Minirolls Musings

Gear Sequence

Not much to say about today. Aimi basically only talked to me about how to get dressed. Kinda the opposite of what a red blooded male enjoys.

Portmerion & Porthmadog

Don’t go to Portmerion. The best way I can describe it is like a theme park for old people, where the only ride is “getting a coffee”.

After a far more stressful weekend than I deserved, we are off to Wales again on the bikes. Now I’ve graduated to ‘Fair Weather Rider’ from ‘Only Method Of Transport’, we don’t ever go out unless it’s looking pristine. This is why I was surprised Aimi wanted to ride in the rain. Usually she’s reluctant unless the weather porridge is just right… but this trip she WANTS to ride in the rain! I’m not about to dissuade her, I’m hoping she will come to Dragon Rally next year.

Soggy St Davids

Can you get a neck cramp?

It’s a wonderfully painful reminder of how much I used to motorbike and how little I have done recently that I’m in this much pain. Since becoming a chubby van dweller, I’ve allowed myself to enjoy, and become used to, a vans comforts.

Dyfi Bike Park

After a hard days ride uphill yesterday, today we were going to Dyfi bike park and getting an uplift. This is where you pay a chap to drive you and your mates up the hill in the back of a Landover, with the bikes in a trailer. You then spend 20 mins coming down the hill, back to the start, where you catch another Landy to the top again, rinse and repeat. So much easier than pedaling to the top, and before you say it’s cheating, I did enough uphill pedaling yesterday not to feel even slightly guilty about it!

Snowdon Struggle

Well that was equal parts exhilarating and exhausting!

It’s funny how the human mind has the capacity to ignore, and even forget, the suffering of the human body, when the suffering is in pursuit of a goal. For us, it was the summit of Snowdon. This was not the end goal, but actually the start of the reason we had travelled here; to descend on mountain bikes.

Snowdon Preparation

Oh god what have I agreed to…

Steve has been pushing me to come mountain bike down Snowdon for a while and finally I had relented.

Yamaha Offroad Experience ’21

I had forgotten how much I like the smell of two-stroke, pine forest and sweat.

The chap in front had brought his own bike which was just singing along. We blasted along the fire roads and every now and again he would give it a cheeky squeeze sending gravel shooting back at me. It wasn’t a race, we were heading to the next area of technical trail to tackle, so I just hung back and enjoyed the view, the smell and the experience of handling such a wonderful machine.

Home Sweet Home

We had spent the night in a Brecon car park with a Victorian river garden adjacent. We walked the promenade and around the quaint village and enjoyed a rare, warm and dry evening in Wales. Just because we were in a van in a carpark doesn’t mean it was all stodgy pasta and plasticky water. Oh no no!

Mountain Biking Beginnings

So I have a new hobby – Mountain biking – It started as a bit of a joke when Stephen said:

I’ll get a Motorbike, If you get a Mountain Bike…

I obviously agreed, thinking a motorbike is way more expensive than a mountain bike and while he may have some savings, it would be a while before he got a motorbike.

How wrong I was…

Category: Wales