No Motorcycles allowed .. meet The Growler!

While the weather In the U.K. Is great for riding motorcycles this week, sods law has it myself and the Mrs are away at our favourite spot in South West Florida at this time, and I guess when we return we will have a month of rain in the UK to dampen my riding opportunities. Usually the way, that's some kind of Karma!

The weather here started unusually wet, with some very stormy afternoons the worst I've seen in the twelve years we've been coming here, certainly for mid-May anyway. Fortunately though, Florida being Florida we don't have to wait too long for improvement, and the temperature never dips below 25 C anyway so today I'm back on the beach reading about bikes instead of riding them as is usual while over here.

I always drop by a 'Walgreens' convenience store and grab a copy of Road Runner Magazine. I really enjoy the articles coming from a US Rider perspective, and reading about the routes they feature. The last copy I had discussed a Ride up in Vermont visiting a Winery there that looked amazing. This copy features some back roads in California not too far from Los Angeles you probably wouldn't consider yet equally inspiring too.

The mag includes pull out routes, one of which I've always fancied doing 'The Tail of the Dragon' down to Deals Gap in the Smokey Mountains part of the Appalachian Mountain range. The ride links up with Blue Ridge Parkway another great run I have read about thanks to Sam Manicom's recent adventures.

I'm getting quite keen these days to ship my bike across here (or rent one), and spend a few weeks riding some of these famous routes. I've seen a few tour companies that offer a good package and will ship the bike for you or arrange a rental. I really do hope I can scrape the money together and do at least one of these tours one year. Having read Neil Pearts books, along with the Road Runner Mag' it's clear the US is not all about freeways and cruising, apart from the obvious Route 66, there's plenty of other lesser known routes to follow not to mention the National Parks. Death Valley in Spring and a ride up Dante's Peak looks a great option too.

  

So on this trip, without a motorcycle to ride I opted to rent a Ford Mustang again, this time a late model in dark menacing grey metallic. It was in the parking 'lot' at Miami Airport growling 'take me', 'Take Me' , 'TAKE ME' (in a Keith Richards tone). The red one on offer looked a bit too vain and pretentious for me 😉, so I grabbed the keys, pushed the button to start up that growler of an engine, and off we took off across the Tamiami. I have to say I love this car, punch the pedal down on the 41 and with a growl between gears it launches you down the road. Got to be careful though, Helen spotted a squad car ahead near the Indian reservation just in time to get it under the limit again.

 

This late model seems even more sporty, and does seem to go round corners better than the last one I had. The sound system has been upgraded. Just the job with the top down and playing some tunes. Can't wait to put it in sport mode and try out the paddle shift later in the week 😎

A Llandovery loop around Llyn Brianne

Last May Day Bank Holiday the weather forecast being good I was torn between riding on Sunday, avoiding the usual busy roads on Monday or replace the brake pads on the bike on Sunday and bed them in with a ride on Monday. The real dilemma for a ride though was where to go. Having spent Saturday driving Hayley to Aberdovey, I wanted to ride East instead, so in the end decided to do the bike maintenance on Sunday and see how the traffic fairs on Monday. A bit of a nightmare getting the correct tools (Torx bits) from Halfords though, they barely carry any stock these days but luckily my neighbour Rob came to the rescue and had all the correct sizes required to remove the calipers for the cleaning and installation of three pairs of brake pads. All went well in the end, and with the MOT coming up next month at 28k miles I'm glad I did as they were due a change before upcoming trips to Ireland and the Alps later in the year.

My plan for riding East changed for the easier option of riding West though since my logic being the Welsh B roads might be less congested on Bank Holidays and I could get to them quicker from home. So, without anymore planning  other than to simply clamp my Garmin on and point the front wheel in the direction of the border town of Knighton, I left home early with wall to wall blue skies. I couldn't believe my luck as I flew over Clee Hill and past Ludlow with almost zero traffic. The air still cool, I settled in to a fun time riding those rollercoaster roads towards Leintwardine and on to Knighton. As usual this time of the day Knighton was quiet, so a quick direction change had me threading my GS through those twisty roads toward Rhayader, where by this time I could feel the 'spongy' brakes disappear into more solid braking just in time for the true test as one of the Sheep decided to cut me up just before Crossgates. Luckily I had slowed down a bit, but quite scary as I did need a fistful of front brake to pull up in time. Oh well, brakes fully tested I thought 👍.

Kawasaki Versys, well travelled with some great fog lights.

 A brief stop at Crossgates cafe with time for a chat to a guy on a Jap cruiser who gave me the idea of riding over 'sugar loaf' I think he said down to Llandovery, so I quickly programmed the Garmin ready for the next leg. Also met a pleasant chap on a Versys 1000 with humongous fog lights that made mine look unworthy! He had covered 30k on the Versys (a nice pearlescent white model) in just two years of ownership, and had Stelvio and Grossglockner stickers on the screen to name a few. He's a member of the BWDE (Birmingham, Worcester, Droitwich, Evesham) motorcycle club and advised me of my local meet venue on a Tuesday evening at the Island Pool pub. I might go along this summer as they do seem like an active 'any bike are welcome' club with a lot of riding focused activities going on too.

 

The run over the 'sugar loaf' was traffic free getting a good sprint on too. I stopped at the bikers Cafe in Llandovery for a sausage sarni' a brew, and sat in the garden out the back in the shade listening to general biker chat while deciding to head out to the reservoir Llyn Brianne.  Later, I had a wonderful ride up the valley approach passing through small Welsh villages on the way called Cilycwm and Ystradffi. I had never been this way before, on the opposite side to my usual route taking me up the narrow lane stopping off at the Rock Filled Dam. The spillway was dry today, all except the surge spray as pictured above. Eventually I came up and around the side of the valley edge overlooking the reservoir to reveal a spectacular bit of scenery. 

By now the temperature was rising, showing 25 degrees on the bike dash so I decided to stop to cool off and drink in this fantastic view. While sitting on the grass a guy named Paul pulled up in his Renault Scenic who, using his SLR camera was taking scenic shots of the area. He works for M&P Motorcycles (Busters) down in Swansea. Nice bloke, got his card, and hopefully he'll remember me for a discount in the future! Amazing view up here, after a lengthy chat about how Riders of Cardiff have lost the BMW franchise and M&P have it now, as well as other stuff e.g. holidays etc, I said farewell to Paul as he took off down the hill in search of the perfect shot. While on the way out to New York last year I bought a new Panasonic Lumix camera to replace my old Lumix TZ18, and today was the first time I had chance to use it in good sunlight in a countryside setting. I'm very pleased with the results and performance so far. I've become a bit tired of using a phone for photographs, and this new one has a live view finder feature ... great for sunny days like today.

Great views of the reservoir and the valley behind too. Considering it was Bank Holiday, it was so quiet with only a few cars passing by leaving me to enjoy the peace before heading off down the other side of the valley. I'm really enjoying the new'ish Schuberth C4 Helmet on these bright sunny days, the internal sun visor was really making a difference today.

Later, I came through this pretty valley somewhere between Beulah, Llanafan-fawr and Newbridge on Wye crossing the border back towards Crossgates Cafe again via the roundabout nearby.

Deserted roads, and superb twisty B roads out here. Couldn't resist stopping the engine, removing my helmet and earplugs for a bit and getting tuned into the Springtime birdsong and watching out for wildlife too. I had my binoculars with me and spotted a colourful Jay in the distance too. 

 

Finally, back at Crossgates cafe, there were a lot more bikes parked up now, and with the temperature rising close to 30 degrees I got chatting to a guy on a Yamaha MT 09 Tracer about the MT's performance as he's loving it, and reckons its three bikes rolled in to one with the mapping modes. After a drink to cool down I set the Garmin for home and took a gentle ride back through Knighton and over Clee Hill again. Bikes everywhere today, I did think Bank Holiday would be all filtering in traffic - how wrong I was !