Brenhden's TET

Where you've been and what you done
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boboneleg
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Re: Brenhden's TET

Post by boboneleg »

Nice one Brenhden, I'll be ordering a shock soon . The o/e item really is crap :shock:
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zimtim
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Re: Brenhden's TET

Post by zimtim »

Nice one Bren
Really enjoying this report great pictures.
Riding this summer has been great very dry and very dusty.
Keep it up 8-)
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Re: Brenhden's TET

Post by Brenhden »

boboneleg wrote: Thu Jul 12, 2018 9:20 pm Nice one Brenhden, I'll be ordering a shock soon . The o/e item really is crap :shock:
What are you going for? I was quite impressed with the Hagon on the 650.
And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.

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PHILinFRANCE
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Re: Brenhden's TET

Post by PHILinFRANCE »

Good on ya mate , great pics
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Re: Brenhden's TET

Post by boboneleg »

Brenhden wrote: Fri Jul 13, 2018 9:12 am
Nice one Brenhden, I'll be ordering a shock soon . The o/e item really is crap :shock:

I'm going to get the YSS shock from Firefox racing. Minky and Scooby have fitted those and they're both happy.
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Re: Brenhden's TET

Post by Brenhden »

TET Day five.

‘Make hay while the sun shines’ as the saying goes, I had a few spare hours and had been told that the TET between Chepstow and Gloucester was a quick and easy route so I headed off.

It started on a sombre note as I passed a load of emergency services on the Old Severn Bridge, they were trying to coax a lad off a plinth, hope it worked out OK.
Chepstow is amazingly close to Bristol and in a few minutes I was here, one of the best castles in the UK:
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Chepstow Castle

From here the I picked the TET up as it meanders up the Wye Valley past this absolute stunner ten minutes later:
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Tintern Abbey

From there you cross a bridge and head up the hill to a gorgeous village called St Briavel’s, I missed the turn and in a moment of loss of concentration dropped my bike doing a U turn on a steep hill. Horrendously embarrassed I quickly picked her up thanking my lucky stars no one had seen.

“You alright there mate?” Shouted a bloke in a van.

“Yes, no worries” My humiliation was complete.

A few minutes later I was free of shame and tarmac and was pottering along a farm track along the side of the valley. I turned left and descends a very steep and dark trail.
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Valley Side

A common theme of the weekend was trails with no soil and loose ‘catshead’ rocks. My technique is probably not what they teach at enduro school but whilst it takes me a while to get places I feel safe while doing it.
And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.

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Brenhden
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Re: Brenhden's TET

Post by Brenhden »

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So overgrown after the sunshine I had to put my full beams on for a minute!

The route continued mostly downhill on washed out trails until I reached Redbrook where I stopped for a coke and to cool down a bit, the engine fan on my bike blows hot air onto my left inner thigh and really doesn’t help when you’ve got Forcefield top and bottoms on.

Full of sugar I set off and found a problem with the bike, when I changed gear the shifter wouldn’t go back to its original position. I stopped and checked the oil but all was well, it was several mile later I realised the shifter was bent in sticking to the engine casing. Getting back to it and happily the section from Redbrook to Coleford is mostly uphill and was some great fun. I headed up and extremely steep, narrow, rocky section and at the top found two obstacles that I might have turned back from if the way back wasn’t so perilous! The fallen tree made me think I’d come the wrong way:
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Tree

I had to lay the bike on my knee and squat carry the bike under bough. After that I had a break to cool down and checked out the trials log I had to cross. While standing there a farmer showed up and started chainsawing the part of the log that crossed his field. I laid and smaller log each side and checked out the height the log in comparison to the height of the bash plate and it looked totally fine.
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Log

With the chainsaw wielding local as my trials judge I went for it. The front went up and over no worries and then -BANG- the bash plate smashed into the log. I’d forgotten how much sag the rear has.

“Bloody hell what was that?” Said the farmer to the beached idiot.
“I’m sure it’s fine.” I squeaked with dread in my heart.

I rode up to the next town and sat under a tree expecting to find my lovely carbon fibre farkle to be destroyed and the brackets/frame/engine in tatters. It was fine, well done Catcitrus your bash plate is tough as old boots! From there to Gloucester I don’t think there was any more off road although there was some lovely back roads to blast along. There was a section shown on the GPS but it was so over grown that I think it must be from a previous version as no vehicle had been down it this year. From Gloucester to Bristol was a joyously warm motorway blast and that was job done.

TET Distance 71km, 4 hours
Total distance 174km

What I learnt this time:
When people online tell you a route is easy its best to just use your own judgement.
If you do something unbelievably stupid and embarrassing it doesn’t matter how remote you are someone will see.
And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.

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Re: Brenhden's TET

Post by Brenhden »

TET Day six.
Nice early start and I was over the bridge around 0900 the weather was perfect and I zoomed along to Pontypridd (via Bridgend as I missed the junction) and followed the route to Porth and was soon up a hill at a gate.
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1. Gate
In comparison to the day before there was no warm up to the trails. The first bit is steep, craggy and covered in big loose rocks, great fun but super hot work. Ten minutes of my bike doing a goat impression and I arrived at the top of a lovely bit of scenery.
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2. Hill view
I carried on round this little loop and soon arrived in the superb mature pine forest where I sat and cooled down with the scream of two strokes off in the distance.
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3. Pine Break
This really is my favourite sort of place.
And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.

Suzuki DR200 Djebel.
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Re: Brenhden's TET

Post by Brenhden »

Round and down another rubbly steep trail back to Porth and headed out to the west where I hit a weird new type of obstacle. The byway enters a distressed farmyard with ducks and geese running round. It’s a right mess but the GPX led me straight through. There was a wizened old farmer stood outside his house and I stopped and said hi, I think he asked me where I was going which is a bit of a tricky question to answer on the TET and after a few moments I realised I couldn’t understand anything he was saying. I thanked him and carried on. About 50m later I hit a set of gates with a flock of sheep between them and realised the GPX wasn’t likely to help. I got off and went to talk to the farmer Gandalf. He was a lovely chap but his hearing was gone and accent was really strong. He asked about the bike and explained that the right of way went behind his house through a gate and that it was pretty extreme after that.
When you get to the messy farm you need to stop 2m before the farmhouse, turn right up a 5m steep concrete slope and then left passed the back of the house to a gate. The gate had a selection of horses and sheep behind it and the farmer told me to go passed them.
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4. Bloody horses.
I am not a fan of horses, but such is the nature of adventure. After my trip to Salisbury I expected them all to bolt as soon as I showed up but apparently Welsh nags have a bit more chutzpah than the English ones so I spent a few hot minutes shooing them away. Through the gate and the horse became my outriders and for the next five minutes I slowly herded them forwards until they hopped over a fallen fence and back onto the moor where they belonged.
The farmer was right, passed the next gate and the trail was rocky and steep up and then at the top goes into Rhondda golf club which was a little slice of heaven and was full of people enjoying the best summer since ’76!
Next came a long and wonderful road section. It climbs from Pentre on the A4061 on some awesome sweeping bends and hairpins to the top of this:
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6 Mountain pass
And then through a blasted out hill on the A4107, these are truly superb roads and well worth the trip on their own.
And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.

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Re: Brenhden's TET

Post by Brenhden »

Full of adrenaline and cooled by the speed I left the black top at Dyffryn for the last trail of the day, it was a lovely welsh rocky moorland trail up to black tump and then back down, I came across these guys fixing a fence:
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7. Farmer fix
Before heading back down the other side. This was the most technical bit of the day and I did something I’ve never done before and feel free to tell me I should have done it differently.
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8. Deadly down
It was a super steep descent on a washed out rocky track with hedge/wall on each side. The engine on the bike was baking me and I couldn’t stand it so I turned the engine off with it in first gear and used the clutch as a brake as I paddled the bike down. About 300m, 300 swear words and 3 pints of sweat later I limped out onto a road and thanked god I’d made it.
This put me a Afan mountain bike centre and I called it a day. I headed back to the M4 and got off at Porthcawl for a quick swim in the sea, a portion of fish and chips and most importantly a hour for my clothes to dry in the sun.
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9. Porthcawl
That done I rode home with the wind at my back.

TET Distance 65km, 3 hours
Total distance 345km

What I learnt this time:
I love riding off road but a sweeping mountain pass makes me scream with joy.
I think this is the last day where I set out and head back the same day, the TET is getting too far away from me.
And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.

Suzuki DR200 Djebel.
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