Gentle tarmac road ride to mid Wales and return

[Sir Fallsalot]

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

 

[XTreme]

Great stuff Fred! That guy's lucky he didn't get busted up too much.

[Pedro]

I hate the energy that builds up when a group that isn’t used to each other goes somewhere together. Never did it on bikes but have in cars and it tends to always go too far.

The Africa Twin is looking sweet!

[Sir Fallsalot]

16 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Great stuff Fred! That guy's lucky he didn't get busted up too much.

Yes very lucky he's an old bastard as well about 70 i think, Chris Page used to own a bike shop in blackwood 

[Buckster]

I like the look of the Desert X.

[Sir Fallsalot]

Just now, Buckster said:

I like the look of the Desert X.

Yes me to its a stunning bike in the flesh only complaint he had is its bloody hot to ride as the rear cylinder is between your legs

[Buckster]

9 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

Yes me to its a stunning bike in the flesh only complaint he had is its bloody hot to ride as the rear cylinder is between your legs

I know the feeling, the heat from the rear cylinder is quite bad in hot weather on the hog but it’s nice when the weather is chilly.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

1 hour ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

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

 

Sounds a bit hairy but managed like pros Glad there were no obvious injuries. Bike of the month pic in there for sure.

[Grasshopper]

Great report and some really nice photos! 

[MooN]

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. 

[boboneleg]

Nice one Fred, I'm glad the old boy didn't duff himself up.  I'm afraid I would have turned off after Llanradach if it was me .

Anyway, nice Gilbern    You can keep the shitty Chevette

 

 

[Sir Fallsalot]

3 hours ago, boboneleg said:

Nice one Fred, I'm glad the old boy didn't duff himself up.  I'm afraid I would have turned off after Llanradach if it was me .

Anyway, nice Gilbern    You can keep the shitty Chevette

 

 

I was wondering if anyone would know what it was a welsh car in wales and still working 

[Sir Fallsalot]

7 hours ago, MooN said:

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. 

We did do the ride etiquette briefing before we left but i think he was to busy thinking about what setting to put his wheelie control on 

[XTreme]

2 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

We did do the ride etiquette briefing before we left but i think he was to busy thinking about what setting to put his wheelie control on 

The bloke who binned it......from Cardiff was he?

[Sir Fallsalot]

10 minutes ago, XTreme said:

The bloke who binned it......from Cardiff was he?

No Blackwood 

[Marcel le Moose Fondler]

Nice 1 six... 

[XTreme]

3 minutes ago, Marcel said:

Nice 1 six... 

[Marcel le Moose Fondler]

1 minute ago, XTreme said:

OK ride report Pete... Is that better? 

  Doesn’t compare to my master piece but it ain't half bad. 

[Sir Fallsalot]

2 minutes ago, XTreme said:

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

[XTreme]

3 minutes ago, Marcel said:

OK ride report Pete... Is that better? 

  Doesn’t compare to my master piece but it ain't half bad. 

You do know that it wasn't Six's ride report?

[Marcel le Moose Fondler]

3 minutes ago, XTreme said:

You do know that it wasn't Six's ride report?

Oh my... 

[Marcel le Moose Fondler]

11 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

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

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. 

[boboneleg]

1 hour ago, Marcel said:

Oh my... 

Fuckmine Marcel you got Fred and Six mixed up.......................

 

[XTreme]

5 hours ago, Marcel said:

Six can suck my dick.