53 Miles and 3 Sore Bums

This is a week late, I've been busy organising alleycat stuff, so instead of blabbing on for ages it'll be mostly photos with captions. Exposition: Kerry, Owen and me (the one and only Ty) are trying to cycle further and further each week in preperation for cycling to Paris next year. This trip was 47 miles (53 for me), we took in Gorseinon, Llanelli, Pembrey, Burry Port and Kidwelly...

Bike route 273881 - powered by Bikemap

Owen had spotted some bike parts in the window of an old shop in Gorseinon so we went there first, we were shocked to find a Penny Farthing hung from the ceiling and loads of really old Raleigh signs on the walls. We spoke to the dude there for a while, he was as deaf as a door post but judging by this it will be worth going back for a longer chat!

We hit the Millennium Coastal Path, I'm not sure which part of 'cycle track' they don't understand but most of this thing is gravel, the nice parts are really nice but riding 700x23's on a gritty track is not ideal.


This very use(less)ful map (didn't) showed us exactly where we'd been and exactly where we were going, Owen tried explaining to me with the aid of, and I quote, the "gun show", he's very helpful like that. Just after this I busted a textbook backward circle and an old dude on a road bike in all the gear stopped and clearly wanted to talk to us, he didn't though.

Burry Port has the absolute worst example of a skate park that I have ever seen and I have seen a lot of shit skate parks, unfortunately the useless bastards at Swansea council won't even cough up for an embarrassment like this!
Kerry was off like a rocket at times, later on in the day I spotted a slow worm on the path, said it was a snake and she did a great bit of classic Merckx acceleration, haha, GIRLS!

Amelia Earhart landed in Burry port after flying over the Atlantic way back when, there is a plaque commemorating her journey and this classic small town sign showing just how far away it really is from anything exciting.

We got to Kidwelly Castle, it was quite expensive to get in to so we just sat on a bench debating whether we wanted to hit the massive 12 or so mountain miles to Carmarthen, we decided it was too late to go any further. A classic Chevy Chase style American car pulled into the car park and this dude got out wearing sandals, a t-shirt and the brightest damned Speedo's ever, they were maybe even older than the castle.


First stop on the journey back was the Co-Op, in the car park we very much enjoyed looking at "Sue Per Snax", a crappy burger bar whose name is only topped by "Wots Cookin' To" in Clydach Market. For this picture my art direction was "you look in the bin and I will sit here like a king on a throne", I think Owen captured my vision perfectly.
This is where things got weird, we were about to find that the gravel track was quite a luxury earlier on. Cycle Route 4 goes through some private farm land in the Pembrey area, we had lost our way earlier and ended up on the road but this time we were determined to take the path. I've not been on a cycle path before where you have to descend a set of steps, go through a secure gate and come face to face with a herd of bloodthirsty cows. Me and Owen though that the "path" went right around the herd so we decided to have a race on the bovine velodrome, half way round we came up against a hurdle, namely a great big pool of slurry composed of shit and water, we turned around and raced back, our spirits and dreams shattered.


This cow was freaking Kerry out so we had to leave, there is something far more scary about a single cow than a whole load of the buggers don't you think?

Now this may look idilic but we were concerned about rapists and murderers at this point, we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, we hadn't seen another human for a long time and all 3 of out iPhones were refusing to find the network. We kept going for what seemed like yonks, then the "SNAKE!" incident happened, Me and Owen took off in pursuit of a shaken but not stired Kerry...

...Something was wrong, gravel seemed badly thought out, steps and cows was a bit mental but an uphill stretch of 'cycle path' made out of sand was something else...

...Then the inevitable happened, we were on the beach...

Again the iPhones we hating us...

Even the 3Gs could not save us now!

So we just had to turn around and go back, at a crossroads we went right on to another gravel track and into the woods, we were sure this was Pembrey Country Park so all was well at last, we even started pulling some skidz.

Kerry's Charge Plug has been ringing, we had thought it was her bell but it turned out that all along it had been her back brake cable (she rides singlespeed cause she is a big girls blouse, ha!) pinging against the frame, luckily girls are an inventive, multitasking, weird bunch of people so she had a plan...

...Stick it down with a brightly coloured plaster, sweeeeet.
Back in Burry Port the bunting, brass band and general buzz across the water attracted us, we went over there to find the end of a fishing competition. Any other vegan would have walked away in disgust but not me, I love animals so much that seeing a squashed squirrel is as good as seeing a bear and seeing a big dead fish is better than seeing no fish so I had a quick look, made a few "I can smell fish, close your legs, love" jokes to myself then we headed off on the final stretch. The wind was behind us at last and we flew the last however many miles. The End.

Read more...

Shop - County Cycles, Cross Hands

I popped into County Cycles in Cross Hands the other week, it's a nice little shop and the staff were friendly too, which is nice (rare). Downstairs is filled with accessories and general bikes, like a little mini Halfords ;-) but upstairs is filled with some serious kit, they keep loads of top of the range road bikes in stock as well as a truly impressive selection of jerseys! They don't keep any fixed gear specific stuff in stock but said they can order stuff in which is fair enough as Cross Hands is hardly the epicentre of all things 'new and exciting'. Check out their website: http://county-cycles.com

Read more...

Swansea, Llanelli, Cross Hands, Carmarthen Done!

Yesterday I decided that today I would get on the bike and just ride, no plans, no messing about just me, my bike and the open road. So I left the house with my phone, a 15mm, puncture kit, an airstik and some cash money. First stops were Lidl and Tesco looking for a saddle bag, Lidl didn't have any and the one in Tesco is so wacky that I couldn't figure out how it would attach so I left it.

Next stop was Parc Trostre for a TK Maxx visit, they had some killer jeans for 8 squids but I had nowhere to put them :'-( when I came out it was pissing down, luckily it only lasted for a minute, I went into Tesco again to try and figure out the saddle bag but it still didn't make any sense, I bought some tyre levers cause I'd forgotten mine (didn't even need them!). Using the GPS on my iPhone I tried to find County Cycles with no luck cause it wasn't there anymore, heart broken I hit the A476 to their other shop in Cross Hands, this was quite a trip! It was only about 10 miles but pretty bloody hilly at times, I really enjoyed the country views but not the stink of shit. I won't say much about County Cycles cause there'll be a post on them tomorrow, they gave me a free energy gel and a map to Carmarthen drawn on a bit of till roll which was very nice of them.

Another 10 or so miles of hills and getting blown all over the place by HGV's and I was doing laps at Carmarthen Velodrome. (A quick note on the energy gel: I'd never had one before so I probably imagined this but a few mins after popping it I was off my tits, I couldn't stop singing Totally Wired and was flying up the A48 like a bolt of skinny lightening.) The velodrome is in pretty bad condition but still really fun, I didn't stay long cause I was on my own but another trip soon is on the cards, anyone up for it???

I got lost 3 times trying to find the city centre but I got myself a cola Slush Puppy so it wasn't that bad. I went to TK Maxx, it sucked. I then got the train home cause it was getting late and I was hungry. Half way through a packet of salt & vinegar Walkers I discovered that they are no longer vegan, twats!

5 More miles from town and I was home proper, 40 miles in total, smashing my previous longest days ride of 22 miles. Check out the cool map below and some pix from the day.

Bike route 218667 - powered by Bikemap

Hover over the graph to see the killer hills.

6 Miles to go...

Pffffft!

Click the pic for a great big version

Classic grafitti

Mmmmmm, Slush Puppy

Sexy mannequin

Last stop: TK Maxx

Read more...