Just a quick as write up ,will do a proper one later ,never mind when mike says it's hard ,it's f@#king hard 3 days of wind snow and rain after last night I decided to call it a day to make sure my kit was reay for wrt and the fact I had no back brakes ,well done to mike for his finish in such a short time ,I was only able to cover 50 ish miles per day ,some times less ,it was nice to see part of a country I've never seen even when I was knee deep in bog and tussock yomping for 5hrs , anyhow thanks to mike for the supportive texts it helped a lot ,there were a few strong conversations I had with myself over the last four days ,but it will not beat me and hopefully I'll be back later in the year to try again ,it's a great route and even though my heart and soul is in the Dublin mountains ,I could quite easily make this part of Wales home , pictures to follow and a more in-depth write up ,waiting for the train now and off to get p@#sed

Good job sir, sounds like it was hard work

It was Ben and I only covered about 120 miles out of the 330, woke up sunk in a bog from the rain through the night and thought it's gonna take me till Thursday to get done ,could have got the caliper fixed in dol but I wouldn't have been in great humour for the WRT and as it's my lads first one I didn't want to ruin it for him

You went for it Stu, that's the main thing. Compliments to you. Bitten by the bear, but not scared off

Well done Stu. It is a hard route but it's not deliberately hard, it's simply that the terrain makes it that way. You had some pretty dire conditions to contend with too

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Mon Apr 29, 2019 5:03 pm Well done Stu. It is a hard route but it's not deliberately hard, it's simply that the terrain makes it that way. You had some pretty dire conditions to contend with too

The route itself mate is great ,varied terrain ,and I don't mind the bog hopping tussock tramping ,mike has pre warned me not to go up that hill after llandovery in the dark as nav was quite awkward ,so I went up after breakfast and still got lost in the tussocks
Just checked the Garmin ,had a 55 ,37 and 50 plus 20 on the route today before I hit the road to get back to the station so I think I got around 160 in which I'm well pleased with after the storm and everything ,now I know what to expect ,it definitely won't beat me again ,but I still think there's along way Togo before I can get round a 200 in 36hrs

good man, i watched u all the way round fella. Till next time

Speak to u at wrt ;0)

Good stuff Stu, it is a tough old route. Bloody fantastic though (or the bit I've done is).

You'll be back!

I certainly will Steve I want to do devils bridge onwards ,hope it's dried for you

As i'm new here, i'm intrigued to know what the big bear is? Assuming it's a massive route in the Cambrian mountains, anyone care to share the route for interests sake?

Ta.

Email sent.

Thanks for sending through...it's a monster!

Well done for giving it a go! Good to test your limits (is it adventure if you know you can do it?), and knowing when to quit is an important skill.

thenorthwind wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2019 12:14 pm Well done for giving it a go! Good to test your limits (is it adventure if you know you can do it?), and knowing when to quit is an important skill.

I've always said the route / mountains don't go away ,I really misunderstood the terrain ,slot of the climbs are pushes and big pushes up slate or non existent bridleways ,the flat spots over the hills are tussock and bogs in a lot of places so if you don't find the little goat tracks you can be yomping for hours ,but it's great fun even through storm Hannah ( I think that's what it was called , Saturday morning was hard I had to take my sleeping socks and put them over my gloves ,had base layer ,down jacket and waterproof jacket on the snow and hail was just being beat into you ,I reckon without the storm I could have got round at 55/60 miles per day no record breaking but that's my aim if I can get some leave in September ,if not it's penciled in for the week after the WRT next may ,the grassy rocky descents make up for all the hard work going up ,,if you get chance and a spare week NW you should give it a bash ,I was happy doing it solo as there was no one to put seeds of doubt in my head when the weather came in ,had a couple of mechanicals as there are a lot of locked gates to lift the bike over and normally straight onto cattle grids,food on the parts I done was very little in the way of anything from knighton to llandovery here's a pic of how my bike stood in the bog as I went straight over

Looks like fun, albeit of the type 2/3 variety

Yeah but he's not going to show you a picture of the really bad bits.

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2019 2:00 pm Yeah but he's not going to show you a picture of the really bad bits.

For those of you not familiar with Wales, that picture is the A40 just outside Llandovery.

Dyffers wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2019 2:25 pm

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2019 2:00 pm Yeah but he's not going to show you a picture of the really bad bits.

For those of you not familiar with Wales, that picture is the A40 just outside Llandovery.

Not quite but I did end up cutting up a a road back to caersws think it was the A40 from Aberystwyth to llangurig and I wish I was back on that bog ,sh1te it's a fast road

middleagedmadness wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2019 12:58 pm the climbs are pushes and big pushes up slate or non existent bridleways ,the flat spots over the hills are tussock and bogs in a lot of places so if you don't find the little goat tracks you can be yomping for hours ,

Stu, as ever, doing his bit for mid-Wales cycle tourism.

, But on the plus note the few people I did meet over the 4 days were absolutely lovely , the cafe in llandovery Tudors even though everyone was speaking Welsh I couldn't have been made more welcome same as the lady at strata Florida tea shop ,the man behind the counter made me a brew she walked past told me it looked sh1te and made me another free , , genuine people make up at good part of the experience ,maybe it was my pikey accent that made them think I was a Celt