Wales weekend, May 27th - 30th 2005
Friday 27th May started with an anxious look through the curtains at about 6
a.m. Bright sunshine and a forecast of 24 degrees for our ride to Wales.
Virtually everything was packed the night before into the recent hard Kappa
luggage on the FireStorm; the luggage had been tested out some two weeks
previously on my solo 900 mile effort round Belgium and France and had acquitted
itself well.
Dark visor on from the off and a gentle (ish) ride down to Red Lodge where Carl
and Tony were already waiting and had ordered bacon rolls. As everyone who knows
me will testify, I have the physique of a racing snake and so a full English was
the order of the day lest I fade away before lunchtime and it went down very
well. Gary, Clive and Chris soon appeared and it was off to hit the highway for
the first relatively boring trek across to Cambridge, St. Neots and Milton
Keynes. We all travelled together rather than splitting up; I do like to see a
large group together.
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A A Ray (for reasons that will become obvious later) and Mack were going to meet us later at the hotel, making 8 of us in total. The pub at Finmere although re-opened after a fire, didn’t start serving until noon. |
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We pressed on to Moreton-in-the-Marsh, to a very nice town centre hotel where some had soft drinks, others lager and some combined this with a baguette. Being an only occasionally eater, I declined the baguettes in favour of some lager.
I was reminded of the lager on some bumpy sections later and had to stop at some “convenient” spot later on, telling the guys I would catch them later. Eventually finding a pull in place with a suitable hedge I said goodbye to Stella and set off in pursuit. After about 20 miles and in full attack mode I came up on the last of the group and made my way to the head. Modesty forbids me from telling everyone the conclusion of the story, but if you ask Carl nicely he might tell you! |
The A44 can be a fantastic road and it seems that the road mending budget for most of the UK gets spent in Wales. Brilliant surfaces for the most part, sweeping bends, hairpins and chicanes and, being Wales, with the added dimension of up and down too.
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We arrived in very good time at the Lion owing to the good weather and after calling in to the Lion itself we went up the road to the chalets, where some of us had a shower as it had been a hot journey and others replicated the gay bikers outing and walked around in various stages of undress. How fetching! |
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We decided to take the B road across to
Aberystwyth for a fish and chip supper on the seafront and very good they were
too. At about 6.30pm we set off back to Llanbister at a very steady pace, with
Chris at the front. He had said earlier that he was just going to take it slowly
back home. Both Carl and I had commented on how steady we were going and had
held back about ¼ mile with intermittent bursts to catch up. It was on one of
these occasions when we rounded a gentle bend to see everyone turning left,
which was the wrong way. It was only then that we saw a bike in the road and a
rider lying in front of it and to our horror realised that it was Chris. Some
dozy twonk in an Escort had pulled right across in front of him and having
nowhere else to go (other than into oncoming traffic) Chris had clipped the back
of the car and been thrown from the bike.
The police, ambulance and doctors (who were merely drivers of some of the cars
caught up in this accident) were absolutely fantastic, the police giving us some
good roads to ride and telling us that there weren’t many on duty over the
weekend!
It has reminded me of the importance of knowing first aid (which I don’t) and I
think I must make undertaking a course an absolute priority. Perhaps a few of us
could do it together (but no tongues on the resuscitation bit please!)
Gary followed the ambulance to Shrewsbury and had a “find the petrol station”
game at midnight, eventually getting back to the Lion at about 1 am. I can
report that Chris is on the mend with nothing broken thank goodness.
An even steadier ride followed back to the chalets; on arrival we rang the
owner, Ray, who not only picked us up to take us down to the pub in the 4 x 4
then also drove halfway to Shrewsbury to pick Chris up at near midnight as he
had been discharged. An absolute star, not least bearing in mind we were getting
B&B for £15 per night.
Ray and Mack had ridden across separately. Mack had changed his oil twice that
day, so much does he love the Gixxer. Once in the morning and once after the
sump plug he forgot to tighten gave up on the M6 and dumped the contents of the
sump on the motorway. Ray rode round for hours trying to find sump plug and oil
and eventually they got going again.
The next day we awoke to lots of fine rain and after a leisurely breakfast
(orange juice, fresh coffee, cereal, full cooked breakfast and toast – remember,
only £15 per night) we decided to chance it and at Crossgates, stopping for
petrol, the roads were dry again. That day was spent going south and into the
Forest of Dean. As is our preference, we took lots of B roads. Alarm bells
sounded as the reserve light came on the ‘Storm and Hay-on-Wye was 24 miles
further. I made 18 of them, then spluttered to a halt. Once again, Ray came to
the rescue by turning back, going into Hay and buying a petrol can and 5 litres
of fuel so I could get going again. He wouldn’t even let me buy his dinner that
night. So, hence “A A Ray” and also a good example of why I describe him as a
bloody nice bloke on the About Us page.
I must apologise to Gary once more for my re-creation of the Rossi/Gibernau move
– I didn’t realise the next bend was quite so slow and sharp!
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Sunday morning was glorious and the A483
to Newton sublime. Men and machines in perfect harmony! |
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Gary, Clive and myself had a good walk round the very impressive gardens, rode the stunning Llanberis Pass up and down and later stopped for a cream tea in Betws-y-Coed before returning to the digs at about 7.15, where we rejoined the part-day bikers who were waiting for the lift to the pub. |
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Oh, how we all laughed later when Carl and Ray had crept into our chalet through the bathroom window, put clingfilm over the toilet bowl and tripped the lights so we couldn’t see a thing. They were hoping that one of us would be so desperate for a pee that we would go in the dark without realising. And I did. Retribution will follow, but I won’t say how or when.
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Next morning the blackbird that for some reason tapped on the windows at 5am was there again and soon it was time to head home. We each chipped in an extra fiver for the help that Ray had given us.(Ray the owner, not A A Ray!) |
Gary got lost somewhere near Hereford and Ray and
Mack turned off the A44 towards Stratford. By the time the rest of us had turned
round, Gary was already ahead of us unbeknown to us and whilst we waited at
Moreton for him, he’d already been through.
Fish Hill near Evesham was as blinding as ever and all was well (or so we
thought) until we reached Barton Mills, by which the rattling from my engine
became louder when we stopped for fuel and bump starting didn’t produce much of
a result. I feared a cam chain tensioner failure (which has been proved correct)
and I only had to wait 20 minutes for the breakdown truck to arrive, load up the
bike and take us both home, courtesy of the RAC. Its at time like that that you
are pleased you’ve paid the extra for get you home cover.
At Thetford we were passed by Mack, who flagged down the breakdown truck. Not
expecting to see him there as he should have been home hours before by now, he
explained that Ray had been hit by another “didn’t see you mate” twonk in
Daventry and was in Northampton hospital. Unbelievable. Both accidents caused by
no fault of the riders and at low speeds, whereas on some of the lovely roads we
had been quite “progressive” without a moment at all to speak of. Ray is back at
home and we all wish him a “get well soon” as we do with Chris.
Despite all of this, we all had a fantastic time, (though Chris’s was shorter
than the rest of us!) and we will all go again next year. Good roads, nice digs,
hospitable hosts and above all great company from all who went.
If you haven’t been yet, you are missing a great weekend break!
The pictures from the trip can be seen in the
Wales 2005
album, found from the
album page
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