Hell of a journey

[EuropeanNC30R...]

I had one hell of a journey home riding back from uni today.

There's a decent selection of routes going from Bristol to Wrexham. Seeing as it was a brilliant sunny day I opted to go through Mid-Wales, going via Abergavenney, Builth Wells and Newtown. I'd gone that way once before, only at night in heavy rain so I didn't really know the road.

The VFR had a known dodgy alternator, the battery would run out of charge if the lights were on while the bike was on the move, but if you turned off the headlights it was OK. I needed to get the bike home and had breakdown cover so I had nothing to lose by trying, although I was fairly confident I'd be alright if I got home before dark.

Filled up, left Bristol, crossed the M48 bridge with everything running smoothly.

50 odd miles later in Abergavenny whilst making my way through town, I flashed an incoming car to let it turn in. The engine died, oops! A little concerned, the bike bumped easily and I was off on my way again experiencing no ill effects.

A few miles later, getting a fair lick on through the corners, I came up on a white mondeo with 3 occupants. Unable to get past in the twisties, I noticed the cars bumper sticker displaying 'Powys Police Driver Training'. At this point I also realised the instructor was twisted round in his seat staring at me .

I gave it a few miles, but they were actually quite slow and taking poor lines around the corners. I took advantage of us exiting a slow corner onto a straight and blasted past trying not to get too far over the limit as I did so. Half expected some trouble but non came and I was able to leave the car behind in the next set of bends.

Arriving in Llandrindod Wells, I became quite concerned when as I flicked my indicator on to turn right on the roundabout, the power delivery went into on-off-on-off in time with the indicator flashing . Not looking good. Conveniently in town a lady walked used the zebra crossing. Not usually a problem, but my use of the brake light caused the engine to cut out again. Quickly pulled in the clutch and performed a rolling bump start, the power was back and I was ok to continue. I've now just got to do 70 odd mile without stopping . A fairly hard task considering I was going to need a petrol stop.

Leaving town, the bike now also had taken a trait of misfiring badly if the throttle was opened too fast. Everything had to be smooth, I couldn't brake and I couldn't stop. I was also just starting the interesting bit of the a483, probably the twistiest most technical road in the whole of Wales.

Still able to overtake normal traffic, albeit at a reduced rate, I was making decent progress just using engine braking and using lots of concentration. It was mentally very hard, I've ridden Silverstone GP, Brands Indy and the Nurburgring, but the concentration levels needed were nothing compared to this.

Then it happened. As the bike ran onto reserve, I switched the fuel tap over and the revs never recovered. I was flat out at 31mph in first. Gradually all the traffic I'd passed re-caught me up, and in true restricted 50cc-style, in humiliating fashion every one of them re-overtook me During this, a green sportscar flashed by in the other direction.

Some 7 miles later, the bike completely died and came to rest in a layby opposite a nice house, overlooking the river. Bump starting had no effect. As I was preparing to call on the Rac, the green sportscar pulled up and began chatting to people from the house. The driver made some wise crack about running over my lid, and with a missing sense of humour my reply wasn't positive. The driver then asked me why I was there and after having explained he offered me a drink.

Turned out it was his house. After having given me an exact location and the Rac were on their way (I made sure they sent a recovery vehicle rather than the normal useless van) the bloke stayed outside as we chatted for around an hour and a half. He turned out to be a really interesting person.

A biker himself, owning a VL1400 and gas gas 250 trials bike, his occupation was an Aerospace Engineer specialising in airships. He played a big part in the design and manufacture of Richard Bransons record attempts. Also was involved with Carbon bike wheels, hawk jets and had even been inside Nasa. While there 10 years ago, he was demonstrated the thrust onto his hand of an Ion thrust engine, pretty interesting stuff. The sportscar was fairly interesting too, some sort of Ginetta fitted with a Rover V8, giving it a 5 second 0-60 time and 14 second quarter mile, only a few tenths off the VFR.

Eventually after another coffee the recovery truck arrived. There was some initial amusement as the driver knew the house, the previous year he'd had to winch a brand new Ford Ka out of their duck pond after the driver had straightlined it on the corner . Another top chap, he drove me the 50 miles home telling me stories of the crashed cars he'd had to recover. The hardest one being a Landrover that'd been crashed and rolled into someones house.

Eventually we got to my house at 8pm, me having left Bristol at 2.
A hard day made good by kind people.

[carlnicholson...]

Bugger at the bike dying, but cool at meeting that guy! I wouldn't mind his job myself, but that's another story!

Have you got a new generator lined up for the bike yet? Are they readily available?

Good luck getting it sorted
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"THOSE WHO RISK NOTHING, DO NOTHING, ACHIEVE NOTHING, BECOME NOTHING."

[EuropeanNC30R...]

Yeah, sort of already got one lined up for £20 I think, so no major expenditure

That battery has taken some abuse today though

[carlnicholson...]

May well be worth getting it on an optimate, see if you can save it!
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"THOSE WHO RISK NOTHING, DO NOTHING, ACHIEVE NOTHING, BECOME NOTHING."

[EuropeanNC30R...]

Wacked oxfords version on, the 'oximiser', as soon as the bike entered the garage

[Annabella]

Good write up


If only your bike had been working that is a lovely route. I used to enjoy riding up fom Cardiff through the valleys.
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[Jack_Cheese]

That must have been like playing fuel light bingo - you know you're going to be forced to stop - you just don't know when.

I Can imagine the exhaust note changing whilst you were indicating, very amusing lol

Jack
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[EuropeanNC30R...]

Thanks, I had a rather good view of the rest of the a483 from the recovery van. Loads of gorgeous 90 degree corners . I'll be going back that way.

[map]

Interesting story

At least you got practice riding smooth

Some of the advanced courses actually teach not using the brakes. It's to check your gear change and throttle control through the bends.
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...and the whirlwind is in the thorn trees, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks...
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[ginguar]

Bit off topic here but we are going touring around that area in July. Is there anywhere around there that we really have to see? My boyfriend wants to find a twisty road that goes through a valley as far as the eye can see and I am looking for stunning views. Any suggestions?

[McGee]

Well it wasnt that bad.

How much will it cost to fix the bike ?
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[BlackSheep]