Sir Fallsalot

It could happen I'm consuming a lot of beer tonight

Maybe with the help of these

I wish you had said that earlier that's why i headed home from my ride early because it was kissing me knickers

His tank is plastic Pete LOL

Its not my fault if you had used the word Link i would have seen it I'm just a simple man LOL

Feeling a bit cheesed off i couldn't use the bike after rebuilding the rear shock this morning due to a new corvid lockdown, but after reading the rules for the area I discovered it was only stopping me from leaving or entering Rhondda Cynon Taff which consists of five valleys so plenty of places to ride without breaking the lockdown rules. I started off going up a lane i haven't been to for years the main route is now blocked by fallen trees so had to go around on this path This is back on the route but i see there are more trees down ahead The bike doesn't feel right its slipping all over the place and i fall off after getting over the fallen tree behind the bike. I decided to have a look ahead before i go to the trouble of negotiating all the fallen trees glad i did the trail is washed out and looked worse further up so made the decision to turn around especially as i was dressed for the winter and it was bloody boiling out The next lane is a few miles further up the valley and the bike performs flawlessly on the road there. At the gate to the lane i decide to reduce the tyre pressures as i know this lane is washed out and tricky in places, looks like i need a new pressure gauge on my compressor i put 15psi in but my mobile pump is showing over 20psi drops the pressure front and rear to about 12psi Reducing the pressures made all the difference the bike feels like it should now no more of that sliding about. I stop at this memorial bench someone has fitted since my last ride up here to admire the view and i also wanted to watch a landrover that was coming up behind me negotiate some of the washed out bits on the way up The view from the bench is great but a bit windy which i didn't mind as it helped me cool down That's Penrhys in the middle distance the shitty in the sky and i didn't spell city wrong there, it used to be a real rough area to live Here comes the Landy I stopped to talk to the landy driver a bit further up, he was doing the same as me with his boy and he shared a video of me getting off and on the bike lol I stalled the bike and when i put my foot down to save it the bloody kick start lever went up my trouser leg and my foot never got to the ground anyhow that's not important lol the next bit was through a bit of forestry not as wet as the last time i was here the next lane i didn't stop for any photos so after that it is up by Penrhys. I like this one because it goes through a golf course and you can see the contempt on some of the golfers faces as you ride through Further on And Heading home only a short ride but really picked me up

Never mind just seen the other post ?

@XTreme so what you getting

I was just trying to work out how long me and the wife have been married it was 27 years this year but been together for 34 years?

Your right @Tym i re read the lockdown rules and all it stipulates is you do not leave or enter RCT without a valid reason so i took the bike to the local jet wash to get it clean and then dragged the XR out to get it dirty staying inside the county of RCT feeling much happier now

Nice one Bob enjoy you got to pamper the lady now and then ?

Just trying to motivate myself to wash this after last weekend but this lockdown shit has me feeling depressed

That is one weird looking thing

Nothing wrong with me that a good diet wouldn't fix but that ain't going to happen so i'm fucked as well

No mine Pedro

How much is scrap copper out there Pete must be worth a bit as someones gone to the trouble of stripping it out the walls

I have no idea. First job change underpants then give the bike a good look over check everything that's supposed to be tight is, and everything that's supposed to be loose is. If you find nothing wrong part it out

Back to the ride this is a photo of the tunnel entrance where i had to turn around its the group of trees to the left of the pylon Down to a place called Pontygwaith from there to the humpiest hump back bridge i know of Looking into the Taf again Just off the tram road is this, i'm not sure what its purpose was i think a WW2 pill box Looks like some poor bastard spent a night or two in here Good view from the window Back on the tram road its now the Taf trail only those pedal powered heathens allowed on here so only rode in for a couple of photos and then left. I used to ride it all the time before everyone went green On the parish road to methyr now i cant think I've ever seen anyone walking up here but past 3 families on the way everyone's invading my peace since corvid used to be just me the horses and the sheep The black shapes above the brown horse in the distance are solar panels lots of them appearing here now Aberdare in the valley below here This is looking towards Sennybridge one of my many favourite roads This is one of the reasons i came out today I've had a few people ask me about a few lanes on the TET https://transeurotrail.org/ Lots think it's a route suitable for the larger bikes i've been telling people not all of it in the UK is so decided to take a few photos of two i know would be a challenge The start on this one looks ok But soon becomes a flat twins nightmare Bike for scale Quite nice once you get past all that though But soon goes down hill literally LOL Ends in someones garden And the next one isn't much better looks rough from the start This photo and the next show how in my opinion these easily accessible routes on line affect the lanes the second photo i took in 2012 same lane and location On the way home i decided to check out a lane i thought i haven't ridden before The road there was good starts off ok But doesn't last long surprisingly that was all OK to get through Photo to prove i didn't go around When i got here i realised i had ridden this before many years ago and vowed i'd never come back bloody poor memory, getting old sucks LOL Stuck here for a short while but pulling it back a few few feet slipping it into second with lots of gas sorted that. After that it was a bit more hard work before getting stuck again I wasn't far from the main track which goes around this shit but the red dots are supposed to be the vehicle right of way. You will notice by my route i had trouble finding the entrance to this i should have left it lost, i'll be sticking to the gravel next time. Almost there It was home from here along some uninspiring lanes after that And this is why we cut out or remove the front sprocket cover

He was in there yesterday riding a bike LOL When i was about 10 year old me and my sister were walking through there with the neighbours dog, around the middle one of us stepped on what we now think must have been the dogs foot, the yelp he let out meant we would have left Usain Bolt struggling to keep up with us as we exited the tunnel the fact everyone locally called it the ghost tunnel didn't help either

When walking though the wet end all you hear is water running but about halfway through it goes completely silent all you hear is your foot steps and whatever your mind thinks it hears

My mind can conjure up some pretty scary stuff when left in the dark alone

As the fuhrer of this forum instructed me to go out and ride i did, and as he likes anything to do with choo choo trains i thought i would revisit the old tunnel and viaduct where i grew up The viaduct is called Goitre Coed Viaduct the only one of three left and still in use today, originally it was a single track but was widened it to make it into a twin track i think it was designed by some bloke called brunel I think I've posted this before this is it being widened they just built another viaduct against the original one To get to the viaduct i had to ride the old tram road which passes under it, which was the place the worlds first powered rail journey took place. powered by Richard Trevithick's steam locomotive The trees are huge compared to what i remember walking along here as a lad Avon Taf in English river Taff I tried to do a now and then photo of this But all you can see now are trees So onto the tunnel the route in has had various types of blockades over the years but luckily for me the locals always find a way through, the old line ran over this little bridge This is what the line is like now hard to imagine trains travelling along here And another futile attempt to stop me getting into the tunnel, looks like some recent drainage works has been going on Tunnel is this way There it is Not the best I've seen it And we're in, only about a quarter of a mile long this one That LED light i got on the bike is not much good on the road i can see why now most of it goes up lol with the light off didn't do that for long it was a bit scary Out at the other end, they built the A470 and blocked off the exit from the cutting so you have to turn around This is the tunnel in use and this is now, the same end of the tunnel This end of the tunnel is quite wet and has drainage ditches in the centre so you have to stay to the left or right to avoid them, this end also suffers from the most deterioration You can still see all the soot on the walls here, this opening used to be a little room for the track workers to rest in, i remember it having wooden benches in there as a lad but in the miners strike back in the 80's my cousins boyfriend dug through here into the old pit workings and started digging out coal, it was filled in but this looks like someone has been in there again, i was too freaked out to take a closer look and made for the exit The exit A shaky hand held video my phone couldn't handle the bumps so its a bit blurry I then took the old parish road to get back up over the mountain, my father said he used to drive his bubble car over here 50 years ago, well there's no chance of that now. And on the top, the tunnel is beneath the bike here another now and then, the old photo showing the three viaducts, the one on the far right is the only remaining one And the same view now, you can just make out the viaduct below the smoke That's it for now i'm off to bed

For some reason whenever i read any of Moons posts i read it with the accent of inspector clouseau in my head lol

Tomorrow will be my first day off work in 11 days and since i have been leaving home at 6.20am and getting home at 6.00pm i'm going to make the most of tomorrow by having a fucking lay in