Thanks for taking the time to do that, and for adding the photo's
Chris.
Op Storm Wales 2023 8th, 9th 10th September
Re: Op Storm Wales 2023 8th, 9th 10th September
Another great read Al
Thanks for taking the time to do that, and for adding the photo's
Chris.
Thanks for taking the time to do that, and for adding the photo's
Chris.
Re: Op Storm Wales 2023 8th, 9th 10th September
I look forward to seeing Al's synopsis and summary- if just to find out what I got up to.
No NIP yet
No NIP yet
It's not falling off, it's an upgrade opportunity.
Re: Op Storm Wales 2023 8th, 9th 10th September
Fingers crossed you don't get one Tony
I'm still in shock, after reading you wanted to stop off at the car wash to see if you could get your bike washed
Chris.
Re: Op Storm Wales 2023 8th, 9th 10th September
My butt was hurting and I needed an excuse to stop for a bit.
It's not falling off, it's an upgrade opportunity.
Re: Op Storm Wales 2023 8th, 9th 10th September
Well, the NIP window's closed, did anyone get any junk mail this year?
It's not falling off, it's an upgrade opportunity.
Re: Op Storm Wales 2023 8th, 9th 10th September
Just to let you all know, the new post for the 2024 meeting is up, and I'm taking bookings.
Like what you do
Do what you like He who wonders isn't always lost
Do what you like He who wonders isn't always lost
Re: Op Storm Wales 2023 8th, 9th 10th September
Picking up the Saturday story 2 weeks late as i needed that 2 week window to know how the events of that day would fully pan out….. but more of that later!
Slight hangovers for most as we got out of our bunks after a pretty good sleep…thankfully I pack good wax earplugs so I am oblivious to the snoring of my room mates.
Down stairs and there are already the usual reprobates sitting outside letting the sun warm them up like reptiles ;) as they down coffee and fags to kickstart their brains. Then the bunk house owners bring in the trays of ready prepped food for us to assemble any version of a full English (Welsh?) brekkie we so desire…. Yum yum
So it’s Saturday morning and although it looks like we had a rain shower in the night, it is now sunny out and we were looking at another scorcher of a day.
As usual, we split into 2 groups, the “progressive” group and the more “relaxed” group. Kev was going to take the relaxed ride north back up towards Bala, where they might meet up with Gabi, Victor and Emily who had made a decision on Saturday morning to come and join us.
My group of reprobates was made up of Tony, Pete, Budd, Mick & Lindsay. I have ridden with them all before and know they are good riders, so I know this group should flow well (unlike the year when Rossi joined us on his B12).
I had planned a variation of last years route, but because I needed to be back home Saturday evening (to make sure I caught an early morning flight to Zante for our family holiday) I wasnt going to lead the whole route. I left the bunkhouse with all my kit on the bike and was going to head east after about 180 miles letting Pete take over the lead for the last 60 or 70 miles.
We set off on the fast & flowing A44 from Rhayader towards Aberystwyth, but it now has huge sections that are marked as 50 limits :0…… so that was already spiking the risk assessment. It’s the weekend, its sunny and the Welsh are trying to reduce the speed and fun on the roads ….. a recipe for speed traps for sure.
Fortunately no white vans on the roadside and progress was achieved. A quick fill up and its off round the Devils bridge loop into Aberystwyth for more great roads and fantastic scenery.
We then do an out & back over the Black mountains on the A4069 heading south from Llangadog down towards Brynamman. It’s a cracking bit of road winding up and over open moorland, but like the Cat&Fiddle pass they have decided to spoil any fun and for the last couple of years it is marked as a 40 limit, but i have never seen any enforcement.
What was new this year is that they have fitted some average speed cameras, I think I counted 4……..but that count was after we turned round to come back and stopped for an ice cream at the top. It was then I realised that on the first pass through, I hadnt spotted the first of the ave speed camera poles (in my defence they are pretty small, and I was too busy paying attention to the sheep and cars), so the question now is, how much over a 40 average did I manage to do in that 1st section ??
I suspect i could have been 50% above, so now I am really really annoyed with myself for not paying enough attention and being such a Tw@t, and i think some of the other lads who were following are also not too sure that they weren’t the wrong side of 40 either.
So as we went over towards our lunch stop in Llandovery, I am shouting at myself in my helmet and riding like Mrs Daisy. By the time we stop for lunch I am still in a grumpy mood at the thoughts of waiting for that NIP letter, so I only have a mug of tea and steal one of Pete’s fags to console myself.
The rest of the ride starts to cheer me up as we go from Brecon up towards Builth on a great B road, then through Hundred House on the A481….. but every so often i remember the shadow of the NIP, and get grumpy again.
At the end of the A481 we hit the A44, and this is where I will checkout, so I hand over to Pete here and he will have to fill in the blanks on what they did next.
For me I was just going to take the most direct route and follow the A44 all the way to Worcester, then the A422 back to my house.
The trip home Was going well and there wasn’t too much traffic, so I got a good run through some of the twisty sections, untill about a mile the other side of the little village of Broadwas where I hit a que of stationary cars.
I filtered to the front of the Q, but it is properly closed with Fire engines, ambulances and police cars all over the road and the firemen hosing down the burnt out remains of a motorbike. :0. I killed my engine and talked to the couple in a convertible car at the front of the que, and they said that when they got here the bike was crashed and on fire, but there was no sign of the rider….infact the fire crews were going through the fields and hedges with thermal imaging equipment to try and find the rider!!!
The police came and spoke to us to see if we had seen anything and also to advise us that the road would be closed for over an hour, so we would be better to try and find an alternative route home…….. bugger.
Its a bit out in the middle of nowhere and there wasn’t many obvious alternatives, so I headed back the way I came to see if I could find any roads heading off to the right (north).
I had spotted about 10 bikers in a lay-by when i first drove towards Broadwas, and now on my way back, they were still there, but i just wanted to get home so I waved and carried on, but it did occur to me that perhaps they had something to do with the burning bike.
I turned north off the main road and was now on single track C roads, then when i thought i had gone far enough north, I started to head east in the hope that i would get to Worcester…. Which i eventually managed, so i was back on track to get home.
About 10 miles from home there are some roadworks and when i was stopped at the red light a blue zx9r pulled up beside me with an Indian rider. I asked him if he got caught up with the bike accident / road closure, and he said that it was his mates bike that had crashed and burned, but that his mate was OK and had left on the back of one of the others…….. no wonder the firemen couldn’t find the rider! And yes he was one of the group of bikes in the lay-by, they were stopped working out what to do!!
By this time the lights had gone green so I couldn’t get any more information about why they left the scene, but was relieved that the rider was OK, as I had assumed the worst when I saw the fire crews searching the hedgerows….. that put my potential speeding ticket into perspective!
Sunday morning it was off to the airport for a week in Zante, but I was dreading getting home and finding the letter notifying me of a speeding prosecution……..wow, when I got home there wasnt one ….. but I still had the 2nd week to go, so I wasn’t in the clear yet.
The good news is it’s now been 2 1/2 weeks and still no letter, so I think that means we all got lucky.
Thank Feck!
Sorry not so many pictures from today, but I will let the others post up the view from the black mountains ice cream stop.
Till next year…. Thanks to Kev and team for a great event.
Slight hangovers for most as we got out of our bunks after a pretty good sleep…thankfully I pack good wax earplugs so I am oblivious to the snoring of my room mates.
Down stairs and there are already the usual reprobates sitting outside letting the sun warm them up like reptiles ;) as they down coffee and fags to kickstart their brains. Then the bunk house owners bring in the trays of ready prepped food for us to assemble any version of a full English (Welsh?) brekkie we so desire…. Yum yum
So it’s Saturday morning and although it looks like we had a rain shower in the night, it is now sunny out and we were looking at another scorcher of a day.
As usual, we split into 2 groups, the “progressive” group and the more “relaxed” group. Kev was going to take the relaxed ride north back up towards Bala, where they might meet up with Gabi, Victor and Emily who had made a decision on Saturday morning to come and join us.
My group of reprobates was made up of Tony, Pete, Budd, Mick & Lindsay. I have ridden with them all before and know they are good riders, so I know this group should flow well (unlike the year when Rossi joined us on his B12).
I had planned a variation of last years route, but because I needed to be back home Saturday evening (to make sure I caught an early morning flight to Zante for our family holiday) I wasnt going to lead the whole route. I left the bunkhouse with all my kit on the bike and was going to head east after about 180 miles letting Pete take over the lead for the last 60 or 70 miles.
We set off on the fast & flowing A44 from Rhayader towards Aberystwyth, but it now has huge sections that are marked as 50 limits :0…… so that was already spiking the risk assessment. It’s the weekend, its sunny and the Welsh are trying to reduce the speed and fun on the roads ….. a recipe for speed traps for sure.
Fortunately no white vans on the roadside and progress was achieved. A quick fill up and its off round the Devils bridge loop into Aberystwyth for more great roads and fantastic scenery.
We then do an out & back over the Black mountains on the A4069 heading south from Llangadog down towards Brynamman. It’s a cracking bit of road winding up and over open moorland, but like the Cat&Fiddle pass they have decided to spoil any fun and for the last couple of years it is marked as a 40 limit, but i have never seen any enforcement.
What was new this year is that they have fitted some average speed cameras, I think I counted 4……..but that count was after we turned round to come back and stopped for an ice cream at the top. It was then I realised that on the first pass through, I hadnt spotted the first of the ave speed camera poles (in my defence they are pretty small, and I was too busy paying attention to the sheep and cars), so the question now is, how much over a 40 average did I manage to do in that 1st section ??
I suspect i could have been 50% above, so now I am really really annoyed with myself for not paying enough attention and being such a Tw@t, and i think some of the other lads who were following are also not too sure that they weren’t the wrong side of 40 either.
So as we went over towards our lunch stop in Llandovery, I am shouting at myself in my helmet and riding like Mrs Daisy. By the time we stop for lunch I am still in a grumpy mood at the thoughts of waiting for that NIP letter, so I only have a mug of tea and steal one of Pete’s fags to console myself.
The rest of the ride starts to cheer me up as we go from Brecon up towards Builth on a great B road, then through Hundred House on the A481….. but every so often i remember the shadow of the NIP, and get grumpy again.
At the end of the A481 we hit the A44, and this is where I will checkout, so I hand over to Pete here and he will have to fill in the blanks on what they did next.
For me I was just going to take the most direct route and follow the A44 all the way to Worcester, then the A422 back to my house.
The trip home Was going well and there wasn’t too much traffic, so I got a good run through some of the twisty sections, untill about a mile the other side of the little village of Broadwas where I hit a que of stationary cars.
I filtered to the front of the Q, but it is properly closed with Fire engines, ambulances and police cars all over the road and the firemen hosing down the burnt out remains of a motorbike. :0. I killed my engine and talked to the couple in a convertible car at the front of the que, and they said that when they got here the bike was crashed and on fire, but there was no sign of the rider….infact the fire crews were going through the fields and hedges with thermal imaging equipment to try and find the rider!!!
- Road blocked
Its a bit out in the middle of nowhere and there wasn’t many obvious alternatives, so I headed back the way I came to see if I could find any roads heading off to the right (north).
I had spotted about 10 bikers in a lay-by when i first drove towards Broadwas, and now on my way back, they were still there, but i just wanted to get home so I waved and carried on, but it did occur to me that perhaps they had something to do with the burning bike.
I turned north off the main road and was now on single track C roads, then when i thought i had gone far enough north, I started to head east in the hope that i would get to Worcester…. Which i eventually managed, so i was back on track to get home.
About 10 miles from home there are some roadworks and when i was stopped at the red light a blue zx9r pulled up beside me with an Indian rider. I asked him if he got caught up with the bike accident / road closure, and he said that it was his mates bike that had crashed and burned, but that his mate was OK and had left on the back of one of the others…….. no wonder the firemen couldn’t find the rider! And yes he was one of the group of bikes in the lay-by, they were stopped working out what to do!!
By this time the lights had gone green so I couldn’t get any more information about why they left the scene, but was relieved that the rider was OK, as I had assumed the worst when I saw the fire crews searching the hedgerows….. that put my potential speeding ticket into perspective!
Sunday morning it was off to the airport for a week in Zante, but I was dreading getting home and finding the letter notifying me of a speeding prosecution……..wow, when I got home there wasnt one ….. but I still had the 2nd week to go, so I wasn’t in the clear yet.
The good news is it’s now been 2 1/2 weeks and still no letter, so I think that means we all got lucky.
Thank Feck! Sorry not so many pictures from today, but I will let the others post up the view from the black mountains ice cream stop.
Till next year…. Thanks to Kev and team for a great event.
AMcQ
Re: Op Storm Wales 2023 8th, 9th 10th September
What a follow up read Al, thanks for taking the time to post 
It sounds like you had a rather interesting and eventful time.
Chris.
It sounds like you had a rather interesting and eventful time.
Chris.
Re: Op Storm Wales 2023 8th, 9th 10th September
Great write up Al, hopefully you got away with that bloody camera issue 
Enjoy your trip to Spain
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Enjoy your trip to Spain
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Duffy1964
Yellow 1997 Storm R.I.P. Orange 2000 Streetfighter (Rufus), Red & Silver 1968 Triumph Trophy 650, Blue 2003 Storm Project, Red 2007 Montesa Cota Trials 250 & 1959 BSA D7 175cc Bantam Trials Project
Yellow 1997 Storm R.I.P. Orange 2000 Streetfighter (Rufus), Red & Silver 1968 Triumph Trophy 650, Blue 2003 Storm Project, Red 2007 Montesa Cota Trials 250 & 1959 BSA D7 175cc Bantam Trials Project
-
alanfjones1411
- Posts: 2793
- Joined: Thu May 21, 2015 3:33 pm
- Location: watford
Re: Op Storm Wales 2023 8th, 9th 10th September
Great write up Al.
SO WHEN DOES THIS OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER KICK IN
Re: Op Storm Wales 2023 8th, 9th 10th September
Here's the black mountains non ice cream stop view photos- it was a "cash only, don't tell the taxman or they'll stop all my benefits" seller, and I pack plastic.
So I had the slimming ice cream, i.e. none!
From up there, on a clear day, you could see all the way to the next speed camera.
So I had the slimming ice cream, i.e. none!
From up there, on a clear day, you could see all the way to the next speed camera.
It's not falling off, it's an upgrade opportunity.
Re: Op Storm Wales 2023 8th, 9th 10th September
Or may be the ice-cream sellers motto is the same as mine “use it or lose it” when it comes to cash.tony.mon wrote: ↑Thu Sep 28, 2023 2:32 pm Here's the black mountains non ice cream stop view photos- it was a "cash only, don't tell the taxman or they'll stop all my benefits" seller, and I pack plastic.
So I had the slimming ice cream, i.e. none!
From up there, on a clear day, you could see all the way to the next speed camera.
Great photos, thanks for posting
Chris.