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

youcancallmeal

Seaswimmer wrote: »

Went Deansgrange > Johnny foxes > Cruagh > Glencree > Enniskerry and home via Rathmichael yesterday.
Hadn't been up there for months. The surface on the road going up past Cruagh was poor. Looks like most of the tarmac has gone. Not much of an issue going up but fairly bumpy coming down at speed I would think.

Yeah I cycled a loop past Cruagh a lot during 5km lockdown and I would always go up that way, never down

vintcerf

picked up cycling late February and enjoying it quite a lot! Been doing some tiny hills around me and even got a KOM yesterday! What is the etiquette regarding KOM hunting?

magicbastarder

the etiquette is ride them as fast and hard as you can. (as long as you do it safely!)

Weepsie

And you're obliged to tell us where it is of course.

vintcerf

vintcerf wrote: »

picked up cycling late February and enjoying it quite a lot! Been doing some tiny hills around me and even got a KOM yesterday! What is the etiquette regarding KOM hunting?

Wait for a massive tailwind, drive to the quietest segment you can find, go into the segment with loads of momentum. Tell all the people you know that know nothing about cycling that you are now the fastest in the world.

Nah, I just pick a segment or two on solo rides and give them a rattle if there is no headwind. It's nearly always windy in Ireland so there's a good chance most of the good times on a segment were done with a tailwind. Allows me to enjoy the competitive side of cycling as I've never experienced racing. Using live segments on Strava makes a huge difference.

magicbastarder

also, depending on where you live, you may see times on some segments you'll never match on your own, because they may have been set by group rides out for a hard spin, who will be able to move faster than you on your own.

there's a segment which has been held by several boardsies (i'm currently number 1) but on the same segment in reverse, i'm 69th - it has been used by swords mcnally for races.

Agent Smyth

magicbastarder wrote: »

also, depending on where you live, you may see times on some segments you'll never match on your own, because they may have been set by group rides out for a hard spin, who will be able to move faster than you on your own.

And don't forget the people who leave their garmin on while traveling to and from their start/finish points in their car

DaveyDave

Decided to get out for a quick local spin after running some errands, first spin on a new chain and cassette and the chain is hopping all over the place. Changing to the big ring when up to speed it seems to completely come off the chain ring and drops several gears on the cassette.

Gears shift fine and they're new parts so don't know what it is. Dropped it down to the bike shop but it will be next week before I get it back. Shame as I'm off this week and next week and weather will be decent. First spin in almost a month too

silverharp

are KOM short distances only? can you extract times on say a route like some point in dublin near the city to say Enniskerry village

smacl

Seaswimmer wrote: »

Went Deansgrange > Johnny foxes > Cruagh > Glencree > Enniskerry and home via Rathmichael yesterday.
Hadn't been up there for months. The surface on the road going up past Cruagh was poor. Looks like most of the tarmac has gone. Not much of an issue going up but fairly bumpy coming down at speed I would think.

About a third of it has been repaved last year and is great and the rest is rough enough. Was going down there at ~50kph yesterday and a lad went tearing past me in around 70kph at a guess. Not too bad to descend but you have to keep an eye out for walkers and cars overtaking cyclists on the way up. Only bit I don't like on the Cruagh descent is all the new speed bumps they've added on the bottom along Edmonstown road.

Another trip up the Military road for me over lunch, rediscovering a few old boggy off-road favourites. Looking forward to more longer warmer evenings for this kind of lark.

magicbastarder

silverharp wrote: »

are KOM short distances only? can you extract times on say a route like some point in dublin near the city to say Enniskerry village

no, any segment will have a leaderboard, no matter how ong the segment is.

Seth Brundle

Had a route planned to head down to Sallygap via Brittas and back via Glencree and Ballinascorney today. This would be my first spin in the Wicklow mountains this year.
No sooner had I got to the top of Slade when work called me and needed me asap for "an emergency". As usual, it involved someone who should know how to do something but as they are more senior, I had to get back.
Possibly just as well. I seemed to have forgotten my climbing legs when I left home.

Whilst I kinda took my time getting home, I only managed to get almost 60km @ a slowish 25.1 but with a satisfactory 555m of climbing.
It was cool when I left home so was dressed for it. By the time I got home, I felt that I should be in regular summer gear, it felt that warm. Hopefully this weather stays for a while.

https://www.strava.com/activities/5125500032

Mercian Pro

silverharp wrote: »

are KOM short distances only? can you extract times on say a route like some point in dublin near the city to say Enniskerry village

Existing Strava segments are predominately short and some of them ridiculously so. Where you will find longer ones is on the big climbs like the Wicklow Gap or Slieve Maan. It's unlikely that there is a segment say from Dundrum to Enniskerry as there are a number of traffic lights in between and it would be a bit of a lottery to get them all green when trying for a KoM.

Nigzcurran

New bike which I received in error is gone back to the shop and ive a 4 week wait now for the correct one to arrive, back on the old warhorse till then but I gave it a good rattle after work anyway and got pretty similar times to what i was getting off the new one

MojoMaker

The marketing teams won't like that :pac:

magicbastarder

Glorious evening out there. 62km with 750m of climbing.

rushfan

Cycling home from work last night, beautiful evening for it. Heading through Batter Lane, I had to move closer to the side of the road to allow a couple of cars past. The surface seemed worse than usual, I was thinking it was almost bizarre that I hadn't punctured when...…………………..30 seconds later, kaput! Managed to limp most of the way home
And today when I changed the tube, I managed to strain a muscle in my elbow which meant I couldn't complete the job. Anyway, I'm off to check my Lotto numbers now!!!

LollipopJimmy

Mercian Pro wrote: »

Existing Strava segments are predominately short and some of them ridiculously so. Where you will find longer ones is on the big climbs like the Wicklow Gap or Slieve Maan. It's unlikely that there is a segment say from Dundrum to Enniskerry as there are a number of traffic lights in between and it would be a bit of a lottery to get them all green when trying for a KoM.

There are lots of new ones where I live, I got one retrospectively, some are only 100metres or so and it seems people are making them just to get KOMs. I got a few then stopped chasing

magicbastarder

rushfan wrote: »

Batter Lane

one of the most mundanely named roads in ireland. lana an bothar.

rushfan

rushfan wrote: »

Cycling home from work last night, beautiful evening for it. Heading through Batter Lane, I had to move closer to the side of the road to allow a couple of cars past. The surface seemed worse than usual, I was thinking it was almost bizarre that I hadn't punctured when...…………………..30 seconds later, kaput! Managed to limp most of the way home
And today when I changed the tube, I managed to strain a muscle in my elbow which meant I couldn't complete the job. Anyway, I'm off to check my Lotto numbers now!!!

Well if you were the one person who won 12.4 million tonight I'm calling new bikes all around for boardsies !!!!!

Jim Gazebo

45k @ 27kph today for me. No real climbing, just trying to up the distance. Felt okay at the end, but the legs did feel it a bit on the climb up to the house. Slowly but surely.

Monday before I'll be out again. Running ahigher priority next few days .

rushfan

magicbastarder wrote: »

one of the most mundanely named roads in ireland. lana an bothar.

I was referring to it as Ba(s)tter(d) Lane last night

silverharp

i have never cycled from Rathfarham up glencree way so set that as a mini goal over the next couple of months as a mid week hill foused ride, weather was that good yesterday evening so decided to make a start on it. there is one bit where there is a crossroads and what looks like a vertical wall ahead, Ill keep that for next week.
Toying with the idea of driving to Rathfarnham and starting the ride from there, the rest is junk volume in busy traffic

loyatemu

Agent Smyth wrote: »

And don't forget the people who leave their garmin on while traveling to and from their start/finish points in their car

I got a PB on a segment near me and out of curiosity had a look at the leaderboard. The KOM did it at 75km/h - looked at his route and it was the Wicklow 100 from some years back and he'd clearly left Strava running as he drove home out of Greystones. The next few times were all implausible as well. And don't get me started on people bagging steep KOMs on eBikes... (not that I'd be threatening the top ten in any case though).

Weepsie

Went out for lunch has a meeting got reschulded to a later time, and I got home a little earlier than I thought. Plan was 40 km as I'd done 12 commuting.

Anyway, revisited roads that are not far from me, but I just have not been on in ages due to restrictions. Garmin flashed up I was on a segment I had apparently starred some time ago, and I was ahead of the KoM, so I went for it. 14.5 km at 34.5 kmph thereabouts to smash it by over 4 mins. Now I doubt the previous KoM knew too much about it, but it was Ian Cassidy of cyclefit who has about half of the KoMs around north dublin (the other's being the JC Physio guy) so i'll take that.

49 km at 30 kmph all in and back with loads of time to spare for my meeting

Seth Brundle

64km @ 28.9km/h
had been doing about 30km/h average until the last quarter of the spin. Road resurfacing in Kilcock meant I got delayed and also had to slow down and cycle on the path for a bit (as instructed by the workers). That seemed to knock the wind out of my sails as I found it tough going from then on.
Still, it was the first time out this year without a jacket - wore a long sleeved jersey with a base layer. But the fine weather also meant that there were millions of flies out there too
https://www.strava.com/activities/5132076101

Wildly Boaring

Seth Brundle wrote: »

64km @ 28.9km/h
had been doing about 30km/h average until the last quarter of the spin. Road resurfacing in Kilcock meant I got delayed and also had to slow down and cycle on the path for a bit (as instructed by the workers). That seemed to knock the wind out of my sails as I found it tough going from then on.
Still, it was the first time out this year without a jacket - wore a long sleeved jersey with a base layer. But the fine weather also meant that there were millions of flies out there too
https://www.strava.com/activities/5132076101

Flat part of the world

Seth Brundle

Wildly Boaring wrote: »

Flat part of the world

I know. I should be getting faster times!

magicbastarder

when did strava start putting slight formal sounding locations on cycles?
e.g. 'The Municipal District of Celbridge'; 'The Municipal District of Ashbourne' etc

magicbastarder

Weepsie wrote: »

Garmin flashed up I was on a segment I had apparently starred some time ago

it's quite a weird segment!