Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Boys And Their Toys

(Written by Neil)

(With Mike away catching Moby dick it falls to yours truly to log the inaugural flight of Staffordshire’s newest stealth machine. In literary terms I am to the Beano what Mike is to the Guardian and I’m certainly no Lord Lichfield..... but here goes…)

The jungle drums have been beating for a while and the whispers slowly getting louder but finally the vision has appeared, and what a vision.





It’s common knowledge that we boys have to have our toys and it must be said that on this occasion Dean has excelled himself. On a sunny Sunday sat outside my house with Gaz drooling like a dog over a bone, it became obvious that the new kid on the block had grabbed his attention. So in time honored tradition Dean handed over the keys for the main man to give us the low down.

Have you ever experienced that energy that radiates from someone who has just got off their first REAL BIG roller coaster…. Well that was Gaz on his return, wearing Garfield’s smile from ear to ear he proceeded to enlighten us to just how cool this particular tool was. Ok initial findings aside it was time to head out to the hills.


With this being Nicola’s first experience of riding pillion , “steady away” was the initial order of the day as we chartered a route down to Cosford airport before hanging a right to Whitchurch exposing us to some “for 5miles” roads (Sorry local joke there….read Smiles not 5 miles) then into Llangollen and the horseshoe pass.

A short coffee break at the Ponderosa café at the top of the pass followed by a gawp at the other kids toys …………..






......before declaring I fancied seeing the sea……. So the trip extends a little as we head off via, Corwen, Bala, Trawsfynydd and over to Porthmadog. Beautiful scenery and sweeping dry roads it truly is possible to gain a two dimensional equivalent of flying on days like this. Reaching Porthmadog the road runs parallel to the Ffestiniog rail line and finishes at the harbour itself.





Its knocking on a bit now and having satisfied the munchies with some local hospitality its time to get back, with the sky turning ever darker and our resident optimist declaring we can get passed Capel Curig before it “persists with rain” we head north across the rail line and are rewarded with a close encounter of the steam kind (sorry folks missed that picture), then on into Bedgelert, a small village with an interesting tale relating to the young princes dog. http://www.data-wales.co.uk/beddgelert.htm
Onwards into Snowdonia and past the Eastern side of Snowdon itself. There are many beautiful places in this world but you gotta go some to beat this region.



Heads down now and rattle along to the A5 (Memories of previous Dragon Rally trips over on the right. That should have Loz shivering at the thought, February on Snowdon…… go on Baldrick any more bright idea’s)
.

Retrace our route from Llangollen to home stopping to allow Nicola to get blood back to anything south of her knee caps. Well done for hanging in there, turned out to be a baptism of fire but she was still smiling. So an hour later we wave Dean and Nicola off and in keeping with the Jangle rules round off with a late one at the Pub.

Final Shot must go to the happy couple, Hope your toys bring you lots of pleasure.


22 comments:

Ali said...

Love the Ducati.

Mike said...

Fantastic write-up Neil. It's quite nice for a change sitting back and reading someone else's stuff.

Anonymous said...

Ali, Duke was tidy, chap had spent a small fortune in bolt ons.but it all blended together well.


Mike, hope I got picture sizing right, spent longer on that than the text.

Ali said...

Neil, it makes so much more sense than it did when I visited first thing today. In fact (and don't mention this to Mike, he's awful touchy about his, I mean your blog) I think you did a first rate job, and you should be the resident writer!

One small request though, leave the photos to Mike eh?

Anonymous said...

Thanks Ali.

There is some work in progress at the moment. that most the guys have an inclin about but its going to take a while to put together.

Who knows with a bit of gentle persuasion we may even get input from other corners !!! (No hint there then.)

Can only appologies about the pictures, had camera on ISO 1600 from previous trip so will leave the artistic element to Mike.

Anonymous said...

Great write up matey, Dragon Rally !!!!!!!! lager for breakfast and whiskey for supper oh the good old days

Elaine Denning said...

Really enjoyed this! Well done.

As for your literary ability...um...I think you're giving Mike a run for his money!

Anonymous said...

Hey what about the cardboard matress.... Pair of bikey pikeys !!

Ali said...

I see.. the old "left my camera on the wrong setting" excuse huh??? lol.

Mike said...

Oh good. Does this mean I'm sacked? :)

Anonymous said...

Excellent write up, I`ll say just as good as mike not better. Like you say though neil I`ve got to clap my hands to my Mrs after 283.6miles from nicolas place and back on the back of an R1 when it was the first ever journey on a motorcycle, and still says she can`t wait to get back on.

Ali said...

I take my hat off to Nicola, nearly 300 miles and still not put off... that's a life-long biker chick if ever I saw one!!

Mike said...

Yeah but I bet she was walking a bit John Wayne style the following morning!

Anonymous said...

Ali...Ok so camera setting is as lame as it gets,I considered using the old wrong rating on the film excuse but sure Mike would have stepped in with....."its a digital camera". :-)


Mike...Sacked !!! your hoping. Every apprentice needs a soucerer , so keep working your magic. Not so sure about John Wayne, when we got to Llangollen, for the second time, it was more like Bambi on ice.


Dean...The fine art of diplomacy ,I love it, maybe I can get you off the fence with my next masterpiece (Watch this space).
Good to hear Nicola's up for another Rip out, be a gent and offer her a jumper next time !!,have you cleared the magical 500 mile mark yet?
Good day out, smiles all round.

Anonymous said...

Ooops Sorry Miss U ..... Thanks for that, glad you liked it. Not quite ready to go head to head or pen to Quill with Mike but its fun learning from him.

Mustang said...

sounds like a good ride.. excellent pictures, but some of them are really grainy..
thats a AJS right, among the other super bikes?

ride safe
D

Mike said...

Mustang - It's a BSA as far as I'm aware.

Anonymous said...

Your spot on Mike. Its a BSA Lightning, and a nice one at that.

Anonymous said...

I`m now on something like 480-490miles neil. I`ve got to go to work and back today putting it just over the 500 mark I should imagine, then I`m away for a week with Nicola and kids, come back on Sunday 26th August, give it a good going over on Monday 27th and book it in for its 600mile oil and filter and check over service. She`s running well so far though except the fact that it can`t hold a numberplate in place due to the vibration from those cans under the pillion seat which nicola said she could feel slightly when I back off the throttle if anyone is considering having one of these R1`s and has a pillion passenger. Nicola also said she could feel the heat from the cans through the pillion area but not badly and found it ten times more comfortable then ever expected, but please consider the fact that nicola has not been on a motorcycle before and does not have anything to consider this ride to except my $*%?

Momentary Madness said...

Very nice places and bikes. Keep on rollin'.
Y;-) Paddy

mrsnesbitt said...

Boys and their toys eh? LOL! Our village has a 30mph speed limit. It is a farming community etc etc. Jon always lowers his speed when we come home but there are a few bikers who literally race through. One guy makes a point of reving up outside our house...doesn't go down well with Jon. Anyhow...yesterday Jon was working on the garage roof when a couple of bikes nailed it through our village...speed well over 50mph. I was working in the house and heard the screech of speed above the noise of the electric sander I was using at the time. Well next thing Jon runs into kitchen & grabs keys......He too had heard & watched these 2 bikes.....then he heard one of them rev up more as they approached the bend, then an almighty crash! Guy had dropped his bike! He was OK, but Jon went out in pick up to see if he was OK! Just goes to show...never do anything daft on your bike, in front of bikers...cos if it goes wrong you look a plonker!

LOL!

Mike said...

Paddy - We'll try too. If you've got any nice weather over in Finland is there any chance you can send a bit over? :)

Mrs Nesbitt - it's a horrible site seeing a bike on its side.... and crashing does sort of make you look a bit uncool.