Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Mar 2011
- Posts
- 6,479
- Location
- Kent
**Long post alert!!** 
So as per an old thread of mine, I had been thinking of doing a little solo mini tour across to wales for a while, I had all this week off work and was keeping an eye on the weather...
Well... I'm currently sat in my B&B room in Barmouth writing this after riding 440 miles today
Thought I'd start this thread while today's thoughts are fresh in my mind, this was partially 2 days away riding great roads, and partially a tester for future, longer tours.
I'll post my route up when I get home tomorrow, but basically it was m25, m4 into Wales (the boring bit), then up the wye valley road, across into the Brecon beacons, criss-crossing south then back north, then up to Aberystwyth along the a44, then the a487 to dolgellau and finally to Barmouth. More about the roads later
Sat nav: I used Google maps, with a custom route created in 'my maps' with checkpoints. This should have meant simply clicking the next checkpoint, navigating there and with the right checkpoints Google maps would choose the route I wanted. Good intentions...
Now, Wales isn't lacking in stunning roads, breathtaking scenery, or 500ft drops on corners with kamikaze sheep, but one thing it is severely lacking in, is decent mobile data reception. I had foreseen this and had download all the areas so that maps would have them offline, but what I didn't forsee was that for some, stupid reason, Google maps needs a data connection to be able to navigate.
cue several attempts during the day of checking my phone only to see a "G" symbol which was useless as no matter what maps wouldn't navigate with a sub par connection.
So first thought, buy a proper sat nav!! Navfree or similar don't need data but afaik you can't load custom routes. So that's a TomTom rider on my shopping list.
Now, the roads. Brecon vs Snowdonia (ish), south vs middlenorthish. Or kamikaze sheep vs stunning valley roads.
First, the Brecon beacons. Fantastic roads, and great scenery, just watch out for the sheep which cross the road all in their own time, while saying "deal with it
" a motorbike or car approaching at 60ish mph doesn't faze them 
However the best that Brecon and the south had to offer pales into insignificance compared to the 2 roads in the north I rode; the a44 and the a487. Holy mother of God these roads are utterly amazing! I didn't get any photos today of these 2 roads as I was pressing on a little trying to make up time lost faffing around with the sat nav, but I'll make sure me grab some tomorrow, as my route home just so happens to go back this way! The a44 clings to a valleyside and the longest straight must have been about 200 yards! It's just endless bend after bend after twist after turn after kink... Just seems to keep going on and on too, it's not one of those roads you wish was longer.
The a487 is shorter but just as twisty, and has views to die for. Replace the slate on the mountain sides with snow and you could be in the Alps. Pine forests clinging to 45 degree slopes on one side with river plateaus on the valley floor on the other.
Properly knocked my socks off these 2 roads did, without a doubt the best roads I've ever ridden. Sorry, Brecon beacons, you just can't compete. I'll be coming back here for certain.
Other stuff: I had a kriega r30 on my back and a small tank bag, the kriega does take a lot of the weight off your shoulders but mine are still aching tonight, so for longer trips bike mounted luggage is a must.
Mileage: 170 of the 440 miles of today's total was motorway, I left Kent at 7am and was in Chepstow by 9:45. It still took me until 6:45pm to do the remaining 270 miles, including about an hour of stops plus satnav faffing. I wouldn't want to do a nearly 12 hour day but it's good to know I can do them. The worst bit was the motorway, at least on the twisty roads you can move around on the bike (need to do this to prevent numb bum). Oh and remember I'm doing this on an unfaired Honda CB400.
As I said, I'll update with photos and tomorrow's fun when I'm home, I'm also doing the a483 going home so it should be rather fun apologies for any bad speeling as I'm writing this on a tablet.
I'll leave you with a taster photo, only phone camera so not the best quality.
So as per an old thread of mine, I had been thinking of doing a little solo mini tour across to wales for a while, I had all this week off work and was keeping an eye on the weather...
Well... I'm currently sat in my B&B room in Barmouth writing this after riding 440 miles today
Thought I'd start this thread while today's thoughts are fresh in my mind, this was partially 2 days away riding great roads, and partially a tester for future, longer tours.
I'll post my route up when I get home tomorrow, but basically it was m25, m4 into Wales (the boring bit), then up the wye valley road, across into the Brecon beacons, criss-crossing south then back north, then up to Aberystwyth along the a44, then the a487 to dolgellau and finally to Barmouth. More about the roads later
Sat nav: I used Google maps, with a custom route created in 'my maps' with checkpoints. This should have meant simply clicking the next checkpoint, navigating there and with the right checkpoints Google maps would choose the route I wanted. Good intentions...
Now, Wales isn't lacking in stunning roads, breathtaking scenery, or 500ft drops on corners with kamikaze sheep, but one thing it is severely lacking in, is decent mobile data reception. I had foreseen this and had download all the areas so that maps would have them offline, but what I didn't forsee was that for some, stupid reason, Google maps needs a data connection to be able to navigate.
cue several attempts during the day of checking my phone only to see a "G" symbol which was useless as no matter what maps wouldn't navigate with a sub par connection.So first thought, buy a proper sat nav!! Navfree or similar don't need data but afaik you can't load custom routes. So that's a TomTom rider on my shopping list.
Now, the roads. Brecon vs Snowdonia (ish), south vs middlenorthish. Or kamikaze sheep vs stunning valley roads.
First, the Brecon beacons. Fantastic roads, and great scenery, just watch out for the sheep which cross the road all in their own time, while saying "deal with it
" a motorbike or car approaching at 60ish mph doesn't faze them However the best that Brecon and the south had to offer pales into insignificance compared to the 2 roads in the north I rode; the a44 and the a487. Holy mother of God these roads are utterly amazing! I didn't get any photos today of these 2 roads as I was pressing on a little trying to make up time lost faffing around with the sat nav, but I'll make sure me grab some tomorrow, as my route home just so happens to go back this way! The a44 clings to a valleyside and the longest straight must have been about 200 yards! It's just endless bend after bend after twist after turn after kink... Just seems to keep going on and on too, it's not one of those roads you wish was longer.
The a487 is shorter but just as twisty, and has views to die for. Replace the slate on the mountain sides with snow and you could be in the Alps. Pine forests clinging to 45 degree slopes on one side with river plateaus on the valley floor on the other.
Properly knocked my socks off these 2 roads did, without a doubt the best roads I've ever ridden. Sorry, Brecon beacons, you just can't compete. I'll be coming back here for certain.
Other stuff: I had a kriega r30 on my back and a small tank bag, the kriega does take a lot of the weight off your shoulders but mine are still aching tonight, so for longer trips bike mounted luggage is a must.
Mileage: 170 of the 440 miles of today's total was motorway, I left Kent at 7am and was in Chepstow by 9:45. It still took me until 6:45pm to do the remaining 270 miles, including about an hour of stops plus satnav faffing. I wouldn't want to do a nearly 12 hour day but it's good to know I can do them. The worst bit was the motorway, at least on the twisty roads you can move around on the bike (need to do this to prevent numb bum). Oh and remember I'm doing this on an unfaired Honda CB400.
As I said, I'll update with photos and tomorrow's fun when I'm home, I'm also doing the a483 going home so it should be rather fun
apologies for any bad speeling as I'm writing this on a tablet.I'll leave you with a taster photo, only phone camera so not the best quality.
Last edited:
