Chris'
friend Neil was already waiting at the filling station in Sandbach when Yoda arrived.
After many phone calls and chatting to Stu (Nismo) who was rounding up the northern
posse, Malc, Dave and Andy turned up about 10:15, knackered after riding through
rain and across the moors. They'd already done a day out just to get here. From
here we moved onto Bill Smiths in Chester. In Chester we got split up at the traffic
lights right by the meet point. So Neil, Malc and Andy decide to take a tour of
Chester and end up out on the Wrexham road. Eventually Yoda answered his phone
and Stu directed Malc to Saltney where we were going to meet up again. Reunited
again, we all set off for the Horse Shoe pass. Chris and Stu leading and Yoda
tail end charlie. At the Ponderosa Cafe, a suspicious character attached himself
to the group, in dayglo livery... uh-oh. Setting off from the cafe everyone decided
to go for it, except poor Yoda who got stuck behind a car and had to play catch-up.
At the roundabout leading up to the pass road everyone blitzes past a car, so
still catching up Yoda scooted past at 75 ish to find Mr Dayglo behind him. He
nodded and set off after the others. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth,
Yoda followed. Police escort thankyou very much. At Bala, after a very good
ride down from the Horse Shoe Pass, it was time for er, refreshments. Sorry Ted,
you got it wrong. No rain! Then it was out of Bala and onto the A4212 to Trawsfyndd.
Big grins. This piece of road was unbelievable. Everyone made their own pace and
it's definitely recommended. The only problem was no one had ridden it before,
but what the heck. Down here no matter how fast Yoda went, Dave and Malc
shadowed him. Faster went Yoda, but they were still there. Faster still, no the
buggers were still there. More grins. Unfortunately Stu found his rear tyre was
about to delaminate, turning the grins into an "eek!". It still didn't
slow him down, though. From the grins on everyone's faces when they stopped, fun
was had. A random stranger tagged himself onto the convoy and followed the
boys for a fair bit going home. From here we took the A470 to Betws-y-coed. Well
Dave and Yoda did; everyone else turned right for Llangollen. Still couldn't shake
our new friend off, even throwing some cars in the way. Yoda got so paranoid he
ended up messing up a hair pin wondering where the chap had gone. He was that
close Yoda couldn't see him in his mirrors (which worried him no end, after being
torpedoed once years ago). Dave definitely has plenty of pace; next time
we'll have to let his tyres down. The troop had got a bit strung out so Dave and
Yoda pulled in to a garage to wait. After about 15 minutes and a couple of "Where
are you?" phone calls they set off again just to see the rest of the group
at a cafe getting some food in (it's true, Malc ate all the pies). Traffic lights
at some roadworks forced them to halt, only for Yoda to get a nudge from behind
- Nismo and Plastic, whom he'd passed without noticing. Rendezvousing with
the rest at a handy B&B, Dave's hugger is hanging off because the bolts have
come undone. Even emergency surgery with zip ties couldn't prevent it rubbing
on his wheel, so off it came. Mystery Man produced a tie-down to hold it, and
Stu volunteered to carry it home. Later we found out that Plodder too had been
struck by the Mudguard Fairy - his front guard threw a bolt and cracked the front
mounting. He managed to retrieve all the bits and bring them home, hopefully to
effect a repair. At the B&B most folk went off home as it was getting
late, and some of us with pass outs were already in deep doggy do by then. Chris
and Neil had ended up in Llangollen so after Stu got some fuel, we met them there
outside yet another pub. There they met another biker with a tidy looking Genesis,
which he said had stood for years in a garage and had only done 7000 miles in
10 years. From here we went home via Wrexham, Stu heading off for Chester after
a bit of fun on the dual carriageway. Chris and Neil shot off and we played catch
up. More fun! This was a great day out, if only more folk could have been
there. Many thanks to everyone who made the effort, some of them came a very long
way for this. Yoda did nearly 200 miles, so God knows what Malc, Dave and Andy
clocked up. You can find all the pics from the day here.
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