The Road Condition Warning thread

LennoxR

C3PO wrote: »

Came in on the MTB again (Shankill to Ballsbridge) - actually not to bad at all! Left home at 5.45am and hardly saw a car the whole way in. The edges of the road are a bit dodgy with lumps of frozen ice but fine apart from that! My hands have never been so cold though despite winter gloves + liners! Followed bicycle tyre tracks most of the way in ... narrow road tyres ... not sure when brave ends and stupid starts!!

Do you not have the day off? I thought everything was shut today.

Fair play to you and all, but make sure you get home before the actual storm starts at 4pm or so. My mate has taken his cyclocross bike to the local park. I declined his offer to join him!

mvt

Out on mtb around inchicore/kilmainham earlier.
Not too bad,very little traffic but wind starting to pick up now so happy to be off it.
Wouldn't fancy it later.

Wishbone Ash

LennoxR wrote: »

Do you not have the day off? I thought everything was shut today...

Hundreds of thousands of people work in essential services. Mrs WA battled her way across 3 counties early this morning. Kudos to the lad in a 4x4 who towed her for 12k. I'm on annual leave but I'm expecting to be asked to come in this evening to cover a night shift. We had to get the defence forces to bring some of our staff to work in isolated areas.

Annie get your Run

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Hundreds of thousands of people work in essential services. Mrs WA battled her way across 3 counties early this morning. Kudos to the lad in a 4x4 who towed her for 12k. I'm on annual leave but I'm expecting to be asked to come in this evening to cover a night shift. We had to get the defence forces to bring some of our staff to work in isolated areas.

I've no idea what she does but Kudos to Mrs WA and probably a thank you deserved too if she's essential services.

Wishbone Ash

Annie get your Run wrote: »

I've no idea what she does but Kudos to Mrs WA and probably a thank you deserved too if she's essential services.

Thanks Annie. She's a senior manager in the HSE. She wanted to show solidarity with the front line staff who also experienced great difficulty getting to and from work. She also has an overnight bag with her as she expects to be spending the night in her office.

C3PO

I’m not in the Essential Services but rather Financial Services ... apparently just as important!!! But the ISE announced that they were closing at 12.00pm so I’m home now!! Much harder work in a strong wind but not nearly as cold as this morning! Very little traffic and didn’t feel that I was in any more danger than usual!
Hopefully it’ll blow over tonight and can get up the hills tomorrow - always great fun on the MTB in fresh snow!

LennoxR

C3PO wrote: »

I’m not in the Essential Services but rather Financial Services ... apparently just as important!!! But the ISE announced that they were closing at 12.00pm so I’m home now!! Much harder work in a strong wind but not nearly as cold as this morning! Very little traffic and didn’t feel that I was in any more danger than usual!
Hopefully it’ll blow over tonight and can get up the hills tomorrow - always great fun on the MTB in fresh snow!

Fair play to you. I don't have an mtb so I'll be on foot until this blows over.

Mr. Grieves

I went out on the mountain bike earlier. With fat knobbly tyres there's really plenty of grip, except where wind has removed the softer snow sitting on top of compacted ice in places. The riding position of a MTB is confidence inspiring too.

Anyway this article has me convinced that winter cycling is not so extreme with the right preparation/precautions.

At least cyclists are not posing any risk to others. I saw two or 3 rear wheel drive cars looking fairly out of control yesterday, and one (front wheel drive) car do a 180 degree spin today.

mloc123

Anyone been out on a CX bike? Thinking I'll get out later for a look

RobFowl

mloc123 wrote: »

Anyone been out on a CX bike? Thinking I'll get out later for a look

Been out yesterday and today on the Cx bike, off road fine but some cars making the road a bit sketchy..

guanciale

^
Tried to go out earlier and had to turn back after 5 mins. Snow drifts where I am are too deep - up to the BB. Just couldnt go forward so went for a hike instead. That was fun but a tough workout.
I was out yesterday and Wednesday. Today is relatively mild weather wise but for me not cyclable.

Harrybelafonte

Went for a walk this morning. Pretty rough. Anyone near Celbridge or has anyone walked the canal?

Wishbone Ash

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

...Anyone near Celbridge or has anyone walked the canal?

:eek: The ice wouldn't be thick enough for that!

magicbastarder

kildare seems to have been hammered by all accounts. meath, too:

https://twitter.com/RaymondKeogh/status/969626053034594306

There has to be what 2 meters of height there? :eek:

magicbastarder

a road fairly well known to the NCD crowd - this was taken less than 1km north of the sam dennigan depot on the road to garristown.



it's taken north of the depot, looking south.

mloc123

mloc123 wrote: »

Anyone been out on a CX bike? Thinking I'll get out later for a look

Got out for a very slow 4km. Mostly grand, road is now an inch of compacted ice. Some places churned up, they were easy... The smooth sections not as much.

mloc123

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Went for a walk this morning. Pretty rough. Anyone near Celbridge or has anyone walked the canal?

Yup. Out the clane road direction. See previous post.

Cleared our driveway and the footpath outside the house and it actually dried. At least 5cm of fresh snow there now in less than an hour or so.

CramCycle

Deleted User wrote: »

Cleared our driveway and the footpath outside the house and it actually dried. At least 5cm of fresh snow there now in less than an hour or so.

Cleared most of ours earlier, started again when I was done and looks no different to the places I didn't clear.

Diet took a break today and cycled down to the local takeaway, good fun. Helped three cars stuck on side roads. Got a bit of practice in on MTB handling, but there was a tailwind on the way back, very weird not having to pedal on a MTB. Like downhill I imagine.

Main roads in Bray are still passable but with caution, side roads vary between compacted ice and fresh powder.

secman

No cycling in Dublin 24, got cabin fever tonight, put a few layers and waterproofs on and went for an hour long walk in horizontal snow. Had to walk on near empty roads as paths were full of drifts of snow. Enjoyed it though. Not as good as cycling obviously .

It's bloody hard work trudging through isn't it? I love being out in it and so does the dog but walking into the wind with it lashing your face isn't nice and in places it was hard for me to see where a footpath stopped and the road / kerb was. I wore my clear cycling glasses tonight though having been out in it the other night so quick wipe with a gloved hand was all that was needed.

I did work up a bit of a sweat in my layers and when I got home I was down to a tshirt and got a reminder of how cold you can get from cooling sweat and how quickly as I went out to give the dog his dinner, I'd say 30 seconds max I was out to put his bowl down and fill the other with water. **** me

C3PO

An issue with a power outage in the office overnight so cycled in to reset a few systems. 28kms round trip on the mtb (Shankill-Ballsbridge). Conditions were terrible as far as Deansgrange on the way in and managed to fall off twice (hurtee knee)! Roads were really wet and slushy on the way home but fairly clear!

Wishbone Ash

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Thanks Annie. She's a senior manager in the HSE. She wanted to show solidarity with the front line staff who also experienced great difficulty getting to and from work. She also has an overnight bag with her as she expects to be spending the night in her office.

Mrs WA couldn't get home from work this evening either so is heading into her second night of trying to sleep in her office.

Fighting Tao

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Mrs WA couldn't get home from work this evening either so is heading into her second night of trying to sleep in her office.

She is out legending you!

Yes I made up that word.

magicbastarder

Anyone been out around NCD today? Wondering how the roads are, if I should try heading out in the morning.

Wishbone Ash

magicbastarder wrote: »

Anyone been out around NCD today? Wondering how the roads are, if I should try heading out in the morning.

R127, R128, R132 are fine but down to one lane in places. Not sure about other roads.

CramCycle

One of my neighbours hasn't been home in three days as she was worried she wouldn't get back into work (full time residential care, no extra pay for staying the night and working while she does as, well, what else would you do), four of her co workers set up a bed rotation system in a spare room, taking turns getting naps. Another neighbour dug out the entire road on his own, just because, he didn't have to leave home until Monday. I thought it was the council until someone corrected me.

I was feeling all proud of myself for giving another neighbour a dig out, and pushing a few cars, good deed done for the day, when I realise, nothing to be proud of, it should be the minimum provided if your phyiscally capable of it.

Wishbone Ash

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

R127, R128, R132 are fine but down to one lane in places. Not sure about other roads.

I should have added that the R122 may be a challenge!

07Lapierre

R122 was cleared today with a snow plough. So it's technically "open", but it hasn't been gritted, and it's very narrow in places. I would NOT cycle around NCD until Monday at the earliest!