Ride to Bala - Sunday 28th Sept

With my GS serviced by Clarks on Saturday (12k at 13.2k), I met the Brayf' at Cleobury Mortimer 9am Sunday with a quick last minute Tyre Itinery plot out to Lake Vrnwy to Bala in Gwynedd, Wales via Craven Arms and Church Stoke.

Route from Church Stoke to Bala (click to zoom)

Sun was shining, quite mild yee haa on we go. There's some amazing roads thru Shropshire into the Wales. We passed Powis Castle on the way, I must stop there one day looks great. We had a none stop ride to Lake Vyrnwy, a Victorian reservoir that supplies the City of Liverpool with drinking water.

Stopped for a chat and to take in the views, and then up and over the mountain road to Bala. The TomTom took us up some crazy single track roads with plenty of shale gravel in the middle getting the back wheel spinning on occasions, amazing remote countryside with stone wall cottages too, some of them looked quite derelict. Great fun!

Bandit Brayford

The mountain road.

So on we went around Bala Lake, finishing up in the town at a great little cafe in the main high st. Sat outside the sun shining and an all day breakfast for about a fiver including black pudding! Got chatting to a couple of chaps from Burnley on their Kawasaki's. Compared the merits of riding abroad, the Timmelsjoch, Stelvio and Spain. They had ridden Italy and told tales of a cramped auto-train from Den Bosh. Interested to learn how confined to the cabin you are for 24 hours as I've considered this journey myself - £700 return though .. Hmm. We also met a Greek lad on his KTM 1190 Adventure - nice looking machine, apparently working in London, and had ridden his bike from his home in Greece - I hope today was a separate journey for him, or he was way off course !!.

So after lunch we took a fantastic road from Meifod to Welshpool then on thru Montgomery, Church Stoke, bye to Mark at not far from his folks place north of Craven Arms and back to visit Dad in Droitwich hospital. Gotta do this run again, those Welsh Marches get my vote every time! 

200 miles+

Laverda-Jota

Local ride last Saturday (13th Sept) .... down thru Herefordshire then wound up back into Shropshire via Clee Hill and up to Bridgnorth via Quatt. On the way I stopped at the world famous Slater-Laverda garage near Bromyard for a chat. I was educated in the History of the Jota ... the famous model developed here in Herefordshire by the Slater Bothers. I met one of the Brothers (not sure which one) who explained how he was preparing for a Danish enthusiast who will be buying up a big stock of spares. At the time in the 70's the Jota 750 was the fastest production motorcycle. A historical place to visit, if you are passing, I urge you to drop in ..great to see  - someone who enjoys his job is a rare thing these days it seems ! Find out more about Slater Laverda here.

Also, interesting to see in the show-room had a classic Swiss made 'Universal' horizontal Boxer twin, we always associate these engines with BMW but if seems they were quite a common engine layout at one time. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo though.

Elan Valley in my new Jacket

On Saturday I went out looking for a new Textile jacket. My trusty old Hein Gericke 'Journeyman' is starting to show it's age, the Velcro is failing, the arms near elbows leak in the rain, (I guess the waterproof shelltex membrane has cracked), not bad though - 8 years of riding, including trips on the continent. I would go with another hein Gericke, but last year they went into Administration in the UK, shame .. I really liked their Tuareg Jacket.

I've been researching textiles for a while now. Been out trying a few on over the months - tried the RST Explorer, RST Paragon and the Richa Toureg at both Kidderminster Motorcycle Mart and Streetbike in Halesowen. The top-end Klim gear is out of my price range, so the RST, Richa etc were both reasonably priced jackets. However, I can't get over the quality of the BMW Rallye Jacket Andy was wearing in Scotland. The Cordura and finish of his suit were superb, so Helen suggested we head off to Clarkes BMW in Rednal - the ticket price was £150.00 more than the others, but recent reviews in ABR suggested it was worth the price (if you ride a BMW that is, it has BMW roundels on the sleeves). Anyway, they had my size and immediately the fit, quality, comfort seemed far superior. I really like the piped collar as I find the tough textile around the neck always chafed my neck doing all of those life-savers on a long trip - none of the others have a piping on the collar, and I like the idea of the removable liner too, the panels that clip down for ventilation, and the real  winner for me - the vent zips that run the length of each sleeve, this has to be great for touring Europe in a hot summer - even the sleeves detach if you are feeling brave ! Finally I do like the colour - kind of matches my GS, and got to be a bit cooler in the sun too. Anyway, thanks to Helen, she managed way over 10% knocked off the ticket price (now for the matching trousers .. hmmm have to save my pennies).

So,  Sunday (3rd August) decided to make an early start and head off to Knighton on the Welsh border to try out the new Jacket. really comfortable on the bike, I kept the waterproof liner in but used the sleeve zips later in the day as it got warmer. Definitely a good purchase. I was enjoying the ride so much, I headed down to Crossgates Cafe nr Rhayder, then onto the Elan Valley via the mountain road. Back home thru' Herefordhsire (Hay on Wye, Leominster) and Tenbury Wells. 200 miles in total. Here's some pics:

Look at that Vista !

My new Rallye Jacket !!

Claerwen Reservoir Dam

HUBB 2014

Just thought I should report on my first HUBB visit. After a wonderful time riding around Scotland with Andy, we headed for the HUBB event (Horizons Unlimited Bulletin Board) at Castle Donington - weekend starting 19th June.

The HUBB is a gathering of Overland Adventurers - catering for Adventure Bikers, Cyclists and other Overlanders who keep up-to-date with each other, and share information via an on-line forum set up originally by Grant and Sue Johnson see: 'Horizons Unlimited'. The weather was great, camping was a bit noisy - right next to East Mids airport but that didn't put off us hard core adventurers!!

I met my daughter Hayley there too - she arrived via train to meet me,  and bought along  her tent and kit she used for Explorer Scout trip to Canada last year. Hayley is mad about this kind of round the world adventuring, and I somehow see her getting her own bike one day and heading off into the distance like a lot of these young people do these days. I could really see her eyes light up during the New Zealand presentation !

We both enjoyed the talk and slide-show of the chap who rode his Honda C90 step thru' from Malaysia back to the UK - hilarious - watching him get up to base camp Everest without a Jacket,  but the highlight for me was meeting Ted Simon - the godfather of adventure travel - he was doing the RTW stuff before Charley and Ewan, and I thoroughly enjoyed his books - Jupiters Travels (RTW on a Meriden Triumph in thge 70's) and Dreaming of Jupiter  (his repeat journey on a R80 GS in the late nineties early noughties). See here for Ted's website.

We spent some time with the GS Club, Mike the bike, Ronco, Trogan who made us very welcome - thanks guys. All in a all very informative and fun event. Definitely would go again another year.

Here's some pics:

Me and Ted Simon !!

Hayley next to Sam Manicom's bike 'Libby'.

This bike has seen all continents !!

 I've just finished his second book Under Asian Skies, and bought a copy of Distant Suns from Birgit his girlfriend - who features in UAS and DS. She signed the copy for me.

The Landy Types

GS Club Stand

Andy chilling out after that Scottish trip

Slow Bike Race

Aghhh

It's Doughnut Time !!