The sun was beaming through the window when I woke up early on Sunday to go and see the London marathon. We knew a few friends doing it and they had been adamant that we had to tell them where along the route we'd be - and even what side of the road we'd be on. I thought we'd be grand and just turn up along the route somewhere and see them no problem. Well the crowds here are just off the scale. It felt like there was a million people cheering along the route.
We first went to mile marker 12 where it was about 20 deep at the barriers! The corwd are cheering and almost all the particip[ants had their name printed on teh front of their tshirt. It's great because you could shout "Go Tony!" or "Come on Diane!" instead of just random woo hoos. It really registered with the runners and they'd look around and acknowledge your cheers.
Whatever about the crowds of supporters; the crowds running the marathon were unbelieveable. I'd never seen almost 40,000 people running along but it's an amazing site. People are passing by so fast as well that it's almost impossible to recognise anyone. We noticed a few seasoned supporters around us wearing funny hats, or all wearing the same colour, so their friends running the race would see them. Clever thinking.
The atmosphere was so joyful, carnival in fact. Anytime any group around us saw somebody they knew everyone starting cheering even louder. With the sun beaming down it was probably a little warm for the runners but for the supporters it was the most magnificent Sunday morning.
When the runners started to thin out at mile 12 we moved - in a strategic manouver - to near mile marker 23 to catch people on the (almost) home stretch. Again the crowds of supporters stretched for as long as the eye could see. I spotted Michele Rouge Jr. (of masterchef fame) running along with his name "CHEF" written on the front of his shirt. Of course I let out a loud "COME ON CHEF!" to which he nodded his approval.
At this stage in the race it's been 23 long hard miles in the heat and I couldnt get over the amount of people running in costume. Beer bottles, camels, rhino suits, shark - I don't know how they ran so far in those big heavy (sweaty!) costumes but they did. Everyone did. They kept going. One foot after the other. Next step. Next step. The events of the week before no doubt weighed heavy on everyone's minds with a number of runners wearing a black ribbon in solidarity with those killed and injured in the Boston marathon bombing.
The organisation of the London marathon is on a scale I could never have imagined. So many worthwhile charities raise so much money at the event and are so organised in their support of the runners. Charities, running groups, companies and friends all arrange meetup points to support their runners together. It's great to see so much positivity on the streets of London and there was a community sense of shared experience that can maybe sometimes be lacking in a city of over 11 million people.
Alas on the day we didnt see any of the friends we had gone to support. The magnitude of the occasion and the sheer volume - and speed - of the runners getting the better of our (usually) eagle eyes. We did however managed to find them in the pub afterwards at one of the many post race meetups that happened all over the city to celebrate the achievements of the 34,631 participants.
Having seen the spectacle and atmosphere of the marathon it might just be time to consider planning for a long run myself this time next year :-)
I find that when on the bike it's a great time to hum or sing to yourself and often end up singing out loud without realising it. Sorry if you've ever pulled up beside me at traffic lights and I've burst into song! Recently though I was thinking why aren't there more songs about cycling, or being on a bike. Ok, Queen have a song about wanting to ride a bicycle, but after that what is there? You might suggest Tour de France by Kraftwerk, an excellent tune but still, for all the bikes, in all the world, there's two decent songs spring to mind?
Well here's 5 you might not know but are quality tunes in their own right. Oh and if you see me at the lights next time, just sing along!
1. Luka Bloom - Acoustic Motorbike
2. Toquinho - Bicicleta
3. Nat King Cole - On A Bicycle Built For Two
4. Mark Ronson & The Business Intl - The Bike Song
Ok so the Irish Cycling Show wasn't as well attended as we (and others) had hoped but we still made the best of the weekend and met some great new Irish cycling brands and got to hang out with some people we hadn't seen in ages.
Our stand was plenty colourful with the hi-viz illuminating bottles proving to be a big hit!
The show was well attended by some international brands with super impressive stands that must have taken them all week to set up! We were impressed with the number of homegrown Irish brands exhibiting doing something new and different. Shadowbrand was one that caught our eye and they are a new company producing a range of Irish designed sports clothing. They were showcasing their racing and mountainbike range and their designer Susan McGowan has produced some really slick looking clothing. Turas Bikes are another cool new Irish brand that design and build their own racing bikes in Galway. Their sleek designs and performance focus were really impressive.
We shot some video over the two days and compiled them into this highlight reel. It gives a feel for what was happenning with the stunt shows drawing big crowds and proving the highlight of the show for many.
The show was moved from the RDS in Dublin last year to the Citywest Conference Centre this year, also the time was changed from May last year to March this year. Those factors plus the fact that the show clashed with Mother's Day possibly contributed to the lower than expected turnout but we hope that anyone who made the effort enjoyed the show!
So the Irish Cycling Show is on this weekend March 9th & 10th in Citywest. We'll be there (of course) but we'd thought we'd give you a quick run down of some of the cooler things to check out at the show.
Before the show even starts it's already a winner with Victoria Pendelton pre-launching the show in Trinity College on Tuesday March 5th at a talk in aid of the Cycle4Haiti charity.
Another world class celeb will open the show officially on Saturday and that's none other than World Track Champion Martyn Irvine. Martyn, from Co. Down, recently won gold and silver at the World Track Championships in Minsk.
The Animal Bike will provide some death defying stunts with crazy 360 flips on a purpose built stunt track. We saw these guys at the London bike show and some of the stuff they do is just crazy - not to be missed
We've always found that the test track at cycle shows is one of the highlights. You get to try all sorts of different bikes - some well outside our price range ;-) - all on a nice indoor track. We'd totally recommend trying an electric bike. They are great fun and you barely have to peddle at all! Electric bikes are going through a real change and getting easily and easily to use and better and better looking. Try one out at the show - you'll be tempted!
There's a whole load of great exhibitors at the show from big international brands like Trek and Kona to homegrown brands like Urban Frog and the Dutch Bike Shop and others like Clew Bay Outdoors - for your adventure holidaying out west.
We'll be there at stand E7 providing you with all the hi-viz you need to stay safe and have fun on your bike. Come and check out our new Kubswear range to see how bright and fun they are. You can choose your character either a hi-viz turtle or hi-viz ladybug - with special show prices available each day for visitors to the stand.
We'll also be launching some new hi-viz accessories exclusive to the Irish Cycling Show - for more info about them you'll have to come and see us at stand E7!
Anyway we all hope you can make it and that you drop by our stand to say hey. Either way we hope you really enjoy the Irish Cycling Show 2013.
Citywest will host the second annual Irish Cycling Show on Saturday March 9th and Sunday March 10th 2013 - and we'll be there! The show is open from 10-6 on Saturday and 10-5 on Sunday. Advance tickets are only €8 for adults with OAP and U16 €4, also there's a family ticket for €23 (2 adults + 2 kids) - http://www.irishcyclingshow.com/buy-tickets.html Parking is free - for both bikes and cars!
The show will no doubt build on the success of last year with more exhibitors and a larger exhibition space this year compared with the last. We had a great time at last year's cycle show - the first ever in Ireland and you can read all about it here.
This year we have more products, more stock, more stockists and a whole lot of experience from the past year to offer the public a bigger better super-er-dooper-er Motionfox stand at the show!
We'll have some new products to show off and some great special offers just for the show!
Directions to the show are below and the Citywest Hotel and Conference centre should be a fantastic venue for what will not doubt be a legend show.
From Dublin International Airport:
Exit the Airport and follow signs for M50.
Take M50 southbound and follow it through the Tollbridge and take second exit the N7 (towards Limerick & Cork).
After approximately 4 miles you will see signs for Citywest Business Campus
Take the next exit marked by brown traffic signs for Citywest Hotel.
Exit off the N7 and carry straight on for about a mile.
Citywest is on your right.
Call us on 01 401 0500 if you need help!
From Dublin City Centre, Dublin Port and Dun Laoghaire Port:
Follow signs for 'The West' and or 'the South'.
You will come to the M50 (Dublin orbital).
Follow signs for 'The South' and exit the M50 onto the N7 (towards Limerick and Cork).
After about 4 miles you will see signs for Citywest Business Campus,
ignore them and take the following exit marked by brown traffic signs
for Citywest Hotel.
Exit off the N7 and carry straight on for about a mile.
Citywest is on your right.
Call us on 01 401 0500 if you need help!
From Limerick, Cork and Kerry:
Follow the N7 through Naas towards Dublin.
After about 6 miles exit left following the signs for Saggart.
Drive into Saggart and turn left at the crossroads following the signs for Citywest Hotel.
After half a mile Citywest is on your left.
Call us on 01 401 0500 if you need help!
From the rest of Ireland:
Follow signs for Dublin and you will come to the M50 (Dublin orbital).
Follow signs for 'The South' and exit the M50 onto the N7 (signed for Limerick and Cork).
After about 4 miles you will see signs for Citywest Business Campus,
ignore them and take the following exit marked by brown traffic signs
for Citywest Hotel.
Exit off the N7 and carry straight on for about a mile.
The London Bike Show took place from January 17th - 20th
this year in Excel London - where Katie Taylor won gold at the Olympics - and
involved over 200 exhibitors and some 14,000sqm of exhibition space. This was
the 3rd London Bike Show and surpassed all others in both size and attendance.
A record number of almost 38,000 people attended over the four days with plenty
on show to keep the crowds entertained.
The show contains a mixture of exhibition stands from major
brands - who will sell you a bike for up to £10,000 - to small brands that have
just started out. The stands are complemented by an indoor test track where you
can try different bikes out - the electric bikes proved very popular here. The
test track doubled as a racing track at stages throughout the weekend with some
pro-riders flying around at various times. There was also a Penny Farthing race
and a folding bike race so it wasn't all so serious! In addition there is a
stunt area where the Animal Bike Tour perform crazy 360-degree back flips and
demonstrate supreme skill on the hour every hour. A pumping sound system
provides a great soundtrack to the event with the crowd bopping along happily
as they peruse the various happenings.
Special guests on the day included Olympic cycling medalist
Chris Hoy - which gave the show a slight racing bike emphasis, but I guess
that's to be expected given the recent Olympic and Tour successes of UK riders.
Danny McAskill was also there and although we didn’t get to see him this guy is
just a legend in trick riding - check out any of his youtube videos - you will
be amazed.
The Show takes place from Thursday to Sunday and the fact
that it snowed heavily on Thursday night did mean attendance was low on Friday
but Saturday was so packed that I'm sure all the exhibitors were delighted.
The scale of the event is quite impressive with the Outdoor
Show, Active Travel Show and the London Boat Show being held along side it in
adjoining arenas. We did sneak off to have a peak at the yachts, but I think
the better value was to be found at the Bike Show!
There was plenty to be impressed with at the 2013 London
Bike Show and no doubt some of that spectacle and awe will be equally present
at the upcoming Irish Cycling Show on March 9-10 in CityWest. This will be the
2nd year of the Irish Cycling Show with expectations high for a bigger, better
event as cycling continues to grow and attract new interest from both young and
old. Motionfox will be exhibiting at the Irish Cycling Show for the second year in a row so make sure you come along and say hey!
It's been a whirlwind few days since we arrived in London. The London Bike Show www.londonbikeshow.co.uk is on this week so I thought I'd come over to London a few days early and soak up the (cycling) atmosphere.
It's amazing how many people are on bikes here. Even though the temperature has dropped a bit there are still crowds of people on bikes. It's been amazing to stand at traffic lights and watch the number of cyclists build up waiting for the lights to change. Lots of people here seem to cycle with a backpack - and they ALL need a Motionfox FlashBk!
I've taken a few pics of cycling infrastructure that I've seen so far.
Here's some nice segregated cycle lanes, see how the kerb separates the cycle lane from the road. This is the kind of thing that offers extra safety and security to people cycling and cycle lanes like these are far better than the ones that are just painted on the road.
Oh this one was nice, a segragated two-way cycle lane!
We saw some of the Boris Bikes stations - with plenty of bikes available (it was a Sunday) - but it's great to see a station with lots of bike spaces.
Then we found some good bike parking facilities. These seem to be dotted around the city in decent numbers for locking your bike to.
Then in Camden I saw one of the coolest bikes I'd ever seen - a bicycle drum kit! This guy can cycle anywhere with the drum kit parts (cymbols etc.) in a bag and setup within minutes - quality!
I'll be doing lots more exploring of cycling in London this week and will be reporting all the coolest bits from the London Bike Show.
It's always a shame when a bicycle ends up in a landfill, or even worse just carelessly dumped somewhere. Thankfully there are now a number of bicycle recycle schemes that aim to rescue discarded bikes before they get to the dump.
Rothar in Dublin (Phibsboro and Fade St.) is a great example of bicycle recycling (and was our first stockists!). They have been taking unwanted bicycles and refurbishing them and selling then on as quality second hand bikes since 2008. In addition to that they run bike maintenance classes, have the most awesome bike shop & cafe, and work with a number of community groups. One such community group is the Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun and their Recycabike project. Unwanted bikes can now be left at the Estuary Recycling Centre, which is run by Fingal County Council, and these bikes are then taken to the Rediscover Centre in Ballymun where they are upcycled and sold on.
It's amazing to hear of so many great community projects around cycling and we wish the newly launched Recycabike the best of luck!
We launched motionfox.com on the 11th of the 11th 2011 and can't believe that it's already been a year!
The past 12 months have been an amazing buzz and we're so grateful to all our customers, retailers and suppliers for believing in MotionFox and sticking with us through our first year of business.
There has been so many highlights along the way, from being stocked in our first shop, the Rothar Bicycle Cafe, on Fade St. to now being stocked in 28 shops all over Ireland (and growing!).
We had the buzz at the first ever Irish Cycling Show in the RDS. We met some really cool people and got our first insight into a trade show - and we loved it! There's me mixing it with then Lord Mayor Andrew Montague (quality bling dude!).
We celebrated our nomination for Product Startup of the year and celebrated our Export StartUp of the Year SIlver prize at the Irish StartUp awards 2012. Check out Bobby Kerr photo-bombing me and Steve!
We were joint winners of the Dublin regional heat of the Blueface
Elevator competition, and went on to compete in the all Ireland final
with many other quality businesses and even had a memorable exchange
with one Constantin Gurdgiev :-)
We won a priming grant from the Fingal County Enterprise Board. This
coupled with receiving support from AIB, really moved the business
forward and enabled us to develop and release new products - like the
Ladybug and Turtle.
It's been an incredible year and we're super excited about the next 12 months with plenty of new products in the pipeline.
All that's left to do is light the candle and toast a legend first year in business.
Well the legs have just about recovered but the memories will live on forever of a fantastic day fundraising for Blue September.
It was a beautiful fresh Autumn morning when we met on Sandymount Strand last Saturday.
We donned our Blue Y-Fronts and got ready for the 90km cycle all around Dublin city.
The route took us south first along the coast past Dun Laoghaire and to Killiney then back through the city and over the Eastlink bridge out towards Howth and beyond to Malahide and then back again. We took a well deserved break in Howth with tasty toasted sandwiches provided for the hungry cyclists. The weather was so amazing, particularly for the stretch from Howth to Malahide that it really felt like we were on a cycling holiday. The vista was inspiring as we peddled along looking out over the calm sea towards Ireland's Eye.
It was September after all so it was a bit chilly to just were the Blue Y-Fronts but everyone got into the spirit of the event and had a lot of fun on the day.
We'd like to say a special thanks to all the cyclists who took the time not only to peddle on the day but also to raise much needed funds for Blue September cancer charities. Also thanks to the support crews on the day (Pado and Trisho on the motorbike and Steve in the car) and thanks to Alan Haverty and all the Blueface crew for organising such a fun and fantastic event - we're already looking forward to next year!
Also there will be a limited number of the Big C Cycle jerseys available to buy on motionfox.com with all profits from their sale going to Blue September.
Before the show even starts it's already a winner with Victoria Pendelton pre-launching the show in Trinity College on Tuesday March 5th at a talk in aid of the Cycle4Haiti charity.
Citywest will host the second annual Irish Cycling Show on Saturday March 9th and Sunday March 10th 2013 - and we'll be there! The show is open from 10-6 on Saturday and 10-5 on Sunday. Advance tickets are only €8 for adults with OAP and U16 €4, also there's a family ticket for €23 (2 adults + 2 kids) - 
The London Bike Show took place from January 17th - 20th
this year in Excel London - where Katie Taylor won gold at the Olympics - and
involved over 200 exhibitors and some 14,000sqm of exhibition space. This was
the 3rd London Bike Show and surpassed all others in both size and attendance.
A record number of almost 38,000 people attended over the four days with plenty
on show to keep the crowds entertained.
