Tell us about your new improved government regulations compliant cycle part II

Don't Chute!

Thargor wrote: »

Is that free to take a bike in there?

Belmont? Yes to go in on a bike is free. I think it’s €3 for parking a car though.

CramCycle

Thargor wrote: »

Is that free to take a bike in there?

The Bray head route just has a few gates but its a public through way. You are not a llowed bikes up from the Bray beach side.

Don't Chute! wrote: »

Belmont? Yes to go in on a bike is free. I think it’s €3 for parking a car though.

Yep its free, its nothing too technical but it is fun, I could do it on a road/CX bike relatively easy. There are a few technical parts but you can go around them. Little pump park for the kids as well if you have any.

Mercian Pro

As a teenager I used to dread hearing Slade mentioned, not because of Noddy Holder, but because it meant more hill climbing with the cycling club. Yesterday I decided to check out if the reality matched the memory and turned off the N81 soon after Brittas onto the Slade Road. With the beech trees at their Autumn best, the Camac River off to the right and a nice fall in the road, this was cycling at its best. Eventually I came to the sharp left turn for Coolmine Road and came to an abrupt halt. Trying to simultaneously change down both the front and rear derailleurs on a steep ramp is not to be recommended but is a good way to dislodge a chain. Eventually I got going again and got stuck into the climb that varied from relatively easy to 14% before turning left onto Lynch Park Road. More of the same here followed by a nice descent almost brought me back to Brittas but a right onto Slademore Road ensured another climb up to Slieve Thoul forest (aka Saggart Hill). Staying within the county bounds involved a right turn here and a bumpy descent down Lee's Lane before heading home via Newcastle and Lucan.

Not as bad as I remember it from 50 years ago but I suspect a good deal slower as I didn't have half the McQuaid clan setting the pace

MangleBadger

Quick 30k and 500m of climbing. Was warming the legs up on the new Sandycove cycle lane when this happened...

wheelo01

Did 75km @ 26kph, probably went too far as I'm hoping to do 100 on Saturday.

Drimnagh, Churchtown, Dundrum, boothstown, east link (for a tolled road you'd expect a better surface, no?) East wall, coast road malahide, swords, Margaret's, Finglas and home.
Was a beautiful day once the rain stopped (thankfully before I headed out).
Probably overdressed again, but hey, such is life.

Roll on Saturday.


https://strava.app.link/LFlsPM6xAab

Tell me how

Bought a new rear wheel yesterday and they swapped over tube, tyre and cassette from old one.
Aimed on doing 50Km today. Got a puncture after 2km, swapped out tube. Only cause I could see was rim tape not on wheel correctly and some holes were half exposed. Carried out with my ride and did 25Km out and 25km back and was doing a 5Km loop near home when wheel went flat again. Hadn't a second tube and didn't feel like patching the first one so pumped again and rolled another 2km before giving up and walking last couple of km home.
Frustrating, but could have been worse given the route I did.

triggermortis

Felt quite mild riding to work this morning and less traffic than usual - probably only saw a dozen cars total.
Still, a ridiculous time to start work...

Kevhog1988

short spin this morning. Felt terrible for the first half and then loosened out after that, a result of running up and down a hill last night in an atttempt to get faster at running . Met hardly any cars and noticed all passed me perfectly. A rare occurence

https://www.strava.com/activities/4197069977

Type 17

wheelo01 wrote: »

... east link (for a tolled road you'd expect a better surface, no?)...

How naive of you to presume that money from a toll would actually be spent on the tolled infrastructure itself

brownian

Took a look at the new Dublin Perimeter audax route yesterday - the forecast looked right, the inbox was nearly empty....

https://www.audaxireland.org/audax/permanents/dublin-county-border-200-permanent/

Well worth the effort. Familiar roads up to Foxes, Feather beds. Down (steep!) to Bohernabreenagh, and up (also quite definite), to emerge eventually near the Kilpedder range, and then across to Brittas. First and only Garda Checkpoint of the day. Totally new roads for me from then on, up the back of Brittas, down the other side, up again (Slieve Toul?), down to Newcastle (50k or so in, where's there a petrol station or a spar? Nowhere, it seems?)...on to the big Maxol at Adamstown. Snack. Picked up a puncture soon after, but at least I could get off the road, and it was warm and dry when wrestling the tyre off, etc etc. Hard to get decent pressure with a mini pump - will bring my mini-foot-pump from here on in...it was 100k more before I got a go of a track pump at Jimmy's in Portmarnock.

Anyway, Lucan, Clonsilla, the wild wastes of Damastown (long slow drag up D'town Ave), and my Wicklow-bred brain is thinking 'must be near the top of Dublin now'.

No.

Oldtown (not a real place), then a definite climb (I'd beeen getting used to the flat lands) and a drop in to Naul. Stop in Balbriggan for a McDonalds, then quite nice roads to Skerries. Bumpy and lots of traffic to Rush, and busy on the Swords Road, then down Estuary Road (nice) and through Malahide. A touch of tailwind most welcome here. Portmarnock, out to Howth, a short sharp climb to the Summit pub, down to Sutton strand, then the thing of wonder that is the cycle way through Raheny. We need one of those on the south side.

Alfie Byrne, the East Link, the Strand road all a lot less fun (it's dark by now), but then cycle ways down to Blackrock, out to Dun Laoghaire and through Dalkey. Hitting the 200 here, and not really needing to cycle in and out to Dundrum again, so over Killiney Hill Road and home via Ballybrack.

200.5k, 2000m, avg 24.5.

A voyage of discovery, once I got past Bohernabreenagh. Some fine roads out around Brittas. Lucan to Damastown a necessary evil. Lots of flat open agriculture nearly all the way to Balbriggan. Some nice coastal bits around Skerries, but the main road is busy busy. Howth to Alfie Byrne fun but flat.

Kudos to the route maker.

devonp

brownian wrote: »

First and only Garda Checkpoint of the day. Totally new roads for me from then on, up the back of Brittas, down the other side, up again (Slieve Toul?), down to Newcastle (50k or so in, where's there a petrol station or a spar? Nowhere, it seems?)...on to the big Maxol at Adamstown.

Kudos to the route maker.

Familar country to me, there is a coffee shop at the Blue Gardina not sure about food as its too near me . the Garda chk point is nearly always there , usually its a "hello" waved on never asked for details...

magicbastarder

brownian wrote: »

https://www.audaxireland.org/audax/permanents/dublin-county-border-200-permanent/

the county boundaries on ridewithgps are weirdly smoothed out. don't know why, but i guess it's not usually a problem. it makes it look like you left dublin between oldtown and the naul when you actually didn't.

brownian

magicbastarder wrote: »

the county boundaries on ridewithgps are weirdly smoothed out. don't know why, but i guess it's not usually a problem. it makes it look like you left dublin between oldtown and the naul when you actually didn't.

Yes, noticed that, but only this morning. Couple of other spots too. Lovely smooth curves, not at all matching the usual 'ditch, river, coast, ridge' features that seem to be the standard for county (and national) boundaries.

D13exile

Just gotten my bike back after a good service and upgrade. Got new wider 44cm bars on it, a longer 120mm stem and all cables replaced. They said the chain (which is now 6 years old with a big mileage on it) didn't need replacing and the cassette and front rings were good for another year. They also trued both wheels as I'd found a loose spoke in the rear one after noticing some mild vibration when on good surfaced roads. Soooooooo........all good to go? Well I thought I'd pump up the tyres as I always do before a spin and it was then I noticed that the rear tyre wasn't seated properly as the tube was sticking out under it! Deflated both tyres and checked both wheels and made sure everything was in place before re-inflating them. I wouldn't have gotten far before I had my first ever pinch flat. Guys in the shop did a good job on the bike but forgot the "little" things.

Anyways, out I go for a short 30kms as I'm on a new diet that involves eating just one meal a day (its for health reasons as while I'm not carrying any obvious excess weight, an ultrasound scan showed that I've a fatty liver and pancreas and I need to eliminate this "unseen" fat to avoid health problems in the future). So I go out, minus timing myself and plan to take it easy. Well I didn't as despite not eating for 22 hours at that point, I felt good and it was great being back on the bike after a week off due to the bike being in the shop. I thought I'd find the wider bars and longer stem (as recommended by my bike fitter) unusual but I settled right into them and strangely, my remaining issue of a numb left hand had disappeared. Was going well until about the 20km point when I hit the wall/bonked and the speed fell right off. Guess I'd used up my remaining glycogen stores and my body was switching to burning fat as the doctor had said. However this feeling only lasted for a few kms and then I felt my legs come back to life and I picked up speed again. Got home in about 58 minutes which surprised me as I thought the mid session slump would have made me go over the hour. Don't think I'd fancy doing a much longer spin in a fasted state but the doctor said I can switch to two meals a day at the weekends and so I think I'll leave the long cycles to then after I've had a good breakfast!

Seth Brundle

Went out with the intention of doing about 110kms.
Headed down to Glending and followed the hill lane towards Punchestown - found the ascent to be mucky so took it handy. Turns out the descent was even muckier Both the clean bike and myself are now covered in muck.
Got to Sallins and found that the road from there along the canal to Digby Bridge is still closed (until tomorrow or Monday) so had to do a U-turn and that helped make me decide to just head back to Leixlip and get to my local coffee shop before she closes at 4 (got there with about a minute to spare).
In the end, I did 78km @ 27.6km/h with 503m - now thinking that I should have stayed out :rolleyes:
https://www.strava.com/activities/4198453071

This feckin eejit overtook me a few minutes into my spin - I think they were braking as they overtook me
https://streamable.com/60jq90

Seth Brundle

Seth Brundle wrote: »

This feckin eejit overtook me a few minutes into my spin - I think they were braking as they overtook me
https://streamable.com/60jq90

That was as pointless an overtake as they come, f sake.

Mercian Pro

devonp wrote: »

Familar country to me, there is a coffee shop at the Blue Gardina not sure about food as its too near me..

Fairly limited fare - nice if you've a sweet tooth but not great if you're relying on it to help you get round the county boundary. A bit pricey too at nearly €6 for a coffee and homemade biscuit.

Wishbone Ash

brownian wrote: »

- Oldtown (not a real place)...

Oh dear - we won't be having that! Just wait until 07Lapierre comes along.

brownian wrote:

....Kudos to the route maker.

He left out Garristown and the whole Donabate and Portrane peninsula.

devonp wrote: »

... there is a coffee shop at the Blue Gardina not sure about food as its too near me ....

It doesn't seem to keep regular hours - was closed the last two occasions I passed it. And, as MP has said, they don't do any savoury fare.

Wishbone Ash

D13exile wrote: »

... I'm on a new diet that involves eating just one meal a day ....

Sweet Jesus! :eek::eek::eek:

I often have one meal per hour!

brownian

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Oh dear - we won't be having that! Just wait until 07Lapierre comes along.

He left out Garristown and the whole Donabate and Portrane peninsula.

It doesn't seem to keep regular hours - was closed the last two occasions I passed it. And, as MP has said, they don't do any savoury fare.

I spent a good 15 minutes looking forward to Oldtown. Then it ... didn't...happen. So, apologies to anyone who loves the place, but where was it yesterday?

True that G-town and Donabate/Portrane (which is rather nice) were left out. But I guess the aim was to keep as far west as possible, thus avoiding as much of the urban horrors as possible. While keeping the distance to exactly 200. So something had to be pruned. The south edge hasn't that many roads, while the N edge has a plethora.

I think the Blue Gardenia was closed when I passed. yesterday, but TBH it wasn't on my plan to stop at Brittas...though it's likely much nicer than the Maxol in Adamstown.

Wishbone Ash

brownian wrote: »

...True that G-town and Donabate/Portrane (which is rather nice) were left out. But I guess the aim was to keep as far west as possible, thus avoiding as much of the urban horrors as possible. While keeping the distance to exactly 200. So something had to be pruned....

Ah yea, I know it had to be kept to 200k but I'd find the coast more scenic and interesting than that drab characterless industrial section along Damastown.

Enduro

D13exile wrote: »

J

Anyways, out I go for a short 30kms as I'm on a new diet that involves eating just one meal a day (its for health reasons as while I'm not carrying any obvious excess weight, an ultrasound scan showed that I've a fatty liver and pancreas and I need to eliminate this "unseen" fat to avoid health problems in the future). So I go out, minus timing myself and plan to take it easy. Well I didn't as despite not eating for 22 hours at that point, I felt good and it was great being back on the bike after a week off due to the bike being in the shop. I thought I'd find the wider bars and longer stem (as recommended by my bike fitter) unusual but I settled right into them and strangely, my remaining issue of a numb left hand had disappeared. Was going well until about the 20km point when I hit the wall/bonked and the speed fell right off. Guess I'd used up my remaining glycogen stores and my body was switching to burning fat as the doctor had said. However this feeling only lasted for a few kms and then I felt my legs come back to life and I picked up speed again. Got home in about 58 minutes which surprised me as I thought the mid session slump would have made me go over the hour. Don't think I'd fancy doing a much longer spin in a fasted state but the doctor said I can switch to two meals a day at the weekends and so I think I'll leave the long cycles to then after I've had a good breakfast!

FWIW I regularly do 5 hour spins in the Wicklow hills in a fasted state without any energy issues. Once you adapt to be an efficient fat-burner its no bother. Just be patient with it. It takes time to adapt (like all stress->adapt training).

Mercian Pro

I think there's a very strong case for expanding County Dublin and annexing sections of Wicklow, Kildale and Meath. With expert guidance/advice from those who post here, we could devise far better boundaries and avoid nasty urban sprawl on our border cycles. A 30km push south would take in Laragh with its culinary and climbing options while a mere 15km sortie west could give cycling Dubs access to both the Coffee Mill and Timeless. The only slight negative might be the training needed before taking on a 300km+ border ride.

magicbastarder

i reckon we should bagsie bellewstown?
half of the people in ashbourne consider themselves dubs anyway, but ashbourne is boring, cycling-wise.

Wishbone Ash

magicbastarder wrote: »

i reckon we should bagsie bellewstown?
half of the people in ashbourne consider themselves dubs anyway, but ashbourne is boring, cycling-wise.

We could also take Stamullen. They don't really appreciate it in Meath and everyone living there is from Dublin anyway. It would give us Snowtown and the happy valley.

......and while we're at it, what about Ardcath also?

magicbastarder

magicbastarder wrote: »

i reckon we should bagsie bellewstown?
half of the people in ashbourne consider themselves dubs anyway, but ashbourne is boring, cycling-wise.

You're welcome to it , came up by the Kilsaran place from the R150 a few weeks ago for the first time in forever and near killed me due to lack of miles in the legs in recent times and the bastard of a section 500m to 1km up to the left hand bend. Before and after that it was grand / manageable for me but those 500m's hurt me.

Took me a bit more than 4:50 I tell ya

https://www.strava.com/segments/4185841

Wishbone Ash

Deleted User wrote: »

You're welcome to it , came up by the Kilsaran place from the R150 a few weeks ago for the first time in forever and near killed me due to lack of miles in the legs in recent times and the bastard of a section 500m to 1km up to the left hand bend. Before and after that it was grand / manageable for me but those 500m's hurt me.

Took me a bit more than 4:50 I tell ya

https://www.strava.com/segments/4185841

According to Strava, I've only done that once - I'll have to get out more.

magicbastarder

Yeah, you need to cycle a bit more.

In seriousness, it's a tough climb. The gradient never stays consistent so you can't get into a rhythm on it.

Yeah you swing over the road from Duleek to the right feeling grand here's this handy bit then the ramp then the bit that should be ok but isn't ... see the ramp.

EDIT: Must check my phone, as there are some views up that road that should be in the photos taken on your cycle thread.

magicbastarder

there's a faatastic set of farm buildings on the right just as the road kicks up at the bottom of the climb. looks like a small old monastery nearly. easier to see from the bike than getting a good angle on street view.

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.6565818,-6.378997,3a,75y,302.93h,80.76t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sQZCKHtLD2dtIr2ga3ZYN2A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192