Meet & Ride - 6th July - Tamworth to Aberystwyth

[geodude]

Tell me about it Al.

Will. Really sorry about that. We were going quite slow. I hoped you'd catch up. We turned off the main road and once we knew where we were stopping, Ady set off to find you. I guess you passed the turn off before Ady got back to the main road.

Thanks for the well wishes. I would have saved it on the GS. In fact the GS eats gravel for breakfast. Still love the T though even if psychologically its handling sh1t at the mo.

I've woken up this morning with a sore hip. That's it. Phew.

I'll post a couple of pics up once I get home.

[geodude]

Just been out for a run. Everything works fine. Even beat my personal best over 2 miles ;)

[Ckennedy]

Sorry to hear the news geo. Mend well and hope the bike is alright. Sorry I couldn't make it, New job means I have to work all Saturday's but get Monday off. Sunday runs in future please lads

[lloydie]

Just been out for a run. Everything works fine. Even beat my personal best over 2 miles ;)

What. No jelly legs . Lol

[Flatline]

Been there, seen it, done it!!

Glad you're ok buddy

[VTRDark]

Wow....we can't go near Wales without a prang can we!.....

Yeh go to Scotland and watch out for Haggis instead.

BAHhhh I think if I had a sheep in front of me, rather than try to avoid it, I would head straight for it. At least there would be a nice soft woolly landing. Geo, take it easy today mate. Did you catch the action on camera.

(:-})

[adyf]

In geos defence we dropped down to a cattle grid and just after uphill right so your eye is drawn to cattle grid and oncoming traffic ,they had just resurfaced the road and the depth of gravel pushed to the outside of that bend was ridiculous atleast 100mm ,if I had being leading it would of been a proper highside cos geo is a great rider ,good observation skills not me I use the force! the sheep were after we kicked the bike straight and set off for crossgates it was like everyone was out to get him,or cos he had a red storm in his mirrors and jumped out of the faster bikes way !

[lumpyv]

Just been out for a run. Everything works fine. Even beat my personal best over 2 miles ;)

well done mate "get back on that horse"
glad to hear you are not mangled !

[geodude]

Back home now. I struggle to type on a phone so here goes.

The crash

Basically the only person to blame here is me.

This is how I remember it all unfolding.

Were were making great progress along the A488 towards Penybont. A cracking stretch of road. We then reached a section that had the 10mph Skid Risk signs. We dropped our speed obviously. There were gaps in the the bits that had been done but the signs had been plastered along the road. Anyways, my observation was good all along the road. I was positioning well and able to make good progress.

We reach a section that had not yet been done and picked up the speed a bit. We came down the hill and I could see the following

* Skid Risk Signs
* Gravel stricken road
* Right hand bend with good visibility

What I didn't see was the obvious cattle grid sign so I was shocked when I saw the actual cattle grid. As I planned my braking around there not being a cattle grid, I didn't have as much braking distance as I had thought meaning I was unable to slot into the car tracks where there was little gravel. As a result, My back end stepped out quite considerably which is normally fun, only when I caught it, it took me on to the grass heading for a wooden post. I tried to ride it in the ditch but soon realised the T is no match for the GS when not on the black stuff.

So what I have learned. Well nothing really. I already know how important reading roads signs are, I just didn't read the wombles.

Moral of the story. The skid signs are there until they have swept up the gravel. If you choose to ride through it progressively, make sure you are on a GS or as your observation is taken up by looking out for gravel, don't forget to keep an eye out for the other signs.

A view back down the road


Gravel


The ditch - I so would have just gone up the hill on the GS. lol

[VTRDark]

That is terrible road surface for a sports bike no choice but to poodle along at slow speeds on that.

(:-})

[Ckennedy]

Looks like it would have been a nice road other wise. I wouldn't worry Geo, well all miss something at some point.

Is it me or does someone always come off during an Op storm trip to Wales. Take the Op storm from the title and I bet everything will be fine Nothing happened when me and AMcQ went to Wales and it threw it down for a couple of hours and that was me riding in the wet

Glad your OK. Hopefully I can make the next ride out. Still got the re book the big Wales one for Sept at my new place. Will do that on Tuesday.

[geodude]

Its nothing to do with op storm or wales. The common denominator is if I don't back mark. Every time I have back marked for the whole trip, nothing happens.

Oh and as for "we all miss something at some point", not good enough for me . I'll be beating myself up on this one for ages.

[Ckennedy]

I know what you mean. I'll beat myself up over little things like that too. Even if it does not end up going wrong still beat myself up over it.

That's it then Geo, your relegated to back marking

[lumpyv]

there is a lot of variation on the amount of gravel they use. last week I was near harleston and there was hardly any left out but I have seen it about 2 inches deep at the edges. I hate it cos once your in it you cant really take any drastic action to get out.

what damage did the bike take ?

[geodude]

The damage





I did the screen with my face