Biking in Sept/Oct Ireland

Jude13

Good morning, this is my first post here.
I have lived abroad for the guts of 1/3 of my life but am returning with a few pals to show them around Ireland.
Anyway while the girls are keen to head to Belfast, Galway and lahinch (one of the girls has family there) myself and the lads were flirting with the idea of bringing the bikes with us. I never cycled in Ireland, apart from to school/rugby training so I have no idea how feasible these ideas are.
How long and how realistic is it to ride Dublin to Belfast. Dub to Galway and Galway to Lahinch.
I have only been cycling for a year or so and the lads carry me allot. We tend to cycle part of the tour routes here that the pro's do that are very hilly which usually takes me 4-6 hours in extreme heat. They are much fitter than me and have competed in bike races and Tri's (I generally puke my way up the hills but always finsh). I am just wondering if it would be a a good idea to bring the bikes. We have a people carrier rented which the girls will be driving from Dublin to Belfast to Galway to Lahinch to Dublin.
Cheers in advance for any comments

HivemindXX

I haven't done a lot of cycling along the major roads so I'm not particularly well qualified to give my opinion but since nobody else has yet I will anyway.

Since you'll already have a car if I was you I'd go for cycles around your target locations and then drive from one to the next. The long distance cycle on the major road wouldn't be much fun for me.

There are plenty of good cycling routes around Dublin and I assume Belfast and Galway too. You might be able to work in an existing sportive. For example the Causeway Coaster is in Antrim on the 17th of September - http://www.giantscausewaycoastsportive.com/

If you want to cycle from city to city then you might want to look at the Dublin => Belfast route used by the annual Cooperation Ireland Maracycle.
http://www.cooperationireland.org/files/Updated-Maracycle-RouteMap.pdf
I'm sure if you root around you can find some opinion on that route somewhere on the web.

smacl

The only section I've done is the Glaway Lahinch spin, and this is well worth doing and not too difficult. Basically Oranmore - Kinvarra - Ballyvaghan - around black head - Doolin - cliffs of moher - Liscannor - Lahninch. 88k all in, plenty of time for pints in Looneys afterward.

Lisdoonvarna is shorter, but to miss out on a spin around Black head and the cliffs of Moher when you're cycling through Clare would be an unforgivable sin.

micheal100

+1 for smacl. We did this the other way about 2 weeks ago as part of an M2M cycle, and the route out by Black Head was fantastic. Going up by the Cliffs of Moher was steeper than expected (but not too long), not sure what it's like doing it North to South. Also have a blog about it here

BTW the road surface from Kinvarra to Ballyvaughan was very rough, but I think after that it was good.

smacl

IMHO, the cliffs are much easier from the Doolin side than the Liscannor side, and reward the extra effort for both the views and the descent. Coming out of Doolin, I'd tend to take the left uphill at the main T-junction rather than going on to the road after turn off to the pier, as the latter is a shocking ramp if your not used to it.

blorg

You can do all of those rides avoiding major roads. A GPS is ideal as signage is not good at all on minor roads in Ireland.

Make sure you are prepared for the weather. Although September tends to be one of the best months for cycling, anything can happen.

Dublin to Galway is 205km or so, not the most thrilling of cycles to be honest but you can do it on pleasant small roads.

Dublin to Belfast is around 160km; I have never done that.

I rode around the southern half of Ireland a couple of years ago which includes some of the route you are interested in- I include GPS tracks which may be useful.

Inquitus

Jude13 wrote: »

Good morning, this is my first post here.
I have lived abroad for the guts of 1/3 of my life but am returning with a few pals to show them around Ireland.
Anyway while the girls are keen to head to Belfast, Galway and lahinch (one of the girls has family there) myself and the lads were flirting with the idea of bringing the bikes with us. I never cycled in Ireland, apart from to school/rugby training so I have no idea how feasible these ideas are.
How long and how realistic is it to ride Dublin to Belfast. Dub to Galway and Galway to Lahinch.
I have only been cycling for a year or so and the lads carry me allot. We tend to cycle part of the tour routes here that the pro's do that are very hilly which usually takes me 4-6 hours in extreme heat. They are much fitter than me and have competed in bike races and Tri's (I generally puke my way up the hills but always finsh). I am just wondering if it would be a a good idea to bring the bikes. We have a people carrier rented which the girls will be driving from Dublin to Belfast to Galway to Lahinch to Dublin.
Cheers in advance for any comments

I have only been cycling about a year and did Dublin to Belfast via a slightly scenic and less direct route of 185km in just under 6 hours.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/94757617

That's a nice route steering clear of the main roads, and taking in some nice enough scenery.

Jude13

Thanks to all who replied. I need to start getting into the details of planning this now. I have a few pics of where I ride here, they're not on the net, any idea how I post them (im sure this is asked allot sorry)
The plan so far is:
30th Sept Dublin - Belfast. Drive back to Dublin after staying over night and going out and about.
2nd October Dublin - Galway, stay a day or two and then on to Lahinch.

blorg

Dublin-Galway is about 220km, a long day. Perfectly doable, it is pretty flat, but you would want to be used to 200km+ cycles.

TinyExplosions

blorg wrote: »

Dublin-Galway is about 220km, a long day. Perfectly doable, it is pretty flat, but you would want to be used to 200km+ cycles.

And not start the journey at 4am in October (or was it November)

blorg

No, indeed, I got to Galway for lunch that day, but as the days will be getting shorter they would want to start early, at dawn or just before, and bring lights in case.