Shaun of the Un-Dead: A rideout in Wales!

[Suzuki]

With the weather being so fantastic at the moment, it would have been criminal not to make the most of it. So yesterday, with Annabella and Shaun off for a rideout in Wales, I figured it was worth asking my boss (half joking) if I could go home at lunchtime. He said yes!!

So, finding Metal_Mikey at home putting some new crash bungs on his bike (the left one had fell off last weekend) I told him to get suited and booted too.

The 4 of us (Shaun, Annabella, Metal_Mikey and myself) were supposed to be meeting at the Bridgenorth Cafe at 2pm. Bella got there about 5 minutes late, with none of us to be seen.
Mike (Metal_Mickey) had gone via Tamworth to try and get some visor tear-offs, so was a bit late. Shaun got lost, as did I, and so all 3 of us were late. I also got followed by the Police helicopter... and so starts my 2 week wait to see if I get some prizes in the post for my excellent riding!

So, after a few drinks, some food, and a scan of the map, we head out towards Wales up the A458, past Shrewsbury, onto the A528. Shaun took a wrong turn, and we ended up in Whittington where we stopped for a beer, and watched the Police helicopter doing laps.
This gave us our first opportunity for taking the piss out of Shaun for sticking his knee out around corners that didn't even require you to lean the bike over!

After out little break, we headed up the A5 to Llangollen, where we turned off onto the Horseshoe Pass. My first time on that road, and I loved it! We stopped at the top to enjoy the view, and got waved at by some women in a car going past. Bella's used to women waving at her now though.

After the horseshoe pass we continued north to Denbigh, and then turned south down the B4501. On this road, Shaun and I went off ahead being naughty on the corners, and so started the more amusing part of the day (retrospectively of course).
We approach a sweeping right hand bend. From my position behind Shaun, I look across the bend to see a bike roll into the corner. I then look back at Shaun, who proceeds to smoothly roll his bike into the corner, cutting it short, and drifting into the oncomming lane. Before long it's a Shaun/Mille head-to-head. Shaun runs wide and continues riding unflustered. I nod to the Mille rider as he passes me rather gingerly. haha

Having had enough of following, I overtake Shaun and nail it down a straight. As I crest the brow of a hill, I'm faced with about 100 yards of road and then a right-angle left hander. So i nail the brakes, and at the exact same time go over a little bump in the road. The combination of which had me nearly leapfrog over the front of my bike, which would have effectively meant that I'd run myself over. haha. I didn't though, and all was fine.

We make it down to the A5, turn left, and stop at the first available pub for more beer, some food, and the inevitable bike chat.

We managed to coordinate our departure from the pub with a couple of other bikers that had arrived after us, and somehow ended up 6-abreast across the entrance to the carpark, completely blocking it from the road just as one of the barmaids arrived for her evening shift. She had to wait in the road for us all to pull out, before she could drive into the carpark.
As I passed her, I gave her a little wave, to which she responded with "F*ck off you tw*t" hahaha.

Back on the A5, we reached a set of traffic lights, with our side of the road coned off. The lights go green, and we start riding sensibly through the roadworks. Shaun at the front, then me, followed by Bella and Mike.
About halfway down, the cones split back into two lanes, with the right side (oncomming lane) marked with a NO-ENTRY sign, and a massive blue arrow pointing to the left lane.
Shaun goes straight on into the oncomming lane. I turn left, and watch Bella and Mike follow Shaun down the wrong side of the road.
Before long, Shaun is faced with an oncomming car. He then starts flashing his lights at them, and shaking his head. I'm wetting myself at this point trying to wave him onto our side of the road. Eventually his little mind works out what's going on, by which point I'm in a real mess from laughing. I'm just glad the helicopter wasn't with us!

We followed the A5 back to Llangollen, around that really nice tight right turn which Bella seems to think is called the Devil's Couldron? Anyway, I managed to get my knee down all the way round it, which somehow Shaun saw in his mirrors...

We turned off the A5 at Llangollen, and then turned right onto the A539 towards Ruabon. After a few miles we pass through Overton at the other side of which is a group of people standing in the middle of the road waving signs at us. I only had time to read a few, but the general message was "Paedo lives here... Child Molesterer lives here..." etc etc.

We continue down the A539, and reach the really twisty bit just before Penley. There's a particular right hand corner here, which starts off tight, and finishes up even tighter. Shaun nearly died on this corner before, and had to get his exhaust down to enable him to get his bike round the corner. You'd think he'd learn!!!
So, I'm behind Shaun and follow him into this corner. My first reaction is "whoa this is tight", and the knee goes straight down. Then the corner gets tighter... lift the knee up a bit, lean the bike a bit more.... the knee goes down again
All the time, Shaun is running wider and wider. Then all of a sudden, he somehow manages to get his bike up over the curb, whilst still leant over, and rides round the outside of the corner through the grass and bushes!!!
Amazingly, he managed to get his bike back onto the road in one piece and carry on riding.

After a second or two of contemplation, Shaun's near-miss turns into elation, and he starts punching the air in triumph. I then nearly crash from laughing, and am laughing so much I have tears rolling down my face. The next corner is taken a little slower than usual, and then Shaun's back to knee down!
I overtook him and pulled over, because I simply couldn't ride for laughing.
Shaun had a fag (they're everywhere in Wales), we chilled out, and then rode back a to Bella's house down the A41/A5 for coffee.

An absolutely excellent day of riding, with the perfect ending still to come... Bella's dad made the mistake of saying "Tonight, there will be the most incredible moon rise ever seen before in the history of moon rises!"
haha
And so, our moon-chasing mission began. We ran around Bella's street in our leathers, and were foiled in our moon-search by a plethora of trees and other moon-hiding things.
So we jumped on our bikes and rode up to the Braddy, which is on top of a hill, only to find the opposite the braddy is a massive wall of trees.
So, back down to the other end of the village, and we finally found a nice spot to sit and moon-watch.
And what a moon-rise it was!
As predicted... the most awe-inspiring moon rise in the history of all things moony.

Top day out!
____________________
<Simple> no I'm shaven Jon
<Simple> it is a big enough hole.. I'll leave it now
Ride: 1999 Suzuki GSXR600 (yellow/black) IRC: Stats - Relationship Map

[dransy]

lol!
least u had a good time eh
____________________
Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles

[paulthewitt]

nice story, very err, involving.

like the bit about shaun nearly crashing. had me giggling. glad you had fun

Paul

[Annabella]

I do believe that was the funniest ride I have ever had!


I spent most of it in a fit of giggles...
The cones incident had me laughing so mcuh I was nearly sick, then trying to stop myself being sick gave me hiccups (which is actually quite scary when going round corners).

Incidentally, the corner Shaun nearly died on I got halfway around, thought "no way", grabbed a fistful of brakes and stood the bike up and went round at about 8mph!

Whilst Shaun and Suzuki were busy comparing their rather feeble knee slider scuffs Mike and I were contenplating how one earth he had lost his left hand side bar end!!

So, last saturday it was his LHS crash bung, yesterday, the bar end
____________________
Avast! Pirates ahoy!
I did Cadwell!
www.bikepics.com/members/bella

[EuropeanNC30R...]

Cool write up!

I know some of those bends too, the one Bella calls the Devils Cauldron is that nicely shell-gripped hairpin I believe?

Also a mate lives in Penley so I used to go that way all the time, you wouldn't believe how many people crash on those tight downhill bends. My friend was in a car that rolled into the field one night, the farmer told them the next day he'd had to tow 8 cars out of his field that month!

[Suzuki]

[Annabella]

[Suzuki]

Oh, forgot to say, the mileage for the rideout, from the Bridgenorth Cafe, through Wales and back to Bella's was 180 miles.

My total mileage (adding on my rather elongated trip to Bridgenorth, and the ride home from Bella's) was 280 miles.


____________________
<Simple> no I'm shaven Jon
<Simple> it is a big enough hole.. I'll leave it now
Ride: 1999 Suzuki GSXR600 (yellow/black) IRC: Stats - Relationship Map

[EuropeanNC30R...]

[Fallen Angel]

Excellent write-up of the day Sounds like you all had a blast!
____________________
I have an asshole tolerance level of -10
www.cliqueyclanmcc.co.uk
www.bebo.com/fallenangelfran

[Gazdaman]

I fished my friend's GSX-r out of a hedge yesterday, the people who live there said they've had 26 bikes in 4 years.

Sounds like you had a great ride! And kudos for not crashing!

Gaz

[Suzuki]

And here's a map of our route. Click the image for a larger version:

https://www.jonpascoe.co.uk/images/sotud_small.jpg
____________________
<Simple> no I'm shaven Jon
<Simple> it is a big enough hole.. I'll leave it now
Ride: 1999 Suzuki GSXR600 (yellow/black) IRC: Stats - Relationship Map

[Suzuki]

And another map with a "legend"

https://www.jonpascoe.co.uk/images/sotud_bits.jpg
____________________
<Simple> no I'm shaven Jon
<Simple> it is a big enough hole.. I'll leave it now
Ride: 1999 Suzuki GSXR600 (yellow/black) IRC: Stats - Relationship Map

[Fallen Angel]

[Shaun]

Well bassically theres loads of really nice bends before that nasty one, so I went through those relatively quick then saw the sharp one and thought "up yours your not beating me again" so I knocked it down a gear, rolled off then went for it. My knee went down, then out of the corner of my eye I realised that my front wheel was heading straight for the kerb and it was too late to do anything about it, out of pure luck I somehow managed to very smoothly mount the kerb and end up running round the outside of the road half in the bush. I'm guessing I must've picked the bike up straight at the perfect time as I made contact with the kerb which just took me up it rather than flinging me into a bush, which is nice. I then realised that I wasn't on my arse or upside down and just noticed the kerb slope back down to road level just ahead so I got back onto the road, jobs a good 'un.

Whats strange is it didn't shit me up at all, once I realised I wasn't on my arse and found the road again I got myself composed after punching air and carried on playing, Jon wanted to stop though.

I will be going back to that corner, I aren't letting it beat me that easily.

[Shaun]

Just remembered the only gay in the village!

He looked so much like the guy off little britain and was quite obviously gay, although he was working behind the bar and not just a customer, oh how we giggled.

I read a couple of those protestors signs and one of them said something along the lines of beep if you support us, NO we're beeping for you to get out the fucking road!

Overall despite my er, incidents I bloody enjoyed yesterday, haven't laughed so much whilst riding before, think I'll leave it until I've done cadwell before I go back, hopefully I would've calmed down by then.

I don't know why you mentioned the Mille though, I had loads of room to move out of his way and all it needed was a simple bit of throttle work and a bit less lean, no problem.

As for the road works those cones weren't signed clearly enough, maybe if it was just me who took the wrong exit but 3 of us did so.