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Oh and I asked someone who works there to take this one Pete styley

Little Johns grave

To be fair, when zzzak says he was at the “chemists” he doesn’t mean Boots, he means a guy with dreadlocks that lives in a bin.

That's how the ride was advertised on the TRF group page, great i thought i can put some miles on the old Africa Twin as the MOT ran up on the CRF last weekend. The meeting point was in Caerphilly McDonalds car park for 09.30 leaving at 10.00. 14 had put their names down as going and 20 turned up so we split into two groups, one group of 11 and ours with 9, we all left together and headed up the Llanbradach bypass, 20 bikes in a group most travelling at over 100mph is not what i call a gentle ride and reminded me why i don't like to ride in groups the poor old girl hadn't seen that end of the rev counter in a long time, The two groups split off at nelson and we headed for Penderyn with Laurie as our leader for the first stretch, it was a bit chaotic overtaking slow traffic and we had a William Watch me Wheelie with us who was riding erratic and pulling wheelies wherever he could in built up areas and generally showing off like a fucking child he had two followers acting the same way and was constantly overtaking Laurie disappearing into the distance and then waiting for us to catch up, Before we left I suggested going up the Cynon valley to avoid the congestion on the heads of the valleys only to find the roundabout closed at Hirwaun and we had to detour back to the heads of the valleys to find no congestion oops LOL at this point William Wheelie and his mates took off never to be seen again they didnt know the route and shot past the turning no loss there so now we were 6 which is a nicer group to ride in. Laurie kept us on our toes for the next few hours as we rode the scenic route via Ystradfellte, Devils elbow, Heol Senni, Old Trecastle rd, Llangadog to Llandovery at quite a brisk pace, as we arrived at Llandovery the other group were just leaving and we arrange to meet at the view point looking over Llyn Brianne reservoir for a sandwhich Stopped here for a breather just past Ystradfellte and to chat about where the 3 dicks went and who they were as no one had seen or ridden with them before Mark on his new Dessert X lovely bike Cant remember these guys names KTM thingy and some other insignificant Ducati lol Chris and Laurie on his Vstrom And of course my old girl with Chris's Tiger From Llandovery Mark took the lead and we headed for Llyn Brianne, again the pace was quick and had me thinking we were getting a bit too excited and need to slow down a little, i travel this road regular but not normally this quick and came to what looked like the brow of a hill and then remembered the road went right the brow was to a side road off it, i was going too fast to slow down so took the side road and saw Mark and the guy on the KTM had done the same and turned right at the bottom back onto the road we should have been on, the others were a bit behind us and i thought id better turn around to make sure they didn't carry on down the side road, when i got there they were pulling Chris and his Tiger out of the hedgerow Chris was ok luckily but was a bit dazed and was talking gibberish for a while but after an hour was feeling much better, I took this looking towards the side road You can see his skid at the top it ends there because the guy behind him said his tyres left the road there the skid starts again where he landed further down it don't look it in the photo but this is a steep drop off Impact was between the two bikes he went in sideways off the grass this side the bike wasn't so good bent the forks sideways and bent the front wheel spindle there was no phone reception to call for recovery so we got the bike to a pub just down the road and left it there Chris went home on the back of KTM guy and Multistrada guy decided to call it a day as he was right behind Chris as he went over the brow into the hedge Laurie is holding the handlebars straight in this photo. Took these at the pub while waiting for Chris to recover Mark, Laurie and myself decided to carry on the but cut the route short we were going to devils bridge but decided to ride through Abergwesyn pass to Beaulah, Garth and up over the Army training ranges the pace hadn't changed. We left Mark after an ice cream in Talybont on Usk and came back over Llangynidr mountain to Beaufort where me and Laurie went our separate ways i ended up riding over Eglwysilan mountain as usual Look at this Beauty the old girl still got it lol

That's one of the noises when i stand up

Is her first name Timmy?

Did 17 miles this morn. Just nice when you get away from all the traffic noise. Also notice there's no hire boats bumping into each other.

Chased my brother in law across there on my old Mk1 tdm. Hit a rock in the middle of the road and almost had a toilet accident.

Rugged individualism

That will be in Pete’s wank bank now, it won’t help the mange.

Like @boboneleg before me the £14 entry fee made me think no thanks. But this place has been slap bang in the centre of Shepton Mallet since the 1600’s and having watched some amazing history destroyed by developers (particularly in Bristol and Guildford) it felt like- see it now while you can. I coughed up the £14 expecting to do a half an hour march around the place and get out before the heat hit. There was a party being guided around by a very competent and entertaining person but other than that I had the place to myself, I wandered around an empty decaying prison for over two hours and thats something given the heat and the no flex mobike boots I couldnt walk in The place only closed to prisoners 2013. This is main yard, in a more humane time you were allowed out for an hour a day. In Victorian times that was single file anti-clockwise walk in silence for an hour. Standing in three tiers of prison cells totally on your tod is an experience. You're free to wander where you want and open any door you like, very little is shut to off to you, youre just trusted to wander around this large complex at your own pace. The cells were (unsurprisingly) small, a board informs you that prison numbers meant at one time many of these tiny cells had four beds in them Theres something weirdly appealing about decay, peeling paint has its own thing going on and this place is peeeeling! There are no cells against the outer wall, this is to stop tunnelling out. There are many information boards throughout about the different stages of the prison and life inside the walls. Not wanting to get caught up for too long I photographed them with the intention of reading them later but most were so interesting I stopped and read the whole thing. Gaol fever, the execution room and the executioners, the military prison, segregation of men and women (that was a more modern thing than you’d think), the hard larbour (a treadmill, rock breaking, the hideous sounding ‘Oakham breaking’) force feeding suffragettes, the separate wing for snitches, peadophiles and policemen and the poltergeist of a woman who died in her wedding dress all well explained on boards. The 1600’s part is buried under the current building. It was literally built on top. But some tiny parts are still accessible. Undeterred by the current health and safety rules you’re still allowed to go up the stairs (“warning these are narrow, steep, uneven and have no hand rail”) and see where the look out lived. You can climb through a “hole in the wall” to see the 1600’s cells. Such tiny dark pits, theres no way anyones coming out alive. It was dark in there and when the flash illuminated the joining cells, seeing the hand on the bars did make me jump! A very low ceiling not for the taller folk! I’ll be going back for a second look, possibly on a guided tour so I can ask the questions that today thew up but if you like old shite this is for you. I certainly won’t be booking “an over night stay” or “in the dark night time paranormal tour” A surprising number of Caroline’s were transported Going to uni and doing nurse training in the 90’s meant spending a lot of time in ageing institutional settings. Brookwood (the step down from Broadmoor) St Peters at Chertsey, St Lukes in Guildford where we received lectures in the workhouse that still had the stone breaking cells underneath, the BRIs ‘Old Building’ and the Bristol General Hospital (conceived in the Georgian era and finished in the Victorian, only closing in 2012). The surprise today was they smell the same. It must be the type of stone used the type of paint the disinfectants, I dont know what but it smells like only those places do, even now after a decade of disuse Im transported back!

The Livewire was so much fun yesterday I woke up thinking about it and decided as Sunday is please yourself day -not that sort @Tym and it was early enough to be cool I decided to go over the Mendips and get some breakfast. Mr Slowly said he’d come with and picked his steed for the day, honestly in the sunshine there was only one choice. We stopped for fuel, well Mr Slowly did. The Livewire powered up while we slept so I opened the garage door to a ready to roll bike. Here it is quietly fuelling itself up. I sat patiently at the petrol station while the pump had a malfunction and spewed petrol all over the low rider. There was a convivial air about and another biker complained he’d misjudged his photo bomb timing, could he have another go? A group of hardy Kutte wearing mean faced men arrived but couldn’t have been nicer as I dashed through their entrance to get to the blue roll, didnt try to take their pic Im not that stupid BTW I love those blue Spada gloves on the pillion seat of the Livewire but they wont stop shedding dye, I have Smurf hands every time I wear them We head across the Mendips, its a beautiful temperature across there, definitely the place to go when its hot. Mr Slowly said I wont be able to keep up with you on that, I say cors you will (the low rider is 1800cc) but he was right, the instant power delivery on the Livewire and throwability is something else. Fortunately our current escapades have arrived us in a comfortable riding together style- set the destination and ride how you feel, so you wanna go for it then do it, see you there! I arrive and attempt a selfie of me being happy with my new steed, I may enter it into the ‘crap bike shot of the year’ competition, though Bucksters wheelie bin fetish will probably outdo me A man in a posh Range Rover gave me his day parking ticket (result cos bikes can only park in the designated bike bay and thats not in the shade) and so I wait a bit, then a bit more and a bit more, then I start worrying. Just as I open the ‘stalk my family’ app (aka find my friends- Ive opened this app twice in my life) I hear the satisfying rumble of a Harley pulling in. We head to a cafe in Shepton Mallet called the Cheeky Bean cafe but Shepton Mallet isnt interested in being open, the whole place seems shut. This charming well reviewed cafe has decided they dont want to work today either. “a little days holiday” hmph! The Market Cross in the centre of Shepton Mallet I find somewhere open.. barely, it opened yesterday and despite being the only customers they’re not ready for customers. Ok breakfast, not great but they all looked pretty hungover so have to cut them some slack Shepton Mallet is an ancient place and as with the architecture theres an air about the people that are from another era. Theres no reason for anyone to move there and you get the feeling like you do in some West Country places they’re a different breed. For you South West riders- saw this on a boarded up shop, might be worth a look. Breakfast done, temperature rising, time to head home.. except I remember @bobonelegs pics of the outside of Shepton Mallet Prison. Im definitely going to have a look before I leave…

Oh my...

Read it again you twat …. I found a few good roads.. you TOTY cunt

Don’t make me laugh , it could have Elvis on it doing his 68 comeback special and Margo Robbie noshing him off … still wouldn’t win

Nice road ruined by 50 mph average speed cameras

So your in a gang are you …,

Damn I'm looking good.

The bike is drying itself.... I have a question... Is six really into boys?.. I'm just going off on what Ian told me... Maybe he's and ok dude... And just not some fat cunt hiding behind a screen.. Haha... I've known Pete for many years... Don't think he would allow a pedo on here... Or maybe...

well as long as they dont smell

Sorry for the mix up... I kinda was speed reading trying to catch up on thing.... That's one amazing ride report... Six can suck my dick.

TBH Marcel Ive read nothing about the bike. Mr Slowly fancied it, it was a superb deal so we agreed we'd get it and share it. I resisted reading anything about it (that was hard for me) because I didn't want my thoughts on it skewed by the anti electric bike brigade so decided I'd just get it, ride it for a while and wait n see how I found it.

I didn't reply as i don't expect any more from Marcel

Just some old friends six... I'm not in a gang.... Just a figure of speech.

Great report.... Love the pics... I've got to look up that livewire.. Im intreeged..

Fish and chips in Buxton , then find a pub with the footy on .

I usually find myself finding ways to go around Shepton Mallet if I'm down that way, it usually involves a trip down the Fosseway into Charlton Mill

Well you know Bob , one does try

Yeh it is , I found a good few roads today though

Asked the tart to do a love heart , she laughed and said I’ll try … looks more like the middle finger to me Bitch

Looks like you're more avoided than me?

Brilliant Caroline, I wish I hadn't been so tight now about the entry fee. Some of those sentences would send a shiver down your spine nowadays, a 16 year old getting 10 years for stealing a shawl

Will Scarlets (so called) grave is about 2 miles from where I live, and Maid Marrion (reputedly) lived in the same village, there again it may just be a load of guff.

always complicated in a group with unknown riders. When we get new riders in the group ( rarely) we usually explain how the group works before leaving. A tip I actually picked up from Glitch Oz when I met up with the Aussie touring.com group back in 2013(?) an explanation which allowed me to fit almost seamlessly into the group . You will always have those whose riding style just doesn't correspond and they will quickly dissappear. Great shots @Sir Fallsalot and good write up, Thanks.

While on our travels me and Mandi have stopped off at Oxford prison and Lancaster Castle both were far more interesting than we first thought.

A Chucky eyed lost toy this time.. run run as fast as you can

Possibly , do your lot wear socks with sandals then ?