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

positron

Clear, calm morning out there but cold enough for the time of the year. I opted to cycle to work once again today (Drogheda-Dundrum). Took the main road (R132) and while the surface is better than the backroads, the traffic makes it more tiresome. There's something peaceful and magical about riding along empty country roads on a nice dry bright cold morning - I got some of that on the first half but not for long,, although I can't complain, it's a work day. Of course one you past the Lissenhall Junction, it's all roundabouts, buses, long ass trucks, broken bike lanes going up and down the sidewalk etc, which only gets worse as you go towards inner city - Drumcondra/Fagans all the way to Capel st are not the most bike (or car) friendly part of the town.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1162559748

2h 20m, 57.6k, rake of PRs (probably because of changing the rear tyre from 35mm Schwalbe Rapid Rob CX tyre to 32mm Schwalbe Marathon). Front is still 35mm CX tyre, bike does look very wrong.

retalivity

An early 100k from dublin to sally gap, round lacken, blessington and Kildare backroads towards the city again. The viewpoint is an..... Interesting place at 7.30am in the morning. A few cars full of young fellas flying around doin donuts, and A junkie couple appeared to be in the middle of a proposal in the carpark. They then also asked me if i was delivering their hash up the hill for them. I quickly belted on...

100k, 4h8m, 1318m vertical

https://www.strava.com/activities/1164096956

neris

a 30km spin from baldoyle out to malahide and then back over to howth for a lap of the hill. legs felt like concrete the whole way and struggled up to the summit from the sutton side. bad enough getting passed by a lad on a fixie but only got worse when i could barely get the power to get past a guy out for a run. Got passed by a large bunch of riders probably about 20 from a southside club near home, some amount of roaring and shouting out them for every little lump bump and drain

Torres09

Nice 65km spin out around NCD beautiful morning for it...Jaysus that stretch of road from Ballyboughal to Naul seemed never ending!!!

neris

Torres09 wrote: »

..Jaysus that stretch of road from Ballyboughal to Naul seemed never ending!!!

I find it worse going the opposite way especially when im up that way coz I've to go out of ballyboughal and down left at that cross roads besides the golf course back to swords

magicbastarder

the nag's head climb is great though. especially coming downhill.

neris

magicbastarder wrote: »

the nag's head climb is great though. especially coming downhill.

yeah thats fine until you hit the flater parts and then it gets draggy coming out of ballyboughal and im usually ****ed at that stage

Fighting Tao

Disappointing 40k today. Had planned to go to from the docklands to Sally Gap via Stocking Lane and try not to sightsee a the viewing point and at Lough Bray. Really struggled with a stitch and my legs felt really heavy while on Stocking Lane and so went to Glencullen, Stepaside and back home.

I was really surprised to see that I set a new PR for Stocking Lane by knocked exactly 5 minutes off my previous best! :eek: It felt never-ending today.

pjmn

42km - Knocknacarra - Moycullen - Spiddal - Knocknacarra - went early - lovely morning, spilling rain now!

LollipopJimmy

50odd kms up around Enniskerry and Glencree. Beautiful day for it. The descents from Johnnie Foxes to Enniskerry can be hairy at times with the loose chippings

dahat

A solo 125km for me today with the aim to climb a bit, got in 1200m and an avg of 29.9km(cruel) but I had a spin up Seskin hill for first time in long long time and took a full min or so off my previous, 7.07m up there is half decent for a big fat lad like myself.

Arcade_Tryer

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

You must be mistaken. It is cyclists that break the lights, not cars. You can ask Pat Kenny or George HOok if you don't believe me.

Yes, but had it been the cyclist braking that red light, he could have killed the poor motorist.

neris

Kit all prepared to go out for this morning, woke up at 7 this morning took a look out the window and said feck that

magicbastarder

yeah, i dropped my wife out to her horseriding this morning; we'd usually see maybe a dozen cyclists on the way out, but not a single one to be seen this morning.

Boscoirl

70km club Spin this morning @~27kmph. Hoped it would be called off with the weather but it was clear out, but looked cool. Put on some layers and had a warm breakfast and a cup of tea to set me up. Headed out the door and it was muggy as hell, ditched the jacket but was still over heating all day

DominoDub

Waited on the rain to pass , not so quick 30KM spin out to Howth thanks to a killer side-head wind coming off the sea the Gulls looked to be enjoying it I was not.

Very slow progress outbound even found hard to breath at times with the constant wind in the face.

Nice trip back ...wet ass reminding me I need to invest in a ass saver

triggermortis

I looked out the window at 07.00 and thought seriously about going back to bed when I saw the weather. Drove to Wicklow and dragged my sorry ass round the reservoir dog 125km route.
Never has a beer and a burger been more welcome...
Great event, pity about the weather.
Met rockstar in the car park when I arrived - only boardsie I spoke to all spin

Mercian Pro

triggermortis wrote: »

Met rockstar in the car park when I arrived - only boardsie I spoke to all spin

Wishbone Ash and myself were there too and caught up with Daroxtar as he was leaving the food stop when we were arriving. There was a time when we could keep up with that fella but not since he started racing

LollipopJimmy

Cycled the Waterford Greenway to Dungarvan and back with a few kms at each end to bring it over 100. It was breathtaking at times, amazing scenery and great coffee.

Next time I'll remember to bring my cycling shoes though, that distance in trainers on look pedals was not nice

Eponymous

Waterford Greenway on Saturday with my neighbour. 90.2km. Most I've covered this year. My Vivosmart stopped recording the activity when we stopped for coffee on the return leg to let the volume of joggers on the half marathon subside rather than trying to negotiate a path through them so that's something I need to be aware of when stopping in future. I think it's because I got back to a recovery heart rate.

route66

Did the Tour de Achill on Saturday. This was organised by the Achill Wheelers with a selection of distances on offer - I went for the longer 110km option (link).

Being the North-West, things can often get a little wet and Saturday's weather did nothing to dispel this reputation. It was wet and very windy. Oh, and there were hills too; lots of them. I struggled around for most of it, with the very occasional wind-assisted portions helping to reduce the misery a little. My fitness has fallen away a lot since I did the WW200 in June; I'd say I felt equally awful at the end of both :eek:

107.7 Kms with 1187 meters elevation, averaging 20.4 KM/H which I was very happy with. The time was 5 hours and 17 minutes on the bike with only an additional 9 minutes for breaks; yes the weather was that bad!

The event was very well organised and the voucher for the chipper van at the finish was a great idea!

Takca

route66 wrote: »

Did the Tour de Achill on Saturday.

I also did the Tour de Achill, I was expecting to get wet and wasn't let down. It was a very wet and windy day in the saddle and after the first half the hills kept coming. I've done a few spins recently with averages in the mid 20's and was hoping for something similar but this route just laughed at me with the climbs into and out of keem draining most of my energy. By the time I got to the final 20km my pace was way down.

Despite being drained towards the end, spending most of the day soaked and fighting against constant winds, I had a great day, met some good people(I don't think I spent any of it cycle solo). The other half and some friends did the shorter distances so we made a weekend of it and topped off the day with a few too many pints in a Achill local that night. I'll be back again for what I thought was a very well run event. +1 for the medal too ;-)

https://www.strava.com/activities/1164499882

route66

route66 wrote: »

The event was very well organised and the voucher for the chipper van at the finish was a great idea!

This should be a rule for all events !!!!!! Om nom nom nom :pac:

Boscoirl

Deleted User wrote: »

This should be a rule for all events !!!!!! Om nom nom nom :pac:

They should use it as the pace car!

CaoimH_in

Had a 70km cycle.

Doesn't the world feel like such a harmonious place when your bike has no mysterious clicks, creaks or rattles, no squeaky brakes, and gear shifting performance is where it should be?

It's the simple things folks!

Alanstrainor

Flat tyre. First on my new bike, with maybe 1,200km covered. A massive piece of glass did it in (well, about the size of my baby finger nail!). Happened on the Clontarf cycle route in this morning and I had two sound lads stop and ask if I needed assistance during the change, so a big thank you to both. Running Schwalbe Double Defense which were thrown in with the bike which had been fine up until now. But to be honest the size of the glass shard would probably have ripped through most tyres.

Chuchote

Boscoirl wrote: »

They should use it as the pace car!

What's that "faster internet" ad with the Minions chasing the banana?

Takca

Boscoirl wrote: »

They should use it as the pace car!

Some of the Achill club members told us at the food stop it was leaving a 15:30 which certainly helped with motivation to get back .... rolled in at 15:27

smacl

Still struggling on the bike after the injury, managing just 18k last night before the shoulders had had enough. Hope to get out every second day and slowly build up distance and endurance but it looks like it will be some time to get back to a pre-accident level.

CaoimH_in

smacl wrote: »

Still struggling on the bike after the injury, managing just 18k last night before the shoulders had had enough. Hope to get out every second day and slowly build up distance and endurance but it looks like it will be some time to get back to a pre-accident level.

It feels like a long road, but you have all the time.