Devon TRF Group Forum

Strata Florida was full of bikes and 4x4s, but not that much water this time thankfully, but on one crossing, Craig managed to stall right in the middle and it took us almost an hour to strip his bike down and get him going again.  No issues with fuel on the only 2T so we arrived at the garage at Beulah at about 3.00pm for a very late lunch and a fuel stop.  Memories of the remaining route had faded with time, so I set off as leader with the trusty Road Angel, through Garth, Built-Wells, New Bridge on Wye, Llanwrthl and back to Rhayader with a few more lanes on the way, getting back about 5pm.

After a shower we planned our route for the following day and we decided that in the morning we would settle up with the pub and pack everything in the vans and drive to Llandovery and set of from there as it was a little closer to home for the return trip after our ride.

That night we decided to go to the local curry house, bit of a wait for the food but a great curry and after a few glasses of red wine for me we headed back to the pub where again some had more than others.

In the morning, by the time we surfaced, the rain had already set in and the four riders from Plymouth decided to give it a miss and head home, that left myself, Lee, Andy, Greg and Craig, so said our goodbyes and as planned drove down to Llandovery and parked in the car park opposite the bikers café.  We had decided to try one of the routes sent to me by a fellow DTRF member (no names mentioned) so a new route for us, we only started off at about twelve, we got to the first lane and was met with a Welsh footpath sign and a locked gate.  Whilst we were looking at the Road Angel to cut route, three blokes came marching up the road telling us that we could not ride the lane as it was now a footpath, I explained that as it had a footpath sign and was locked that we would not have tried to ride it anyway, he explained that he had campaigned for the lane to be down graded to a footpath and that people had been lifting the gate off its hinges and still going through ( this guy spoke posh and was not welsh, another NIMBY in my opinion sorry for the generalisation) so off we went to find another lane.  We rode a few more lanes and opened plenty of gates, some of these lanes had new gates and new signage, but a lot had no signage at all and some where marked with the odd post across a field with a small byway sign on it and with plenty of gates. When you got to the end of a field I started to wish I had loaded a 1:25000 scale map so at least I would have been able to see field boundaries. Found a couple of others which had been down graded to footpaths and another one which had a chain on the gate, but still had a byway sign so we lifted it off its hinges and carried on through. Came across another section of the two day welsh enduro event, which is due to take place in a couple of weeks, in the middle of a forest track.  Carried on through the forest to another lane with a steady climb in the mist up to 412 metres.  Once at the top the view down the other side was frighteningly steep, luckily the lane followed the ridge along and went gently down the opposite side again, we then carried on to Cilycwn where we decided that as we were all soaked through by this time that we would call it a day and head back to Llandovery.

Trying to get changed and put the bikes in the vans was a challenge in itself with the rain hammering it down by now, then into the café for something to eat before the return trip home.

Lees van decided to shed its auxiliary belt halfway home so we limped back with side lights on and no radio to try and save battery life and all made it home by 9pm.

A great weekend despite the punctures and Sundays weather.  Thanks to everyone who sent me track logs b

Fantastic report as normal Russell, Great reading and great pictures. When I read your reports always make me feel like i'm there with you guys great stuff

Otterton Brook is "currently" in full flood.

Must be due to the drought conditions prevailing???

Martyn

A perfect day for fettling then 

Sorry Russell 

RichT4 wrote:

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Looks like you had a good first day Russell, and the rain held off - bonus.
Bad luck on the closed lanes - did you keep a record of which they were?

I've never seen the Strata look so low, there can't have been much rain up there for a long while.

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 Yep don't worry all closed lanes loged on my database (Bit of an anorack about recording lanes) and believe me there was plenty of rain on that Sunday

Hi Geoff don't try and make me feel sorry for you I'm still jealous, you must have seen some good racing. Hope your ready to hit the lanes when you get back?