Biking across Ireland

You could try asking here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=410&order=desc - and say how fast you typically cycle.

Prevailing winds in Ireland are south-westerly, so a lot of your trip could be against some fairly stiff opposition, especially on the western seaboard where winds are stronger.

Do you know yourself how much ground you can reliably cover in a day as part of a cycling trip? Bear in mind that you'll probably be on small windy roads and in hilly terrain. And presumably carrying luggage. Even being reasonably fit, you might only make 80-100km a day. It might be easy to overestimate how quickly you can move if all you're going on is your average speed on a spin on a day off at home.

Yes wind could be the main problem and also Ireland is pretty wet place. Other things to consider are narrow roads and some steep mountain passes. You should be able to do easily 50 miles a day.
Look on some cycling forums for some tips about bike maintenance, clothes esp. wet weather and creams to stop chaffing.

I live in Cork city and I might be interested in joining you for a section of the trip.Two places I would be interested in cyling through would be the Beara peninsula and/or the ring of Kerry.
Ger

Just to elaborate on my previous comment, the western coast is generally more easily done northwards than southwards because of prevailing winds. Once you're on the south coast heading eastwards should be easier. Of course, wind direction is never guaranteed. Unfortunately, the train service from Waterford to Rosslare was terminated last year, so the option of taking your bike on a train all the way from Limerick to Rosslare is no longer there - though you should be able to take it as far as Waterford.

If you are leaving from Rosslare, it is rather difficult to do the west coast in a N-S direction. But since the W coast includes a lot of heading E and W out all those peninsulars, then it probably isn't so important.

You will find in 3-4 weeks you can't go everywhere, and some lovely areas you will have to miss. Donegal is of course wonderful, but it is worth a week, and you haven't got that when you have all the rest of Ireland, so on this occasion it makes sense to give it a miss. Personally I'd probably take the train to Sligo rather than ride it, as the Irish midlands are not so terribly interesting for cycling, though the area is not without interesting places to see on the way. You'll take half a week to get from Dublin to Sligo by bike, and I'd rather have that time in the west, and a bit more freedom to take loops to see interesting little areas throughout the west.

Things not to miss in a trip of that length of time include Achill Island, Connemara, the Aran Islands, the Burren, Dingle, the Ring of Kerry.

You will of course want to ride on little Irish lanes, because it's fun and the traffic on the main roads isn't.You won't be able to travel on a pile of 1:50 000 maps, which is what is needed to follow all the little lanes with 100% accuracy, so sometimes you will have some navigational amusements.

Irish lanes have a large chip size and a lot of patches, which makes for slow going, especially with the breeze. Plan on 50 miles (80km) a day.

Agree with all Iviehoff's points, excellent advice.

Good advice above.

The important thing is to give yourself plenty of flexibility. You won't really know how much distance you can cover comfortably until you get going. The first important thing is to get decent maps - do not use car GPS as these will guide you only onto very busy main roads! The Ordnance Survey road atlas is best, as this shows the minor road network in some detail - the 'third class' road network along with 'R' regional roads are by far the best for cycling - avoid 'N' (National) roads whenever possible. Local tourist offices will often have suggested bike routes with maps or signs.

For the reasons outlined above, I'd suggest getting the train from Dublin to Cork or Killarney and starting from there, heading north along the coast - you are far more likely to have the wind at your back that way (trust me, this is important). If things go well, you can ride up the coast, then cycle from the midlands to Dublin, and then south to Rosslare, going over the Wicklow and Blackstairs mountains, which is a superb ride. If you run out of time or energy, you can easily either get a train back to Dublin and stay a few days, or ride to Dublin and get the train south to Rosslare, that way you won't feel under too much time pressure.

btw, in terms of meeting up with riders locally, one of the best ways is to register with warmshowers.org, the cycling version of couchsurfing.

Thanks for the advice everyone, especially about the southernly wind. I have taken that into account and decided to go south and east from Dublin, through Kilkenny and Cork, then doing the peninsulas in a northern direction, perhaps ending in Galway.

Anything in the Kildare, Kilkenny, Waterford regions that can't be missed?