29th April rideout into Midwales, Shropshire and Herefordshire

Good rideout today making the best of the weather. Decided to show Gilo the delights of the Lower Chapel / Upper chapel road from Brecon for nice breccie to be had in Crossgates. Met stix and his maye in brecon and headed off. Nice twisty roads no coppers but a few sheep running out in front of us due to the thundering twins scaring the living daylights out of them.

After breccie headed off up the lovely road to Newtown. What an awesome road. Gilo headed off and managed to get past a few cars while I followed and for stuck behind it seems most of them. Twists and turns galore and we headed off roasted craven arms and Ludlow. Gilo leads the way and waits for us just before Ludlow. As we pass him parked on the side of the road headed off down the Ludlow bypass onto Leominster. Not a huge distance but looking in my mirrors no sight nor sound of gilo so stopped off had a good chat to Stix and roly in the Layby where we'd parked to wait for him. 10 mins pass and he can't be that far behind so text sent saying where are you. "lost in ludlow" came the reply. Passed on where we were waiting and 10 mins later here he comes thundering down the road mivv pipes breathing fire as he pulls into the Layby.

After shirt discussion we decide we might need petrol by Abergavenny so gilo says he's not going to call in for a cuppa as he's gonna head straight back to Bristol after filling up. Anyway off we go and gilo heads out leading the pack. I decided I just wanted a chilled out ride back through Hereford and onto Aber. Well as chilled out as we can be . Anyway Stix roly and me head into aber at half two. 6 hours of riding big grin on the face and awesome roads with Gilo probably already in Bristol.

Maybe not though. 45 mins later message of gilo saying he'd gone the wrong way and had ended up taking a little detour. Still he'd done extra nice roads and we all had weather we can only dream about every time we go out. Bring it on. Cheers guys really enjoyed my day.

Hey yeah I did use the iPhone. Awful spelling and it makes up words for u. Good piece of kit but not as good as the laptop for typing. My mother would be ashamed of that seeing as she used to be a teacher. I think I'll post next time written with iPhone then you lot can kinda read it like using a sat nav. Use a bit of common sense when looking at it and don't follow everything to the letter.

Anyway posting from iPhone again so here goes.

That bus overtake was a bit of a **** overtake but not quite as dangerous as it looked. I'd committed then just wound the throttle open when I saw the car coming. Had to stop straight away then as gilo was parked on the side. Bus driver prob thought what a knob as I'd have done if another biker had done that to me.

Bit like you I think what if someone is riding like me coming the other way which is why I hold back sometimes. As for roly he might be a bit slower in the corners than me but he doesn't hold back on overtakes. When I followed him hebrokeinto corners I wouldn't have braked going into and ended up with me catching up with him and braking a bit as well but nothing too worrying. He's a good enough rider and none of us are Rossi. Maybe he thinks too much about what others are thinking about his riding behind him hencetge reason he called me on. If I'd wanted to get past him though I'd have overtaken and am happy enough sitting back and taking it easy. Sometimes when ure haring along u miss such great countryside.

Well that is if u can see it through the flies. Godammit I hit a few big uns today. Like fecking missiles they are and bloody hurt. Got a massive stone chucked up following roly which hit me well and truly on the visor or helmet. Must check that tomorrow as it made heck of a rattle.

My bike still looks pretty clean all over apart from rear wheel splattered with oil and flys on the front. There were absolutely loads of flys werent there.

Have to say I think I'll be giving the Llandovery road a miss now as much prefer that route we did today. That crossgates to Newtown road must have been designed with bikes in mind. Nicest road by far around these parts and the tarmac was smoothe as a babies bum.

Still not checked my helmet for that stone hit yet. roly might be owing me a new one lol

I've still not looked at mine. Seemed to have quite a few bugs on the visor at Ludlow but might get rid of that visor and get a pinlock in my original one instead. Those iridiums scratchlike ****