Covid liberation Ride

[Sir Fallsalot]

Today was the first time i have been aloud out the house for 2 weeks so i take a little ride to try and regain some sanity but stuck in RCT doesn't give me much choice in where to ride, the roads are busy as hell even for the bike and the lanes I've done a thousand times before but I'm going anyway. I takes the 650 to test the front end rebuild from last weekend and the Mitas C02 rear tyre. After traversing my way though the traffic to Porth about 4 miles north of my home its straight up to Miriam's bench again and a stop for a breather as this track is a bit harder on the 650 and i bloody needed it after 2 weeks of 3 meals a day and no exercise 

I decide to go over to the Cynon valley from here past the moto x practice track a nice gravel road through there

but the guy that runs it keeps locking the gates, as far as I'm aware its still a vehicular right of way so i shall be reporting this again. I managed to bounce the bike through the horse gate to the right with no real problem but that's not the point it should not be locked

And the same with the gate at the other end of the lane, he don't mind people using it when their paying to ride the track the twat 

A bit of road and a nice lane heading back towards home you could even do this on a 650GS and with wonky knees to 

No real Autumn colours yet

Stopped to say hello to this pair but they weren't interested  so i bid them farewell and carried on

I decide to check out the old ford i haven't been across it in a long time. The route down to it hasn't been used for a long time either

 

The concrete ramp is slippery as hell with a big drop into the water and lots of loose rock. Too rough for me to attempt on the 650 luckily there is a footbridge i could use instead

I decides to do a loop back round to the start of the horsey lane as there's another lane off to the left i haven't done in years, the start has been blocked so another check for me to find out its status 

I have no problem squeezing through, this lane is a nice ride down through woodland

 

I remember after this bit there's no going back as it gets a bit washed out ahead its all down hill so should be ok

And i wasn't wrong, a bit rough for the 650 and me really. I had the bike propped upright for a photo but the bloody stick snapped good job the bank was there 

Why do photos always make things look easy 

ahh a nice gentle lane and i need it to cool down after the last one  but it wasn't like this for long

I haven't ridden along here in over 10 years as it's not quite legal and i suddenly realised I'm impressed with the C02 tyre it got quite mucky and the tyre had no trouble pushing me through it all 

back to the road via the old coal tip used to have great fun on these as a kid a hell of a lot more growth on it now though

Next track is up though the woodland on the side of the mountain behind the bike here

At the top of this old coal tip is the aptly named jam pot, not quite sure what it was for but it was to do with the old coal industry here years ago

A bit more road and onto the next mountain, Again quite a difficult track for the 650 but it manages I'm just along for the ride

I ride up onto what is known as the gap, I'm on dodgy ground now I'm right on the RCT border here, to the left is RCT and the right Merthyr 

And from here it was home i did have to cross the boarder for about a mile but i made sure no covid jumped off or onto me honest  a good ride to pull me out the rut I've been in for the last two weeks.

The 650 might be a rough old dog but i just love thumping around on it always cheers me up 

 

[XTreme]

2 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

you could even do this on a 650GS and with wonky knees to

If I was still there I'd be on it Fred! 

Great report though......that shot on the cliff looks a cracker for BOTM!

[Sir Fallsalot]

1 minute ago, XTreme said:

If I was still there I'd be on it Fred! 

Great report though......that shot on the cliff looks a cracker for BOTM!

I didn't think of that should have spent some time getting some better shots but it was a snap and go before the farmer spotted me he's been shooing me off his land for about 45 years 

[Tym]

Really great report, pics, action, drama...BOTM 

[Pedro]

2 hours ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

Why do photos always make things look easy 

 

That’s so true, easy and no steepness!

 

Great stuff. There’s nothing wrong with having your usual roads or lanes that you do hundreds of times.

[MooN]

On 16/10/2020 at 20:51, Sir Fallsalot said:

 

Is that a number plate or a go faster spoiler? 

great pics though.

 

 

[Specs]

Nice one Fred. Always good to escape. I inadvertently popped over to Caerphilly the other day when on a walk!

[boboneleg]

Well done Fred, some tasty bits for the dog to traverse there

[Sir Fallsalot]

On 19/10/2020 at 14:20, BusBoy said:

Mad bugga. Some of those photos do show quite aptly the difficulty

 

That Jam Pot looks like a brick kiln.... ??

When i was doing a bit of research on this to find more about it i couldn't find anything but what did turnup was this which was only 200 meters away, I went up there today but the top was locked so a bit disappointed i couldn't get in for my own photos i even took a torch 

 

 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.151809715012412.1073741887.109261775933873&type=3&comment_id=155811&comment_tracking={"tn"%3A"R"}

[Sir Fallsalot]

I forgot some of you might not go on Facebook so here's what's in the link, its some kind of underground bunker, these photos were taken in 2013 i was hoping to get in there but no luck

 

[XTreme]

There must be info on it somewhere @Sir Fallsalot........have you checked on Urbex sites?

[yen_powell]

I think that's a Royal Observer Corps bunker. For men dressed in khaki to live in and test the atmosphere every day for radioactivity after a nuclear strike and send the results to the authorities so they could see what was spreading where and plan accordingly.

[XTreme]

1 minute ago, yen_powell said:

I think that's a Royal Observer Corps bunker. For men dressed in khaki to live in and test the atmosphere every day for radioactivity after a nuclear strike and send the results to the authorities so they could see what was spreading where and plan accordingly.

They're scattered throughout the country aren't they Yen?

[Sir Fallsalot]

1 minute ago, XTreme said:

There must be info on it somewhere @Sir Fallsalot........have you checked on Urbex sites?

Only info i could find is this Facebook link that's why i wanted to look in there, it could just be one of welsh waters old assets, if i could have seen in side myself i would know for sure if it was couldn't see any evidence outside though there's usually a sign or something

[XTreme]

1 minute ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

Only info i could find is this Facebook link that's why i wanted to look in there, it could just be one of welsh waters old assets, if i could have seen in side myself i would know for sure if it was couldn't see any evidence outside though there's usually a sign or something

 

[Sir Fallsalot]

Just now, XTreme said:

 

Could be its pretty remote location and on top of the valley 

 

[Sir Fallsalot]

@yen_powell your a clever fucker go straight to the head of the class I googled what you suggested and found this

 

 

[Grasshopper]

Super beautiful landscape to ride through and a lovely ride report!    I would love to ride around some open landscape for a change.

[XTreme]

5 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

@yen_powell your a clever fucker go straight to the head of the class I googled what you suggested and found this

 

 

Yen's something of an authority on underground stuff!

His specialist area is abandoned Victorian toilets!

You still got those pics @yen_powell?

[Sir Fallsalot]

11 minutes ago, BusBoy said:

That doesn't look like this?

 

Obviously you didn't read my reply to your comment above LOL

[yen_powell]

12 hours ago, XTreme said:

Yen's something of an authority on underground stuff!

His specialist area is abandoned Victorian toilets!

You still got those pics @yen_powell?

No, the Edwardian underground toilet photos are on photobucket I think or possibly lost somewhere on one of your old sites, No way was I paying the stupid amount of money Photobucket wanted to access them. There is talk of turning the old toilets into something trendy right now. I lost my key to the locks in our office move in March to our luxury new office. This was specially built for us and we will be leaving it in a few weeks so they can sell the building.

I wasn't being clever really, I found one exactly the same whilst having a wee on a green lane a few years ago and managed to google it on some weird website. It was the door and the concrete entrance that looked the same.

With the brick built thing, I did wonder if it was a blasting shelter, do they mine coal with explosives ever on opencast or is it too fragile to do it that way?

 

[Sir Fallsalot]

1 hour ago, yen_powell said:

No, the Edwardian underground toilet photos are on photobucket I think or possibly lost somewhere on one of your old sites, No way was I paying the stupid amount of money Photobucket wanted to access them.

If You go to the photobucket site and log in you can download all your albums i done it with mine a few weeks ago. They restrict how many photos you can view but you can still download them

Like you i think they have shit on everyone that used to use it. their site is off line as much as its online so if they think I'm going to pay for their poorly run site they can feck off

[yen_powell]

53 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

If You go to the photobucket site and log in you can download all your albums i done it with mine a few weeks ago. They restrict how many photos you can view but you can still download them

Like you i think they have shit on everyone that used to use it. their site is off line as much as its online so if they think I'm going to pay for their poorly run site they can feck off

I thought I had got them all, which is why I wondered if they were on Pete's old site. Every time I try to look at the site, there are so many pop ups. adverts and things flashing about I get the hump and give in.

[XTreme]

16 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

I thought I had got them all, which is why I wondered if they were on Pete's old site. Every time I try to look at the site, there are so many pop ups. adverts and things flashing about I get the hump and give in.

Deleted years ago Yen!

Strangely enough I thought this one would be deleted by now as well!