Re: Welsh Roads (Not Triumph Specific)

[kwh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Ken Haylock)]

Ah, now... 

If it's nice roads you are looking for, look no further - I've just 
bought a house down in West Wales so I know my way from the South East to 
Carmarthen and points in between very well. 

Head out of London on the M4 as far as J13 and take the Newbury by-pass 
south, then turn right onto the westbound A4. This is, for the most part, a 
great road, wide, fast, open and empty, national limit all the way, good and 
safe for some serious velocities. Watch out for the periodic towns and 
villages though, and respect the odd few lower speed limits that are there 
because some of them are enforced by cunningly concealed gatsos.

Stay on the A4 all the way to Chippenham - you won't regret it. At 
Chippenham, turn north towards Cirencester and back towards the M4 on the 
A350.

When you hit the M4 again, head West. This avoids Bath and Bristol neatly, 
but when you get past Bristol, don't take the new Severn bridge (which is 
now signposted M4), take the old suspension bridge (which has been 
renumbered the M48 and is signposted for Chepstow). Bikes don't pay a toll 
on either bridge, by the way...

Immediately after the tolls, you need to be looking for the junction which 
takes you to Chepstow. Provided it's dry, head off there and follow the 
excellently twisty A466 road, past the ruins of Tintern Abbey, through the 
Wye Valley up to Monmouth. I say 'provided it's dry' because the 
road-surface on the Wye Valley road is seriously past its best, and in the 
wet it's like a particularly dangerous skating rink, but in the dry it's 
one hell of a ride. In other words, only ride it in the wet if you are happy 
sliding about unpredictably in a target rich environment. An alternative wet 
weather route would involve the A449 north from J24, back to the A40 
en-route to Abergavvenny. 

Whichever route you take, turn left onto the A40 and head for Abergavenny. 
Once there, follow the A40 through town, stopping optionally at the regional 
bikers meeting place which, bizarrely, is at the bacon butty shack in the 
bus-station car-park (on your right, and absolutely heaving with bikes on a 
Sunday). 

The A40 is a wonderfully fast road, blighted very occasionally by porcine 
interest from the South Wales plod and their lasers. Keep it clean through 
the towns and villages, keep your eyes open in the many many miles of fast, 
open stuff and don't emulate the hordes of mentally deficient squids in any 
knee-down-round-blind-corner or overtaking-through-junction antics and you 
should be just fine. South Wales is a damned big place populated by a very 
small quantity of prime pork, so you aren't at great risk.

Now you have choices. Get to Brecon and turn north on the A470 which will 
(eventually) take you all the way to North Wales through some of the most 
amazing scenery you have ever ridden through, or if you have time stick on 
the A40 as far as Carmarthen, then head for Lampeter, Aberaeron and the 
equally wonderful coast road, and take a longer route round to Anglesey. The 
latter huge detour might be a little (or a lot) far for a day, though...


Hope this helps!



Ken Haylock - Sprint ST - MAG Life member #93160

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                     * kwh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx *                     

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