After that title, let me say first off, the 2024 EKAM trip to Wales, was another cracking event. Well organised with an outstanding venue and brilliant planned ride-outs. We even had enough sunshine for me to pick up a tan, despite a 5 minute deluge of biblical proportions, hey at least the bike got a bit of a clean. The bike? hmm now there’s a story…
So, after a “winter of discontent”, I had been looking forward to getting back to group rides, and my year was going to kick off with the annual trip to Wales. I’d been planning this for a while, and really wanted to take my father-in-law’s Harley Sportster, as I had done in 1998, when he lent it to me with a mere 97 miles on the clock returned it to him ready for it’s 500 mile service. I now have Livvy as she was called, Ian having left her to me when he passed, so I thought it would be great to take her away. So, weekend before we were due to leave, I installed the sat nav mount, all wired in and ready to go, having promised John I would be happy to lead the trip down to Llandrindod Wells.
My brother Chris and I had booked a room at the Ramada at the Oxford service station, for the Thursday night, with the intention of having a gentle jaunt across country, and avoiding the mad motorway dash early on Friday to meet the guys at the start point. The bike was all prepped the weekend before as I said, so all I had to do was open the garage pop on the bike and go.. Ho Ho Ho.. Jumped on the little sporty and pressed the start button... thunk, chug chug, thunk, click click click...
“Oh Dear” I said.. or words to that effect, “I seem to have a flat battery. Blast”. Not to worry, I have another bike, the Honda Pan European. Quick change over of luggage, jump on the Pan Aaaaannnd... Whirr Click Click Click.... “Oh dear, another flat battery”. This seemed odd, because I have all my bikes on optimates, so they should be fine...unless.. Yep, the power to the garage had gone, probably in the storms we had had a few weeks earlier.
Quick call to Chris, and we delayed our start whilst I put both batteries on charge, first one to hit a reasonable change and start would be the bike I went on. 90 minutes later, I checked the battery and the Pan was the winner. So popped battery back on, moved the sat nav mount again, and set off. Not a problem we were 3 hours behind schedule, but only planned a 5-hour scenic ride to Oxford, so we stuck to our plan. For a while anyway. Somewhere around Winchester, the sat nav went off line, the battery in this had run out. “Oh Drat” I thought. Still not to worry the route was pretty simple, and between using the road signs and using the google maps on my phone Chris and I got to the Ramada Inn around 8pm, in time to catch up with a few of the crew and have a bite to eat before turning in for the next day…
Friday dawned and we met the rest of the gang in the services. Steve stepped up to lead the ride, given my untrustworthy sat nav (turned out I had broken the terminal wire for the mount so it wasn’t charging on the bike). Chris and I set off to fill up with fuel, bumped into Pete and his daughter, and then run back to meet up with the rest of the ride. Were all lined up engines running ready to go when Chris’s bike cut out, but hey it restarted OK and off we all went.
About 4 miles along the A40, I saw Chris ahead as he ducked into a layby, so I followed him in. The Gixxer had spluttered and died, but restarted, but there were clouds of black oily smoke from the pipes. Oh-Oh that doesn’t look good. Quick word with TEC John, and Chris and I started to investigate.
A quick call to Alfords and the prognosis was either dire, as oil was getting into the pots, or could there be diesel in the mix? Chris checked his receipt, as he has to put the expensive stuff in the old girl, and sure enough it said BP Ultimate as expected. Still, we popped the petrol cap, and I stuck my fingers in, it felt oily and didn’t evaporate as expected. Hmm suspect diesel, despite the receipt. Oh well nothing to do except phone the RAC for a tank drain and refill. I ran back to the petrol station to get something to eat and drink and checked the pumps. BP Ultimate is the brand name for both premium Unleaded AND Diesel, both have a basic blue logo and all pumps’ lines are black. There was in fact no pumps serving Ultimate Unleaded, they had all been covered up, so we had an answer, and it was a simple mistake.
To cut a long story short, the RAC arrived at midnight, 12 hours after we called them. The guy was good and we jerry-rigged a siphon and with a bit of work Chris and the RAC man drained the tank whilst I went off for 2 gallons of plain unleaded. The Gixxer was reticent to start, but on the “let’s give it one more go”, and the RAC guy shook the bike a few times, the old girl picked up on two, then three and then all the pots were firing, still a bit lumpy but all systems go. The RAC guy followed us to the next petrol station where Chris topped up with Shell premium unleaded, and we set off for the hotel.
It was surreal riding the A40 at 2 in the morning, but we made good progress, dodged sleeping sheep in the road, and got to the Hotel at 4am. Funnily enough we had a great ride in the dark and I was so pleased I had the Pan. That bike has a floodlight up front.
Having dumped our gear in our room, we crashed for the night and got up just in time for breakfast. We had originally planned to go on the planned route with John and Co, but we both felt a bit shattered, so decided to do our own thing, so we could return back to base whenever we felt like it.
After a quick look at Google Maps we decided to ride the Elan Valley, and had a great ride, crossing paths with John’s group heading in the opposite direction. We decided to stop on the beach at Aberystwyth for a bit of lunch and a drink, but on arriving at the seaside town we got tangled up with a protest march. The protesters tried to flag us down and at one point stood in front of Chris and one put her hand on the front of his bike to get him to stop. Fortunately, there were three very hassled police officers there and one stepped over to smooth the situation, explaining that this had been all very last minute and it was just the three officer available to guide the march. After a bit of a faff we we able to move on, and stopped for an ice cream lunch, before deciding we were both knackered so headed back via Rhyader to Llandrindod Wells, and a well-deserved doze before dinner.
Both nights, the dinner was excellent. The venue Tariq had organised was ace, and as well as us there were groups from 4 other IAM clubs in residence, which made for a bike full carpark. Quite impressive.
Sunday dawned with some dire warnings of heavy rain showers, but we were not daunted, what a group of hardy rufty tuffy biker... so we spent 15 minutes debating whether or not to wear waterproof or not, before we all set off for a fabulous ride. We went up hill and down dale, avoiding sheep in the road, and even at one point Paul and I had to catch a lamb that was doing it’s damndest to knock down a fence post with its head. Paul caught the errant lamb, and popped him back in his field... Not after having a crafty tickle behind his ears though. (I saw, Paul, you big softy).
The heavens did open for a short spell, whilst we were crossing the bleakest part of the hills and boy did it rain hard, you could feel the drop impacting through gloves and coats, and as quickly as it started it stopped, the sun came out and we all dried out.
Monday dawned and so we all kitted up for the jaunt home. Another great ride as we said goodbye to Wales, and wound our way back to Oxford services, where we separated and made our own ways home.
It was another fantastic trip, despite the problems along the way (it was just Chris and I that had problems, I’m sure others will share their tales). The metropole hotel is an ace venue, very welcoming and the food is great, I just hope they will have us back again in 2025, I will be there, and so will Livvy (power supply willing!).