Wales on t'Trike

Ride-outs & Events Ride Reports
1

Had to take the trike over to it’s birthplace in Caerphilly on Friday. First let me say big up Larry Webb at PDQ for unbooked work on Thursday (new clutch again hehe) and Friday morning (fixing a cooling problem), I got to Trike Design at around 3pm on Friday, and am grateful that they could do some on-the-spot repairs too.

Imagine, then, leaving Caerphilly at 5:30pm and having a room booked in Porthmadog “just up the road”… well, so I thought. It’s actually about 130 miles “just up the road”. And then the Garmin took charge and directed me… lawks.

It took me to Merthyr - Brecon - Builth Wells - Rhayader and on, up through Dolgellau in its own inimitable “shortest route” style. Which is how I discovered the B4520, which is a sort of tarmac rollercoaster with, possibly, at least one loop-de-loop, the Garmin having decided that the A470 was a bit mundane and that I needed a treat. I definitely took off over one blind summit only to find the road jinking away and down to the right on the other side, a little puzzle to be solved in milliseconds. As a bonus, at that time of a Friday evening THERE IS NO TRAFFIC AT ALL :w00t::w00t: which is probably why I’m still alive if you know what I mean. 5 star road, that one. The last 25 miles of A470 to Porthmadog were so easy, long fast sweeping curves were about as much as I could handle by then. The whole trip from Caerphilly was the best I’ve ever taken by trike, by far. Excellent.

Spent yesterday hacking around Snowdonia, chasing small steam trains and mooching in Porthmadog, then came home today via A470 to Newtown, then A483 to A44 junction (great twisty road, hope the rider of the Rizla Suzuki stacked on a corner survived, rather a lot of heddlu and ambulancy stuff around that), A44 to Leominster, A49 to Hereford, B4224/B4221/B4215 to Gloucester, then an amble round the Chilterns before Bicester and the A41 home. Fabulous trip, first time I’ve done Wales on the trike, I’ll be going back (if they’ll take my money again).

I’m knackered, big grin. :smiley:

Jestream, don’t ask me how I can do this but I can’t organise a ride-out to Sussex… it’s a perennial mystery.

2

Sounds like you had a blast! Great part of the world to zoom around in - surprised you didn’t bump into Mark & Ang, that’s their favourite playground:D

3

I did wave to you on the lane going to PDQ
me and Ang have been in north wales all weekend and could have met up with you for some mountain passes :smiley:

4

Yikes, sorry Mark if I didn’t respond, had a head full of worries about the trike. It’s a wayward beast.

Heh, wasn’t the weather brilliant? Pity our paths didn’t cross up there, would have been a hoot. The roads are all in brilliant nick, too, as if they’ve never heard of a pothole.

Only regrets I have for the weekend is a collision with a low-flying swift at about 70, right on the helmet, hope I killed it in one poor thing, and not following through on a frisson with a petite and buxom honey by the Porthmadog Shell lol (omg my eyeballs nearly popped out… surely I’m too old and decrepit for this? Yes is the correct answer).