Welsh Rideout 2012

I've been thinking about putting up a thread about a rideout next year since Rosco put up the Mac rideout.

Hehore is organising one for July so I won't do it then and I'm already doing it in April, which is why I can't do the Mac run so was thinking June or August. I'm just waiting for the date of our annual rideout on the other forum to be published but that is normally July or early august so I'll not be doing it on whatever weekend that's on, but should find out in the next couple of days.

It's a cracking ride and I'd love to share it with you guys. It's not my ride, I can't take credit, it's a fallen friends.

It was our annual rideout on another forum last year, the route was initially done for about 10-15 bikes and the stops were in laybys but it got amended for the larger group (over 100 for the annual ride).

We started from the campsite which was near Hay-on-Wye on the English / Welsh border (top right corner of the Brecons National Park).

This was the campsite, chosen as me and my girlfriend were here for a LandRover weekend and thought it'd be a perfect location for our yearly get together, there is a campsite, place for campers, rooms, bunkers and there are two bars on site, the hotel bar and then the nightclub. Because it's in the sticks there are actually coaches that bring people in for the night club but it's quiet enough in the rooms and the camping areas not to be affected by it so you can be in the bar, the club or at your tent with your mates.

Here's the location, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] but there are plenty of other campsites nearby so always options

The ride was split in to 5 sections.

The first section is 31 miles:
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Set off from Hay on Wye
Go south through Talgarth and Crickhowell, then off through a 'mountain pass' and down in to Ebbw Vale for the first stop
The stop is a Tesco's with a petrol station (incase you have a 1 litre twin )

The second section is 49 miles:
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Set off from Ebbw Vale, head east to Gilwern and go north back to Crickhowell and join the A40 and go west on that until Brecon
Go south on A470 and then on to A4059 (called Thousand sheep road)
From the end of there go in to Aberdare and have another stop at the big Tesco there, again there is a petrol station (incase you have a 1 litre twin ) and a McDonalds

The third section is 34 miles:
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Set off north and back up the A4059 and A470 then take a left on A4215 towards and through Sennybridge, back on to the A40 and in to Llandovery, nice and straight forward but good roads.
This is the third stop, Llandovery has 'The West End Cafe' which is a biker stop and we will park in the castle ruins car park for a while

The fourth section is only 24 miles (a nice way to start the wind down):
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This is a straight forward go north east from Llandovery straight in to Builth where we stop at the river side, excellent photo ops here, very pretty but can be a really good section of fast road riding if you are that way inclined.

The fifth and final section is 20 miles:
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South down the A470, towards Llswen and take a left on to A4079 and then left on to A438, for a final blat on some cracking long wide open corners before returning to campsite



So what do you think? You fancy it? The weekend dates can be finalised when we narrow down the month

sounds like a rather good plan , see what monies i have

I've actually stayed in one of the dorms at Baskerville hall for a hen party, and it's a great venue, it was full of pissed stag and hen do's when I went and there is a night club on site. It's picturesque and they have varying sized dorms aswell as private rooms and they also cater for what meals you require, the only down side is that there's no other pub or restaurant nearby.

June would be a bit close to Bishops Castle rideout for me personally but looks a good route.

Sounds great Dan.

Euan is missing you so he might bully me into paying a visit for this.
As always picking a date to suit everyone is impossible.
Bishops Castle is late May and in the same general area so if it must be June then it should be as late in June as possible I guess.

Big Mac or Big Mick I should say hasn't been finalised yet but it is likely to be late July or early-mid August.

Having said that whoever is finalised first should just post up and then other rides just have to fit around it.

I'll speak to Euan and then think about voting.

Cheers
Rosco

You'll love it.

Hay-on-Wye is 1.5 miles from the site but there is a supermarket there and some pubs and a place for bacon butties. We just bought beers from there and brought them back to the site or drank in the bar on the Friday and on the Saturday just went between the tents and the night club, if your quick/cheeky enough you can get some time on the poles on the stage

; )

Get thee down here and bring Euan. I'll probably come in the land Rover with the breadknife and the dogs and the bike on a trailer, and bring the party tent

; )

Here's some pics from the annual ride we had, I'm the chappy in the Orange bib with the FireBlade

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I personally think June may be a bit close to Bishops Castle which is obviously a welsh rideout also, and the route hasnt been sorted yet but the organisers have briefly discussed to maybe head to that area so we don't cover old ground.

I'd love to see Big Mick be well supported as its something new, and I know first hand how hard these rideouts are to organise!!

I would really struggle to afford the time/money to do two welsh rideouts in 1 month.

I work shifts and need to request weekends off so hats off to everyone getting it sorted early chaps.

Cool, could push it back to September if needed.

Just trying to gauge interest at the moment and a rough month so all comments are welcomed.

stretchie_ wrote:Cool, could push it back to September if needed.

Just trying to gauge interest at the moment and a rough month so all comments are welcomed.

September normally has ToL in early September and Surf&Turf in late September.
Hopefully find a suitable date somewhere in 2012 ........ but you can't please all the people all the time.

Cheers
Rosco

I'm not bothered, I'm already doing it in April

Right well I've just had two dates confirmed.


This run is being done on Saturday 12 May with the SV650 forum.


We (the ball and chain and I) like to make a long weekend of it, which means we'll be heading there on Thursday night or Friday morning and leaving maybe Sunday evening or Monday morning.

My Annual Ride with the same forum is the weekend of 8th - 11 June in Essex so I deffo cannot do that weekend.

So you are more than welcome to come along to this on the May dates if you so wish, there will be other biking attendees so it will be a nice merry group.

Or I can still arrange another go at another time in the year for the Thundercat lot?

I would be up for it, but it needs to be away from the BC4 run.

I ride in Wales a fair bit, great roads everywhere

Come along on BC4 if you arn't already, it is a cracking event.

I'd be interested in coming along for this if possible, I still havent been on any rideouts. I've got a fireblade now although Im pretty slow on it still, I'll tag along at the back! My mate is keen to do a few rideouts as well so I think she'd def be up for it. She's alot quicker than me!

I had forgotten about this, we've been having a problem with the location for the orginal weekends. Might just do it as a locals / low key event but will be just as good.

P.S. Hi Alex, it would be good to meet you mate

Might say yes to that be nice to meet some of u considering its basicly on my door step looking foward to getting some dates for this

owen.dyer146 wrote:Might say yes to that be nice to meet some of u considering its basicly on my door step looking foward to getting some dates for this

just relised that a date has been set

Update, this won't be happening now
: (

But still happy to go vet and do most of it with some of you sometime. I love the roads over there

Well you could always put your names down for BC!!

Ohhh well never mind if anyones meeting up around the same time in the south wales area post it up would be more than happy to go out for a blast

I am definitley planning on getting more miles in this year and love the roads in that part of Wales, last year was commuting only apart from three rideouts, one of which was the bikesafe day at Castle Combe so that doesn't count as it's only a couple of miles away from where I live