Wales Tour 2008

[vfr_steve]

I had a fantastic 1000 mile tour around the Welsh mountains with my girl, what better way to explore this beautiful, majestic countryside than on my VFR.

Here are some photo's, hope you enjoy them

Start of the trip...

The 200 mile journey to Llandudno

Some of the roads were 1/3 gradient - during our 2nd day we went up to the top of Great Orme, the very steep incline was not a problem for the VFR with heavy luggage and passenger, until the idiot car driver in front of me decided to randomly stop. I had to hold the bike using both brakes as the front just started sliding me back down. I revved the engine hard and managed to get going again only to be greeted with gravel at the top! With all this going on and my heart in my mouth Sarah commented.. 'This is beautiful, can we come back soon'

View from our window

Cafe upon Lanberis pass, with truely breathtaking views, taking a breather for a coffee and hot quiche

Starting our day the right way every morning...

Swallow Falls

and a very dorky shot of me with the silver bullet

I have 2 low res videos that Sarah took on the back of the bike in 'gp' format and I'm not sure how to upload them?

Thanks and comments appreciated!

[timmythecop]

Thats funny, I just put this photo in another thread:

and I know what you have shown is called an "all day breakfast"

and my mothers surname was Jones

and my grandfather was a coal miner

and English people make fun of me

why?

Because I'm Welsh.

From Aberdare, factually.

Looks like a good trip, I wish I could ride there too. Looks a bit chilly, but thats OK.

[Joker]

Looks like the ride of a lifetime, very impressive pictures.

Equally impressive is the fact you wear pink Converse Allstars AND have a hot girlfriend!!! :fing02:

[vfr_steve]

Looks like the ride of a lifetime, very impressive pictures.

Equally impressive is the fact you wear pink Converse Allstars AND have a hot girlfriend!!! :fing02:

haha I actually ended up taking one out because the top box was already overflowing but then somehow the shoe in question got left behind as I forgot to pack it into the rucksack ... My hot girl friend was not impressed :pissed: :fing02:

[Tyke]

Nice, I have an aunt that lives in Llandudno and I've driven those roads many times, just never been able to ride them. I keep threatening to rent a bike over there and ride all those roads and maybe head over to the Isle of Man too. One day :fing02: maybe.

Looks like you had a good time.

[vfr_steve]

Nice, I have an aunt that lives in Llandudno and I've driven those roads many times, just never been able to ride them. I keep threatening to rent a bike over there and ride all those roads and maybe head over to the Isle of Man too. One day :biggrin: maybe.

Looks like you had a good time.

The roads were incredible, some of the passes full of hair-pins with vertical drops beyond the barrier, certainly no room for error. Looking forward to the Lake District next. :goofy:

[V4 Rosso]

Great scenery, love to go for ride around Wales sometime but....

.. do they also speak English or just Welsh like in the pic above? :biggrin:

[timmythecop]

[edit] Languages

Main articles: English language and Welsh language

The Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages be treated on a basis of equality. However, even English has only de facto official status in the UK (see Languages of the United Kingdom) and this has led political groups like Plaid Cymru to question whether such legislation is sufficient to ensure the survival of the Welsh language.[26]

English is spoken by almost all people in Wales and is therefore the de facto main language (see Welsh English). However, northern and western Wales retain many areas where Welsh is spoken as a first language by the majority of the population and English is learnt as a second language. 21.7% of the Welsh population is able to speak or read Welsh to some degree (based on the 2001 census), although only 16% claim to be able to speak, read and write it, which may be related to the stark differences between colloquial and literary Welsh. According to a language survey conducted in 2004, a larger proportion that 21.7% claim to have some knowledge of the language.[27] Today there are very few truly monoglot Welsh speakers, other than small children, but individuals still exist who may be considered less than fluent in English and rarely speak it. There were still many monoglots as recently as the middle of the 20th century.[28] Road signs in Wales are generally in both English and Welsh; where place names differ in the two languages, both versions are used (e.g. "Cardiff" and "Caerdydd").

During the 20th century a number of small communities of speakers of languages other than English or Welsh, such as Bengali or Cantonese, have established themselves in Wales as a result of immigration. This phenomenon is almost exclusive to urban Wales. The Italian Government funds the teaching of Italian to Welsh residents of Italian ancestry. These other languages do not have legal equality with English and Welsh, although public services may produce information leaflets in minority ethnic languages where there is a specific need, as happens elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

[mick]

Man, yer makin' me homesick! I lived near Oxford many years ago and on the weekends I would head to Wales via the Cotswolds every chance I got!

The scene in the picture below looks familiar. Is this Aberystwyth by any chance?? My poor used up memory cells are probably confusing it with some other place.

I had a fantastic 1000 mile tour around the Welsh mountains with my girl, what better way to explore this beautiful, majestic countryside than on my VFR.

[vfr_steve]

Hey Mick, glad I'm making the memories come flooding back for you. The photo is in fact of Llandudno, taken from the window of where we stayed

[HispanicSlammer]

That picture of your wife with her bangs reminds me of the rocker Chrissy Hines from "The Pretenders"

[timmythecop]

That picture of your wife with her bangs reminds me of the rocker Chrissy Hines from "The Pretenders"

I was going to say the same thing, and I am a HUGE Pretenders fan.

[Rivcyko]

Been missing on a lot of post ho-'n. Been watch'n a lot of threads, but gott'a hit this,........................ Cool very cool. Michigan is a beautious state, But not like that. ('Specially from the Freeway).

Looks like fun, Steve. Good deal, on a viffer, that floats your boat. Ride on! Nice pics and wright-up.

:cool:

[ShayneJack]

NICE PICS + REPORT! One of the things I enjoy most about VFRD is being able to see life through the eyes of a fellow rider. Even if on the other side of the world, it's almost like I'm there watching...

I hope that I'm able to do the same when I write reports...

once again, NICE JOB!!!

:cool: :biggrin:

[V4 Rosso]

I have 2 low res videos that Sarah took on the back of the bike in 'gp' format and I'm not sure how to upload them?

I don't think you can, but you can upload it to youtube and embed the video in a message here on VFRD.

[vfr_steve]

Great scenery, love to go for ride around Wales sometime but....

.. do they also speak English or just Welsh like in the pic above? :goofy:

Mostly English, in fact during the entire week I heard very few people speaking Welsh, something like only 14% of the population speak the language on a daily basis now, shame.

That picture of your wife with her bangs reminds me of the rocker Chrissy Hines from "The Pretenders"

I don't know why I haven't picked up on that before, I don't mind actually, Chrissy was hot in her day!

NICE PICS + REPORT! One of the things I enjoy most about VFRD is being able to see life through the eyes of a fellow rider. Even if on the other side of the world, it's almost like I'm there watching...

I hope that I'm able to do the same when I write reports...

once again, NICE JOB!!!

:fing02: :fing02:

Thanks for the feedback :fing02: this is my first real ride report, next time I'll take more photo's of the roads, which at points got so narow you'd think you're in someone's back garden!

:goofy:

I have 2 low res videos that Sarah took on the back of the bike in 'gp' format and I'm not sure how to upload them?

I don't think you can, but you can upload it to youtube and embed the video in a message here on VFRD.

Thanks, I've never tried youtube... now let's see if it's come out alright... (it's low quality though, no music and you can just hear the sound of that sweet V4 every now and then .. I think the video is still proccessing so it may be up soon...

I'd still rather post my trip here than on the British VFR Club site :fing02:

[vfr_steve]

Here's the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYoOauxcmGk

[timmythecop]

very cool video, but my neck hurts.

[V4 Rosso]

:goofy: Just rotate your screen. With some videodrivers you can rotate the screen by pressing some keys.

But here it is, rotated and embedded for your convenience :fing02:

Nice roads, just the way I like 'em, narrow with twisty bits and with great views and not to much traffic. :goofy:

You can embed a googel or youtube video using the video tag, like this:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1H6-zvzc9g&[/video]

[Honley]

Great write up and great pics.This is the reason VFRD is such a good forum. It lets you travel all over the world without leaving home.

Scotland is my families homeland.(150 years ago) Wales is a beautiful place and I would like to see it in person someday.

I watched your video and I realized you are riding on the wrong side of the road!!!

THANKS AGAIN!!

[VFR FLYER]

Great write up and great pics.This is the reason VFRD is such a good forum. It lets you travel all over the world without leaving home.

Scotland is my families homeland.(150 years ago) Wales is a beautiful place and I would like to see it in person someday.

I watched your video and I realized you are riding on the wrong side of the road!!!

THANKS AGAIN!!

my wife and i spent 16 days driving cornwall and south wales. in a car driving from the wrong side of the car helps you to remember where to drive. i think riders would have a harder time of it. in the middle of the video the road is a narrow one lane and still has two way traffic. we were on many such roads that were exactly the width of the car and its a two way road! keeps your attention that way! beautiful country, but we didn't see as much blue skies as in that video in the whole 16 days...........

[Honley]

Great write up and great pics.This is the reason VFRD is such a good forum. It lets you travel all over the world without leaving home.

Scotland is my families homeland.(150 years ago) Wales is a beautiful place and I would like to see it in person someday.

I watched your video and I realized you are riding on the wrong side of the road!!!

THANKS AGAIN!!

my wife and i spent 16 days driving cornwall and south wales. in a car driving from the wrong side of the car helps you to remember where to drive. i think riders would have a harder time of it. in the middle of the video the road is a narrow one lane and still has two way traffic. we were on many such roads that were exactly the width of the car and its a two way road! keeps your attention that way! beautiful country, but we didn't see as much blue skies as in that video in the whole 16 days...........

I agree.It is easier when the wheel is on the right side of the car. I've tried both and if you are going to drive on the wrong side you better have a car with the wheel on the wrong side as well!

[mick]

I agree.It is easier when the wheel is on the right side of the car. I've tried both and if you are going to drive on the wrong side you better have a car with the wheel on the wrong side as well!

Heh! Right side, left side, it doesn't matter. When the rules change suddenly your brain can still short out on you. When I lived in the UK I owned a right hand drive VW Beetle (I know, kinda dates me). After being there a couple of years I took off across the channel on a European tour (in Europe, they drive on the opposite side of the road from the British). The minute I got off the ferry in France, there were signs all over the road warning you to drive in the right hand lane. I really had to concentrate to make sure I didn't wind up on the wrong side of the road when making turns. The next morning after awakening from an uncomfortable night of sleeping at a roadside pullout of some sort, we got on the road first thing and I pulled onto the road in the wrong lane only to find myself staring down a lorry. Scared the crap out of me. That incident was enough that I did just fine for the next several weeks.

When I returned to the States after being in the UK for three years, I did OK. The most irritating habit I had to break after years of driving a car with the steering wheel on the right hand side was to get back into the habit of going to the left side of the car to get in. I can't count how many times during that first month back that I came out of a store and immediately walked, zombie like, to the right hand side of the car. Got some good stares! :biggrin:

[vfr_steve]

:blush: Just rotate your screen. With some videodrivers you can rotate the screen by pressing some keys.

But here it is, rotated and embedded for your convenience :lurk:

Nice roads, just the way I like 'em, narrow with twisty bits and with great views and not to much traffic. :wheel:

You can embed a googel or youtube video using the video tag, like this:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1H6-zvzc9g&[/video]

Great thanks for taking the time to do it properly ... looks alot better seeing it the right way around :fing02:

Great write up and great pics.This is the reason VFRD is such a good forum. It lets you travel all over the world without leaving home.

Scotland is my families homeland.(150 years ago) Wales is a beautiful place and I would like to see it in person someday.

I watched your video and I realized you are riding on the wrong side of the road!!!

THANKS AGAIN!!

That's what I love about this site thanks everyone for your feedback on my report :ohmy:

Steve

[V4 Rosso]

Great scenery, love to go for ride around Wales sometime but....

.. do they also speak English or just Welsh like in the pic above? :biggrin:

Mostly English, in fact during the entire week I heard very few people speaking Welsh, something like only 14% of the population speak the language on a daily basis now, shame.

Stumbled upon a webpage that reminded me of this thread.

E-mail error ends up on road sign

This is what happens when not many speak the language anymore :biggrin: :beer: