A new network of signposted routes will boost cycling holidays, which until now have been hampered by a poor road and rail service, writes Conor Goodman.

All the full Irish breakfasts, hearty lunches and four-course dinners you can eat. All the pints of Guinness you can swallow and as many Mars bars and bananas as will fit in your saddlebag. And you still feel fit at the end of it. Oh, there's nothing like a cycling holiday.

A few days of merry pedalling and humming to the hedgerows offer a unique perspective on Ireland. Because it's a slow method of travel, cycling connects you to the landscape and its inhabitants to a greater degree than, say, a driving holiday. As a cyclist I once found myself spending a night in a remote village in Co Mayo, because I could pedal no more that evening. As a motorist I would have kept my foot on the accelerator until I reached Westport - but then I would have missed the table quiz we almost won, the 500-strong wedding party we crashed and the exceptional (not in a good way) B&B we stayed in.

The Burren looks better when you have pedalled up Corkscrew Hill to view it. A dip in the Atlantic is more rewarding when you've freewheeled down to the beach. And no vehicle will make you feel more patriotic as you arrive at the birthplace of that great Irish cyclist, Michael Collins, than the humble pushbike.

But if it's so great, why is cycling tourism in Ireland in decline? The number of two-wheeled tourists in this country has fallen from 130,000 to about 50,000 a year in seven years, according to Central Statistics Office figures.

Marion Ryan runs Irish Cycling Safaris, a company set up in 1989 by her brother Eamon Ryan, now Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. She sees the decline in the number of cycling tourists as part of a general trend.

"In the 1990s Irish tourism generally was on the rise, and cycling tourism was on an upward curve too," she says. "However, Cycling Safaris has been challenged in recent years by the shift in Ireland from rural tourism to urban-based tourism."

There is also an unsurprising perception among visitors that our famous landscape is growing less attractive. "Customers do comment on the ribbon development," says Ryan. "Though you can avoid the worst of it by good selection of routes. And there have been more complaints in recent years about the price of food."

Brendan Walsh, author of Cycle Touring Ireland, is not convinced that there has been a major drop in the number of cyclists coming to Ireland.

"I have a jaundiced view of these figures," he says. "One year they'll tell you there are 5,000 tourists cycling in Ireland, and the next it's 30,000. The figures don't distinguish between the fellow who rents a bike for the afternoon on the Aran Islands and the German who spends four weeks cycling and camping around the country. Also, the decline could be partly explained by an artificial increase in the aftermath of the [ 1998] Tour de France in Ireland [ and a subsequent return to more normal numbers]. Nevertheless I suspect there is a bit of a fall-off. It may well be down to the number of cars on the road."

Marion Ryan also identifies infrastructural problems. "I think we are making it harder to cycle in Ireland. We are putting up obstacles," she says. "For example, the rail network is not very accommodating. It's very hard to get a bike on a train. Buses will carry them in the hold, but only if there's enough room after all other luggage has been loaded. On budget airlines, baggage is such a tight commodity that it's not really feasible to bring a bike into the country by air. All of this gives the wrong signal to tourists."

JOHN FITZGERALD, Akeen cyclist with several Irish cycling holidays behind him, also bemoans Iarnród Éireann's approach to cyclists.

"Travelling to Kerry recently, we were able to take our bikes from Dublin to Mallow, but not from Mallow to Killarney - even though we had paid for them to go all the way," he says. "It seems a train's capacity to carry bikes depends on the stock they're using, and they don't always know in advance what that's going to be. They eventually waived the rules and let us take them on.

"It would be one thing if they banned bikes on trains, but to have this haphazard approach is uniquely Irish - and for tourists who mightn't speak the language it must be particularly confusing. When we eventually got there, the roads on the Ring of Kerry were in rag order, with potholes, patch-ups jobs and uneven surfaces everywhere. If cycling is to be pleasant, you need a decent surface. It's nicer to cycle a smaller road than a dual carriageway, but sometimes it's worth taking the main road just because you have a hard shoulder all to yourself and a good surface. Also, on small roads, visibility can be poor. Hedges tend to be high in Ireland, which means you don't see traffic coming."

To correct some of these problems, Fáilte Ireland, the National Tourism Development Authority, recently announced that €30 million is to be put into cycling tourism over the coming years. John Rafferty, Fáilte Ireland's head of product marketing, acknowledges that there are problems that need fixing.

"We identified that, when we benchmarked our cycling product against what is internationally available, it is not quite up to standard," he says.

The authority's solution is to choose a number of cycle-friendly routes in popular tourist locations, with accommodation and other facilities nearby, and direct tourists towards them.

"We are selecting a number of hub towns along the coast from Donegal to Wexford and including the midlands too. Around these hubs we plan that, in the next year and a half, we will have 3,500km of signposted cycling routes," Rafferty says.

"Cyclists will be routed away from major roads on to secondary and tertiary roads. The routes will have appropriate road markings and signposts indicating to cyclists that these are themed cycle routes. The signposts will give distances from towns and what gradients to expect up ahead. The cycling routes will be complemented by maps on our internet site."

The strategy is less about creating new infrastructure than about directing people to existing facilities. Fáilte Ireland will not be opening bike shops, but will be choosing "hub towns" that have such shops already. The plan will be less than perfect if the frustrating rail problems cannot be fixed.

Rafferty says: "We've been in discussion with Irish Rail and are working to ensure that there will be adequate provision to accommodate cyclists on the various routes."

IRELAND HAS MANYadvantages as a cycling destination. Our landscape makes for endlessly interesting travel and our network of B&Bs - though declining - offers ideal low-priced accommodation. And the abundance of minor roads makes the selection of tranquil cycle routes easy.

"We look for nice places to stop and the quietest possible roads to get there," says Marion Ryan. "This is easier in Ireland than elsewhere in Europe. It's not a hard country to plot a route in."

Fáilte Ireland's plans have the potential to improve conditions significantly and to encourage people to come cycling in Ireland. There's just one other problem that might put people off. It's the one that has been falling from the sky for the past two months, and it is among the cyclist's worst enemies.

No amount of flowering fuchsia or karaoke-ing to the cows can lift the spirits when they have been dampened by one of Ireland's most famous products: rain. Or has Fáilte Ireland sorted that out already?

A one-week group tour or "self-led" trip with Irish Cycling Safaris costs €630 for seven nights and includes breakfast and accommodation, but not dinner. Bike hire, support van and luggage carriage are standard. www.cyclingsafaris.com

Leading the way Have bike, will travel

Cycle-only roads: France and the Netherlands both have a number of dedicated cycle trails. In the Netherlands these are exploited to the full during the fietsvierdaagse, four-day events during which locals participate in recreational cycling through the famously flat countryside.

Inventive road signs: In Italy, recommended cycle routes carry road signs notifying motorists that cyclists use these routes and to take care.

Better maps: In the Czech Republic, maps are posted in public places showing safe cycle routes and other useful amenities.

"There have been Irish cycle maps published," says cycling author Brendan Walsh, "but the routes have been crap - designed, as far as I could see, to satisfy every rural TD and to send people into shops to buy lollipops and what-have-you, rather than enjoy a good cycle."

Bike in a bag: Japan allows bikes on trains but only if the wheels have been removed and the vehicle placed in a tarpaulin called a Rinko. This overcomes the need to have a separate carriage - such as the guard's van in Ireland - for bicycles.

Accommodation made easy: Scotland's Book-A-Bed-Ahead scheme allows visitors to go to a tourist office and have it book a B&B in their destination town for that night, for £3 (€4.60) per booking. There's nothing worse than arriving somewhere to find the circus has rolled into town earlier and has booked up all the rooms.

Easy riders Cycling tips

• Buy, borrow or rent a good bike. Have it serviced and get the tyres pumped before you leave.
• Pack two spare tubes - they're easier to carry than a basin of water.
• Travel with a full water bottle, some portable, non-melting snacks, and sunblock.
• If you're carrying your own luggage, waterproof it in special bags from watersports shops. Cycling through rain and then finding you have no dry clothes to change into is a particularly dispiriting experience.
• Invest in light cycling clothes that dry out immediately and prevent you getting cold if it rains.
• Bring a map showing altitudes and plot a route that follows flat ground as much as possible. Roads beside rivers and lakes often offer gentler inclines.
• In the morning before you set out, select a finishing point for the end of the day and book accommodation and dinner for the evening.
• Travel with companions of more or less the same ability as yourself, or else be prepared to travel at someone else's pace, which is not as easy as it sounds.