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Anybody ever rend a cycle in Dublin, Ireland?
Looking for a good shop in Dublin. The wife wants to go to the Old
Country this summer, so... do I have a choice? (I wanted to go to Madison.) Actually, we need a tandem because she's handicapped; however, that's asking much, IMO. Jones |
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Anybody ever rend a cycle in Dublin, Ireland?
!Jones wrote: Looking for a good shop in Dublin. The wife wants to go to the Old Country this summer, so... do I have a choice? (I wanted to go to Madison.) Actually, we need a tandem because she's handicapped; however, that's asking much, IMO. Jones Here is an article on cycling in Ireland for tourists I wrote for the magazine Inside Ireland a few years ago: http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...20Ireland.html It also list shops that will rent you a bike and a direct link to the biggest bicycle tour operator in Ireland. Now for some inside gen. Pay close attention to what I say about our major roads. Traffic moves at least 20mph faster than in the States, and on far narrower roads, and some drivers have never seen a cyclist. Your best bet if you really want a *tour* is probably to buy a package (bikes and accommodation) cycling holiday from experienced tour operators like Celtic, net address in the article. If a tandem is available, they will be able to get it for you. (Be sure your wife will make the daily distance; there are no flat roads in Ireland; the riders on the recent Tour of Ireland bitched bitterly about the hills.) That list of bike rental places I refer you to is no doubt optimistic; my local LBS is on it and anytime he has offered me a courtesy bike I've preferred to walk rather than ride some POS off his scrapheap; you can forget about renting a tandem unless you get very lucky indeed. The rental costs in the article has not been updated... In Ireland, incidentally, unless travelling on expenses, one doesn't as a first choice book into hotels but into the government-approved guest houses (you find them in a book you buy as you come off the plane, or on the net); they're cheaper and friendlier and very helpful indeed. (One of my pedalpals runs the best one locally; she knows which roads are good and safe and which aren't.) Forget camping; the weather is so changeable, a camping holiday will be one long misery; nobody does it; there are no campsites for cyclists and it is even rare to see a motorhome or caravan. Unless your wife has some kind of a schedule already (tracing her roots?), or unless you want to take in the major cultural institutions which essentially means Dublin, I would advise you not to try and cover the country but instead to choose some pretty little country town outside the major cities and book in for a few days, ride the lanes around the town to the historical or picturesque sites, eat in the restaurants and bars, spend your evenings listening to music in the bars, then move on to the next little town for another few days; often people who take this advice just decide to extend their stay in the first little town. That way you get a feeling for Ireland and its people which you don't from the rush of images and fleeting contacts of a "tour". That's what I do for my holiday, though it isn't a cycling holiday: I go stay in a town only an hour's drive away and go to a music festival, and take walks in the lanes thereabouts. I'd suggest my own town, Bandon, but it's a popular place, so you probably have to book well in advance. Here are a couple of photo essays about a ride from Bandon to Kilmacsimon Quay and back again by a different route: http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...simon%201.html http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...simon%202.html If I were in your shoes, I'd try find some little town with good cycling on the lanes (don't worry about getting there -- we have superb train and bus services, and information about taking a bike on them is in the article referenced above) and book into a good guest house for three or four days with an option to extend in case you decide you like it too much to move on. Then try to rent known bikes; if good bikes aren't for rent, I'd just cut a deal with an LBS to buy a couple of new Trek mountain bikes with a guaranteed repurchase deal for say halfprice after the holiday, something like that; you would need to order the bikes in advance of arriving to be sure they're the right bikes, as the stock at the big city dealers is horridly expensive and the LBS in small towns may not have a huge selection of styles and sizes. You need to have your second little town picked out as either reachable by back roads or on the bus route but that isn't difficult. From Bandon for instance there is a big ring of pretty towns down the coast to Bantry and back up to Bandon that could consume a fortnight; there's a smaller ring the other way, to Kinsale. The same applies to virtually any other tourist center. Bandon is so popular among other reasons because it is only half an hour from the international airport at Cork; there is no need to waste time going to Dublin or Shannon (which is literally in the middle of nowhere; a very expensive place to get to and from). To reach my private mailbox, lose the prime digit from my visible spambuster e-mail address. Andre Jute Not speaking for the Tourist Board here! |
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Anybody ever rend a cycle in Dublin, Ireland?
On 7 nov, 02:34, !Jones wrote:
Looking for a good shop in Dublin. *The wife wants to go to the Old Country this summer, so... do I have a choice? *(I wanted to go to Madison.) Actually, we need a tandem because she's handicapped; however, that's asking much, IMO. Jones Renting a tandem will be impossible I think in Dublin, in 5 years living there I have never seen one. For renting bicycles Cycleways, http://www.cycleways.com/ They are a decent shop close to the citycentre of Dublin. Paul |
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Anybody ever rend a cycle in Dublin, Ireland?
On Nov 6, 6:34*pm, !Jones wrote:
Looking for a good shop in Dublin. *The wife wants to go to the Old Country this summer, so... do I have a choice? *(I wanted to go to Madison.) Actually, we need a tandem because she's handicapped; however, that's asking much, IMO. Jones Dear J, "We offer a full range of bikes, from kiddies, tag-alongs, tandems, mountain bikes, hybrids & racing bikes. Our bikes are all, 'Giant', made in Holland, and perfect for a few hours or a day's biking. Our fully experienced staff will guarantee you that your bike will be in perfect working order and help you in any way they can to make your biking experience with us a memorable one, for all the right reasons. We have a total of 120 bikes to choose from." Contact us at www.phoenixparkbikehire.com http://www.goireland.com/dublin/phoe...re-id44830.htm Given your situation, the Irish dealer at this site might be helpful: http://buddy2.site.aplus.net/Dealers.html Cheers, Carl Fogel |
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Anybody ever rend a cycle in Dublin, Ireland?
I have not yet rent a bicycle in Dublin. But I have rent a number of
bicycles. Some of them were completely sundered. Chalo |
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Anybody ever rend a cycle in Dublin, Ireland?
On Fri, 6 Nov 2009 20:52:50 -0800 (PST), in rec.bicycles.tech Andre
Jute wrote: Here is an article on cycling in Ireland for tourists I wrote for the magazine Inside Ireland a few years ago: http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...20Ireland.html Thanks... got it bookmarked. We're renting a microbus with a bed in it for most of the trip. We don't like riding in groups and, no, my stoker isn't up to a full day of hills. We're just interested in a Dublin sight-seeing day trip. But, thanks for the pointers. Jones |
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Anybody ever rend a cycle in Dublin, Ireland?
On Sat, 7 Nov 2009 00:59:26 -0800 (PST), in rec.bicycles.tech Chalo
wrote: I have not yet rent a bicycle in Dublin. But I have rent a number of bicycles. Some of them were completely sundered. Yes, I have had that experience. That issue is even greater when one needs a tandem; we rented one in Bar Harbor, Maine a couple of years ago that simply wasn't safe to ride. Jones |
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Anybody ever rend a cycle in Dublin, Ireland?
"Andre Jute" wrote in message
... you can forget about renting a tandem unless you get very lucky indeed. Friends rented a Dawes Galaxy tandem in Ireland, which both surprised and impressed me. Unfortunately I don't know where from. |
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Anybody ever rend a cycle in Dublin, Ireland?
!Jones wrote:
Chalo wrote: I have not yet rent a bicycle in Dublin. *But I have rent a number of bicycles. *Some of them were completely sundered. Yes, I have had that experience. *That issue is even greater when one needs a tandem; we rented one in Bar Harbor, Maine a couple of years ago that simply wasn't safe to ride. I was making a play on words, based on your use of the word "rend" (break apart) in the thread title. I read the title and thought, "hey, I do that". The only bike I ever rented was a BikeE, because it was the only one I ever found for rent that could be adjusted to fit my size. It was educational, in that it taught me to avoid BikeEs and other similarly ill-conceived bikes from that time forward. Chalo |
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Anybody ever rend a cycle in Dublin, Ireland?
On Nov 9, 2:49*pm, "Clive George" wrote:
"Andre Jute" wrote in message ... you can forget about renting a tandem unless you get very lucky indeed. I simply misread the question; I thought Jones was using "Dublin" generically for Ireland. In Dublin itself a tandem is possible -- for instance from www.phoenixparkbikehire.com --but anywhere else it is less likely. My remarks were predicated on the knowledge that Dublin is a very tough city for a cyclist to escape onto friendlier roads (more below), and Jones's stated family circumstances. But it seems the tandem is for use in Dublin. Repeat tourers that I meet on the road invariably put their bike on the bus or the train for the first part of the journey out of Dublin, and the really experienced fly in to Cork rather than Dublin or Shannon (I'm not even sure it is legal anymore for a bicycle to go on the road out of Shannon). Galway is another possibility; I met a couple of very experienced Scots (hamstrings from Hell, as Simon Schama said of the famous statue of William Wallace) on the road, separately, not together, who always start their tours in Galway. Actually, I find it odd that so few bicycle tourers -- I've never met one anyway -- arrive by the ferries (to Cork and Rosslare) which are easier to ship a bike by and which both decant cyclists in friendlier cycling environments than Dublin and Shannon. I know, I know, when you toured Ireland by bike thirty years ago, or whatever, when even Krygo was young and Jesus was a teenager, you could cruise out of Dublin and hardly ever see a tractor; that rural Ireland was gone even before the Celtic Tiger. It's still very beautiful in the lanes but the main roads are full of large cars with drivers in a hurry and convoys of thundering trucks. The Garda (police) Superintendent, on whose advise I depended when I wrote that anyone but very experienced cyclists should stay the hell off the main roads, was himself later killed while taking his exercise on his bicycle, on a road I stopped cycling only six months or so before after deciding it wasn't fun to have a continuous row of trucks travelling 110kph twelve inches from your shoulder. Friends rented a Dawes Galaxy tandem in Ireland, which both surprised and impressed me. Unfortunately I don't know where from. Celtic, net address in my article to which I referred Jones, supplies Dawes bikes (apparently, now only to people who book tours with them; when the article was written they listed bare-bike rentals as well; it might still be worth a phone call). See near the bottom of http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...reland.htmlbut note that Celtic isn't in Dublin. Nor do they advertise a tandem, though they no doubt know where to find one if a customer insists. Andre Jute Visit Jute on Bicycles at http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...20CYCLING.html |
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