Hopefully this light-hearted thread will draw some enjoyable discussion and interesting insights.
I have been playing ITM for about 10 years, and a member of thesession.org for about 5. In that time I have come across countless occasions where bicycling (particularly high-caliber bicycling) and ITM have come together.
What I mean is: I know one instrument maker who was once a high-category bicycle racer, one musician who was once a pro, and another who was an Olympic team member. I myself was a high-category cyclist, and in my 5 years on thesesh, I've read numerous other postings by folks who are somehow involved in bicycling and bicycle racing -- most recently from benhall.1, and I seem to recall even Jeremy, himself.
The frequency of such occurrences is too great to be dismissed as just random coincidence, but I can't imagine what the common traits might be -- that make up a cyclist and an Irish Traditional Musician -- such that so many people would be drawn to both?
Special permission is granted to our resident running enthusiast, Key Maniac Lad, to also participate in this thread.
Perhaps there are other sports/hobbies/activities that are equally coincidentally intertwined with ITM enthusiasm? If so, I haven't observed such trends yet.
Here are few things to consider - people in general are becoming a bit more health conscious these days, even (gasp!) musicians. I can remember back when most musos were quite proud of their graveyard tan, and wouldn't kick open their coffins to make it to a session or gig until the sun went down. I know those folks still exist in large numbers, but there are lots of folks like us who enjoy staying fit as well.
I take my i-Pod to the gym everyday loaded with trad and have embarrassed myself on numerous occasions by playing "air" accordion or banjo by the weight racks when the tunes consume me.
Both bicycling and Irish trad attract witty, erudite sorts with buffed-out physiques and perfect teeth. Our hearts and pure and our quads are like tree-trunks. And the reason we ride all of those miles? So we can drink beer without bloating out.
Consider the alt names of some well known Irish tunes: e.g. "The Kid on the Mountain Bike", "The Sprocketty March", "Saddle the Pushbike" and "The Maid Behind the Handlebars" !
I've found that pedalling a bike in time to a tune I'm trying to learn is very effective! I found this out on my many trips to the Joe Mooney summer school - we always stayed in rented cottages some way from the town, so rode bikes about all week, with fiddles etc strapped on the back - reels were good - you got to cycle really fast!
If God hadn't meant us to pedal she wouldn't have invented the bicycle... A wonderous thing!!!
Now if someone would just get rid of the devil's machines, those gas guzzling, gas belching monstrosities that hog all those potentially lovely bicycle ways...
Cycling is no longer just a cheap way of getting from A to B for the poorer classes (though it could be)
Like "ITM", it is now an approved hobby for the educated classes, preferably involving strapping the expensive bike onto a vehicle and driving for miles before actually doing any cycling
Since this is supposed to be light-hearted...
Bren - and let's not even go into the fancy, um, costumes.
Stephen - I *thought* that Matt was, given the stickers on his guitar case at a workshop that I attended a couple of years ago. I wanted to yak with him about that (I ride off-road motorcycles, myself, but it's a similar thing), but didn't get a chance.
Around here, there seem to be a lot of Blues/Rock/Roots musicians who ride motorcycles; so much so that a friend of mine was thinking about starting a "Biker Band". That could be big fun, and we could probably get gigs at all of the local biker events. We'd probably have to learn a lot of "Steppenwolf" tunes, though...
Much juicier irony, Bren: spinning classes! Great herds of very fit people drive their cars to the gym (must sign up for a spot in the class since they are wildly popular here), strap their feet into stationary bikes, pedal like mad for 1 hour to head-banging music, then back in their cars for the drive to the office. I asked a spin teacher if she like cycling, and she said no, because it was too dangerous. Aargh.
My wife and I like to either go hiking or canoeing--depending on the time of the year. We usually do the canoeing during the warmer weather and the hiking during the cooler weather.
I recently thought that high level sports and similarly music have a type of aspergers personality traits about it. The same focus hours of patient training and commitment are pretty similar to both training and music.
I myself have raced bicycles at a reasonable level and know several, good musicians, Brendan Mulholland (Flute Plyer) was on the commonwealth games squad for cycling).
"Thank God I know very few traditional musicians who are part of the golfing fraternity." - Maria
But don't you see? Trad and Golf are similar in so many ways:
1) You don't have to be good to enjoy them
2) They both have mysterious etiquette rules and curious displays of snobbery
3) Participants have been known to forsake family and friends in order to play
4) There is almost always alcohol involved
5) Both have "Celtic" origins
6) The better the gear the easier it is to play well
7) Both involve finding a good rhythm and groove
Irish Traditional Music (while difficult to realize among 50,000 like-minded fellows on the MustardBoard) is certainly barely a scratch on the tip of the iceberg of the music world. Similarly (but not as much so on The Continent), even in the Post-Lemond/Armstrong era, cycling at a high-category or professional level is decidedly a "fringe" sport in the athletic landscape.
I think Batlady is on the right track. While we may not all be "witty, erudite sorts", a common trait between ITMers and cyclists is the willingness to move in circles outside the mainstream.
But why haven't I observed many elite swimmers or ex-Olympic discus throwers in ITM circles, then? Why *bicycling*, specifically? It really seems to be an interest in *bicycling* in particular that intersects with an interest in ITM.
Why do so many ITMers ride bikes? As far as I know there's no such arrestable offense as RUI (Riding Under the Influence) or RWI (Riding While Intoxicated). How else can you get to and from the pub, enjoy a beverage, and not end up in jail?
One of my friends is a pro Ironman, helps a lot to keep in shape during a long session...
Myself I just did ride a bike from willie week to Glencolumkill with the pipes and some luggage on the carrier. This was alot of fun.
Maybe we ask the famous third policeman about bicycle, he will explain us in detail about migration of molecules from the bike to the rider to the instrument ?!?
I love my bike, and I really like my cycling holidays (one of which I've just come back from) ... but I'm not a proper cyclist. Just thought I'd better say that before any of my friends who know better read this and think I'm trying to make out that I am ...
Oh, and I agree about the people who strap them to cars and think they're going on cycling holidays. We go by train. We get them somewhere where there's no-one and nothing to rely on but you and your bike - well, OK, still in civilisation, but the point being, there's no car backup. It's amazingly freeing. One of the best trips didn't even involve trains - we just cycled from my house the twenty or so miles to the edge of the Brecon Beacons, and there you had it - a great cycling holiday riding around the Beacons and the Black Mountains, ending up back home under no other steam than that provided by our own legs. Great.
Still, I'm not a *proper* cyclist. They're the ones who whizz past, looking all cool, while you're struggling up some mountain or other ...
If you ride your bike, that makes you a "proper" cyclist.
here's one of my favorite bike-related websites (advocates of bike camping, wearing any shoes you like, and comfortable clothes instead of smelly poly-this-or-that... http://www.rivbike.com/
Airport, maybe that's the attitude that is the link. (Rivendell has been out there for a while, advocating sensible stuff.)
Just like the music: keep it simple, know where it came from and what's in it, no special clothing necessary. And you can drink beer, not some ghastly energy drink stuff. What's not to like?
I'm lucky to live 4 city blocks from mountain trails with endless possibilities for mountain biking and hiking. Used to road ride, but got tired of motorists tossing beer bottles (empty, damn!) at my head.
I've never been a "proper" cyclist either--I just "love to ride my bicycle!"
and they both like wool (or Aran jumpers?) Thanks for posting that story about the bike incident that happened right in my neighborhood but which I missed hearing about. My podner is an architectural designer who regularly deals with plans examiners - he will not be surprised by that behavior.
When I was in the military and stationed in Norfolk, Virginia from January 1979 to July 1982, I used a bicycle to get around because I couldn't afford a car on an enlisted man's salary. Also, I didn't want to use public transit and Norfolk is flat (which made it easy to ride a bicycle).
There were many occasions when I would go to a bar in the evening to listen to a band and drink way too much beer. Then I would get on my bicycle and ride back to the base without any problems whatsoever. Riding a bicycle while drunk is an interesting sensation.
I've been a runner for 30 years. Cycled hard for about 10 somewhere in the middle. I ran competitively until I was in my mid 30s. I was a consistent 50 - 60 mile a week runner for about 12 years. Got injured... Learned how to juggle while I was figuring out how to work through the injury. That led me to street performing, theater, and eventually back to performing music.... (that's why I'm here )
I'm in my mid 50s and only do maintenance running now--10 - 15 miles a week. And I've gotten pretty slow because of my beer gut (aka, extra 25 pounds--and because I'm 50 something), but I've got the psychology of running in my body from years of training--enough to amaze the occasional unsuspecting 20 something who thinks he's going to run the old dude into the ground
Interesting article. Guess it's a good thing I don't really drink or ride bikes. Avoid the mess altogether. Guess I could bike to my session, but that would turn a 15 minute drive around the ciry into an hour plus ride through downtown Baltimore. Think I'll stick to the drive for now.
And a fiddle player. Jack Canny (Paddy's brother) came out to Australia and lived in Canberra, where one of the local Irish musicians tripped over him. He hadn't played in years - his wife Margaret was no enthusiast for the music - but he was soon back in the saddle (so to speak) and rarely missed an opportunity for a tune. We got a lot of great tunes from him.
He was a bricklayer by day, and he laid the bricks for my flute-making workshop. The fiddle player in our band mixed and carried "the mud". My dad (carpenter and box player) designed it, and I (flute player) did the roofing. Irish music belted out of the house nearby to sustain the musicians during the building process.
Used to be an enthusiastic touring cyclist. Best cycle-camping tour I ever did was in 1985 from Dublin to Galway, basically clockwise around (roughly) the coast, then across back to dublin. Three weeks of bliss. It was also the last cycle camping tour I did, and have hardly ridden since, for various reasons. Keep meaning to dig out the old bike to spruce it up a bit, but I suspect I have deteriorated a lot more than it has so maybe it's not such a great idea.
Keith
"A £200 fine is set for furious cycling"
Good one Ben.
There's not a cyclist I know, including me, who hasn't broken at least one of those rules. And they wonder why more people don't get on their bikes
No more biking for me, other than short jaunts to the store. I developed pinched nerves in my shoulders that caused my arms to go dead, and the breaking point came one night when I had trouble strumming my guitar. One has to make choices, and while I tried a LOT of things to mitigate the problem, in the end, I decided functioning arms were more important than long bike rides.
Hello to everybody here, this is my first ever post on the mustard board although I have been reading it now for a very long time.
I couldnt resist commenting on the cycling. I love cycling and still get out for a few miles and recommend spin classes too. I did ride at a very good level years ago, but I also loved playing the flute. Going to fleadhs and sessions and skulling the black stuff didnt go well with trying to wear a yellow jersey in top end races. So the raliegh 753 lost out to the Sam Murray 6 key. I would be coming to the end of my days as a cyclist now but however Matt Molloy is still cranking out the Moving Could like a demon!!!
So to conclude, I mostly cycle to allow for the Guinness intake and keep the lungs in good nick for the flute, so cycling does have its role to play in trad music.
I know two instrument makers/trad players who are avid cycling buddies. I'm not quite sure what 'high category' means but, from what they tell me I think they would probably fall into it. I don't know if either was ever pro or semi-pro - I only recently made their acquaintances - but I wouldn't be at all surprised.
I would certainly not call myself high category - in terms of speed, I would probably fall off the bottom of the scale. But I have always combined traditional music and cycling - it is my principal means of transport on trips to Ireland, laden with instruments, tent, sleeping bag, clothes, food, cooking paraphernalia, maps etc. I have lost count of the number of times I've cycled from Dublin to Clare and back, with various meanderings in between. However, cycling is, for me, primarily a convenient means of transport and I have been known to accept lifts from friends with sufficiently-sized vehicles when the weeks of incessant sessioning have started to take their toll. Besides, an average speed of 10mph is sometimes not fast enough to get from one festival to the next in good time.
Thank you for the warning benhall.1--although it has been many years since I have ridden a bicycle after drinking too much.
Now that I am married, my wife won't let me drink and drive. If I drink anything alcoholic (even just one beer), she insists that I must give her the car keys so she can drive us home.
In July 1995, while I was on vacation from work, I was exploring the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. While driving uphill on a narrow, two-lane highway towards the top of a pass in the mountains, I passed several bicyclists riding on the shoulder on the right-hand side of the road. The bicyclists were participating in an organized bicycle rally. After I crossed over the top of the pass, I drove past several other people on bicycles--including one couple on a tandem bicycle who had their dog riding in a trailer behind their tandem bicycle. The dog seemed to be enjoying the ride much more than his human friends.
I actually started playing fiddle after I was hit by a car on a training ride this spring. I'm an amature bike racer here in Pennsylvania.
I think I was on the other side for a little bit when I got run over. I got hauled away in an abulance and can't remember any of it. Must have been a real horror show. The police said they found me laying uncouncious in the road with a smashed helmet.
but that's where the fiddle comes in. My great grandma played and she taught fiddle when she first came to America. I was really close to my grandma, and she loved to hear about the places I went on my bike. After she died, I felt like she rides with me in a sort of funny kind of way like an angel on my shoulder.
Well she was on the job the day I was hit. The last thing I remember was a big recreational vehicle hitting me at about 35mph. I should be dead, but I'm not. After all that ambulance and emergency room stuff I only missed two days of work.
Then I picked up a fiddle for $80 and started playing every evening. Just out of the blue.
And the funny thing is that certain songs stick in my head and I pick them up in no time. I think great grandma might have played them, or some tune that's similar. Is "Pipe on the Hob" an old tune by any chance?
Oh, just saw this thread.. If it's any contribution, Greg La Mont who won the tour de france in the past was recently at a gig I done here in Ireland. He's actually a big fan of Irish music.
When my bandmate Luke Ward met him, he said - "So you're the man that does the bit of cycling?"!
So much for exchanging the car for a bike after a nights alcohol fuelled session here in Ireland. "Don't ever ride or attempt to ride a bicycle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs" http://www.drivingschoolireland.com/pedal-cyclist.html Ah well...back to the drawing board or taxi.
I've just looked at all the 'don't s' on this web page....oops!
Cycling and I parted company a very long time ago. Age, portliness, extreme indolence and the fact that the bike is in roughly the same condition as the average buried sword after yonks in a leaky garage are enough to prevent me touching it again; furthermore, Durham City's topography is hilly and its drivers steeped in indifference to the wellbeing of cyclists (fatalities occur). I have no wish to end my days as roadkill. Apart from one keen cyclist who lives at a distance and comes in by other means, local sessioners seem to favour rugged vehicles used in the course of tree surgery, archaeology, recondite academics' holidays, trips to Wales, the ferrying of small children and other such esoteric pursuits.
There's something to be said for arriving home after a drunken bike ride at 1 am in six inches of fresh snow. (Apart from "I'll never do that again!")
Cycling is good for you, and cheaper than driving. Playing music is good for you, and cheaper than being a life-long media consumer. Both are a lot of fun. I don't consider these things "fringe" activities, but that's because I live in a fantasy world where the purpose of civilization is to create a system of self-sustaining villages where the happy musicians cycle from session to session. Very little work gets done, as it's well known as the main cause of inflation.
You know, I was out riding yesterday. It was a beautiful day here. I rode across the tops of all the ridges in the northern part of two counties until nearly dark. 4 and half hours on the road, but I only averaged about 12 miles an hour. That's how great a day it was
to ride hard and make myself suffer on a day like yesterday would be tantamount to blasphamy.
I never have tried to ride a bicycle in the snow and I don't like trying to drive my car in the snow either. Since we rarely get significant amounts of snow this far south, this is one of the reasons I decided to stay in Arkansas.
In 1990, when all I knew about Irish traditional music was the Chieftains album I had bought years before, I took a bicycle trip in the west of Ireland from pretty much Limerick up to Galway, Donegal out to Glemcolumkille, through Gweedore, Letterkenny then back down through Tuam and back to Clare. I will never forget the extreme difficulty (for me anyway) of cycling up past Errigal, reaching the top almost completely knackered, then coasting downhill in spectacular scenery for miles and miles to Letterkenny without having to pedal at all. The whole journey was a combination of those sorts of extremes.
Of all the vacations I taken, I remember more detail of that that any other, and always will. I had not been a serious cyclist before that, and had been in a sedentary job for years before, so there was a lot of pain and suffering amid the exhilaration. Bought the bicycle in New York, learned to ride again in Central Park – and I thought it would be a quiet, relaxing place to learn. Yeah, right, you learn something new everyday. Heard the pipes again in Doolin, met Geoff Wooffe, pipemaker from Australia then living in a beautiful position up near Doonagore Castle overlooking the Aran Islands. Great guy. I remember we sat there in his house one day watching the rain lash and the windows rattle, while he played The Castle of Dromore on his flat set of pipes, with regulators and the whole lot going. Really lovely. Back to O’Connors at Doolin to hear more trad music and introduced to the newish-at-the-time Altan album and the classic Bothy Band tapes, and then with a group of local musicians up to Vaughans at Kilfenora for an unbelievable session away from the tourist traps. I think of that holiday often, it was so memorable, and was the start of my journey with “itm”. Still have the bike, but it lives in comfortable retirement in my garage.
I'd love to make a trip like that. Did you travel from town to town and stay to Inns, or did you pack along camping gear and sleep out in the open? Can you even do that sort of thing in Ireland, or is the land all someone's private property?
A friend of mine just went from here to the finger lakes in New York State. That's about 300 miles through the Endless Mountain Region north of here. That's the best discription of the place, too. There's nothing out there but more mountains all the way to the New York border.
He said he slept in the mountains in this hammock he brought, but when he was in this town people asked him he had any problems with snakes. Apparenly where he set up camp, he was oblivious to the fact that the area was well known for being thick with poisonous snakes!
I once moved by bicycle, covering about 1,800 miles in 44 days, camping for all but two nights. From northern California back to Montana.
My panniers were loaded with over 100 pounds of stuff--not just bike trip gear, but all the sorts of things you take with you when moving, including (idiotically) an unabridged Random House hardcover dictionary. (I came to my senses about 350 miles into the trip and ditched the dictionary.) Still, the bike was so loaded down, I broke the seatpost clamp out in the middle of nowhere and had to ride 210 miles standing up (this is one instance where duct tape didn't save the day). Paid for most of my food by picking up cans and bottles along the roadside and turning them in for the 5-cent-a-piece recycle reward.
And I have vivid memories of riding all around Roscommon on the back of my Dad's bike when I was five. 1964. No traffic to speak of back then. And not much pavement, either. Thoroughly enjoyable.
I stayed in hostels most of the time, but when I wanted a good rest I would stay at a B&B. There was a brilliant hostel in Letterkenny which was an old church presbytery which was run by a couple from Melbourne, Australia. It was this huge rambling old mansion and even though it was a hostel, I had my own room. I stayed there a number of days. Some hostels were like that, others were mad crowded and you'd be lucky to get in after 4pm, so you had to measure your day well.
I would say that was one of the most life-changing things I have done. I have learned so much because of that decision to do that trip, that no way could I have found if I had not done it, and not done it by bicycle. In a car I would have travelled too fast and too far. At a great hostel in Cong, I met an Irish guy around the same age as myself, and we have been close friends ever since. He ended up migrating to Australia. He stayed with us at our home a few months back. We both have a keen interest in Irish stuff, and I have learned much much more about the culture, mythology, the geography of the mythology, the literature, which has led me to learn about a whole plethora of philosophies which still occupies me to this day. So, as an example, I can myself now reading absolutely rivetting books on something like Kabbalah - or stories by Eddie Lenihan! - while happily listening to my favourite tunes.
No way I would have been doing any of this had I not gone on that bicycle trip through the west of Ireland! I could not do that sort of trip now, I knew it was the right time to do it when I did it.
Here... in the second coldest capital city on planet Earth - Ottawa, Canada - I have cycled year-round... to work, to play... and long before it was "cool". It's about the only balance I've achieved in my life... heh. Although, it's a wee bit nippy at -30 degrees Celsius. You do have to warm up your fingers (and instrument) before playing.
Heh, I've lived in Montana for the last 29 years and cycled year-round in as low as minus 40 C. Hard to keep the nose and toes warm, but ski goggles keep your eyelashes from freezing shut....
Right you are on the goggles, Will... a balaclava and layers complete the ensemble. Been at it 24 years here... used to be regarded as an eedjit (however avant-garde). Still am, but a venerable one.
What motorists don't realize is that us cyclists are toasty under our coats, generating plenty of our own heat. There's nothing colder than scraping ice off the windshield and then sitting dead still in a car that hasn't warmed up yet after a night of minus 20 or lower. Let me pedal and stay warm....
Absolutely nothing to do with Trad, or Music, but...
...it sounds like there are a lot of bicycle experts around here on the yellow board. I'm trying to get an old Schwinn Continental (picked up out of someone's trash) back into shape for my teenage son to get around on. It's got 1 1/4 x 27 tires (tires and tubes all new), drop handlebars, Shimano gears (I won't even try to spell "derailluers" right now), and is a really fun bike to putt around on (I thought about keeping it for myself, but he needs it worse.) So...
The rims are bent a bit out of shape, so that the brakes drag on one side and then the other. And the tires don't sit consistently in the rims (ie at the same depth) all of the way around. I haven't broken out the tools yet to check the trueness of the rims. Sooo...
Can I get things back into reasonable shape just by adjusting the spokes and applying body english to the rims, and maybe massaging the tires into place a bit? Does any kind of rim lubricant help in getting the tires to seat properly?
No one's (obvoiusly) ever going to race this bike or go on any kind of extended road trip.
I've done some of this kind of work on motorcycles, but the tires and wheels on them are so stiff that everything just seems to fall into place.
Who'g going out to play some tunes tomorrow night?
Thanks, folks!
Tom
As if the tune isn't great enough to stand alone, I think the content of this thread would be grounds enough for a revival. I don't hear anyone else doing it.
Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Hi All,
Hopefully this light-hearted thread will draw some enjoyable discussion and interesting insights.
I have been playing ITM for about 10 years, and a member of thesession.org for about 5. In that time I have come across countless occasions where bicycling (particularly high-caliber bicycling) and ITM have come together.
What I mean is: I know one instrument maker who was once a high-category bicycle racer, one musician who was once a pro, and another who was an Olympic team member. I myself was a high-category cyclist, and in my 5 years on thesesh, I've read numerous other postings by folks who are somehow involved in bicycling and bicycle racing -- most recently from benhall.1, and I seem to recall even Jeremy, himself.
The frequency of such occurrences is too great to be dismissed as just random coincidence, but I can't imagine what the common traits might be -- that make up a cyclist and an Irish Traditional Musician -- such that so many people would be drawn to both?
Special permission is granted to our resident running enthusiast, Key Maniac Lad, to also participate in this thread.
Perhaps there are other sports/hobbies/activities that are equally coincidentally intertwined with ITM enthusiasm? If so, I haven't observed such trends yet.
What do you all think?
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by browndog
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Here are few things to consider - people in general are becoming a bit more health conscious these days, even (gasp!) musicians. I can remember back when most musos were quite proud of their graveyard tan, and wouldn't kick open their coffins to make it to a session or gig until the sun went down. I know those folks still exist in large numbers, but there are lots of folks like us who enjoy staying fit as well.
I take my i-Pod to the gym everyday loaded with trad and have embarrassed myself on numerous occasions by playing "air" accordion or banjo by the weight racks when the tunes consume me.
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Both bicycling and Irish trad attract witty, erudite sorts with buffed-out physiques and perfect teeth. Our hearts and pure and our quads are like tree-trunks. And the reason we ride all of those miles? So we can drink beer without bloating out.
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Batlady
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Ah, indeed, there is a connection.
Consider the alt names of some well known Irish tunes: e.g. "The Kid on the Mountain Bike", "The Sprocketty March", "Saddle the Pushbike" and "The Maid Behind the Handlebars" !
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
HA HA HA HA !!!!!!!!
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Dialed4Life
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Not to mention Rolling in the Peloton......
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Batlady
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
I've found that pedalling a bike in time to a tune I'm trying to learn is very effective! I found this out on my many trips to the Joe Mooney summer school - we always stayed in rented cottages some way from the town, so rode bikes about all week, with fiddles etc strapped on the back - reels were good - you got to cycle really fast!
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by calum's van
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Years ago someone recommended that I ride a bicycle to improve my breath control. It did seem to help.
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by LowProfile
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
If God hadn't meant us to pedal she wouldn't have invented the bicycle... A wonderous thing!!!
Now if someone would just get rid of the devil's machines, those gas guzzling, gas belching monstrosities that hog all those potentially lovely bicycle ways...
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
No, but man alive, got half a ton of kayakers down here cranking tunes out as well. Florida swamp kayaking, look out for the gators!
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
I myself once cycled from Dublin to the west Kerry. I used to cycle everywhere too. I miss that in fact.
An interesting observation, Browndog.
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by richrua
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
So far first prize for "Best Response" goes to Batlady.
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by browndog
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
"So we can drink beer without bloating out. "
That clinched it, didn't it?
I bet I'm going to get a great prize, eh?
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Batlady
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
A lot of musicians I know are also involved in sailing. Thank God I know very few traditional musicians who are part of the golfing fraternity.
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by mariaphilmurphy
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Matt and Shannon Heaton are big into biking.
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by StephenR
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Cycling is no longer just a cheap way of getting from A to B for the poorer classes (though it could be)
Like "ITM", it is now an approved hobby for the educated classes, preferably involving strapping the expensive bike onto a vehicle and driving for miles before actually doing any cycling
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Bren
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Since this is supposed to be light-hearted...
Bren - and let's not even go into the fancy, um, costumes.
Stephen - I *thought* that Matt was, given the stickers on his guitar case at a workshop that I attended a couple of years ago. I wanted to yak with him about that (I ride off-road motorcycles, myself, but it's a similar thing), but didn't get a chance.
Around here, there seem to be a lot of Blues/Rock/Roots musicians who ride motorcycles; so much so that a friend of mine was thinking about starting a "Biker Band". That could be big fun, and we could probably get gigs at all of the local biker events. We'd probably have to learn a lot of "Steppenwolf" tunes, though...
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by tomw
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Much juicier irony, Bren: spinning classes! Great herds of very fit people drive their cars to the gym (must sign up for a spot in the class since they are wildly popular here), strap their feet into stationary bikes, pedal like mad for 1 hour to head-banging music, then back in their cars for the drive to the office. I asked a spin teacher if she like cycling, and she said no, because it was too dangerous. Aargh.
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Batlady
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
My wife and I like to either go hiking or canoeing--depending on the time of the year. We usually do the canoeing during the warmer weather and the hiking during the cooler weather.
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
I recently thought that high level sports and similarly music have a type of aspergers personality traits about it. The same focus hours of patient training and commitment are pretty similar to both training and music.
I myself have raced bicycles at a reasonable level and know several, good musicians, Brendan Mulholland (Flute Plyer) was on the commonwealth games squad for cycling).
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Andyras1
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
"Thank God I know very few traditional musicians who are part of the golfing fraternity." - Maria
But don't you see? Trad and Golf are similar in so many ways:
1) You don't have to be good to enjoy them
2) They both have mysterious etiquette rules and curious displays of snobbery
3) Participants have been known to forsake family and friends in order to play
4) There is almost always alcohol involved
5) Both have "Celtic" origins
6) The better the gear the easier it is to play well
7) Both involve finding a good rhythm and groove
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
So here are some thoughts on common traits:
Irish Traditional Music (while difficult to realize among 50,000 like-minded fellows on the MustardBoard) is certainly barely a scratch on the tip of the iceberg of the music world. Similarly (but not as much so on The Continent), even in the Post-Lemond/Armstrong era, cycling at a high-category or professional level is decidedly a "fringe" sport in the athletic landscape.
I think Batlady is on the right track. While we may not all be "witty, erudite sorts", a common trait between ITMers and cyclists is the willingness to move in circles outside the mainstream.
But why haven't I observed many elite swimmers or ex-Olympic discus throwers in ITM circles, then? Why *bicycling*, specifically? It really seems to be an interest in *bicycling* in particular that intersects with an interest in ITM.
?
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by browndog
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
JNE, there's one fundamental difference between golf and traditional music - the former ruins a perfectly good walk.
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Floss the Tethers
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
On the rare occasions when I look at sheet music (or the "dots"), I always think the notes on the page resemble golf clubs.
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
You're right about that one Floss, - but I'm sure you will agree there is an equal amount of profanity between the two....
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Why do so many ITMers ride bikes? As far as I know there's no such arrestable offense as RUI (Riding Under the Influence) or RWI (Riding While Intoxicated). How else can you get to and from the pub, enjoy a beverage, and not end up in jail?
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Jason G
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
A taxi, Jason G, a taxi!
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Floss the Tethers
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Twenty-five years ago, I traded my bicycle to my brother-in-law for a banjo. His wife has been kind to me ever since.
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Bob himself
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Jason, you might end up in jail anyway:
http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/07/angry_bicyclists_gang_up_on_th.html
It's a dangerous world out there.
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by Batlady
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
One of my friends is a pro Ironman, helps a lot to keep in shape during a long session...
Myself I just did ride a bike from willie week to Glencolumkill with the pipes and some luggage on the carrier. This was alot of fun.
Maybe we ask the famous third policeman about bicycle, he will explain us in detail about migration of molecules from the bike to the rider to the instrument ?!?
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by swisspiper
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
I love my bike, and I really like my cycling holidays (one of which I've just come back from) ... but I'm not a proper cyclist. Just thought I'd better say that before any of my friends who know better read this and think I'm trying to make out that I am ...
Oh, and I agree about the people who strap them to cars and think they're going on cycling holidays. We go by train. We get them somewhere where there's no-one and nothing to rely on but you and your bike - well, OK, still in civilisation, but the point being, there's no car backup. It's amazingly freeing. One of the best trips didn't even involve trains - we just cycled from my house the twenty or so miles to the edge of the Brecon Beacons, and there you had it - a great cycling holiday riding around the Beacons and the Black Mountains, ending up back home under no other steam than that provided by our own legs. Great.
Still, I'm not a *proper* cyclist. They're the ones who whizz past, looking all cool, while you're struggling up some mountain or other ...
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by benhall.1
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
If you ride your bike, that makes you a "proper" cyclist.
here's one of my favorite bike-related websites (advocates of bike camping, wearing any shoes you like, and comfortable clothes instead of smelly poly-this-or-that...
http://www.rivbike.com/
# Posted on August 5th 2008 by airport
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Airport, maybe that's the attitude that is the link. (Rivendell has been out there for a while, advocating sensible stuff.)
Just like the music: keep it simple, know where it came from and what's in it, no special clothing necessary. And you can drink beer, not some ghastly energy drink stuff. What's not to like?
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by Batlady
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
I'm lucky to live 4 city blocks from mountain trails with endless possibilities for mountain biking and hiking. Used to road ride, but got tired of motorists tossing beer bottles (empty, damn!) at my head.
I've never been a "proper" cyclist either--I just "love to ride my bicycle!"
http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Biking-Helena-Will-Harmon/dp/1560445971/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217978733&sr=8-1
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
and they both like wool (or Aran jumpers?) Thanks for posting that story about the bike incident that happened right in my neighborhood but which I missed hearing about. My podner is an architectural designer who regularly deals with plans examiners - he will not be surprised by that behavior.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by airport
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
That's cool Will - I'm jealous - but 1998? Where's the 2nd edition already?
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by airport
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
aw just kidding - I bet Globe Pequot bugs you about that every week...
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by airport
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
When I was in the military and stationed in Norfolk, Virginia from January 1979 to July 1982, I used a bicycle to get around because I couldn't afford a car on an enlisted man's salary. Also, I didn't want to use public transit and Norfolk is flat (which made it easy to ride a bicycle).
There were many occasions when I would go to a bar in the evening to listen to a band and drink way too much beer. Then I would get on my bicycle and ride back to the base without any problems whatsoever. Riding a bicycle while drunk is an interesting sensation.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
If it wasn't so hard on the hands:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXW5u0qFDr8
I've been a runner for 30 years. Cycled hard for about 10 somewhere in the middle. I ran competitively until I was in my mid 30s. I was a consistent 50 - 60 mile a week runner for about 12 years. Got injured... Learned how to juggle while I was figuring out how to work through the injury. That led me to street performing, theater, and eventually back to performing music.... (that's why I'm here
)
I'm in my mid 50s and only do maintenance running now--10 - 15 miles a week. And I've gotten pretty slow because of my beer gut (aka, extra 25 pounds--and because I'm 50 something), but I've got the psychology of running in my body from years of training--enough to amaze the occasional unsuspecting 20 something who thinks he's going to run the old dude into the ground
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by gw
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Heh, I'm 49. I keep trying to talk my 18 yrold son into writing the next edition....
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Interesting article. Guess it's a good thing I don't really drink or ride bikes. Avoid the mess altogether. Guess I could bike to my session, but that would turn a 15 minute drive around the ciry into an hour plus ride through downtown Baltimore. Think I'll stick to the drive for now.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by Jason G
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Oh, for those who think it's OK to ride your bike and therefore be able to have a drink:
http://www.criminal-solicitors.com/bicycles.htm
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by benhall.1
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
I'm a bicycle commuter. The late Paddy Canny's brother was an
all-Ireland champion cyclist.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by Hup
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
And a fiddle player. Jack Canny (Paddy's brother) came out to Australia and lived in Canberra, where one of the local Irish musicians tripped over him. He hadn't played in years - his wife Margaret was no enthusiast for the music - but he was soon back in the saddle (so to speak) and rarely missed an opportunity for a tune. We got a lot of great tunes from him.
He was a bricklayer by day, and he laid the bricks for my flute-making workshop. The fiddle player in our band mixed and carried "the mud". My dad (carpenter and box player) designed it, and I (flute player) did the roofing. Irish music belted out of the house nearby to sustain the musicians during the building process.
Terry
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by Terry McGee
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Used to be an enthusiastic touring cyclist. Best cycle-camping tour I ever did was in 1985 from Dublin to Galway, basically clockwise around (roughly) the coast, then across back to dublin. Three weeks of bliss. It was also the last cycle camping tour I did, and have hardly ridden since, for various reasons. Keep meaning to dig out the old bike to spruce it up a bit, but I suspect I have deteriorated a lot more than it has so maybe it's not such a great idea.
Keith
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by ocarolan
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
"A £200 fine is set for furious cycling"
Good one Ben.
There's not a cyclist I know, including me, who hasn't broken at least one of those rules. And they wonder why more people don't get on their bikes
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by Bren
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Wow - thanks for the blast from the past Terry. I wish Jack was
still around.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by Hup
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
No more biking for me, other than short jaunts to the store. I developed pinched nerves in my shoulders that caused my arms to go dead, and the breaking point came one night when I had trouble strumming my guitar. One has to make choices, and while I tried a LOT of things to mitigate the problem, in the end, I decided functioning arms were more important than long bike rides.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by AlBrown
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Hello to everybody here, this is my first ever post on the mustard board although I have been reading it now for a very long time.
I couldnt resist commenting on the cycling. I love cycling and still get out for a few miles and recommend spin classes too. I did ride at a very good level years ago, but I also loved playing the flute. Going to fleadhs and sessions and skulling the black stuff didnt go well with trying to wear a yellow jersey in top end races. So the raliegh 753 lost out to the Sam Murray 6 key. I would be coming to the end of my days as a cyclist now but however Matt Molloy is still cranking out the Moving Could like a demon!!!
So to conclude, I mostly cycle to allow for the Guinness intake and keep the lungs in good nick for the flute, so cycling does have its role to play in trad music.
Cheers Brendan Mulholland
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by brendan mulholland
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Cheers to Terry McGee for that wonderful story... ... and to all others who have posted. I've enjoyed all of your responses.
And, brendan mulholland, that's a long time to lurk before making your "first ever post", Mr. 11,343. Thank you for chiming in.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by browndog
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Y're dead right, Bren. Although, of course, I NEVER break any rules at all.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by benhall.1
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
I know two instrument makers/trad players who are avid cycling buddies. I'm not quite sure what 'high category' means but, from what they tell me I think they would probably fall into it. I don't know if either was ever pro or semi-pro - I only recently made their acquaintances - but I wouldn't be at all surprised.
I would certainly not call myself high category - in terms of speed, I would probably fall off the bottom of the scale. But I have always combined traditional music and cycling - it is my principal means of transport on trips to Ireland, laden with instruments, tent, sleeping bag, clothes, food, cooking paraphernalia, maps etc. I have lost count of the number of times I've cycled from Dublin to Clare and back, with various meanderings in between. However, cycling is, for me, primarily a convenient means of transport and I have been known to accept lifts from friends with sufficiently-sized vehicles when the weeks of incessant sessioning have started to take their toll. Besides, an average speed of 10mph is sometimes not fast enough to get from one festival to the next in good time.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by OrganicPeatCreature
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Thank you for the warning benhall.1--although it has been many years since I have ridden a bicycle after drinking too much.
Now that I am married, my wife won't let me drink and drive. If I drink anything alcoholic (even just one beer), she insists that I must give her the car keys so she can drive us home.
In July 1995, while I was on vacation from work, I was exploring the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. While driving uphill on a narrow, two-lane highway towards the top of a pass in the mountains, I passed several bicyclists riding on the shoulder on the right-hand side of the road. The bicyclists were participating in an organized bicycle rally. After I crossed over the top of the pass, I drove past several other people on bicycles--including one couple on a tandem bicycle who had their dog riding in a trailer behind their tandem bicycle. The dog seemed to be enjoying the ride much more than his human friends.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
I actually started playing fiddle after I was hit by a car on a training ride this spring. I'm an amature bike racer here in Pennsylvania.
I think I was on the other side for a little bit when I got run over. I got hauled away in an abulance and can't remember any of it. Must have been a real horror show. The police said they found me laying uncouncious in the road with a smashed helmet.
but that's where the fiddle comes in. My great grandma played and she taught fiddle when she first came to America. I was really close to my grandma, and she loved to hear about the places I went on my bike. After she died, I felt like she rides with me in a sort of funny kind of way like an angel on my shoulder.
Well she was on the job the day I was hit. The last thing I remember was a big recreational vehicle hitting me at about 35mph. I should be dead, but I'm not. After all that ambulance and emergency room stuff I only missed two days of work.
Then I picked up a fiddle for $80 and started playing every evening. Just out of the blue.
And the funny thing is that certain songs stick in my head and I pick them up in no time. I think great grandma might have played them, or some tune that's similar. Is "Pipe on the Hob" an old tune by any chance?
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by Nate Ryan
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
"Is "Pipe on the Hob" an old tune by any chance?"
Both of them are.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by benhall.1
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Oh, just saw this thread.. If it's any contribution, Greg La Mont who won the tour de france in the past was recently at a gig I done here in Ireland. He's actually a big fan of Irish music.
When my bandmate Luke Ward met him, he said - "So you're the man that does the bit of cycling?"!
I thought it was priceless.
Martin.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by martin t
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Martin, That JCB of yours would be a hell of a burden in a backpack on a bike ride on the Glen Road to Carrig
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by deeor
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
So much for exchanging the car for a bike after a nights alcohol fuelled session here in Ireland. "Don't ever ride or attempt to ride a bicycle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs"
http://www.drivingschoolireland.com/pedal-cyclist.html Ah well...back to the drawing board or taxi.
I've just looked at all the 'don't s' on this web page....oops!
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by gtag
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Cycling and I parted company a very long time ago. Age, portliness, extreme indolence and the fact that the bike is in roughly the same condition as the average buried sword after yonks in a leaky garage are enough to prevent me touching it again; furthermore, Durham City's topography is hilly and its drivers steeped in indifference to the wellbeing of cyclists (fatalities occur). I have no wish to end my days as roadkill. Apart from one keen cyclist who lives at a distance and comes in by other means, local sessioners seem to favour rugged vehicles used in the course of tree surgery, archaeology, recondite academics' holidays, trips to Wales, the ferrying of small children and other such esoteric pursuits.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
There's something to be said for arriving home after a drunken bike ride at 1 am in six inches of fresh snow. (Apart from "I'll never do that again!")
Cycling is good for you, and cheaper than driving. Playing music is good for you, and cheaper than being a life-long media consumer. Both are a lot of fun. I don't consider these things "fringe" activities, but that's because I live in a fantasy world where the purpose of civilization is to create a system of self-sustaining villages where the happy musicians cycle from session to session. Very little work gets done, as it's well known as the main cause of inflation.
# Posted on August 6th 2008 by Gzeg
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
"There's something to be said for arriving home after a drunken bike ride at 1 am in six inches of fresh snow."
More than can be said for *not* arriving home from a drunken bike ride at 1am in six inches of fresh snow.
# Posted on August 7th 2008 by OrganicPeatCreature
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
You know, I was out riding yesterday. It was a beautiful day here. I rode across the tops of all the ridges in the northern part of two counties until nearly dark. 4 and half hours on the road, but I only averaged about 12 miles an hour. That's how great a day it was
to ride hard and make myself suffer on a day like yesterday would be tantamount to blasphamy.
# Posted on August 7th 2008 by Nate Ryan
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
I never have tried to ride a bicycle in the snow and I don't like trying to drive my car in the snow either. Since we rarely get significant amounts of snow this far south, this is one of the reasons I decided to stay in Arkansas.
# Posted on August 7th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
In 1990, when all I knew about Irish traditional music was the Chieftains album I had bought years before, I took a bicycle trip in the west of Ireland from pretty much Limerick up to Galway, Donegal out to Glemcolumkille, through Gweedore, Letterkenny then back down through Tuam and back to Clare. I will never forget the extreme difficulty (for me anyway) of cycling up past Errigal, reaching the top almost completely knackered, then coasting downhill in spectacular scenery for miles and miles to Letterkenny without having to pedal at all. The whole journey was a combination of those sorts of extremes.
Of all the vacations I taken, I remember more detail of that that any other, and always will. I had not been a serious cyclist before that, and had been in a sedentary job for years before, so there was a lot of pain and suffering amid the exhilaration. Bought the bicycle in New York, learned to ride again in Central Park – and I thought it would be a quiet, relaxing place to learn. Yeah, right, you learn something new everyday. Heard the pipes again in Doolin, met Geoff Wooffe, pipemaker from Australia then living in a beautiful position up near Doonagore Castle overlooking the Aran Islands. Great guy. I remember we sat there in his house one day watching the rain lash and the windows rattle, while he played The Castle of Dromore on his flat set of pipes, with regulators and the whole lot going. Really lovely. Back to O’Connors at Doolin to hear more trad music and introduced to the newish-at-the-time Altan album and the classic Bothy Band tapes, and then with a group of local musicians up to Vaughans at Kilfenora for an unbelievable session away from the tourist traps. I think of that holiday often, it was so memorable, and was the start of my journey with “itm”. Still have the bike, but it lives in comfortable retirement in my garage.
# Posted on August 7th 2008 by Duijera Dubh
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
I'd love to make a trip like that. Did you travel from town to town and stay to Inns, or did you pack along camping gear and sleep out in the open? Can you even do that sort of thing in Ireland, or is the land all someone's private property?
A friend of mine just went from here to the finger lakes in New York State. That's about 300 miles through the Endless Mountain Region north of here. That's the best discription of the place, too. There's nothing out there but more mountains all the way to the New York border.
He said he slept in the mountains in this hammock he brought, but when he was in this town people asked him he had any problems with snakes. Apparenly where he set up camp, he was oblivious to the fact that the area was well known for being thick with poisonous snakes!
# Posted on August 7th 2008 by Nate Ryan
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
I once moved by bicycle, covering about 1,800 miles in 44 days, camping for all but two nights. From northern California back to Montana.
My panniers were loaded with over 100 pounds of stuff--not just bike trip gear, but all the sorts of things you take with you when moving, including (idiotically) an unabridged Random House hardcover dictionary. (I came to my senses about 350 miles into the trip and ditched the dictionary.) Still, the bike was so loaded down, I broke the seatpost clamp out in the middle of nowhere and had to ride 210 miles standing up (this is one instance where duct tape didn't save the day). Paid for most of my food by picking up cans and bottles along the roadside and turning them in for the 5-cent-a-piece recycle reward.
And I have vivid memories of riding all around Roscommon on the back of my Dad's bike when I was five. 1964. No traffic to speak of back then. And not much pavement, either. Thoroughly enjoyable.
# Posted on August 7th 2008 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
I stayed in hostels most of the time, but when I wanted a good rest I would stay at a B&B. There was a brilliant hostel in Letterkenny which was an old church presbytery which was run by a couple from Melbourne, Australia. It was this huge rambling old mansion and even though it was a hostel, I had my own room. I stayed there a number of days. Some hostels were like that, others were mad crowded and you'd be lucky to get in after 4pm, so you had to measure your day well.
I would say that was one of the most life-changing things I have done. I have learned so much because of that decision to do that trip, that no way could I have found if I had not done it, and not done it by bicycle. In a car I would have travelled too fast and too far. At a great hostel in Cong, I met an Irish guy around the same age as myself, and we have been close friends ever since. He ended up migrating to Australia. He stayed with us at our home a few months back. We both have a keen interest in Irish stuff, and I have learned much much more about the culture, mythology, the geography of the mythology, the literature, which has led me to learn about a whole plethora of philosophies which still occupies me to this day. So, as an example, I can myself now reading absolutely rivetting books on something like Kabbalah - or stories by Eddie Lenihan! - while happily listening to my favourite tunes.
No way I would have been doing any of this had I not gone on that bicycle trip through the west of Ireland! I could not do that sort of trip now, I knew it was the right time to do it when I did it.
I would say, go for it, Nate.
# Posted on August 7th 2008 by Duijera Dubh
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Here... in the second coldest capital city on planet Earth - Ottawa, Canada - I have cycled year-round... to work, to play... and long before it was "cool". It's about the only balance I've achieved in my life... heh. Although, it's a wee bit nippy at -30 degrees Celsius. You do have to warm up your fingers (and instrument) before playing.
# Posted on August 7th 2008 by drone
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
That must clinch Edinburgh for the coldest, then...
# Posted on August 7th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Heh, I've lived in Montana for the last 29 years and cycled year-round in as low as minus 40 C. Hard to keep the nose and toes warm, but ski goggles keep your eyelashes from freezing shut....
# Posted on August 7th 2008 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
Right you are on the goggles, Will... a balaclava and layers complete the ensemble. Been at it 24 years here... used to be regarded as an eedjit (however avant-garde). Still am, but a venerable one.
# Posted on August 7th 2008 by drone
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
What motorists don't realize is that us cyclists are toasty under our coats, generating plenty of our own heat. There's nothing colder than scraping ice off the windshield and then sitting dead still in a car that hasn't warmed up yet after a night of minus 20 or lower. Let me pedal and stay warm....
# Posted on August 7th 2008 by Miss Lonelyhearts
Absolutely nothing to do with Trad, or Music, but...
...it sounds like there are a lot of bicycle experts around here on the yellow board. I'm trying to get an old Schwinn Continental (picked up out of someone's trash) back into shape for my teenage son to get around on. It's got 1 1/4 x 27 tires (tires and tubes all new), drop handlebars, Shimano gears (I won't even try to spell "derailluers" right now), and is a really fun bike to putt around on (I thought about keeping it for myself, but he needs it worse.) So...
The rims are bent a bit out of shape, so that the brakes drag on one side and then the other. And the tires don't sit consistently in the rims (ie at the same depth) all of the way around. I haven't broken out the tools yet to check the trueness of the rims. Sooo...
Can I get things back into reasonable shape just by adjusting the spokes and applying body english to the rims, and maybe massaging the tires into place a bit? Does any kind of rim lubricant help in getting the tires to seat properly?
No one's (obvoiusly) ever going to race this bike or go on any kind of extended road trip.
I've done some of this kind of work on motorcycles, but the tires and wheels on them are so stiff that everything just seems to fall into place.
Who'g going out to play some tunes tomorrow night?
Thanks, folks!
Tom
# Posted on August 8th 2008 by tomw
Re: Bicycling & Irish Traditional Music
I just found this thread
...never noticed the connection until now.
The old chestnuts are sometimes the easiest to forget.. have a listen to the first track
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/2386
As if the tune isn't great enough to stand alone, I think the content of this thread would be grounds enough for a revival. I don't hear anyone else doing it.
# Posted on August 15th 2008 by gravelwalks