Joined Mar 2006
2K Posts | 4+
mid-wales, uk
met up with a group from the Trail bike mag forum in the UK for a ride around Mid-Wales.
group consisted of me, rob110 who was the leader and 4 lads who had come up from the south, Salisbury plain way; Scriberman, Crash Test Dummy (ctd), Atxjohn and jay
posted up a pick below, ignore the blue line but the points mark the main villages, towns we went through.
don't know the exact mileage but it was 150 + and we took almost exactly 10 hours, partly due to an unplanned overly long stay on Pontrhydfendigaid, point E, but more on that later.
Bikes were a mixed breed, I had the 450 berg, Rob110 was on his CCM 404 DS, Scribe had a 520 sx that he'd stuck a leccy start and 6 speed box in, CTD was on a KTM 4st whilst the jay and atxjohn were on another ktm 4st and a 570 berg.
Got to the pub we were meeting at early and blagged a mug of coffee despite the cleaners still doing their stuff, the manager had only been there 2 days and when I asked how much, she said, "I don't know just leave what you think on the bar." Damn wish I'd ask for a big breakfast!
The gang all arrived and at 1000 hrs. we set off in a torrential downpour.
Little bit of road work then it was into some lanes, mainly comprising of sunken Jeep and tractor tracks, which in itself don't sound to bad other than the last time they were probably used was 1923 and you really need to fit bodicia style spinning blades to the wheels to slash your way through, oh and the fact it was still raining heavily made things as slippy as a slippy thing, but it raised the first few chuckles of the day as we each emerged from the overgrown lanes looking like we'd been dipped in camo..
From there next I can recall was a short steep climb on the edge of a forestry and a tight hairpin left along single track, around and over a couple of fallen trees, one of which leapt out in front of Crash and caused him to crash. along a grassy ride before hitting tarmac for smoke break no.1
from L to R is; Jay, Ron110, Scriberman, CTD and atxjohn.
View from smoke break no1. With the rain now disappearing into the distance.
From here Rob led us along some lanes and trails graduly climbing ever upwards until we were on the tops above Builth Wells, some lovely fast open hill going and a pattern that seemed to repeated itself all day of 3 or 4 gates closed together then no gates for quite some time.
On the way up there was a stop at the 'Optional' hill climb.
Only a 100m or so but quite steep but with a nice roll the edge into a gully as the run up which could be done as hard as you liked, with the hot tip seeming to be pin 3rd as soon as you started to roll into the run up.
Cant recall who won -O it was Scribes - but I went for style of dismount rather than distance obtained, unfortunatly we weren't getting marked on that I ended up last.
Though I have to admit I did have the thought that it was 4 weeks to the day since I'd been lying in a stream thinking how embarrassing it will be having to be helicoptered out following a off during an 'optional' mess around, so yes I pussied out.
Soon got that out of my head as we set off again across some fast hill going.
Stopped for smoke break No. 2 prior to dropping into Builth Wells.
Last bit of track off the hill before hitting the tarmac into Builth Wells
Made our way through Builth town and I have to admit to giving the throttle on good blip as we trundled through the narrow streets just to hear the noise reverberate back, also to wake up some of the locals who were looking at us like we had two heads – 3 is the normal number around that way you see.
From there I was expecting a trip to Beulah but Rob led us off to the left and follow some more sunken tracks and a bit of fast rocky forestry going we made our way to Llanwrtyd wells. I Hadn't expected to end up here on my day out!
Filled the bikes and ourselves from the local garage then it was off again with some trails and a tour around Llyn Brianne with our goal being the mountain hut near Llandewi Brefi – 'Little Britain' fans? - for a brew.
Llyn Brianne
smoke break 3 and some of the tracks.
After some nice rock tracks we came to Ty'n Cornel YHA. The old house used to left open as a mountain shelter but was sold circa 2008 and a wood frame building has now been erected to act as the hut.
The pic is a library pic circa 2007 and you can see the hut being built on the left.
I was surprised to see cars there considering you'd need a proper 4x4 to get to it along the tracks we'd come by but Rob explained the route in from the other side was a good stone track.
From here we retraced our steps a bit now blasting up some of the nice stony tracks we'd come down.
It was along here Scribes bust one of his from spokes. No worries, pull it from there and off to go.
Couple of miles later Robs got a rear flat. Again no worries, 21” tube out of my Ogio Flight vest – Have I told everyone who highly I rate my vest? - tyre up with a co2 cartridge and off to go.
From here it was onto the famous, or infamous Strata Florida, across the rocky trails and numerous water splashes. Not the deepest I'd ever seen them though considering the lack of rain there was plenty of water about.
Once out of the splashes the track starts to head down towards Pontrhydfendigaid and it was here that Robs rear went again.
We followed him down with the rear of the CCM crabbing sideways, all bar one short off road section where Rob could take a road route whilst we blasted the trail.
Considering I hadn't ridden that section for 5 years and didn't know if anything had changed along that bit of trail lets just say its just as well nothing had changed because we weren't hanging about, All thought of being helicoptered out had long gone.
Now we got sucked into the black hole of Pontrhydfendigaid ( just say the following fast and it's close enough Pont reed ven dig eyed) where we must have been for 2 hours as we mended the original punctured 18” tube.
Then Scriberman notice the giant thorn in the tyre, but not before it had gone flat for a 3rd time, the lads in the garage opposite must have been pissing themselves.
Finally we got the tyre fixed only to find AtxJohns' battery was flat on the 570 and had to be bump started. Turns out the battery was on the way out last week but he hadn't had time to change it.
Got the bike going and even though the battery was obviously dying it still had enough charge to fire the bike on the couple of times during the rest of the ride that the engine stopped.
Though John doesn't know who close he came to being a permanent resident of Pontrhydfendigaid.
From Pont (cos I'm fed up with typing Pontrhydfendigaid – Doh!) we made away across the hills along some major winding roads and tracks, the road bit possibly the UK's greatest undiscovered road for SM bikes, to the north end of Claerwen reservoir and followed the shore line to the dam. Along here Atxjohn shot off ahead and once I saw him pulling away decided to chase. I slowly pulled ground back but then I think he realised what I was playing and away he went.
once at the dam we crossed the river and followed another very rocky track down to the tarmac that would take us into Rhayader.
Quick fuel stop at ET James where Rob reckoned we'd done about 150 miles before the 40 minute blast back towards Mortimer's Cross via some more tarmac and trails which produced my only two pathetic crashes for the day, flopping over like a halibut in a rut twice in 10 yards.
Overall it was a damn good day out with good company, 150+ miles ( guesstimate about 170) 10 hrs. and a good laugh had by all.
Wasn't able to go on the second day but I heard that the day carried on in a similar mechanical vein and the first – CCM exhaust fell off. KTM broke down but the 570 battery worked all day.
Till next time
group consisted of me, rob110 who was the leader and 4 lads who had come up from the south, Salisbury plain way; Scriberman, Crash Test Dummy (ctd), Atxjohn and jay
posted up a pick below, ignore the blue line but the points mark the main villages, towns we went through.
don't know the exact mileage but it was 150 + and we took almost exactly 10 hours, partly due to an unplanned overly long stay on Pontrhydfendigaid, point E, but more on that later.
Bikes were a mixed breed, I had the 450 berg, Rob110 was on his CCM 404 DS, Scribe had a 520 sx that he'd stuck a leccy start and 6 speed box in, CTD was on a KTM 4st whilst the jay and atxjohn were on another ktm 4st and a 570 berg.
Got to the pub we were meeting at early and blagged a mug of coffee despite the cleaners still doing their stuff, the manager had only been there 2 days and when I asked how much, she said, "I don't know just leave what you think on the bar." Damn wish I'd ask for a big breakfast!
The gang all arrived and at 1000 hrs. we set off in a torrential downpour.
Little bit of road work then it was into some lanes, mainly comprising of sunken Jeep and tractor tracks, which in itself don't sound to bad other than the last time they were probably used was 1923 and you really need to fit bodicia style spinning blades to the wheels to slash your way through, oh and the fact it was still raining heavily made things as slippy as a slippy thing, but it raised the first few chuckles of the day as we each emerged from the overgrown lanes looking like we'd been dipped in camo..
From there next I can recall was a short steep climb on the edge of a forestry and a tight hairpin left along single track, around and over a couple of fallen trees, one of which leapt out in front of Crash and caused him to crash. along a grassy ride before hitting tarmac for smoke break no.1
from L to R is; Jay, Ron110, Scriberman, CTD and atxjohn.
View from smoke break no1. With the rain now disappearing into the distance.
From here Rob led us along some lanes and trails graduly climbing ever upwards until we were on the tops above Builth Wells, some lovely fast open hill going and a pattern that seemed to repeated itself all day of 3 or 4 gates closed together then no gates for quite some time.
On the way up there was a stop at the 'Optional' hill climb.
Only a 100m or so but quite steep but with a nice roll the edge into a gully as the run up which could be done as hard as you liked, with the hot tip seeming to be pin 3rd as soon as you started to roll into the run up.
Cant recall who won -O it was Scribes - but I went for style of dismount rather than distance obtained, unfortunatly we weren't getting marked on that I ended up last.
Though I have to admit I did have the thought that it was 4 weeks to the day since I'd been lying in a stream thinking how embarrassing it will be having to be helicoptered out following a off during an 'optional' mess around, so yes I pussied out.
Soon got that out of my head as we set off again across some fast hill going.
Stopped for smoke break No. 2 prior to dropping into Builth Wells.
Last bit of track off the hill before hitting the tarmac into Builth Wells
Made our way through Builth town and I have to admit to giving the throttle on good blip as we trundled through the narrow streets just to hear the noise reverberate back, also to wake up some of the locals who were looking at us like we had two heads – 3 is the normal number around that way you see.
From there I was expecting a trip to Beulah but Rob led us off to the left and follow some more sunken tracks and a bit of fast rocky forestry going we made our way to Llanwrtyd wells. I Hadn't expected to end up here on my day out!
Filled the bikes and ourselves from the local garage then it was off again with some trails and a tour around Llyn Brianne with our goal being the mountain hut near Llandewi Brefi – 'Little Britain' fans? - for a brew.
Llyn Brianne
smoke break 3 and some of the tracks.
After some nice rock tracks we came to Ty'n Cornel YHA. The old house used to left open as a mountain shelter but was sold circa 2008 and a wood frame building has now been erected to act as the hut.
The pic is a library pic circa 2007 and you can see the hut being built on the left.
I was surprised to see cars there considering you'd need a proper 4x4 to get to it along the tracks we'd come by but Rob explained the route in from the other side was a good stone track.
From here we retraced our steps a bit now blasting up some of the nice stony tracks we'd come down.
It was along here Scribes bust one of his from spokes. No worries, pull it from there and off to go.
Couple of miles later Robs got a rear flat. Again no worries, 21” tube out of my Ogio Flight vest – Have I told everyone who highly I rate my vest? - tyre up with a co2 cartridge and off to go.
From here it was onto the famous, or infamous Strata Florida, across the rocky trails and numerous water splashes. Not the deepest I'd ever seen them though considering the lack of rain there was plenty of water about.
Once out of the splashes the track starts to head down towards Pontrhydfendigaid and it was here that Robs rear went again.
We followed him down with the rear of the CCM crabbing sideways, all bar one short off road section where Rob could take a road route whilst we blasted the trail.
Considering I hadn't ridden that section for 5 years and didn't know if anything had changed along that bit of trail lets just say its just as well nothing had changed because we weren't hanging about, All thought of being helicoptered out had long gone.
Now we got sucked into the black hole of Pontrhydfendigaid ( just say the following fast and it's close enough Pont reed ven dig eyed) where we must have been for 2 hours as we mended the original punctured 18” tube.
Then Scriberman notice the giant thorn in the tyre, but not before it had gone flat for a 3rd time, the lads in the garage opposite must have been pissing themselves.
Finally we got the tyre fixed only to find AtxJohns' battery was flat on the 570 and had to be bump started. Turns out the battery was on the way out last week but he hadn't had time to change it.
Got the bike going and even though the battery was obviously dying it still had enough charge to fire the bike on the couple of times during the rest of the ride that the engine stopped.
Though John doesn't know who close he came to being a permanent resident of Pontrhydfendigaid.
From Pont (cos I'm fed up with typing Pontrhydfendigaid – Doh!) we made away across the hills along some major winding roads and tracks, the road bit possibly the UK's greatest undiscovered road for SM bikes, to the north end of Claerwen reservoir and followed the shore line to the dam. Along here Atxjohn shot off ahead and once I saw him pulling away decided to chase. I slowly pulled ground back but then I think he realised what I was playing and away he went.
once at the dam we crossed the river and followed another very rocky track down to the tarmac that would take us into Rhayader.
Quick fuel stop at ET James where Rob reckoned we'd done about 150 miles before the 40 minute blast back towards Mortimer's Cross via some more tarmac and trails which produced my only two pathetic crashes for the day, flopping over like a halibut in a rut twice in 10 yards.
Overall it was a damn good day out with good company, 150+ miles ( guesstimate about 170) 10 hrs. and a good laugh had by all.
Wasn't able to go on the second day but I heard that the day carried on in a similar mechanical vein and the first – CCM exhaust fell off. KTM broke down but the 570 battery worked all day.
Till next time
,i did have a day up in wales in june but cant remeber where tho as you got some weird names up there but was put off coming up this time because found where we went it was just rock n gates every where,but have spoke to few people since & they say some of the best riding in the uk to be had.
