Another Sunday spin, on a lovely day and with some interesting route changes forced by the closure of a bridge over the Tolka. Second time here in a day, in the morning I was here with the child and it luckily let me scope out the alternative route on the North side of the Tolka. A little risky, it’s also used by scramblers and isn’t a path, just a de facto trail through the trees, and I don’t know it so well.

Look at that, I’ve even re-used a photo from this morning’s walk, because it is the same place! But the light wasn’t as good later on.

On the other side of that fence is Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown on one side, and the National Sports Campus on the other. It is a shame in a way that some link-up can’t be done for walkers and cyclists here but security for both places is tight, probably with good reason.

So, there it was. The big deal was the combination of the new offroad route and of course the new tyres. The change in the clock really messed with me this year, I couldn’t get my head around it. Also, the Phoenix Park was rammed, and stuffed with cars. Good work, OPW! Dublin’s biggest car park.

So, some technical observations and if you’re not into cycling or mountain biking, you might want to skip this bit. It was interesting because the tyres (Schwalbe Rocket Ron) are supposedly fast, one of the fastest tyres you can get (due to low weight and low rolling resistance) and yet… They didn’t feel that quick. I did lower the tyre pressure a little, maybe that was it, or the headwind, but I don’t think that was it either. They’re just very sticky. However, once things got rough or slippery, they came into their own and it was so clear. They stuck to everything, and mud just fell off. I never felt like the wheels were going to slip away from me, they just gripped. Cleaning them at home took a fraction of the time of the other tyres, they didn’t bring much back with them. So they’re good winter tyres, I guess, although I hope they don’t wear too quickly. I can’t wait to give them a spin up the Dublin or Wicklow mountains one of these months.