on and pop the bearings back into your wheels.

They'll feel like new so will need about an hour-2hours skate to break them in again.
Long process but well worth it, makes your bearings ride much faster and last much longer.

Never use WD40, it's actually not good for the bearings at all.

I'd steer clear of the soap and water personally and I'm not a fan of speed cream either.
Cycleways on Parnell Street stocks a bicycle lubricant that's a thin liquid containing teflon.
I knock all the dirt from all the moving parts off with a cloth, saturate all the washers, spacers, bearings and nuts in the lubricant and shake for 30 minutes. Then individually blast the dirt out of each bearing casing with the aerosol straw and roll them with my fingers until I'm convinced I can't feel dirt in the casing (quite often they take a few blasts). Popping off the protective covers will probably make that lots easier...never occured to me to do that though.

Doing this on a set of swiss racing bearings will give you a 90 second spin if you flick the wheel with your hand. I find the problem with cream is the viscosity, it generates resistance by it's own density.

Also I double up on washers (4 per wheel...can't hurt).
The tightness of the wheel nuts makes a huge difference too. Too tight = friction, too loose = momentum loss as the wheel tries to turn against the truck.

There's an ok run from the Summit Inn in Howth down towards the graveyard where you can push 40-45 kmp/h...as long as you're confidant enough because there's plenty of cars.

The war memorial park at chapelizod bypass has 2 nice runs you can get 30kmp/h, wide as a road, smooth, no cars and theres a quick run of steps up the centre of the park back to the top of the hill, and it's only a 15 minute skate from the Islandbridge entrance of phoenix park.
Also if you're in the area the IMMA across the road has a fun bank on the kilmainham side if you stay left from the entrance...you'll know it when you see it .