Page 116 - 2022-08-01 RiDE

BRITAIN’S BEST RIDE-OUTS B-ROADS
Carving round
the hillsides
between stone
walls and trees
the reservoir south side first, so cross the dam
to start. It’s the UK’s first stone dam, 144ft
high, 1175ft long and 128ft thick at the base,
built over seven years from 1881 to 1888 from
massive blocks of Welsh stone. The flooding
of the valley, to around 80ft, drowned a
village and lost a church, inns, farms and
houses – the residents were rehoused in a new village
downstream of the new reservoir.
The road around Lake Vyrnwy’s perimeter isn’t the
most thrilling – it’s a low-speed roll under a canopy of
oak, birch and pine, looping for 20 miles alongside the
dark, still water – but it’s deeply atmospheric.
8 | BRITAIN’S BEST RIDE-OUTS
Back into daylight, the clouds are moving in – it’s
never long without rain in the middle of Wales – and we
plunder our way along the B4396 to Penybontfawr to
pick up the B4391. This is a cracking B, climbing up the
side of a hill with spectacular views down into the valley
below – well, they would be if the cloud would lift. We
dive around a fold in the hillsides to a sharp 90-degree
bend – I remember this corner; I was here 30 years ago,
in 1992, getting my knee down on another Triumph 900;
a Trophy, one of Hinckley’s very first models. Must’ve
been braver back then.
We stop in Bala for a bite and a coffee, sitting on a table
outside the Ty Coffi café. Bikes are all over – it looks
more like Douglas prom during TT week than a town in
Wales. Good to see. Then we refuel the Tiger and the
20-litre tank, which has taken us over 200 miles,
swallows £35. Ouch.
Out of Bala we join the B4501 and
close in on our destination just outside
Denbigh, enjoying a final romp on
clean, twisty tarmac before arriving at
the Cae Dai 1950s Museum – a
cornucopia of retro trivia at the bottom
of a driveway, hidden around the
corner, next to a boxing gym, and the
obsession of local philanthropist
Sparrow Harrison MBE. It’s an Aladdin’s
Cave of vintage knick-knacks and
general items: vehicles, toys, cigarette
No better place cards and lighters, records, furniture,
to refine your household stuff. There’s only one bike – an old Ural
cornering skills
outfit – but it’s fantastic to wander about, marvelling at
the variety of it all. Which is a bit like our back lane
A breather at
scenic Clywedog odyssey through Wales – something for everyone on the
Reservoir UK’s best B-road ride-out.