I have now visited Dublin three times and a larger part of my recollections of Dublin consist of sitting on a bus or sitting in a car going from one end of the city to another. Dublin is not an easy city to get around in. The city centre may be fairly small, and places like the grounds of Trinity College very agreeable, the rest is a nightmare of cars, cars, cars, and the public transport is absolute shit (‘sheit’). Only if you happen to live near a DART station and have to go somewhere near a DART station it’s okay. But the DART goes from Howth to Greystones, along the coast, which is great if one likes to go for a cliff walk (from Bray to Greystones or v.v.) and not so great if one stays in either Lucan or Blanchardstown.

But… the cycling scene seems to grow. Not only are there more cycling lanes, I have the impression I saw more cyclists than a year ago. I always have to look at the bikes in cities that I visit & I’m often (if not always) impressed by the courier-scene. Most of the bikes in Dublin are cheap mountainbikes and city-bikes — often extremely dirty. (One wonders if it’s worth while to clean one’s bike in Ireland where it might rain every day). Last year I think I saw one track bike.

This year I spotted:
— a guy with a small rucksack, in full cycling gear, going downhill a big road, to the north of Dublin, on a track bike. Yes. He rode pretty fast. Impressive. It looked like he came back from a race, and still had a long way to ride.
— a courier track bike with a chainwheel (is that the right word for: ‘tandwiel’) on both sides of the wheel: so one has two gears, pre-derailleur style, when one puts the wheel in the other way around.
— a girl on a custom blue racing bike, sawed-off ‘guidon’, brakes, a full pignon, without shifters or a derailleur — though with the spring & little wheels to keep the chain under pressure. Changing gear would be possible by hand.
— her boyfriend on a beautiful trackbike with sawed-off ‘guidon’.
— and for the rest about five or six couriers going through the traffic on track bikes — which I think is more impressive, conisdering the Dublin traffic, than the New York-couriers.