Welsh Shakedown Day 1

The bike is ready, at least as ready as i can make it, and the shakedown test has arrived!

It was a busy day for me, i had work in the morning, then needed at van, had to get loading straps to secure the bike, pack, book the B&B, load the van with everything for the France / Spanish trip and then get to Wales.   My idea was to take the bike to Wales with everything required for the next TET trip and test it all out.  If it passed the Wales test then Jason would take both our bikes to the shipping company at the end of the week.   If the bike fails the test then i need to get it back home for repairs before shipping.

With my day job completed i was straight to Halfords where they happily ripped me off for a couple of loading straps.  Next up, a visit Jesse and Emily's to borrow their Van for the weekend (thanks friends, greatly appreciated!)  Whilst at their house Jesse relayed a story of when he bought a car with a number friends and drove from England to Africa over a few weeks! The car was left with a local community at the end of the journey. A great story and more than i've ever achieved mate!

Van acquired and everything was packed in short order, just a 3.5hrs drive stood between me and the Welsh adventure.

Route and Rhayader

Below is a map of Wales, the pink line is the TET the red lines are off road byway routes, one of which intersects the TET.  

The red loop is 117 miles covering many off-road sections, including the 'Strata Florida' lane that has seven river crossings (though i did not know that at this point in the journey) As it intersected the TET it met the criteria.

We wanted a 'base' for the shakedown test in case the bikes (or riders) weren't up to the task, somewhere to park the vans and an easy point to meet with Jason and Ken.  The very small town of Rhayader (Green Arrow) was chosen purely because rooms were available at the Horseshoe B&B and it feature the byway loop Ken had found.   

It turned out that Rhayader had 10 pubs and is a very popular destination with off-road fanatics.

Paul owns and runs the Horseshoe B&B and was a very accommodating host allowing us to use his car park for vans and giving advice on the local routes. He told us that the week before a number of KTM riding bikers had dropped a bike in the river and taken over two hours to get it running,  but that wouldn't be us!   Paul from Horseshoe, top bloke, great B&B!

I arrived shortly before Ken at about 4pm and it was glorious afternoon (rare in Wales). Once we'd both arrived, and even before going to our room, we unloaded the bikes and decide to get out.

Below; Ken and the bikes and vans.

Our first journey (heading counter clockwise on the byway loop) was stunning.  Beautiful lanes, architecture and countryside.

Ken on his Wr250f

Unfortunately my bike was making a strange sound, i noticed it immediately.  It kind of sounded like a horn / trumpet (very odd), but wasn't present all the time. i stopped a few times in an attempt to work out what it was, but couldnt pin point it. (wasn't actually the horn)  I blamed the new air intake on the large capacity Clarke tank and carried on.

A few hours later we were back at Horseshoe and Jason arrived.  His bike, the WR250R fuel tanker,  had fallen over in the van during transit and caused a little damage, but he was unperturbed. That evening we hit the town of Rhayader and enjoyed local beer (a little too much), food, and company.

...a successful first day.