Post Snow Road Conditions?

setanta159

Am hoping to get out tomorrow (Sunday) for a decent spin around North County Dublin. Just wondering what conditions are like on most roads now. Was going to head out this morning but decided on cleaning bike, chain etc. instead as roads looked very slick. Would be interested if anyone has been up by the Naul or Oldtown as I'd normally head out that direction. Also from driving along roads in the city it appears that the ice has managed to tear lumps out of the sides (Cycle lanes) of some roads that were not great to begin with.

petethedrummer

I was out round Malahide, Donabate, Portrane and Swords today and it was all fine. The closer you are to the coast the less likely there will be ice on the roads.

Raam

Some of the Swords lads were out today and said the roads are fine.

G rock

similarly anyone been out on the roads lucan/celbridge/maynooth direction?

Diarmuid

my rollers are surprisingly ice free.

Beasty

setanta159 wrote: »

Am hoping to get out tomorrow (Sunday) for a decent spin around North County Dublin. Just wondering what conditions are like on most roads now.

If you don't hear from me later on this evening, I'm probably in casualty, and the NCD roads should be avoided ....;)

snollup

Met.ie is predicting a balmy +6 tomorrow so will be giving the trainer a break & heading out around NCD. Will aim for about 80km. Leaving Clontarf about 9 and heading out Malahide Rd towards Skeries, Balbriggin.

English Bob

Was out with swords spin & roads seemed ok apart from badly cut-up surface & some patches of ice. Found today's spin tough. Mustve been all those double deckers I've been scoffing over the last 2 weeks!!!

nomadic

G rock wrote: »

similarly anyone been out on the roads lucan/celbridge/maynooth direction?

grand

manwithaplan

Raam wrote: »

Some of the Swords lads were out today and said the roads are fine.

Didn't think anyone would show up this morning and was unsure about the road conditions so I gave it a miss. I did a few laps of Howth instead.

Beasty

Beasty wrote: »

If you don't hear from me later on this evening, I'm probably in casualty, and the NCD roads should be avoided ....;)

Clear skies and falling temperatures, so discretion got the better part of valour, and I'm on the VR, just having completed 38km of Paris Roubaix. Going to do a cool down to complete my 90 mins

Dubba

Cork City & south side coastal routes - Monkstown, Passage, etc. were grand today.

First time out in a good bit, well enjoyed it and looking forward to going out again tomorrow!

ednwireland

Beasty wrote: »

Clear skies and falling temperatures, so discretion got the better part of valour, and I'm on the VR, just having completed 38km of Paris Roubaix. Going to do a cool down to complete my 90 mins

no gritters out overnight in donegal roads covered in ice:mad:

was all kitted up to go as well

G rock

first time back out this morning dub-lucan-leixlip-maynooth-celbridge-home.

my slip outside leixlip didn't kill me but the effort of the first spin back out nearly did.

roads mostly ok but a few parts still slippy

Inbox

Anyone been out along the cycle track in Clontarf,Dollymount,Sutton and up the long Hill of Howth? Any ice around there?

petethedrummer

Inbox wrote: »

Anyone been out along the cycle track in Clontarf,Dollymount,Sutton and up the long Hill of Howth? Any ice around there?

I'm just about to go. The main road will be fine. I'd say the cycle path may still have some ice patches. If you can wait two hours I can tell you for definite.

.
.
.
.
....2hrs later......it was fine. nothing to worry about.

Bulmers

Inbox wrote: »

Anyone been out along the cycle track in Clontarf,Dollymount,Sutton and up the long Hill of Howth? Any ice around there?

done this route this morning, was fine..however D15 was like a skating rink,phoenix park at 10:30am wasn't great either so decided to hit town and across to howth..all fine out that way but i'd imagine most places thawed by now

setanta159

Went out for a very enjoyable spin starting at 9.30. Didn't do the Naul and Oldtown as planned but took coast road from Fairview up to howth, Baldoyle, Malahide Swords, back of airport etc. Roads were fine for the most part although was still frosty at 9.30 in spots. The bicycle track along the coast was free of ice. Some debris along the sides of most roads. Bike has never been filthier! A relief to get out again;.... now for some guilt free pints

goldencleric

Have a rather nasty bit of road rash and a ruined pair of tights - be careful out around Oldtown and St. Margarets, lots of black ice! There was also a car in a wall 20 metres from where I crashed so its not as safe as everyone is assuming. Lucky I was only 5 mins from home but they were a very shaky five mins.

macnab

I have been doing 10k spins over the bad weather, today I saw the most dangerous road conditions so far. Black ice everywhere. I much prefer snow, at least there is grip. I live outside Kilcock and cycle a lot of country lanes with high hedges that dont get much direct sunlight.

levitronix

Any one been up the N81 ? was going to head out tomorow afternoon

setanta159

goldencleric wrote: »

Have a rather nasty bit of road rash and a ruined pair of tights - be careful out around Oldtown and St. Margarets, lots of black ice! There was also a car in a wall 20 metres from where I crashed so its not as safe as everyone is assuming. Lucky I was only 5 mins from home but they were a very shaky five mins.

Hope you are ok there. I'm in Santry and original plan was to go out that way but as there was still frost about this morning I decided against it and headed for the coast. Those roads, particularly every entrance/exit into Oldtown, must be amongst the worst maintained surfaces anywhere in Dublin. I'll be avoiding them for some time yet following your experiences especially with temps forecast to plummet again by the end of the week.

cosman9373

levitronix wrote: »

Any one been up the N81 ? was going to head out tomorow afternoon

was out there this morn around 10am, was fine up to turn off for kilbride, next 2km was pure ice. I passed a bmw in a ditch then came off myself. Talking to a couple of guys helping free the bmw and they said there was a stretch the far side of blessington that was as bad, you couldn't walk on it. really didn't expect that out there. wasn't supposed to drop below 3 degrees overnight. some nasty road rash and a stiff neck and shoulder.

The tax man

levitronix wrote: »

Any one been up the N81 ? was going to head out tomorow afternoon

I headed out to Blessington this morning and it was a bit dodgy in spots. No thaw from halfway up the embankment.
The main road itself is fine but still a lot of snow at the edge of the road. The big problem was melt water running across the road and freezing. Take care with parts of the road in shade especially where the left turn for Kilbride is, it was an ice rink @ 11.30am. (both sides of road)
Have a butchers at the lake on your left before the Blue Gardenia it's completely frozen over.

levitronix

knocklyon to greystones , best way to avoid the ice, sugestions ?

cosman9373

levitronix wrote: »

knocklyon to greystones , best way to avoid the ice, sugestions ?

helicopter!!

The tax man

@cosman9373 sorry to hear you had a spill. I had the rear wheel slide out from under me a few times only to catch some grip,thank god. Some parts off the road all I could do was stop pedalling and just wheel across the ice and just hope the front didn't go on me. I turned around just at Blessington,I'd had enough

doozerie

If it is any guide, my house is roughly about 120m above sea level in the Marley Park area and the road is still a sheet of ice outside my house and down the hill from it. Elevation isn't the only factor, of course, but I'd expect conditions to be bad south of here.

For my part, unless I want an initial 15 minute walk on cleats (on ice too, just for the entertainment of the locals), or am willing to drive down the icy hill with the bike in the back of the car (the cycling equivalent of hopping in the car to nip across the road to a neighbour's house i.e. just wrong!), getting out on the road bike is out for me for a while yet.

-K2-

Today I went Dublin city centre -> Shankill (coast road) -> Bray -> Greystones -> Kilcoole -> Newcastle -> back the same way, up Vico Road and in through Dun Laoghaire.

The road was fine until after Newcastle when large patches of ice started to appear, but they could be avoided. I turned back about 3km from Rathnew where there was an impassible ice sheet (on 23mm tires) across the entire road. Side roads looked like disaster zones all the way out.

redmenace1

Took a tumble today, out near Summerhill on the road from Dunboyne. I hit black-ice on a descent, despite taking it easy, so be warned its lethal in spots.
Luckily I didn't break anything but feel stiff & sore tonight. (Time for more painkillers)

Have to say a lot of motorists stopped to see if I was ok which was nice & one man came out of his garden and got my bike fixed-up so I could limp the 20k home. It was 2pm and I had up to then managed the conditions so it goes to show once you hit ice you have no chance.:o

Staying off bike for a while...........

macnab

I was around the summerhill area today too, the roads were lethal. My knobbly tyres were all over the place, even on level surfaces.

ednwireland

looks like thats it for me this year - looking at the forecasts

and the state of the roads

as least joe bastardi's predicting an end to this by xmas (got eeverything else pretty much right this year)

http://www.accuweather.com/ukie/bastardi-europe-blog.asp

doozerie

On the other hand, this suggests a possible grim time ahead for a while:

All of these factors are building blocks towards what may become an epochal cold spell for Ireland and Britain in the next 20-30 day interval.

I'd like to look on the bright side and focus on the more optimistic outlook, but it's Monday morning and my optimism gene doesn't get out of bed until Tuesday at the earliest.

tomasrojo

ednwireland wrote: »

looks like thats it for me this year - looking at the forecasts

and the state of the roads

as least joe bastardi's predicting an end to this by xmas (got eeverything else pretty much right this year)

http://www.accuweather.com/ukie/bastardi-europe-blog.asp

His scepticism towards anthropogenic global warming is his own business, but his spelling is rather poor ("something to be hold"?), and he seems to confuse climate and weather when discussing the significance of the recent cold weather, which is something rather odd for a senior meteorologist to do.

Armstrong and Miller had quite a good sketch about people confusing the two at the weekend. One of them is a physicist, IIRC.

fletch

Phoenix Park cycle lanes were dodgy this morning. Came flying through the Castleknock Gate on to the cycle lane and had to swerve into the grass to avoid the ice....continued down Chesterfield Avenue on the road.

pantani

was driving to dublin from wexford on sat bout 10.30am and saw two lots of cyclists heading south around ashford ,roads seemed fine just wondering who they were?:cool:

Caroline_ie

D15 was not great this morning. The cycle lanes on the snugborough rd were still icy. It was much better at 1PM.
Need to cycle to town from D15 tomorrow, I will avoid the park.
I think with the amount of crap left near the gutters, bring a few spare tubes ...

The roads around Cork are all completley ice free today and hopefully will continue to be for a few more days. However, all the grit that was spread has turned many roads into a gooey, slimey mess that is quite slippy. One of my clubmates had an off on it recentley. I was out earlier and was losing traction at some points while climbing, and had to take the corners very cautiously indeed.

tomasrojo

Caroline_ie wrote: »

I think with the amount of crap left near the gutters, bring a few spare tubes ...

I got a bad tear in the rear tyre of the Brompton. Have to buy a new tyre now. Unbelievable amount of debris of all types on the road.

chakattack

Phoenix park cycle lanes were doable on MTB tonight, big patch of ice as you join at the castleknock gate which I freewheeled over with fingers crossed and a few dots of slushy ice near the zoo. Roads everywhere else were clear.

dario28

For Portmarnock to Town - Malahide road way or coast bike path

Should I go road bike or MTB ?

Anyone know what they are like - Dont fancy another day on the DART

Raam

Coast bike path is fine, at least the part I was on yesterday was.

instinct

The howth road was fine but the cycle path through Fairview was a bit icy in parts.

But there is a slick on some of the roads that I didn't like the look of. One car spun its tires while trying to do a hill start in Raheny.

So its still greasy out there.

crashoveroid

Deleted User wrote: »

The roads around Cork are all completley ice free today and hopefully will continue to be for a few more days. However, all the grit that was spread has turned many roads into a gooey, slimey mess that is quite slippy. One of my clubmates had an off on it recentley. I was out earlier and was losing traction at some points while climbing, and had to take the corners very cautiously indeed.

That was me noting major just some skin went missing on a plus point it is helping my weight loss goals. Didn't tear tights or jacket but i did destroy a good pair of overshoes and scratched up a new set of bars and bar tape.