I went out for my first long ride of the year yesterday - a trip from my home in the Midlands out to the Elan Valley in wales.



It's a very nice route to ride with all sorts of roads from tight and twisty bits to fast flowing corners.

Through Kidderminster and Bewdley onto the A4117 towards Cleobury Mortimer , then over Clee Hill stopping for a drink at the cafe to admire the scenery. Carry on towards Ludlow and turn onto the A49 before you reach the town , then after a short while follow the A4113 signposted towards Knighton. Watch out for suicidal sheep as you approach Penybont , then follow the signs for Rhayader on the A44 where it's time to buy some food for a picnic once you reach the Elan Valley and the lakes.

There's any number of spots to park up and admire the scenery in the valley , so take your pick and relax before riding to the far end. You can then stick to an unnumbered road and loop back to Rhyader or simply U-turn and do the waterside section in reverse.

By the time I'd got back to Bewdley I was decidedly uncomfortable so I stopped by the river for a stretch and drink , and to admire the considerably cleaner bikes than mine.



The only downside to the day was that it was very hazy with quite poor light for photography so the pictures didn't come out anywhere near as nice as I'd have liked.

Still , it's an excuse for another ride out.

Excluding the scooters (Two Peugeot Speedfight 50s and a Gilera Runner 125) which I don't seem to have any decent pictures of , I've had three motorbikes so far.

I'm currently riding a very yellow Honda Hornet 600. A very nice bike for weekend rides in the country but it's poor tank range lets it down on longer journeys. I had planned to replace it with a bigger bike with a decent tank capacity and luggage so I could do a trip to Normandy this year but the unexpected demise of my central heating boiler meant the money was spent elsewhere.



Before that I had a Q-Plated Yamaha Thundercat. A nice bike , but too much of a pain to strip the fairing off to service it. Each time it went back on I seemed to end up with at least one left over fastener. I ended up selling it though as the insurance companies decided they would no longer cover it TPFT as they had done for a couple of years and only offered Third Party cover , so it headed off to eBay for virtually the same as I had paid for it.



This is a bike I really miss. It was a Japanese import Yamaha Thundercat which was (in theory) bang on the 33bhp limit for newly qualified non-DAS riders. Mine was one of the better looking mono-shock bikes and was in excellent condition considering it was on a K-plate. The one I had was fitted with a decidedly non-standard Yoshimura exhaust which had the most glorious sound and added a few BHP so it would happily redline in 5th gear at about 105mph. I've never seen one with the same exhaust which is just as well really as I'd be tempted to spend money I can't really afford.