The Sand Cyclist

And all that sand

There is no substitute for a hard terrain when it comes to cycling. Sandy dunes might look awesome in a Sahara sojourn, but when it comes to pedalling, one would find cycling on dry and soft sand very exhausting.

This explains why the lady above pushed her bike on the sandy beach of Bull Island and chose not to cycle. The picture is from 9 September, one of warmest days of 2012, at least in Dublin, with temperature reaching almost 20 degrees Celsius.

Bond, James Bond

Bond, James Bond on Dublin Bikes

Throughout years, James bond has been using a remarkable number of state-of-the-art cool vehicles. Aircrafts, Choppers, Sports Cars are only few of 007 means of transportation on her majesty's secret service.
Have you ever imagined how would James Bond look like if he were to use Dublin Bikes?
The guy in the picture above, with his James Bond attache case stuck in the basket, made me wonder...

This tribute to Skyfall was spotted on the 7th of September 2012 in St Stephen's Green.

The Treble-Lighter

The more lights the merrier

As the winter has set upon us and the sunset falls early, it is visible that many cyclists are invisible and don't use light at all (thus the Gardaí and the National Transport Authority will give out up to 75oo sets of lights to cyclists). On the other side of the spectrum, there are cyclist who use not one, not two, but three lights, like the cyclist above, who uses three rear lights at once!

On the average, I suppose, the cyclists/lights ratio is 1:1, thanks to cyclists like this extra cautious fella.

I took the picture above in Harold's Cross on 31 July 2012, early in the morning. You can take a closer look at the light in the photo below:

Attention attention!

The Tush Protector

Save my ass

When one's arse is more important than one's head, it may result in protecting his or her arse rather than the noggin...
Cyclists wear a helmet in order to protect the most important part of their body. For most of them, it means the head. For the girl above, it seems that the most important organ is located behind.

I took the picture above (and the one below) on 14 August 2012 in Harold's Cross Road, just off Kenilworth Square.


PS
If there's any blood relation between The Tush Protector and William George Digges La Touche, the famous Dublin Georgian 18th century developer, it's coincidental.

Butt shield

The Nose-Blower

Red light, time to blow a runny nose

The weather in Dublin can get chilly all year round. In other words, in Dublin (and Ireland in general) it's always the flu season! No wonder the cyclist above had to blow her nose while she was waiting for the green light.

I took the picture on 9 July 2012 at Fleet Street.

The Photographer

Take a picture

I was once asked how do I take all these pictures for Dublin's Cyclists. By and large the answer is "it varies". But I think the photograph above illustrates how it is usually done (although when I took it, I was actually walking by foot and had my bike locked a few blocks away). This is why I like this picture in particular. The guy reminds me of myself in a way - cycling around Dublin and stopping safely to take pictures.

The main difference is that this guy took a picture of a wooden boat with an impressive mast during the Tall Ships Festival, on 23 August 2012, whereas I take pictures of fellow cyclists.

Which reminds me, now there's a wonderful Flickr group dedicated to Dublin's Cyclists with many more exclusive photos, taken by various photographers.

The Pusher

Keep Pushing

The cogs, the chain, the pedals and all that clockwork mechanism that sets the bicycle in motion demonstrate the brilliance of the 19th century designers. Bicycles are here to remind us that, as the edge inscription of the £2 coin puts it, we are "standing on the shoulders of giants".

Yet, sometimes, when the mechanism doesn't work one needs to push his or her bicycle or tricycle down the road.

I took the picture above on 5 July 2012 near Stephen's Green Shopping Centre.