The SKCC Rogue Runners Wales 2020 trip started at stupid-O'clock (4.30 am) at Newlands Corner - and ended in horrible failure for me, a day early - but more of that later.
Day 1 - Surrey to Llangollen
Once again, we met in the pitch-black of Newlands corner and set off at 5am - the 2 Elises of Graham and Roger (1 more was late and Steve would catch us up later), the Quantum Extreme of Rob, Duncan's Caterham, Tony's Quantum and me. Our target was breakfast at Newport, to meet the final member of the group, Linda and her Tiger.
This year, the route was less M4 and more A roads, which was much better but slower and we got to breakfast around 8.30am. The weather was glorious and would remain so for the rest of the trip - incredibly lucky.
I took very few photos and the only video I thought I had taken didn't, so apologies for that (but you may be sick and tired of my videos by now).
After the breakfast farce of us sitting 1 table apart and waving across the room at each other (then standing inches apart in the same space for coffee and toast), we set off north, towards the evening hotel at Llangollen. We were prepared to alter our route if we were somehow forced to avoid the 2 Wales counties supposedly locked down (I was excitingly looking forward to driving through a police roadblock like a scene from Smokey and the Bandit) but there didn't seem to be anything on our route, although we were avoiding the large A-roads.
The route was an improvement on last year, with quieter roads although traffic was a bit heavier as well. I must remember to buy food at one of the petrol stops next time - I was expecting a nice cafe stop for lunch but everyone seemed happy to skip it!
The drive was wonderful - sun shining, lovely roads, great views - it all flew by too quickly (literally). We even, at one of our stops in a layby, saved a sheep that had got stuck in a wire fence! Annoyingly, my hot-starting issues continued, so every fuel stop was a battery-sapping cranking before Zedster fired up.
Sat-nav issues were, as always on these trips, numerous. I was the only person not to have a TomTom, so mine kept choosing a slightly different route to everyone else. Normally, I stayed in the middle of the pack and just followed others but this didn't always work and at some point I lost everyone and so spent the last hour or so on my own. I cannot remember how I lost them but it wasn't the end of the world - gave me a chance to just concentrate on driving and my route was brilliant - Zedster was flying. Even the last few miles into Llangollen wasn't as bad as last year and I was second to arrive at the hotel (after Tony, who had also got lost at some point). We need to recruit navigators!
The Hand hotel in Llangollen was right in the centre of town and it had virtually the only car parking space in the centre. The hotel did not reserve guests spaces, so getting us all parked was tricky but we finally managed to squeeze us all in. I went for a wander to buy some tourist tat for my family:
A few beers and then a nice meal in the hotel restaurant capped a superb day.
Day 2 - circular North Wales route
After a hearty full English, we set off on a new route devised by Duncan and it was a corker - starting up the famous Horseshoe Pass to some lake (sorry, I'm never good with names), it was an amazing sweeping road, although it is a notorious biker racetrack, so now has average speed cameras along it. However, averaging 60mph is pretty difficult on those roads, so it didn't bother me (although I await a brown envelope in the post in the coming weeks!). At the lake, my sat-nav seemed to miss the coffee stop at the lake (very annoyed about that!), I think because I was just enjoying the road too much and not looking at the screen. Tony and Rob did the same thing and so the 3 of us decided to just carry on and meet up with the others later:
Shortly after the above pic was taken, on a single-lane road with no passing places, a huge tractor appeared around the bend. We had to reverse 200m or so before he managed to squeeze on a kerb and let us past. We took turns to lead and managed to keep together as far as Llandudno, where we stopped for a coffee and a chip butty for me (why does no-one else eat lunch?!). With amazing timing, we set off for the toll road round the Great Orme just as the others pulled up behind us.
The rest of the day was a blur - Conwy Castle, Llanberis Pass (I'm told), great roads, lovely scenery, all bathed in sunshine. Predictably, I missed a turning, with Rob following me while the others went off. I should have just turned around but I HATE turning round and Rob and I spent the last hour alone, occasionally hearing the others over the radio. Later on, I lost Rob as well - I'm like a reverse people-magnet! Annoyingly, I missed the stop at the Ffestiniog (sp?) railway but the drive was just awesome and I pulled up back at the Hand, the first back, with Rob arriving soon after.
That evening, after a couple of beers, half of us de-camped to a local Indian for an enjoyable meal.
Day 3 - Llangollen to Llandrindod Wells
Today went very pear-shaped for me. It started ok, with the group splitting up and half (the ones who got ready sooner) leaving first - I left in the second group. We had a great hour or so, on a lovely road towards Bala.
Around this time, I heard an ominous clunk from my gearshift. I mentioned it on the radio and we agreed to have a look at it at the next stop. Ten minutes later, just after a hairpin bend, my gear lever went loose and there was a clank noise as something dropped in the tunnel. I rolled to a halt in a layby and took the tunnel top of, expecting to see a bolt having vibrated loose. Sadly, it was MUCH worse than that:
That is the top pole of the GBS quickshift which had completely snapped. Game over. Without welding equipment, none of us could think of a fix, so I called my breakdown company and the others left to carry on.
Now, I'll have to admit, the ensuing chaos was mostly my own fault and I'll write it here to remind myself - feel free to skip this long paragraph. It starts with the fact that my first MOT was due on August 1st. I thought I was entitled to the 3 month MOT extension because of Covid but, no, that ran out on July 31st!!! So my MOT was due August 1st, which I discovered a week before and I couldn't get a test done before that date, so it eventually got done on August 8th or so. Unfortunately, this meant my direct debit for my road tax failed on August 1st because the DVLA system said my car had no MOT, so I had no road tax. Now, my breakdown cover is through ADAC, the German version of the AA. They have an arrangement with the AA but when they called the AA, they said they weren't allowed to come try fix the car because it was, strictly, not legally allowed on the road. All they would do was tow it to a 'storage area' until I paid the road tax. I then discovered that my ADAC cover would only allow £300 towards recovery home - AA wanted £800 to do that! So even if I got the AA to come out, all they would do was take it to a garage (this was Sunday, none would be open) and I'd have to hang around while someone tried to fix my car, for some exorbitant rate. I just wanted to get the car home where I could do the fix myself. I used an online emergency tow service and got some bloke who would recover me for £400 but he would take 3-4 hours to get to me (he was in Manchester). ADAC agreed to pay £300 of that, so I asked the guy to come get me and settled down to wait.
By this time, it was 2pm and I'd already been sat by the side of the road for 3 hours. Bored, I started rummaging through my tool kit to see if there was anything I could do as a bodge to get me moving. Thinking it was like a broken leg, I looked for a splint and bandages - Allen keys and gaffer tape, maybe? After a few tries, I had this:
And, amazingly, it seemed to work, although I had to use 2 hands to change gear - one to push the rose joint in and stop the bodge from pulling off, the other to move the lever. Just then, a guy from the RHOCAR forum returned my message and invited me to stay at his place overnight and he could fix the part on the next day. Only problem, he was 70 miles away in Tamworth. I cancelled the recovery guy and went for it...
I set off and I managed the first 15 miles in 4th gear but the traffic started getting heavier and roundabouts are a killer when you don't want to change gear. Also, gaffer tape doesn't like heat and the heat from the engine was melting the glue. Suffice to say, I had to stop 3 more times to re-do my bodge job (I ended up using half the roll of tape), although my last version was much better and felt like it would last longer:
Day 4 - Tamworth to Surrey
Anyone reading this from the RHOCAR club may know Rich - he is a legend. Thirty years at JLR means he knows his stuff, has a garage (the neatest I have ever seen) filled with 'stuff' and what he doesn't know about engineering 'aint worth knowing. His garage contains his immaculate, V8-powered Zero, a mini-caravan he built himself from an old trailer and an awesome hard-top for the Zero, complete with interior light and roof vents. He's the guy who made the doors on Zedster. For him, welding up my gear shift literally took him 30 minutes - I've never seen anything like it. It took me 10 minutes to get my dash off and another 10 minutes to get the quickshift unscrewed. Rich looked at it for about 30 seconds and then started drilling, grinding, welding and painting:
I was actually very useful - I moved Rich's coffee mug so it was always close to him as he scurried round. Essential, I think...not that Rich stopped for long enough to drink it. If it had been left to me, Zedster would have been off the road for months.
Moral of the story: if you have to break down, make sure you're near Tamworth.
With Zedster back together by 11am, I considered trying to re-join the others but I would just end up driving to get to the overnight stop, missing all the days route and great roads. So I set a vague route for home, skipping all the major towns and main roads.
I actually had a great drive back - there are some surprisingly nice roads just a few miles from the edge of Birmingham and the Cotswold villages are very scenic. Strangely, Zedster's hot-starting was much improved over the day and the extra weight in the quickshift means the gear lever vibrates less - result!
Overrall, it had been a fun trip, even though I only did half of it. The weather was ridiculous (I look like I've spent a week on a sunbed), the company was great and even breaking down was a useful learning experience.
Sorry this post was so long - for more detail from others on the trip, check out this SKCC post.
Seems like there is no stopping you. Good going and Carry ON.
ReplyDeleteFantastic! Such a shame it ended in frustration- the joys of Kitcat ownership...
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