March moon UK

Hope you don't mind me copying a couple of ride reports over.
The weekend was arranged in the Europe section of the ADV site.
Plan was to meet at a pub in North Wales and camp friday and saturday night. With trail riding Saturday and Sunday
here are my reports of the two days and the rides that I led on the BRP.

Saturday
The Briefing

Corwen Car wash was the 3rd lane up of the morning
Drog and Ian are OK but Kustlo is heading for trouble

And over he went


Andy C aka The Stig motor boats through leaving poor Windy in his wash



Just as we started to sort Kustlo’s bike out Ricks group arrived and were long gone by the time we got moving

Drying out a two stroke



Job done and we were on our way onto the wayfarer




Coming across the same 4x4s who had let us through at the car wash




Over the Berwyns

The one of the lanes we had cleared in the summer
Windy




Ian


Chris


Paul


Kustlo


Kustlo horizontal trail riding

Onto another lane we had cleared




Then towards Vyrnwy



Drog has a puncture. Andy take some of the group down to start filling with fuel

At the fuel stop Kustlo through night shift or illness decides to head back to camp to rest.
Out past Vyrnwy






We come out into the forest where a rally special stage is to be held. Luckily one of the marshals says that we have an hour to get clear.
Once back on tarmac Windy, after taking a tumble, decides he has had enough and heads back for camp.
Next up was Pont Llogel ford, its very wide, generally not deep but the stones are really slippy with boulders spread around for good measure.


Chris looks to be heading for trouble but holds on to get through




Ian practicing his roosting skills

Drog


Andy



From there we had a series of muddy rutted lanes










Time was pressing on but we were making good progress it looked as if we would complete the loop



However puncture number 2 changed things a little, we spent some time trying to seat the tyre only to give up and it seated itself at the start of the next lane

I cut a section out and we made our way back, Chris depite feeling tired decides to stick with us






Paul had taken a tumble up here that was to rule him out of Sunday’s ride







Last section of the last lane


The slide show of all of the photos (well nearly)



Thanks all who took part I had a great day hope you all did.

Sunday’s ride.

We had been lucky with the weather on Saturday but Sunday did not look so good. The forecast was for a dry start with rain later in the afternoon. It started drizzling more or less as soon as we had left the pub.
Windy had changed groups for the day. With Kustlo ill Chris also dropped out. Drog was feeling sore from a DIY injury the previous week and Paul Young was out with a sore wrist picked on Saturday.
Gazz wanted to combine his group with Robbie’s so off loaded a couple of trouble makers onto us.
Drog relented once the promise of a day on the trail sunk in, his back was not so bad that a packet of ibuprofen and Anadin would not cure.
The group was back up to 6 Gedjack, Owdknacker, Drog, Ian Lynch, AndyC and me.
In order to reach and ride the lanes in Snowdonia rest stops were going to be minimal. Len discovered he could peel bananas in his pocket and whilst riding along on the roads.
After a long road section it was onto the first lane

Then the next








But they were just a few lanes to break up the long road trek to Snowdonia
The smile says it all. Despite the early drizzle this was going to be a good day


Len had been willing my bike into the gully as a lapse of concentration found me applying my front brake in the wrong spot. With the front turned 90deg to the trail I wrestled it back to fully upright and dropped down the section to photograph the group.



There is no doubt that going down the gully is the easiest way however coming up the other side can use up a few bananas as well



The sky was clearing

There was a pause here I suspected someone was having a lie down


But it was nothing Len had had a snack attack helped by Andy at the start of the lane




At the end of this lane Len said he was on reserve

This meant that we had an early fuel stop well I tthought that is what he wanted.
It was Yorkie bars he was after

On a long steep rocky slope Ian found himself heading in the wrong direction but as a true XR rider there was no way he was letting go of that clutch.












Here we met Matt’s group. They had been stopped by the Police looking to find something wrong with their bikes in Betws Y Coed. Being on the second day of trail riding that was not appealing. The early fuel stop meant we were able to cut out of the back of Betws and missed the pleasure of having a fine tooth comb run over the bikes.





We dropped in on a group from Stockport who had been staying in Denbigh for the weekend
Looks like they were having fun




Eyh up what’s happened here surely The Stig is not stuck

I moved to get better photos and waved to him to let him know I was there
All the encouragement I shouted had an effect and he was soon free and on his way

I think it is fair to say from the look on Len’s face that this was a top banana


Gedjack left us at this point – he needed to be home early. Don’t worry we have heard all the excuses before from the master






Andy letting a bit more air get to his cheeks


As we made our way to the next lane disaster struck Drogs bike had gone bang.
We regrouped and eventually the solution came that Ian would tow him back. A quick trial on the back lanes and it was out onto the A5. 15 miles later we were back at the pub. A hell of an effort and a much better way to end the ride than having to come back later to rescue Drog from the pub with a trailer.


And that was it all over

Thanks Timpo, Gazz and Sarah for all the organising. Thanks to Andy for tail ending and actually staying at the back,not trying to overtake me and thanks to everyone who took part in the rides I really enjoyed myself hope you did as well.

Slide show of Sundays ride

Great report. I can't imagine going through all that water. amazing.

Thanks for posting!

If there was an award for the longest (single posted) ride report you'd win!

Looks like great fun...Thanx.

Beautiful area, thanks for sharing. In the last picture what was the rope hooked on? Foot Pegs?

There was a loop around the front bike Right side peg. If the rider lifted his foot the peg would go backwards and the loop slide off.

The bike being towed had the rope wound one and a half times around the peg with his foot trapping the rope. Again if the rider was worried or fell off as soon as his foot was off the peg the rope would be free.
This worked a treat and got us back to the vans and trailers.

Splendid ride report Hew!

Thanks for sharing all of the pics.....

Very Nice pics, looked like you all had a great time. Outstanding water crossings Pics!