Ahh .... those Rolling Hills

Rolling Hills Ride Out

It was great to join up with the Rolling Hills at the OK Diner, Leominster on Saturday with Mark! A good days ride I must say.

Actually, purely coincidental that we were at the Diner just as they ride in. Quite funny considering I was a member a few years ago before I was nearly thrown out for coming up against the committee during a club 'move' period. That's all history now, since then I bought the GS and the days of endless processions are gone. Just fun rides, at a pace I enjoy, to places I choose to go now. But it was good to see them, I had a lot of fun with them back then, some very nice people, I wish them well. Couldn't resist looking up their club website only to find a photo including me on their ride report. Never thought I would end up on their ride report section again - LOL.

Good ride with Mark, who led the way most of the afternoon down to Crossgates then back up to Knighton on the sublime A483. This last week has been a difficult week, discovered an old mate from long ago (Gary Peplow) died in Spain while touring near Segovia. I credit him and his brother Dean with inspiring me into buying a Motorcycle all those years ago (1982 Suzuki GP 100) when I used to live in Bewdley - and I'm really glad they did. Getting up early on Sunday mornings going for a blast around Rock with Dean and and admiring Gary's success at Trials. Sadly, Dean also lost his life in a bike accident in Little Hereford 10 years ago, and it was fairly recently I saw Gary with his dad Graham (on his Ariel) and James his son at the Aviator in Shobden for the first time for a while, and they seemed to be coming to terms with losing Dean, even restoring Graham's Ariel in tribute to him as was explained an unfinished project of Deans.So, I cannot begin to imagine how devastating this must be for his parents Graham and Noreen and his own family.
My thoughts are with them all, I wish them well.

Kind of ironic, that while contemplating the wonderful times I have had riding Motorcycles, and if I should continue with the risk, bringing back with memories of Paul's fatal biking accident, the Rolling Hills should turn up to remind of the fun I have had over the years riding, the people I have met and the places I have been on bikes.

Thanks to Mark for leading the way, great to see him, and looking forward to a trip out with him again soon. Ride Safe.

RIP Gary and Dean.

Brecon Loop

Last Friday I received  an E-Mail from Lindsay suggesting a ride out one day over the weekend, the weather looking better for Saturday, though this changed throughout the weekend but the decision was made to meet up on Saturday at 9:00 am at Great Whitley. So early Saturday I downloaded a Ride mag route featured in AA Best Biker Routes of Britain called 'Brecon Loop'.

 After a short delay waiting for Lindsay to turn up (evidently been downloading the ride route to his GPS via PC), we set off for Shobden Airfield and  a Full English breakfast in the popular Hotspur Cafe. It was really busy today,usually we make a visit on a Sunday, but it seems Saturday is full of flight activity. Just managed to get a table and from where I sat could see the odd micro-light take off, and  a few private plane flights too. A couple of nice Triumph Tiger 800XCX (Adventure) models were parked outside, if I wasn't so hooked on my GS I reckon I would be visiting a Triumph dealer and taking one for a test ride, very nice looking bike I have to say - right up my street.

After breakfast and a few mugs of teas we headed out toward Prestiegne and Kington to begin riding the Brecon Loop. I re-arranged the route direction to start further north in a reverse direction, the idea being to get to the Beacons first in case of bad weather, and I wasn't sure of Lindsay's plans for the day (he often returns home early to build another shed!).

It's been a while since I have ridden on wet roads, and on this early Autumn morning our route out was quite wet, but mild enough apart from cool on the hands, steady riding taking care on the bends. We had our intercoms connected and commented on the crops ready for harvest i.e. Apple orchards and Hops as we headed out via Painscastle, Erwood and Three Cocks. The GPS route took us right into the centre of Talgarth, a bit confusing but remembering we were running the route in reverse it all made sense in the end, obviously this AA route was designed to stop for lunch there - no good to us while still digesting that huge breakfast (burp!).

A clear view of the Brecons as we briefly took the A479 from Talgarth, this road is twisty enough but couldn't do it full justice in damper conditions, before leaving the 479 onto the B4560. We twisted around Llangorse Lake, coming off the main road for a while through wonderful scenery, before taking the B45760 on to the Heads of the Valleys road toward Merthyr - the TomTom taking us via a housing estate, for some reason there was a Waypoint in the middle of a place called Rassau, the lesson here is to check the way-points - even if the route is downloaded from Ride or the AA !!

Llangorse Lake

The route now took us North-West up past Ponsticill and Talybont reservoirs. This was a fairly narrow B road, and was crowded with many runners coming in the other direction. It seemed we had chosen a road now in use for a Triathlon and had to take care, ride slow as they were coming down the valley on both sides of the road. With Lindsay following and on Intercom, I sensed a bit of frustration in his voice with the route I had chosen, the diversion around Rassau, and now these slow moving runners coming from all directions ahead of us.

After a nice twisty section through Talybont on Usk (following the River Usk), we stopped in Brecon Town, parking up on the path in the intersection before grabbing a drink at the Costa. Lindsay had quite an impressive 'Heart' placed in the froth on his coffee, perhaps the woman serving had a soft spot for him like the petrol station attendant in Leominster (more on that later).

Honddu River

Later we took a nice river valley route up through LLandefaelog following the river Honddu where Lindsay questioned the route and felt my TomTom was leading us in the wrong direction however, I was confident of it's purpose and pointed out the route on my tank-bag map was taking us through Lower Chapel and Upper Chapel to Buith Wells and back to Three Cocks and on to Leominster via Whitney on Wye. No worries I say, stay calm mate!

Lindsay - still not trusting the GPS route !

 The route home was only marred by a closed petrol station in Presteigne and my 50 mile warning flash up in Brecon. I banked on filling up in Builth or Prestiegne, but I guess settling for the latter was bad decision and Lindsay's comments were a clear sign he was getting irritated and stressed more than I about the situation, maybe because the mpg figures on his new V-Strom are superior to my GS, despite the GS giving a satisfactory 56 mpg.

I filled up in Leominster with a good 20 miles range, but unfortunately chose the first AND LAST ever  Morrisons supermarket petrol station I will ever use. I had heard of supermarkets expecting bikers to remove their helmets at the kiosk, but never experienced one before. I think this is intended as a security measure against robbers and thieves, but I object to being classed as a robber or thief just because I wear a helmet and ride a Motorcycle, ended up with a 'snotty' female attendant who rubbed me up the wrong way from the start, so until they make it an official Police state law to have me remove it, I will simply purchase my petrol elsewhere. I'm still kicking myself for not seeing their sign and jumping back on my bike and riding down to the old Bengry's garage near the traffic lights however I feared this would have upset Lindsay some more, so just as well I didn't as he didn't get accosted like I did for wearing a helmet. At least be consistent with your rules I say !

Bluetooth Intercom problem
While discussing over the BT Intercom headsets, Lindsay attempted an explanation of why when we travel faster, we start to lose comm's (or quality of comms is reduced). He came up with an explanation of why he thought this is the case where he felt that as we travelled faster, the signal could not reach each others headset in the same time-frame so we started getting drop-outs. I tried to explain that we communicate using a Bluetooth 'channel', where our voice is converted from Analogue signal to Digital signal and then applied to the 'channel' for transmission. The channel is kind of like a pipe (I used the hose-pipe analogy I was taught at Tech' College). This Pipe (Channel) would carry (by way of modulation) the voice data packets. Since we have a channel and modulation using radio frequency waves, both are travelling near the speed of light, and therefore our own travelling speed would not be the cause of the reduced quality. Here's a digram I drew in my head as an example of what I was trying to explain while on the move:

Bluetooth comms example

Even though our two chaps in the diagram are moving, the 'hosepipe' should remain connected regardless of our speed. So what is the explanation for the loss in signal quality ? I don't know the answer for sure, but my guess is Engine interference (electrical noise) as the speed increases on one or both bikes. There is a lot going on while riding a motorcycle subject to interference, one really quality weak area are the headsets themselves as they are Analogue - both prone to  interference feeding into the Analogue/Digital conversion process. Either way, an interesting conundrum nonetheless.

All in all, not a bad day out....just shy of 200 miles, though I do think my riding style does benefit these days from a more relaxed laid back mood.
Note to self: Try and avoid coming into contact with 'snotty/moody' people on a ride and all will be well with the world, ... oh and fill up when you can of course !!

Looking forward to seeking a ride out to another nature reserve soon!

Tywyn Bay and Ynis-hir

So, its been almost a month since my wonderful adventure ride around Northern Spain & Portugal with Lindsay - see the blog tab above. I've been way too busy to get out on the bike since parking up in my freshly painted garage the wonderful Mrs 'H' surprised me with while the bike was away and she was off  work (school hols). I'm so impressed and thankful, she really got stuck in - even filled the cracks in the concrete too and painted the floor with proper factory paint - how good is that? It was only fair I got involved with her decision to decorate the lounge, and along with the usual mad-rush at work my GS had to stay put for a while.  However, sure enough, I managed to get my 'visa' for a great ride out yesterday (Sunday) in to Wales.

Back in June on Fathers Day I was given another surprise book from the kids ( and Mrs 'H' too)  written by Neil Peart the Rush drummer, lyricist and Motorcycle travel writer called 'Far and Away'.

I have read and enjoyed one of his books before - 'Ghost Rider', and managed to find the time to finish reading Far & Away last week. In the book, Neil describes his travels on his BMW GS between cities while touring with the band all with an interesting  autobiographical style that describes the rides through Europe and North America, along with his love of nature, bird-watching drumming and many other interests. I found the book inspirational, and along with recent experiences in Spain it got me thinking, why don't I spend a bit more time off the bike when out for a ride at weekends? Why not stop and take more notice of the world around me.

Often, I pass many nature reserves without stopping so I decided on this ride to stop by and look around.

With a flask and packed lunch I followed my own pre-planned route into Wales to Tywyn,Cardigan Bay. My route took me on the high road B4518 around Llyn Clywedog reservoir, with a short stop to admire the view and through 'Staylittle',  a small town that really has !

The Ride Route to Tywyn

I couldn't resist a stop to look at the great Cadair Idris in the distance as the ride took me up on high.

Here's a view of Cader Idris in the distance below  the cloud line. 

The view was spectacular from here, a monument has been  placed here in honour of the Broadcaster and Writer Wynford Vaughn Thomas. Apparently his favorite viewing location.

My GS - Pannier-less this time overlooking Cadair Idris

I managed to get a good zoom shot I wanted. This is the direction I was heading, toward Machynlleth.

Had a bit of trouble getting the GS moving again, the camber of the road made the bike quite low on the side stand, so couldn't push it up with my left leg after getting on. Ended up having to push the bike across the road to straighten the bike enough to get it upright.

This kind of problem would have fazed me when I bought it 3 years ago, requiring embarrassing help from a passer by to help me lift it, but nowadays after 17 thousand miles, not so bad. Just as well as the road here was totally deserted and no passing traffic !

Look at the cloud-base.

A huge bank of cumulus gathering up vertically to cumulonimbus as the air current pushes up across Cadair Idris.

Having seen plenty of hills in Spain recently with Electricity generator windmills, its quite surprising to realise there are more and more popping up in Wales too.


Personally, I don't think they spoil the view much, make it more interesting in many ways, but I guess if they put them up in my back yard I would complain too !

Soon after I dropped back down through the valley and along the estuary just past Machynlleth to Aberdovey and then on through Tywyn town.

I parked up at one of the many car-parks at the sea front - saw my sandwiches off while chatting to a retired couple down on holiday from North Wales. Nice couple who had been coming to Cardigan Bay for years and gave me some ideas for returning with my family one day.

Later I headed back inland toward 'Bird Rock' - Craig yr Aderyn, a vast cliff two miles from the coast that once stood in the sea millions of years ago, now inhabited by many birds (hence the name).

After Bird rock the route took me onto an RSPB  Nature Reserve at Ynys-hir, Ceredigion a Salt Marsh wetland, with woodland teeming with wildlife.


The reserve had some good trails. Well worth paying the £5.00 donation to the RSPB. Since I was wearing motorcycle gear I parked my bike up and walked the shorter blue route around to one of the hides. This route took me out to the marshes, armed with my field glasses I found one of the 'hides' and spent a good while watching the Herons, and Storks as well as what looked like Canadian Geese. There were plenty of Blue-tits, Great tits, and Robins.

Here's some views from one of the hides. I definitely have to make a trip back here in the Spring to watch even more bird activity.

Salt Marsh Inlet

Looks like a great place to live doesn't it? A Victorian 'Castle' home. I can't find reference to it's name or history though.

The reserve has the railway running along the estuary toward Dovey Junction.















The Robin was very persistent in attracting my attention, even 'puffing' up his feathers. This is usually done in a threatening manner to warn off by making a bird look bigger, but I think in this case was impressing me into giving away an easy snack by the picnic area !

My return home was via the faster A470 to Rhayader and Crossgates. I love that road, fast and twisty,  a very popular 'biker route'.

While riding it reminded me of my days as a system engineer in the '90's driving the same route near Llangurig in horrendous rain following an old man on a bicycle who didn't seem to even care it was raining - he was that used to Welsh weather he was simply oblivious of the 'monsoon' . Hilarious.

Finally, I took the A44 skirting Radnor Forest to Leominster, then Leysters onto Tenbury (the best way) and home.


A Great day out, I'm looking forward to visiting another nature reserve soon now !

Total round-trip miles: 250

Back Home

Arrived home safe and sound from our trip to Spain and Portugal - Tuesday evening.
Just uploaded photos click on the 2015 - North Spain & Portugal tab to see the Review post.

.. Mark

Ready for the off today

So, today I head off to meet Lindsay at Maccy D's at J5 - the start venue of many a motorcycle adventure for a gentle ride down to Plymouth t catch the 3:45 ferry to Santander. Follow our progress via the Spain and Portugal blog (see tab at top of page)

Spain and Portugal tour prep 3 - Campsites

This week busy choosing suitable campsites. The plan is to book/reserve a couple of pitches.

Following Campsite locations en-route include:

6th - Potes. Camping La Viorna, Received Confirmation via E-Mail
7th - Ponferrada (El Bierzo) - Camping Valle de Seo, website e-mail failed, try later.
8th - Carretera de A Lanzada a San Vicente do Mar - Camping Muineria, e-mailed via website.
14th - Lamego, Duoro Valley - Camping Lamego, Received Confirmation via E-Mail
15th - Salamanca - Camping Don Quijote, website in spanish, try phoning.
16th/17th/18th - Segovia - Camping El Acueducto, Conferred reservation over phone.

Spain and Portugal tour prep 2

Bit more prep this week, Lindsay is starting to get the V-Strom ready, pannier system fitted. I like these black Givi Trekker Outbacks, and he's gone with a Givi airflow screen too. Looking good now with the sump guard on to hide that single down pipe and oil filter.

After last weeks ride with Mark, we decided to get some of those cheap BT Interphone Bluetooth intercom headsets he uses. Often is the case that you need to chat while on the move , and perhaps agree on slight route changes etc, and playing music without cable headphones is a real advantage. Especially with the single button mute too. It turns out they do pair with the TomTom rider after all, and on trip away in Yorkshire a few years back with Mark I was quite impressed with this simple intercom - up to 800 metres line of sight, and they paired well with my iPod and phone. They are not as good as the more expensive setups from  Scala or Sena, but for a mere £58.00 for the pair being able to communicate inside a helmet with regular earplugs fitted makes life so much easier.

Saturday myself and Lindsay met up and tried them out. After fiddling a bit to get the correct position when fitting the Velcro ear pads and boom mic in our helmets, I was very impressed, reasonably clear audio at 70mph and able to switch between music and bike to bike intercom easily by pressing a single button, and mute, vol adjust using the other large round glove friendly button. Lindsay tried pairing with the GPS, but this kept breaking intercom with me each time the GPS tried to give him instructions. On Sunday, I went out on my own and tried my TomTom Urban Rider pairing which was good. I found the first word of instruction or so was missing by the time the TomTom had switched into the headset, but I was able to hear the most important instruction e.g turn left or turn right etc. Having heard the instruction a quick glance at the TomTom screen to confirm and all was well. I can see this being really useful in built up areas where it's easy to miss an instruction if relying on the screen alone. I think we will use the GPS pair mode on its own though, without music or intercom for best results. I guess the more expensive systems are better at switching between multiple devices  but for a cheap option I'm chuffed with their overall function.

While considering security options when parked up, and what disc locks I will take, I discovered via an internet forum, the GS has a special storage area for a DLock under the seat. I've often wondered what this moulded plastic shape was for, next to the tool tray under the seat ......

I had a large D Lock in my garage used for days out with the kids on their bicycles and voila, was able to slide it in to the recess space. These D locks must have a standard dimension ( diameter width). I was able to store the lock part in the tool tray. I guess these Germans think of everything!

Finally, I had quick go at loading the camping gear on the bike with the new Rok Straps. Found a great place to slot the camping tarp at the rear under the top box support bracket ...

Coming together nice 😃

Some Campsites Leon->Astorga->Ponferrada

http://www.campingancares.com/

http://campingriveradelcua.webs.com/

http://www.campingbierzo.com/

http://bembibreaventura.com/

http://campinglosrobles.com/acceso-al-lago/?lang=en

http://www.campingvalledoseo.com/en/index.php