St Georges Day and Easter Holiday Ride.

With this years Motorcycle Tour of Northern Spain finalised and coming up fast, where I'll be riding the wonderful Picos again in the Asturias region of Northern Spain before going down through the Douro Valley in Portugal, I decided to get some new rubber fitted to my GS. Now coming up 4500 miles since taking delivery of her last August, the Michelin Anakee III tyres have been good, but quite noisy and a stiffer ride than the 'Metzeler Tourance Next' I'm used to. The rear was starting to wear a flat spot and with so many twisty bends coming up I started looking at swapping back to the old faithful Metzelers, or maybe an alternative tyre instead. I considered the Michelin Road Pilot 5's (reports have the 4's a bit slippy in the wet so unsure about the later version), or the Bridgestone Battleaxe Adventure A41's. After gauging thoughts on Facebook groups I decided to go with the A41's this time, as they are slightly cheaper and getting good reviews with a good tread depth pattern ideal for a bit of loose-surface lanes, and now fitted as standard to the latest GS's coming out of the factory. Gary at Rybrook Motorrad organised a fitting on Saturday for me, so still time to scrub them in and see how they fair on a good ride out before the big trip. Being Easter and Bank Holiday I have the Tuesday off in lieu of working Good Friday so with the promise of quieter traffic, decided to wait until then to plot a route the night before to chase the Dragon in Wales on a bright and sunny St Georges day.     

 

Some months ago I had been watching the series 'Life on the Road with Brian Johnson'  where the AC/DC front man meets up with fellow 'rock gods' to discuss their lives in Rock bands on the road. The episode that caught my interest more for it's location was where Brian met Robert Plant(Led Zeppelin) on the old Victorian wooden bridge over the River Mawddach near Dolgellau at a place called Penmaenpool. I was intrigued not only by its idyllic river location and surrounding marsh land but also by the wooden toll bridge itself. It's not often we see these bridges these days, made up entirely of wooden struts in the usual ornate 'pier' like design favoured by the Victorians. The chosen route took me out via Ludlow, Knighton and on to Machynlleth before heading up to Dolgellau. I wanted to take the opportunity to test my Navigator VI too before visiting Spain as it's been in the draw since the Alps trip last September. I'm finding Basecamp the Garmin route planning software really easy to use these days too and prefer this now over a Google map on-line alternative, it's more accurate and configurable, but does take a while to get used to.  We had a late start 1.30 pm yet the route there was bang on perfect all the way with no directional hiccups at all. 

 

With a quick pit-stop off in Knighton and arrival at 3.30pm there was ample time to experience the serenity of this peaceful scenic location after paying the very worthy 50p Motorcycle toll fee (both ways). The usual Red Kite's were circling in the sky and people sat outside the George Hotel (St George?), really enjoyed looking out at the marsh land and spotting a few waders and Herons. Good to sit in the sun and and relax a bit while looking out across the bridge and river before plotting the inevitable a route home.

So far the new Bridgestone's seem fine, a slightly softer yet more comfortable and quieter ride than the Anakees since the side walls are less stiff. Gary mentioned that removing the Michelin's due to the stiff side walls needed two people on the tyre machine, and I now see what he means since you can really feel the softer  and slightly detached feel. That said, I am really pleased with how they turn in to bends, it will be interesting to see how they fair on the Picos Mountains and hopefully I'll get 6k+ out of them with a good wear profile.  

 

The route back via Welshpool then around Shrewsbury was not an ideal choice, but I haven't been this way for a while so it turned out to be a nice change. Took a slight detour after a fuel top-up at Morville to take the more interesting road to Kinlet and Button Oak, arriving home around 7.20 pm.

Most enjoyable afternoon run out to a great scenic location. 👍

Battleaxe A41's - scrubbed in now (a few bobbles on the edge to get rid of  😉)

Cold morning ride to Shobdon

Nice little ride today, quite cold though well down to 6 degrees as a I set off from home out toward Tenbury Wells. I really enjoy that run up through Clows Top. As I came past Little Hereford I came across temporary traffic lights and a convoy system, so I pulled up in front of the traffic at the side of a nice looking F 800 ST. I got chatting to it's owner, a friendly chap Andy from Bewdley while we waited in the queue, he was heading in the same direction it seems, toward Shobdon Aerodrome Cafe. Travelling together we arrived just before a large party of Motorcycle club members arrived so we managed to nip in the cafe while the club was parking up to place orders of two small breakfasts ahead of the rush.  

Andy was just recovering from the broken leg he endured just before Christmas while riding his trail bike in Wales and this was one of his first rides of the year. Sounds like he was having a lot of fun out riding the trails near 'break neck falls' - the waterfall I visited a couple of years ago. Apparently there are some legal trails out there through the forest,  and sadly he hit a rut and broken his ankle. Amazingly, he managed to ride the bike back to the van before heading to hospital later. Anyway, good to see he's out riding again. We both got chatting to a guy who was riding an original Norton Dominator wearing just a Brando style leather jacket and was thinking how cold he must be in classic biker gear.

During our breakfast myself and Andy exchanged phone numbers.  It turns out he is on the same ferry as me leaving Portsmouth to Santander Spain riding down the same day so we'll keep our eye out on the boat and maybe have a beer together. 

Later on, for a ride I decided to follow Andy who had a Ride Mag' route loaded on his Garmin for a quick loop around Presteigne - good ride, Andy and the ST was batting along quite nicely. Good mornings ride !