Welsh weekend

Off on another jaunt at the weekend, this time crossing borders to the land of sheep and dragons for some mountain air, with the general aim to have a nice ride around some beautiful countryside and have a stroll up Pen Y Fan.

Map of the route we took

We left packing up til friday morning and the pace was nice and leisurely until my valve sheared off whilst checking tyre pressures, making it impossible to get more air in the tyre than was rushing out. Not an ideal start. I limped to the nearest mechanic shop and we managed to top up from 9psi to somewhere that looked decent. Paula went on a mission to grab a spare tube from home, but we then found that all the tyre places in Chippenham don't touch bikes and the owner of the 0ne bike shop in town had closed down to go racing.

Anyway, eventually we dropped into the local Autospeed and turns out the manager loves bikes, used to work for Pirelli tyres and has daydreams of owning a BMW 1200 GSA. He bent over backwards to get us sorted and on our way and we finally got started.

We chose our preferred country road trail up via Tetbury, Stroud and Gloucester, enjoying the perfect breezy/sunny weather and the quiet roads thanks to Will & Kates wedding it seems. 100 happy miles later we arrived at Cantref Adventure Farm campsite..

It has to be said that this is probably the best promotional shot Cantref could ever have. The view south to the Beacons is fantastic, however what they don't mention in the brochure is that you camp in the overflow car park .. and bank holiday weekends are very busy!

So after a swift thunder storm and a restless night, we awoke to the sound of chav music blaring at 7:15 and the decision was made - Cantref Campsite is shite, we're off.

Loaded up with supplies from Brecon we headed closer to the base of Pen Y Fan and camped at a farm called Cwmgwdi. Very minimal, but really nice people and extremely quiet .. as in it was just us, in a field and surrounded by new born lambs for entertainment.

With the stain of Cantref forgotten already we enjoyed 2 tranquil nights cooking on an open fire and watching the stars appear over the mountains. £2 a night and a perfect base for our trek up Cribyn, Pen Y Fan and Corn Du.

Another National Park ticked off the list for the ABR nature rally. Not sure if we'll get to any others now that we've done the local ones and we don't have any holiday to use, but we'll see.

Spent monday pottering back at our usual casual pace, picking a way past reservoirs, valleys and viaducts. The bikes were great as usual, first decent run using my sheep skin cushion and I was pleasantly impressed. Paula managed to scratch her new visor which was understandably irritating, especially since we had no idea when or how it happened.

The tent passed trials of wind and rain with inspiring ease and is a pleasure to erect and pack. We dusted off the PMR radios for this trip too, always good to chat and point out stuff as we trot around, but note-to-self: need to sort out a bunch of rechargeable AAA batteries and a 12v charger.

The final task was to dash across the Severn bridge while enduring a gusting northerly wind, pretty exhilarating I have to admit with a loaded top heavy bike and a vented jacket acting like a sail, but all in all a weekend of happy memories.

Terrorist Attack

It almost seems inevitable in the current world we live in, but today Morocco was hit by the worst terrorist attack in 8 years, with an explosion in the tourist heavy, main market square in Marrakesh.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/28/us-morocco-blast-idUSTRE73R39T20110428

Heart felt regards to those affected by this tragedy and to those worrying about friends and family currently in the country.

Darth Vader ?!?

O.o....cheers dude...lol ..I think the stormtrooper bit was right though especially in this shot ;)
so I thought I'd post a few of my shots from the weekend....

like I said, just a few shots.......love the new gear :) and had a great time :)

A trio of white horses..

Out for another huge mileage weekend ride-out over the weekend, this time all the way out to Pewsey, clocking up nearly 50 miles all round! Not exactly the arse numbing distances we need to get used to, but it was the first time out with the new tent, new lid, both sets of new panniers and it was a bit of an equipment experiment rather than a major trek out.

Cherhill white horse - with some cunning photoshoppery to get us both in the frame without the aid of a handy photographer to take it for us.

The new Vango Omega 350 breathes fresh air for the first time under the view of Pewsey white horse. Immediate impressions of the tent are good, nice and quick to put up, with nice smooth poles and quality hooks and fastenings. Only time, weather and abuse will see how rugged it turns out to be, but with a pack size easily stowable on the bike it's looking good so far.

Note Paula's new Held Takato lid on the bars which also seems to be going down well so far. As are the Touratech panniers with vango pillow on - real luxury!

A few pints of local Wadworths ale, a camp stove fry up and a healthy all day walk later, we rode past Devizes white horse on the way home to complete the trio. We came to the following conclusions:

- top opening panniers are a pain in the arse when you just strapped a pack over the top of them

- we still need to carry much less stuff (we took pretty much all we would on the Morocco tour)

- oversize 3-4 season sleeping bags and thick self-inflating sleeping mats make for a great sleep, but I reckon practically double the size of our kit!

I was hoping to not take my top box to Morocco, just take panniers and a tail pack, but what with the bulk of my camera, it looks like it will be coming along after all. As big as the TT panniers are there's just enough things that are too long or wide to go in them .. but we will see. Another trip to Wales in a couple of weeks, so we'll try again.

Meanwhile, kit wise - I've been stretching my Sidi's out using some Collonil Leather stretching spray - really good stuff and a handy product to know about if you have extra wide feet like mine.

Paula managed to flog her two pairs of boots on eBay (the Frank Thomas and Daytona's) for a little more than she paid for them, more than likely with her eyes locked on some Altberg Hoggs.

She also picked up some Hein Gericke trousers which look nice, simple and quality, in all black with her black jacket and mostly black helmet she's looking just as much like Darth Vader as I have started to look like a stormtrooper!?

Good times..

Respect!

To the thousands of bikers that Honoured Afghan Heroes On Mothers Day. Thousands upon thousands of bikers from throughout the country made the spectacular mass ride through Wootton Bassett inWiltshire to honour the family's and the soldiers who have fought so bravely and lost their lives in Afghanistan and the residence of the town for receiving back the bodies of those fallen with such honour and dignity.

It was a great honour to be part of this today and a fantastic time to meet new people and make some new friends who I hope to see again soon, thanks every one for a great day and I hope that big rain cloud didn't catch up with you....

Invensys Rail...motley crew!

The big boys roll in.

people I've never met still wanted to pose for the camera :)

just to prove we never grow up just old ;)

Mmmm what can I say.........ah yes thanks to the support guys!

The discussion was...how we all thought this guy looked as if he was about to be launched from a cannon!...lol                                        

Cool man! ;)

Thanks agian to everyone who helped make it a great day..........respect.

More pics..

ABR Nature Rally photos from Exmoor & Dartmoor.

Had a great run out and was good test of man, woman and machine (mostly with good results!!). Was the first run out for the Klim trousers and Sidi boots for me. Besides being far too new and shiny looking the Klims were spot on, very comfy and wind proof. My only doubts on these is that there's a lot of velcro that might limit their lifespan and the waist adjusters aren't stitched as thoroughly as they might be, despite this am very pleased with them. Just need to get them a bit dirtier!

Sidi's were great, really comfy on the bike, but after wearing them for 11+ hours my feet were pretty relieved to get out of them. Will try a bit of leather stretching and get them all good before the tour that's for sure.

P is in love with her Rev-it jacket, their stuff always looks darn good quality for the price and getting it as-new for half the price on eBay was a proper result. Still waiting for the helmet though.. hopefully arrive next week.

Paulas BM panniers. Looking very nice and streamline (compared to big boxes stuck outside the exhausts). Looking forwards to using them in anger soon if the weather keeps it up.

Tweaking, fettling and solving. This was back when I fitted the Scottoiler etc. Was figuring out pannier attachments and brake light issues - which turned out to be some tiny connectors underneath the front brake lever!? Apparently if they come out both front and back brake lights connections fail! Fixed my heated grip problems too while I was there though, so double bonus.

Looked at getting the video camera rigged up too - really want to start playing with that and figure it all out in good time. Signed up to run the Wootten Bassett Afghan heroes run again in a couple of weeks, so want to try and get it running for that if I can. See if I can't blog some of it up here.

- Mark

Rally raid South West

Gave the bikes a nice hammering this weekend, 130 miles down the A4 to Reading and back to visit a friend on Sunday, then another sunny day Sunday for an epic 300 mile round trip to Dartmoor and back. Weather was spot on and met up with our friend Melvin on his TDM 900 at about 9am to cut down the A303 - A38 to Taunton, where - after a quick sat-nav induced blat up the M5 and back - we met up with a rabble of ABR forum members: Peejay (1200GSA), Lee (XT660), Kiteboy (F800) and VersysRider (Versys).

Peejay and co navigated us down some great roads, snapping photos for the rally at Dulverton and Princetown, Dartmoor. Was a great day, but I think we both had a creeping niggly feeling that we were now a long way from home with only two and a half hours daylight left.

Choosing not to just plough relentlessly up the motorway we conceded that we'll be riding after dark and proceeded to potter our way back to Exeter, stopping at a few scenic stop off points where I just ended up wishing I had my "proper" camera with me. We said goodbye to the wandering Melvin at this point and did a quick whiz up the M5 to Bridgewater was in order to get us feeling like we were making progress, but neither of us are big fans of big roads, so a quick service stop for overpriced drinks and we cut back up the A38, with the Sun setting as we passed Glastonbury Tor.

Arrived back home safe at about 8pm, after nigh on 700km in 2 days. Not bad!

Pic of us outside Reading on a sunny saturday.