Wet, wet, wet... that's the best description of this day!! 3 x KTM's upside down draining water from the cylinder, one lad riding with a torn shoulder, one had not long recovered from a triple heart bypass, me with sciatica... what a bunch of old farts... Lucy was the only little flower in the bunch!! :-) & we nearly broke her & her new bike over the day... oops... :-)
Lucy & I headed south on Monday to get to Llanerchindda Farm near Llandovery in Mid Wales, a great little spot with loads of knowledge about the plentiful local lanes & very near to both the Strata Florida & the Sarn Helen, (two of the longer classic Welsh green lanes),. A 5 hour easy drive got us there in the early evening, we checked in & got to drinking beer fairly quickly...
Lucy got chatting to a few fellas, who had been staying at the farm for a few days, fishing for info & we got an invite to tag along with them the following day to ride the Strata Florida, a no brainer for us really as they had all ridden it a few times before & were all really nice guys from the South Midlands.
So we all kitted up in the morning, one bike had a new chain fitted in about 20 mins, no chain splitter handy, so a pair of pliers, several thumps, the odd swear word or two & we were off...
A bit of road riding took us to the start, an nice introduction of firm stony lane with some good puddles led us into the first river crossing... a tricky little number that has a rock step down into a deep pool, then with a spinning back wheel you lurch across to the other side trying hard not to fall in... Lucy didn't quite manage the latter part of that equation!! hee hee
Lucy's bike turned out to have water in the airbox which was getting sucked into the carbs every now & then plus we changed the spark plug as a precaution & the other KTM, Neils bike, had new rubber & some Moose put into the tyres to stop punctures for the future... I've not tried this so maybe worth a look sometime...
From here we took some lovely little lanes & the road back to Llanerchindda farm including a great little forest section with some rocky steps & puddles galore....
We were all soaked but what a great day, we were really lucky to have met the guys, Chris, Neil, Carl & the Bald One, (We never did actually find out his name!!) hey ho, some cool people, a great place to stay & above all some superb riding!!
It has to be mentioned in the foot notes just to keep the records straight you know... the trusty DR & the Husaberg 450 were the only bikes to have no problems on our day out... I'm sure this will change but have I found the modern replacement for my lovely DR??? mmm time will tell, no hurry yet awhile though!
The Husaberg 250 FE...
 |
| Chris, Carl, Neil & the bald one!! We never found out his name :-) |
Lucy & I headed south on Monday to get to Llanerchindda Farm near Llandovery in Mid Wales, a great little spot with loads of knowledge about the plentiful local lanes & very near to both the Strata Florida & the Sarn Helen, (two of the longer classic Welsh green lanes),. A 5 hour easy drive got us there in the early evening, we checked in & got to drinking beer fairly quickly...
Lucy got chatting to a few fellas, who had been staying at the farm for a few days, fishing for info & we got an invite to tag along with them the following day to ride the Strata Florida, a no brainer for us really as they had all ridden it a few times before & were all really nice guys from the South Midlands.
So we all kitted up in the morning, one bike had a new chain fitted in about 20 mins, no chain splitter handy, so a pair of pliers, several thumps, the odd swear word or two & we were off...
A bit of road riding took us to the start, an nice introduction of firm stony lane with some good puddles led us into the first river crossing... a tricky little number that has a rock step down into a deep pool, then with a spinning back wheel you lurch across to the other side trying hard not to fall in... Lucy didn't quite manage the latter part of that equation!! hee hee
 |
| This is where we find out KTM's don't like water!! |
 |
| Re-routing the carb breather hoses!! |
The new little KTM didn't like the dunking at all, it coughed, spluttered & died quickly, Lucy was soaked but smiling happily, (she is a bit strange that way!), the guys knew a fair bit about KTM's & it was decided that a quick re routing of two of the breather hoses on the carb was needed, turns out this has been done before too as the airbox had two perfect sized holes in it to take these hoses!!
From here there are loads more rivers, all of the boys except for two fell in, at about the fourth one we had all but one of the KTM's upside down on the trail, draining water from the cylinder & drying off the spark plug, once drained though they all started again & we were off to find more rivers... what was that song?? 'There are many rivers to cross' etc etc...
 |
| The Bald One... |
 |
| Bothy on the Strata Florida |
Lucy seemed to get the hang of them after a few & didn't fall of again all day, well done lass... once done on the official Strata route, we headed off towards Claerwen Reservoir, where there is an easy track that runs west to east along the shore, some great views & a fab part of the day.
 |
| Claerwen Reservoir |
At the end of this there is a rather technical length of lane that starts with a ford, a fairly deep one too! It then progresses on to mud pools, rock steps etc before finishing at the base of Caban-coch Reservoir.
Here we had planned to head north on the eastern side of the Carreg ddu reservoir to try a lane that none of the guys had done before, but by now we'd got one guy with a slow puncture & Lucy's bike was running really badly & cutting out a lot, so we took the road to Rhayader where there is a great little dirt bike dealership called E T James & Sons, they have parts for all kinds of bikes & fuel for both the bikes & us too!! Great little spot & so friendly too...
From here we took some lovely little lanes & the road back to Llanerchindda farm including a great little forest section with some rocky steps & puddles galore....
We were all soaked but what a great day, we were really lucky to have met the guys, Chris, Neil, Carl & the Bald One, (We never did actually find out his name!!) hey ho, some cool people, a great place to stay & above all some superb riding!!
It has to be mentioned in the foot notes just to keep the records straight you know... the trusty DR & the Husaberg 450 were the only bikes to have no problems on our day out... I'm sure this will change but have I found the modern replacement for my lovely DR??? mmm time will tell, no hurry yet awhile though!
The Husaberg 250 FE...
