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A digression into bicycles, after all this tour was done on one.

Since I got serious about bicycles five years back I tried many different tires. On the pavement tread really isn't all that important, in fact tread often increases rolling resistance, which is why road bike tires are often slicks. For me the biggest factor is not having to fix fuggin' flats, and if ya spend $50 and up for each tire ya usually don't have to. In fact premium tires pays for themselves in terms of all the inner tubes you don't have to replace.

I have had great success with Continental Gatorskins, but for this trip, not knowing how much dirt I'd be riding on, opted instead for the highly-rated (and expensive) Continental Top Contacts II's.

Here's a fuzzy pic I took at the time for a bicycle forum, the Gatorskin being the one without the tread...



Yep the Top Contacts had noticeably higher rolling resistance, but were better in sand and gravel etc. Part way down the Kintyre Penisula in Scotland the front tire developed a distinct sideway kink in the tread. I was carrying a spare new Gatorskin folded up in my bags but, saving that for a real emergency before I got to a bike shop I rolled on that front tire for more'n a week, waiting to come across a bike shop, tolerating the "dink....dink....dink....dink" every time the kinked spot hit the inside of the front fender.

Outside of Abbeyknockmoy I got a flat in back, no biggie, flats happen. Next day, 'nother flat, same spot. Turns out the inside of the tire was disintegrating around the original puncture site, the fibers coming apart. So, I tossed the front tire in a dumpster, broke out the folded Gatorskin and put it on back, and put the old back tire on the front, a folded 5 Euro note between tube and tire covering the bad spot on the inside of the tire.

From Doolin I called ahead to a bike shop in Ennis, who ordered me two new 700x32 Gatorskins on just my word alone. I get to Ennis after leaving Doolin and see two guys on road bikes ahead so I crank hard after them to ask 'em where the bike shop was. Not seeing me, they go faster, so I have to crank extra hard on my 70+ pound bike to catch them.

Just as I get their attention...

"POPsssssSSSSSSssssssSSSSsssssh...", the 5 Euro note inside the tire blows out, that fix had lasted maybe seventy miles. So now I'm stuck, except right across the road at that point is the very bike shop I was needing What are the odds?

Gotta give 'em their props; Top Bike, Ennis, Republic of Ireland, guys who will purchase $120 worth of tires just on some unknown American guy's word over the phone, and when he arrives have him on his way in no time at all



I was headed south for Limerick, which from thirty miles out was already turning out to be a major urban center so I stopped that afternoon at the Ennis Youth Hostel.

Hostels ain't fer college kids anymore, in fact most folks there are older. What they were for me is a cheap place to charge up yer electrical devices, take a shower, do laundry and get on wifi.

The downside is you sleep in a dorm in a bunk bed with some random number of guys, and I hate sleeping in a room with guys. Every hostel is different though, and at this one I got to sleep on the floor below an open window AND a young German woman opted to sleep in the same room in the bunk bed above her German boyfriend.

Flat amazing how having a young woman in the room can improve the whole atmosphere.

Like many hostels in the British Isles, this one was in a classic old building downtown. Here's a mural out the window, probably by some Irish guy who hadn't been to many actual rodeos



Same window, 5am in the morning, four Irish ne'r do wells (NOT hostel patrons) loudly and profanely bemoaning the fact that they didn't have any cash for breakfast, booze or drugs. Also illustrating the latest in silly styles presently in vogue among Euro urban youth....




On through Limerick the next day. Limerick sucked, only place I didn't like in Ireland, took about forever to get clear of the place, the Homosexual flags adorning the big downtown bridge didn't help first impressions any...