Sarn Helen 27th May 2007

Post by **Cupid Stunt** » 28 May 2007, 22:21

Here's the report from the open invite at my place (add your pics too Gwyn cos mine were crap), given up with the video editing for now as I'm having technical difficulties (noram reception will be restored as soon as I put a fekin great hemmer through my PC)

Anywhoos..
First to arrive was Gwyn, he rode his bike up from Porthcawl, we had a cuppa and chat then it wasn't too long before Steve arrived all the way from Stoke on Trent (about a 4 hour journey), intros followed, (Gwyn and Steve are both quality geezers, it was a pleasure to have them here) then my wonderfull wife Pam made us all a really nice spaghetti bolognase
Bellies full we then headed off to the pub (had to walk a whole 200 yards

)
Steve couldn't beleive that in 4 years of being here I'd never visited the pub, it was OK, not too noisey as we sat outside most of the time, though the new barmaid had no idea what \"bitter\" was and much to Steve's dismay she had no idea what Guiness was either
After a few pints it was time to head home and cuppa or two then off to bed.
Morning came and I was first out of bed, Steve and Gwyn got up shortly after and Pam came down she cooked us all a very welcome breakfast of Sausages, Bacon, Eggs, Beans and Toast (she's a real star ya know)

We got kitted up and waited for the arrival of the others, Jason first as he only lives a few hundred yards away, then Mike turned up.
Durzer (Paul) and Rees cried off as it was raining, what's really funny is that I got a text today (Monday) when I switched my phone on, it was sent Saturday night and was from Paul (Durzer), it read:

Rees is being a f*^!ing woos ! If it's raining in the morning he's not coming, Called him a cnut !. There we go, See you in the morning

............

Post by **Cupid Stunt** » 28 May 2007, 22:22

Anyway, we headed off on the tarmac for the Sarn Helen which is a about 6 miles from here as the bottom end is only open during summer months (June, july and August).
Got to the off road bit, regrouped and set off, the trail seemed a lot rockier than before which was confirmed by Mike and Gwyn who had also both ridden it numerous times, we took Steve and Jason to Bonkers Gulley which is a short detour off the Sarn and a reasonable challenge (the Sarn is fairly easy riding), en route and true to form I was the first casualty of the day, came to greif on a large flat slab of rock when I dabbed my front brake and the front end washed out in the blink of an eye, slam dunking me onto the deck, no damage done and as usual I laughed my ass off (it's on video when I can get it sorted) both Jason and Steve aquited themselves well whilst the rest of us took pics from appropriate vantage points, Steve quite oddly breezed up the technical bit but got stuck and struggled on the easy lead up to it LOL, I was using my wife's camera which turned out to be useless for action shots cos it's got a huge shutter delay, still, better than ruining my rather expensive kit in the contant rain we was in

Bonker's Gulley: it's on a 25 degree slope with 90 degree turns and some boulders half the height of your bike to get round, it's not too bad to get up but it takes a real expert to clean it feet up all the way to the top

Slider about to attack:

Jason having a dab (of his nuts on the saddle)

Post by **Cupid Stunt** » 28 May 2007, 22:22

Jason round what he thought was the worst of it (if only he knew about the giant rocks to come

)

Once all done, fags smoked, we were ready to take on the return to Sarn, en route to Bonkers there's some really good rock steps to drop down, this time of course you have to go up, I stopped to plan my route and as I was doing so Jason came past and went straight for it (bless him), straight for the hardest bit with the inevitable wheel spinning and subsequent dismount/manhandle up the steps, me next, nearly did it but managed to loft the front end on the last step, front wheel over the top and me over the side

, Slider and Mike sailed over no problems (I rekon it's cos they're both far too tall and were secretly walking up with their bikes wedged up their butt cheeks

), fair play to 'em especially Mike who remember is riding a BMW 650

, Gwyn came to grief and we all sprang into action to the rescue, though he tried to get there first and muscle his bike up, we wouldn't have any of that as he shouldn't be straining himself (not at his age anyway

)
Apparently Gwyn had several off's but I didn't see them as he insisted on riding behind everyone (I think he's camera shy)
Cut accross and over a bank to drop back onto the Sarn, then continued northwards, a little further up and we came to the river crossing, surprisingly the river was very low, I rekon you could have crawled accross on hands and knees and still stayed dry
Further on I was about to overtake Mike to get closer to Jason and Slider up front (for the video) and as I looked up Jason was on the deck next to his bike, apparently there was a rock on the trail, who went and put that there eh ?

.

Down the loose rocky slope the a stop at the Pooh Sticks bridge for a fag and refreshments, took the opportunity to shelter out of the rain for a bit

Hobbits in their natural habbtat

Post by **Cupid Stunt** » 28 May 2007, 22:23

Onwards then to the Mountain centre where there was another casualty from Jason again, he pulled up behind me, went to dismount and fell off sideways (always the best for a laugh those eh ?)

We all refreshed ourselves with a cuppa and Jason tucked into the now famous \"Black Beef Pie\", a huge platefull of food

Gwyn and Jason decided to head back home on the road as Gwyn was feeling a little strained, Slider, Mike and myself headed back down the Sarn where we met two of my riding buddies Peter and Paul heading the other way, they'd decided to miss out their usualy grueling route in favour of something a little easier
I arranged to meet them at the bottom of the Sarn as they cam back down but it wasn't to be as when we got there we took a little adventure and Slider broke his throttle cable on a little jump, I had to ride back to his van at my place and retreive his spare, got back to them and he got it fitted just to break his fuel filter in the process (doh !), fortunately there's a lot of chav pillocks that ride around where we were so we managed to find a few bits of dumped cars and got hold of some rubber tube to use temporarily, by this time we'd given up on Peter and Paul (turns out they had their fair share of problems too (lost fuel from a fallen bike whilst in the mountain centre and a puncture), Mike and Slider were freezing now as for some odd reason whilst waiting for me they stayed out in the open in strong, cold winds while they were both a bit damp, best route was to avoid the tarmac and get some trails in to keep warm, so we headed south on the Sarn and cut through to my house
Waved goodbye to Mike and Slider stayed at mine for a great Chinese takeaway before heading off to Stoke

All in it was a really good ride with some class company
Thanks to all for a nice and enjoyable day and a speciall mention to Mike for being so good on that BMW (inspired confidence in riding my KLR)

PS
If I ever get the video sorted I'll put it up here

Post by **Cupid Stunt** » 28 May 2007, 22:35

Oh yes, forgot to mention...
Mostly people were avoiding the bigger puccles or at least riding slowly through them, not me as usual, but just as Slider was riding through one I accidently blatted through full steam at exactly the wrong moment causing a huge bow wave to cover Slider completely

It was an accident honestly (he's twice my size ya know

)

Well at least he's got some time in Turkey to dry out now

Post by **Jonorow** » 29 May 2007, 15:48

Sounds like you had a good trip lads, its a shame that the bottom section is closed, (armoured vehicles tested to destruction did that) but i will be looking to do this at some point seeing as i used to live a mile down the road from there and have free accomodation there. I will let you know when i am going. Jon

macey2kk · Post by **macey2kk** » 29 May 2007, 16:25

now thats a breakfast!!,

egg beans sausage AND Fags!! --- can i come next time!!!

Post by **Cupid Stunt** » 29 May 2007, 21:29

macey2kk wrote:now thats a breakfast!!,

egg beans sausage AND Fags!! --- can i come next time!!!

Of course you can, just don't expect the brekies cos it was a first, normal rule here is we accomodate but don't cook

Post by **Gwyn** » 30 May 2007, 11:11

Here's a couple of pics i took. I took more, but they came out sh***. I gotta get used to my new camera

Jason re-alighning the bike for the attack

Making progress

Steve ready to go

Going up

You cant really tell from the pics, how steep and rocky Bonkers gully is

Had a great weekend, and Terry and Pams hospitality was excellent. A big, big thank you to you both

mickstoy · Post by **mickstoy** » 30 May 2007, 17:27

ayup cupid nice report mate and some rare sights aswell one is steve and gwyn stuffing there faces and the other is steve sat on his arse smokin a fag nice one

Post by **Gwyn** » 30 May 2007, 17:49

mickstoy wrote:ayup cupid nice report mate and some rare sights aswell one is steve and gwyn stuffing there faces and the other is steve sat on his arse smokin a fag nice one

You wait till Steve gets back from Turkey, you gonna get a cap in yer ass

Post by **Cupid Stunt** » 30 May 2007, 18:39

Think we'll have to call him \"I am 'avin' a fag Steve\"

Nice pics Gwyn, it was difficult with compact cameras to get good one's in such dim light, focus is too slow on these little cameras

You out this week/weekend ?

slider · Post by **slider** » 05 Jun 2007, 01:23

back off me jollies,and your all gettin a cap in ya ass

as already stated,good day out,excellent company and great hospitallity.shame about the video terry.nice report though and your welcome to come up to us when gwyn comes mate.

p.s while in turkey,i went scuba diving,para gliding(6000+ ft) and quad biking with absolutely no incidents what so ever.then we went out on a coctail night,got bladdered and fell off a 3ft high walkway,skinned me r/h palm,elbow,knee and a macey sized bruise on my thigh!!!.i'm now limping around like an 80yr old,what a tw*t

Post by **Cupid Stunt** » 05 Jun 2007, 08:02

Welcome back mate
Sounds like a good holiday, 6000+ feet

slider · Post by **slider** » 05 Jun 2007, 10:15

Cupid Stunt wrote:Welcome back mate
Sounds like a good holiday, 6000+ feet

yes,the ride up the mountain in the jeep was worse than the paraglide back down,good biking area if you could get a decent bike over there .saw 1 honda xl 125 and thousands of hwong-a-dong-ding-sung 200's that look like they'd fall apart if you sat on em