Trev's Motorcyle Travels

I swore I wouldn't get RBR fever this year. However, after my Land's End to John o'Groats run I found that I was only a few hundred points off an RBR platinum award so I decided a visit to the Welsh outlier RBR landmarks was in order. To reduce my anxiety about catching RBR fever I decided to justify the trip by combining my visits to RBR landmarks with a previously planned but unfulfilled tour of Ceredigion.

Two of the RBR landmarks I was visiting were on Anglesey and the Llŷn Peninsula so I ended up doing the west side of Ceredigion going north to these landmarks and the east side of Ceredigion when returning south. The tour around Ceredigion itself is around 200 miles but the round trip from home which included the RBR landmarks was around 900 miles. I pre-booked accommodation at Aberporth, Holyhead and LLandovery for the three nights I planned to be away, Monday 15th to Thursday 18th of July. I took the Blackbird which I was a bit nervous about as it was proving to be unreliable due to electrical problems. It had run faultlessly for 2,500 miles since I replaced the rectifier/regulator, stator and battery so I figured it was time to put it to the test on a longish ride.

Monday and Tuesday were lovely days, a tad too hot for me truth be told. I travelled north through Ceredigion on Tuesday visiting coastal landmarks to start with before turning inland a bit to the visit the road sculptures and the Myndd Bach. Then it was beck to the coast to PD's Diner at Aberystwyth for an ice cream and Ynyslas nature reserve. After Ceredigion I headed north to Dalgellau and took the coast road through Barmouth and Harlech to my RBR landmarks.

On Wednesday the clouds came over and it rained sporadically but it stayed warm so it wasn't too bad a day. I got away from the Holyhead Premier Inn nice and early and after leaving Anglesey headed south through Snowdonia to do the east side of Ceredigion. I made a mistake after Bwlch Nant yr Arian and ended up visiting Devil's Bridge, Nay y Moch Reservoir and Rheidol Power Station in the wrong order which resulted in a few extra miles. After that I kept to the plan all the way to my last stop, the Derry Ormond Tower. (You'll see from the photo that I visited Newcastle Emlyn previously on my Varadero.) The highlight for me was the road from Tregaron to the Jubilee Plantation. I had ridden it before. It's a tricky single track road that requires a lot of concentration but the views are great.

My stop for Wednesday night was a farm B&B just outside Llandovery. Dinner was steak pie and chips at the West End Cafe at Llandovery. Lovely! On Thursday morning I made my way home very pleased with how the Blackbird had performed. 25 miles from home the charge light came on! The electrics were playing up again after 3,500 miles of trouble free riding. I was gutted but at least I got to do my ride and it got me home. I'm glad it didn't pack up at some of the remoter spots I had been to. Unfortunately stators are now one of its consumables just like brake pads and tyres. A real shame as the bike is a real joy to ride. I'll have to get it going again. It didn't deter much from what was a great ride around Wales (and I've got two other bikes to fall back on).

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