At our last group curry night on a cold night in March it was decided that an early trip to Wales was needed to get the riding season well and truly started, so I set about the planning. A 3 day trip at the end of April for seven of us; Matt, Colin, Andy, Rich, Chris and John Y and me. (4 KTMs and 3 BMWs) As we got closer to departure date there was lots of activity on WhatsApp about the weather forecast, which didn’t look good for our time in Wales; but as we all know forecast and actual are always two different things. 🙂
Monday 29th April 2019
The weather was looking much better as we met up ready to ride to Wales; dry for 2 days, maybe rain on the way back. By 12:00 we had reached the Black Mountains and were heading for the Gospel Pass (the highest road pass in Wales) as our entry point to Wales and then the Brecon Beacons. I had planned the route and looked at some of the roads on Street View, so I knew the entry to Gospel Pass was via narrow lanes; however I hadn’t realised just how narrow and covered in mud, gravel and water, and how long it would take us as we picked our way along hoping not to meet a tractor coming the other way. NOTE: It is always expected in our group that there will be some narrow lanes thrown in whether by planning, or SatNav incident; usually with grass growing down the middle 🙂 we have Adventure bikes (most of us) and its supposed to be an Adventure!! As I rode along I could just imagine the less than complimentary comments coming from the six following me about these particularly nasty, narrow, wet and muddy lanes with high hedges! 🙂 The only car we met was a big Merc with Dutch number plates coming the other way; we managed to squeeze past, bet he was cursing his Sat Nav 🙂
Final the road opened out and we climbed up the Gospel Pass; great ride, great views; lots of sheep! We stopped at the top to have a moan about the roads on the way in and to admire the view. 🙂
I don’t have a GoPro so here’s a link to an exisiting YouTube video to give you an idea of the ride to the top; definitely worth a view https://youtu.be/maOr_8TFfJw
We set off again heading for the town of Brecon and then to cross the Brecon Beacons on some of the best roads with a lunch stop on the way. There is a layby on the A470 in the middle of the Brecon Beacons National Park where there is usually a mobile food kitchen; thankfully it was there today and the sun was even breaking through and the view is stunning. I had Sausage, Egg and Mushroom bap with brown sauce…this is living 🙂
Time to go again and enjoy the very best of the Welsh roads. We turned off on the A4059. a fast and windy road over the Brecons..must watch out for the sheep and lambs; never quiet know what they will do as we approach. Later we took the fabulous A4069 over the Black Mountains, a really challenging ride with a down hill section that is as good as anything in Europe 🙂 Lots of safety signs out on this road to focus the mind.
Found this video of a ride along the A4069 take a look https://youtu.be/k0HcY3FtwLE
Next destination was the very picturesque Llyn Brianne reservoirs. These type of fabulous remote places are certainly best accessed on a motorbike; always very narrow twisty roads, up and down and often wet and covered with mud and sheep shit this time of year..not a place most people would drive their car and the bike of choice would be an Adventure bike such as our GS and KTMs. Its so worth it, the scenery is spectacular and the riding always challenging, but great fun..this is what we came for 🙂
Stopped to admire the scenery 
A smile at last from this lot
Here is a great video of Llyn Brianne from another GS rider..well worth a view (the sun is out and he even has a drone) https://youtu.be/b5cf_c1VhQA
So off we went again heading for Devil’s Bridge and a deserved cup of tea and a piece of cake. We arrive close to 5pm and the tea shop was closed 🙁 This is also the end of a steam train line from Aberystwyth and usually full of holiday makers out for a day..we obviously missed the train today and only found a lady who was keen to get rid of us so she could lock the barrier to the car park..I just managed to convince her to let me use the loo first 🙂 The final run in to Rhayader, our hotel town for the night, was via the exciting Elan Valley mountain road. Narrow, twisty, up and down..and full of sheep; great end to the day’s ride. Around 250 miles in all.
Shower, beer and dinner at The Elan Hotel in the centre of Rhayader. I have been there many times over the years and last time it had changed hands and is now owned by Martin & Iris who have been very flexible in helping me book as our numbers kept changing; they have much improved the place, there is parking on site, the rooms are clean, the beer is good, dinner is good and there is a big Welsh breakfast in the morning. A good end to a great day! Tomorrow we head North to Snowdonia, and the forecast is sunny 🙂
Tuesday 30th April19
After a full breakfast we set off with the sun shining 🙂 We soon turned off the A44 on to the A483, Crossgates to Newtown road. 22miles of fabulous smooth, twisty tarmac; a mix of fast sweepers and several tighter corners which can easily catch you out. very little traffic around this time of the morning and we had a blast!
Our next destination was Lake Vyrnwy, between Welshpool and Bala on the edges of Snowdonia. Great roads on the way and we were ready for coffee and cake at the lake’s visitor centre; 7 bikers turning up at this quiet spot caused a bit of a stir 🙂 We then set off round the lake and took a very narrow road I found on my last trip which would take us to Bala via a really spectacular pass.
From Bala we set off across Snowdonia National Park on the A4212 past Capel Celyn, this is a fast sweeping road with a big lake on one side. We turned off on the B4391 and into the real fast and technical riding across the Snowdonia moors and then the B4407 to Ysbyty Ifan..fantastic winding, up and down switchback road through open moreland; its fast and a chance to stretch the bike’s legs 🙂 But as always keep an eye out for sheep!! At the A5 we turned towards Pentrfoelas and took the very open and fast A543 towards Denbigh. This road is part of what is known as “The Evo Triangle” where the motor magazines test cars and boy racers go crazy..but there was no one around mid week in April..! However, I did notice a yellow camera on top of a high pole which looked suspiciously like an average speed camera 🙁 decided to keep to an avg of 60mph just in case and sure enough several miles further on was another similar camera. We turned off on the B4501 and stopped at the visitor centre at Llyn Brenig for lunch. We found 4 motorbike cops having lunch there and I picked the moment to ask them if what we had seen were avg speed cameras; indeed they were came the answer, but had only just been put up so were not live yet. Yet another example of the nanny state we live in trying to spoil our fun!
After lunch we set off again across Snowdonia, fantastic roads, great scenery and once we got off the moors everywhere looked so green..Wales is a wonderful place, and only a couple of hours from home 🙂 The variety of roads makes for a great day’s riding and puts a smile on everyone’s face; the rain held off and the roads were dry. We decided to aim for Devils Bridge again and hope to get some tea and cake; this time we were earlier and the last steam train from Aberystwyth was still in the station and so were the tourists, but the cake was good and the tea was welcome after a long day’s riding. We finished off the day with a blast along the Elan valley mountain road and turned off to take slow loop of the valley and reservoirs; very picturesque.
Tonight the beer was followed by a visit to the local curry house washed down with several bottles of red wine..it had been a good day! However, the forecast for the morning was rain for our ride home 🙁
Wednesday 1st May19
Sure enough it was raining as we set off on a route that Chris had planned which took in some more good Welsh roads before we crossed back into England. None of us much like riding in the rain, but we are all used to it so it did little to slow us down on what was another set of great roads. At Garth on the A483 we turned off on the B4520 towards Upper Chapel; as you reach the top the Brecon Beacons come into view in the distance. This is MOD land and as well as the hills, trees, mountains and sheep there are signs and red flags dotted in the landscape warning that this is an artillery firing range!!
We stopped to read the warning signs and I happened to be stopped a couple of feet before a cattle grid; these things are made of metal and are as slippery as ice when they are wet. We were on an incline and as I started off the back wheel span up on the grid, the traction control kicked in and the engine stopped and left me right in the middle of the grid. No option but to back up and try again, but Andy was right behind me and he had to do the same, so did the others; to add to the fun it was raining. At the 3rd attempt I managed to get the bike across the grid and continue along the narrow windy road 🙂
The rain continued and some of the roads were quiet slippery; we crossed back into England and it was time for coffee. We stopped at a petrol station in a small place called Much Dewchurch; apart from petrol this place also had a store selling everything from groceries to plants and had a sign pointing to “Shotgun and Rifle Ammunition”??
It rained the rest of the way home and the bike was thoroughly dirty by the end of the day.
This trip had given us a great couple of days riding in Wales; we covered everything from narrow windy roads covered in mud and sheep in beautiful picturesque surroundings, to fast switchback roads across the moors; and everything in between. In total I had done 700 miles in the 3 days. Perhaps the best way to sum it up is to quote Rich Collins who said ” this was probably the best riding I’ve done in the UK”
I just love riding in Wales and will be back there at the end of May to ride these roads again with several of the guys I met on my 2018 Thailand trip (Fred and Kevin from USA and Jon & Pete from UK) Fred, Kevin and myself will then cross over to Ireland to ride most of the “Wild Atlantic Way” around the coast of the Emerald Isle before crossing back to North Wales. Should be another great Adventure..if you’re interested in following us, stay tuned 🙂