The Northern Ireland Thread. *Warning* May include cake

A home for those of us over the pond, residing on the emerald isle. Bout ye? Wha's the craic lawd? And all of that 
I'll start: My name is Chris,and I am an alcoholic.
Handy Links
Cycling Ireland
Cycle NI
Club Information
Triathlon Ireland
Highway Code
Sportive Calendar Road Race Calendar Leisure Calendar
Irish Veteran Cyclist Association
Bike Radar NI Members List
Bike Radar NI Member Map
Misc-Forums-News Sites

I'll start: My name is Chris,and I am an alcoholic.
Handy Links
Cycling Ireland
Cycle NI
Club Information
Triathlon Ireland
Highway Code
Sportive Calendar Road Race Calendar Leisure Calendar
Irish Veteran Cyclist Association
Bike Radar NI Members List
Bike Radar NI Member Map
Misc-Forums-News Sites
0
Posts
momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
You lot haven't a clue. Big Eccles cake for anyone except TMHNET who can translate that one. Have a guess...
Bianchi Infinito CV
[url=Http://www.TopCashBack.co.uk/ref/magoo289]Http://www.TopCashBack.co.uk/ref/magoo289[/url]
momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
Any of you guys ride with local clubs?
Keep'er between the hedges bai's!
Bike Radar Strava Club
The Northern Ireland Thread
Could always be a boss and start my own
Isn't Madigan (or something like that) a red and black kit, and up North somewhere?
I thought about starting my own club, Id only allow riders in that were less fit than I am though. However I only want to organise rides, not all the other red tape involved.
Bike Radar Strava Club
The Northern Ireland Thread
Example: Kings Moss meet up in Ballyclare Square - Kilbride Meet at the church of the same - Madigans meet at the shop.
That's great if I want to ride 12-18miles before a ride and the same home after. They're close but not exactly on the doorstep, makes a local club sound more appealing.
If you're in Larne you'll be climbing to meeting points wherever you would be going to as well.
I have about 6-7 miles of riding with a couple of climbs to get to the NDCC start points. I'm not far off being able to do that on the start and end of a ride, but I'll need to give it a while longer before I'm confident that I can manage it.
Bike Radar Strava Club
The Northern Ireland Thread
Not if the meeting point was in Larne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8FqAfsZ ... ure=relmfu
Setting up a club isn't an outlandish suggestion, clubs have been formed in Dunloy, Ballycastle and Cushendall in the past year.
Each was set up as loose Facebook group to start with then when the had a core of riders they made the next step of affiliation to Cycling Ulster.
I would have thought that Larne could easily sustain a club and you have easy access to some great cycling routes.
http://cyclingulster.com/?p=7718
http://cyclingulster.com/?p=6975
http://ballycastlecyclingclub.webs.com/
http://en-gb.facebook.com/dunloy.cyclingclub
Marian Lamb at Cycling Ulster would be the first point of contact to guide you through the process of setting up a club and keep you right.
I'm sure the guys at Ballycastle would be delighted to help. Don't want to post contact names etc but you'll get them through the club website
I have to admit I'm giving this serious thought. Had a good read of This yesterday. It seems rather easy :shock:
£89 and 6 CU members on named committee, is doable just from my small group of cycling friends.
hmmmm Link Would Chaine Cycle Club be too obvious?
I also happen to have a meeting venue (pub) and perhaps a sponsor lined up. Nothing official at this point.
How to guage interest? Geopraphically Larne is very well placed to offer a variety of routes for road riding and of course MTB's. From a central place (Ballygally for example) there is easy access to hills over the glens - coastal flat and mixed riding in quantity that no ride would need to be the same.
I think it may have selling points?
There are enough non affiliated cyclist in NI that if everyone like you set up a club no matter how small, that eventually it might significantly swell the number of club members in the country by converting the unaffiliated ones.
You never know where it might take the sport here.
Bike Radar Strava Club
The Northern Ireland Thread
Very very serious consideration.
Bike Radar Strava Club
The Northern Ireland Thread
The freewheelers run is much better than the ‘official’ lap the lough, our club did it last year and it was a well run event, although weather was censored . About 200, made up of a lot of club cyclists rather than the 1000+ that attend the bigger run, which on roads out the likes of Ballyronan is crazy busy – think there were a few bad accidents last year.
TMHNET, not sure if you should be judging a club by its kit colours (!), but yeah you’ve got Audi (East Antrim), Kilbride and Madigans – all look the same to me though. Kilbride, by the way, meet up much earlier than Kings Moss on a Sunday, about 8 I think. Someone told me it was something to do with their church association although don’t take that as gospel. (Gospel, geddit?)
Get yourself over to Ballyclare on a Sunday for a bash at our club run at 10 some week, (or 9 if you fancy heading out with the fast bunch…); fair few are Ballyclare based riders but also ones from further afield who throw the bikes in the car and drive over when feeling lazy. Don’t be put off by the fact we have a much better looking different coloured kit than the rest . We've a few decent regular cake stops and were not as serious as the Madigans bunch……
I assume you're talking about Kings Moss? Crikey it's very Blue
Is there a food stop on the Freewheelers run?
LtL was cr*p last year. No hot food half way, no food left at the end, no gels as the people who got to the stops first musta taken 5 each, sometimes no water!
There were obviously a ton of people who rode it but either started an hour early or didn't ride the whole route, because I was overtaking fat guys on mountain bikes with 15psi tyres most of the way round, and I didn't hang around.
The coffee and cakes at the start were the highlight.
Bike Radar Strava Club
The Northern Ireland Thread
TMHNET, it sure is blue, although a vast improvement on our old one! Our guys stick out in races & sportives tho.
Yeah, Mossmen pretty much an all round club, few regular racers, but mainly social, particularly on a Sunday club run where everyone gets together for the craic as well as the cakes
I didn't get his name but he made sure me and my mate got our goodie bags
Stickin' out!
How's yer belly for spots?
His heads full of sweetie mice and slammin' doors...
Spotty dog...
Anyways... any blow-ins down here (or even natives) do a bit of cycling? I'm in the west of the city but you know it's easy to get around by bike.