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The Raglan - Abergavenny lanes


boboneleg

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So I had a late pass out for today so I plotted a route last night at 10.30 pm to do some lanes that I haven't ridden for probably 15 years.

Made my way on the less travelled roads around Bristol and then across the Severn Bridge.........

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Once I passed Chepstow I found that the A466 Tintern road is closed so a diversion was made via Trellech where I did a short lane and discovered  that it was very wet.  On over Cwmcarvan Hill where the roads are narrow and have high hedges/banks..............

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Trust me to meet the Milk tanker coming towards me, I had no option but to dismount and make a 27-point turn to ride back up to a point where he could pass.  Here's the bugger, I met him later on in another lane but thank god we were travelling in the same direction............

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Anyway, as I said earlier there was a lot of water today as it has been raining continuously for the past two days. A lot of the lanes looked like this..........

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It also had the effect a leaving a 2-inch layer of red slime on some of the lanes as the rain had settled on the clay dust, it made it hard work at times and there certainly wasn't any 'styling and profiling' going on , just a lot of paddling to remain upright...........

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It was about 11.00am now so time for a coffee stop, this old oak tree made a good place to stop.........

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So onto another lane where I came across this....................

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I have never seen lying water so black, I have no idea what caused it , pesticides draining off the fields ?  cow piss ? all I know is I fulled intended NOT to fall off in it. 

Of course had Pete been there he would have phoned for Taxi immediately  :thud:

And then back across the old Abergavenny road and onto some lovely green lanes, I took some photos of the wild flowers for Michelle............

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Then onto a cracker of a lane, it's hard to believe that this would have once been a main route for carriages back in the day..........

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The only problem with this lane is the amount of gates you have to open and close, when you're on your own it can be a real chore......

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 Further on it gets a bit narrow, the rut in this part is so deep that my bike is wedged in it here..........

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The 'wedging'  resulted in a bent brake lever, must be made from a re-cycled Thai wok  :classic_unsure:

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Once I got back down to the main road I stopped to repair the lever and sorted out my leg.  It was well sweaty by now with all the exersion so to save another 'incident' I sorted it out :littleguy:

 

 

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8 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Shit......that looks like hard work Bob! 

It was the hardest ride I've had on my own for a long while, I'll sleep soundly tonight .

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1 minute ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

Nice one Bob i haven't been out that way on the lanes myself for a while

I'd forgotten how good they are Fred, the conditions made them quite challenging today

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Came accross a little pond/puddle of dark water today, I turned back :classic_laugh:

Also, those english roads with the edges next to them and no space for people walking or visibility really look claustrophobic to me.

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So into Abergavenny to get some petrol and then onto the next lane, this was a good point to stop for my sandwiches..........

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At the other end of the lane there's a farm on the right, nothing unusual about that but what was strange were the Peacocks on top of the horse box :classic_blink:

At first I thought they were 'ornaments' but then the ornaments started moving and showing off their backsides, it was quite comical............

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Once I was back on the road I saw a sign for Llandewi Skirrid church, I'm not at all religious but I love the architechture......

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I'd gone as far north as I was going today so started heading back south and onto the next lane..............

 

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There were a few obstacles in this one as well............

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The next lane drops down over a hill and ends at a ford but there's a twist as you have to ride in the ford for a couple of hundred yards to get out......

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and then we were close to White Castle so popped up there to get a photo for the castle lovers...........

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Further down the road is this, I'd never see it before it seems there was a hunting lodge here in past times, all that remains now is the moat...........

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Apparently this lane is known locally as 'Knicker Lane' as a lot of courting took place there in the 60's/70's  . You'd have a hell of a job to get your Ford Cortina up there now :classic_laugh:

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So there's a saying amongst trail-riders which goes something like 'one more lane, what could possibly go wrong? '  Today was that 'one more lane'

It's a lane that I haven't ridden for over 20 years, I know that because when I last rode it I had two legs , and I rode it 'down' , and it was dry, and , and

So I turned into it , opend the gate and thought , that doesn't look too bad...........

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and then it got steeper, and then I came to this...............

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Well I got under that one with a bit of manouvering and then I took off on some rock steps and landed here............

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It may only be a 250 but when it's on its side and it's wet and muddy it's bloody hard to lift up on your own :classic_blink:

and why is it that in a photo it never looks as steep as it really is, I swear it was about 1 in 4 here..........

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Just a bit further on the trail is crossed at right angles by a forestry track and I did think to bail out along there and hope that there wasn't a barrier at the end, but I thought 'it can't get any worse' . Oh yes it can............

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This was a fecker as I could get under it if I dismounted and leaned the bike over to the right but what you can't see is the berm on the ground preventing me from getting any traction.  In the end I inched it through by killing the engine , leaving it in gear and used the starter to inch it bit by bit until I was free...

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The fun still wasn't over as round the corner was big feck-off rock step, I couldn't face going back and there really wasn't anywhere to turn around so I took a deep breath and launched myself at it . 

This little bike bloody amazes me, the nay-sayers say 'its got no power' but what it does have is traction and you can have all the power in the  world but if you can't put that power down then it's pointless.

So after finishing off my coffee and phoning my wife to tell her I might be a bit late :classic_unsure:  it was back down to Chepstow and onto the M48/M4 where I ran at 70mph on knobblies :classic_biggrin:

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How great!! Really miss the country side there... Boy you really go deep into off road!!! Brave! The bike is very cute! 

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15 hours ago, boboneleg said:

Further down the road is this, I'd never see it before it seems there was a hunting lodge here in past times, all that remains now is the moat...........

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Apparently this lane is known locally as 'Knicker Lane' as a lot of courting took place there in the 60's/70's  . You'd have a hell of a job to get your Ford Cortina up there now :classic_laugh:

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near where i live there is a quiet lane where courting couples used to go and down there there was a big bush which was called a rubber tree guess why (hanging on every branch and twig )

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