Wales by Tandem: Llanelli to Bangor 5th - 8th August 2004
Ride report by Peter & Catrin Simon, Bynea CC.
With my 30th birthday only two months away, my wife asked me what I wanted as a present. I had been thinking for a while that I would like to have a go on a tandem, so taking advantage of the situation, I replied that I thought it would be great to get a tandem and ride the length of Wales together to her grandmother’s house in Bangor. As that was the only thing I wanted she was forced to agree, and I started to look around for a second-hand tandem. After a couple of weeks, a good KHS came up on eBay and I won the bidding. When we went to collect it I was surprised at just how long it was, but after taking off wheels, seats, bars and rear derailleur it just fitted in the back of our car.
Training rides -
For the first ride I went out on my own to get used to the tandem (I didn’t want anything to go wrong with Catrin on the back!). Once I got moving it was hard to tell that I wasn’t on a normal mountain bike (except when I went to turn sharply and the bike took a lot longer to come around!).Our first ride together went really well (I thought). Setting off was a lot easier than I’d imagined: I stood over the bike and held it steady with both feet on the ground and the brakes on, while Catrin got on with both feet on the pedals and moved them around ready to set off. Then I put one foot on the pedal, slid onto the saddle (making sure I didn’t tilt the bike over), and set off as normal. We did 6 miles along the coastal path for the first ride, managing to get up 28mph on the way home with the wind behind us.
(Catrin’s verdict: it was strange not knowing when we were going to hit bumps, go around corners, etc.)
We did a few more training rides over the following weeks steadily increasing the distance (6, 25, 28, 60, 22, 24). The 60 mile ride was to my Mum's house near the west coast of Wales. This was further than the longest day we would have to do during the tour and it went quite well. (Catrin must be getting a lot fitter because when we finished that ride with quite a bit of climbing I was shattered but she looked fine!) For us the only thing that was harder riding the tandem compared to singles was not being able to stand up so easily. This made the saddle choice quite sensitive. The saddles that came with the tandem were diabolical, so I put on the saddles from our single bikes, and also some bar ends for Catrin to be able to change hand positions to avoid numb fingers.
After finishing 60miles:
Although the tandem was long it wasn’t too hard to get it on the bike rack I already had. I tie-wrapped a piece of wood to the roof bars for the rear wheel to rest on:
While we had been preparing ourselves and the bike, I’d also been planning the route. I didn’t want it to be too hard so that Catrin wouldn’t suffer too much, but I wanted each day to be long enough for us to feel that we had made an effort. Catrin is also still uncomfortable riding on large busy roads so, instead of taking the shortest route, I planned to detour eastward slightly to ride up through the middle of Wales. This way we would be on small roads almost the whole way but, with the unavoidable hills, the route also involved a lot of climbing. Each day would be under 50 miles, so we didn’t have to set off too early and would (hopefully) finish mid-afternoon. I have always enjoyed that feeling of arriving somewhere new after travelling by my own power and I wanted Catrin to experience that. Although camping each night would have given us an even greater sense of achievement, we booked B&Bs instead (after all our tent alone weighs over 6kg!).
The route:
Day 1 - Pwll to Cynghordy.
Looking nervous at the start (us or our cat?).
We couldn’t drive our cat to the cattery because we had left our car in Bangor a few weeks earlier ready to drive back after the finish. Catrin wasn’t sure about tying him on the back of the tandem but it was the most convenient way to get him there (while I also enjoyed the extra utility of the tandem!).
Our cat was fine as I wheeled the bike to the coastal cycle path where we started riding. It was then that he started to miaow, but after a while he quietened down. Each time we had to stop and start at the gates on the cycle path, he would shout again for a couple of minutes (he’s evidently not a tandem fan). We followed the cycle path through town and then on to Tumble. From there we had a bit of road riding to reach the cattery just before 11am. I wouldn’t have said that the cat was particularly heavy, but after taking him off the back I didn’t really feel the weight of the luggage we were carrying. I thought we had packed quite well, fitting everything we both needed for the 4 days into one pannier. From there, we took the small roads north east and the sun started to come out. We were rolling along well but our computer stopped working after 20 miles so I don’t know what speed we were doing. We stopped for lunch in Llandovery, then covered the last few miles to the B&B easily to arrive at 3pm (overtaking the only other tandem we saw during the whole ride on the way there). The B&B was a nice converted farm, but we had a (longer than described) 3m walk to the village pub for our evening meal. Catrin’s knee was aching a bit on some of the hills near the end of the day so she did some stretching in the evening.
About 50m in 5.45hr (including stops).
Day 2 - Cynghordy to Llanidloes.
It was misty and raining lightly as we set off the next morning, but the clouds soon cleared and the rest of the day was nice and warm. The road was very quiet and scenic (though quite hilly) to Rhyader. We stopped for a drink and snack in a café there before starting the climb out of town, which seemed to go on for miles. At least from the top we had a long fast descent into Llanidloes. Our B&B for the night was a basic room above the bakery. Because we arrived early just after 2pm we had time to walk around town (and enjoy a milkshake in the National Milk Bar). We had a good meal at an Indian restaurant in the evening, while watching a few young lads driving tractors down the main road. Catrin’s knee was still aching and she was starting to feel a bit saddle-sore.
About 42m in 4.5hr (including stops).
On the high street in Llanidloes
Day 3 - Llanidloes to Bala.
This was the best stage of the ride for me. The day started sunny and warm and the B&B provided us with a great breakfast of fresh food straight from the bakery shelves (including Welsh cakes!). After a quick stop at the Spar for more riding food, we left town at 9.30am. The road to Staylittle was really hard work and we were grinding along in 2nd gear for a long time as we climbed past the reservoir (I was saving 1st gear for an emergency).
Looking over the reservoir north of Llanidloes:
Catrin’s knee and seat were feeling better today and we seemed to cover the ground well to Pandy. We had a short section of fast A road then for a few miles before turning off for the climb over to Bala. I wasn’t sure if this was the right road because the signposts kept telling us that we were heading toward Toiled, which I couldn’t find on the map. Catrin had to tell me that it translates as ‘toilet’. This was easily the hardest section of the whole route. We followed a river along the valley floor for a while and could see a road snaking steeply up the side of the valley ahead. I told Catrin not to worry, that our route veered off to the left. And it did, but then it came back to the right to go over the climb we had seen. We had to use 1st gear here and I was really struggling to keep going, so we stopped for a break three quarters of the way up.
Stopped on the climb to Bala (the climb was a lot harder than it looks on this picture!):
We managed to ride the rest of the climb without stopping again then had a long fast descent to the south side of Bala lake. The tandem really flies when descending, and we shot past two half bikes on the descent without even trying! Because we didn’t have a stop for lunch, we arrived in Bala quite early just after 2pm. The town was busy with tourists but was still a nice place. After wandering around and having some food, we sat by the lake and wrote postcards. In the evening we went to the one-screen cinema in town to see their only showing for the day.
About 43m in 4.4hr (including stops).
Day 4 - Bala to Bangor.
I opened a couple of birthday cards before our breakfast in the B&B. Rain was in the air as we set off just before 9. There was some gentle climbing over some very small roads to begin with. Some of the roads were so small we had to stop a few times to open and close gates across them. After yesterday the climbing didn’t seem so bad and we were making good time. Near Betws-y-Coed, through a combination of small roads not being shown properly on the map and one of them being closed, we got lost for over half an hour. As always Betws-y-Coed was busy, but we had no option now but to follow the main road (A5) for the last 15 miles to the finish. The climb out of town felt hard even though it wasn’t steep. (I think being so close to the end we felt like we should have been having an easy run to finish.) Once we crossed the top of the pass, the road only went one way: downhill towards the coast. The descent from the reservoir there was really fast, we spun out our top gear most of the way and had to freewheel for about 4 miles. I wish the computer had been working to give the speed.
And so just before 1pm we pedalled the last few strokes to Catrin’s grandmother’s house. We had earned a lot of food, so I sat down and ate a plate of scones and some birthday cake. Catrin’s knee was fine today and the weather held out for us (just after we arrived, the rain started and kept going for the next few days!).
There just before the rain comes down with Catrin’s Nain:
I always find it a strange feeling coming to the end of a big ride. Having focused on reaching the end for the last few days, finally arriving is good, but not as important as it had seemed. Part of me is always a bit disappointed that the journey is over.
About 42m in 3.5hr (including stops).
Looking back:
Catrin has only learned to ride a bike over the last couple of years, starting on a folding shopper then moving on to her own mountain bike. When we go out cycling together I don’t mind riding slowly but always find myself drifting ahead then having to wait for her to catch up. On the tandem, I can go as hard as I want and she is always right behind me.
The route worked out just about perfectly for our ability at the time. Each day was long/hard enough that it felt like I had done a decent ride, but not too much.
Did Catrin enjoy it and would she do it again, next ride?
(Catrin says: It was good, especially seeing parts of Wales I’d never visited before. I enjoyed staying in a different place each night and travelling the length of Wales by bike. Would I do it again? Maybe… on Pete’s next 30th birthday.)
A few weeks later my brother came to see me, and rather than just show him the tandem I persuaded him to ride with me to our Mum’s house. He has been riding a few miles a day to work and back all year but he hasn’t done any long rides for the last few years. We managed to start off really well with no wobbling, he said he felt quite comfortable. When we started to press on towards Carmarthen I could really feel the extra power going through the pedals. Just as we turned onto the dual carriageway from Carmarthen to St. Clears, there was a tractor ahead of us. I knew if we could tuck in behind it we would have an easy ride, ‘Catch the tractor!’ To start with I didn’t think that we would be able to close the gap but we both gave it everything, my brother pulling so hard on the bars that he was twisting my seat around. Suddenly once we entered its slipstream it felt like a big hand was pushing us along and we sat there for the next 15 miles. The tractor’s speed was relentless, uphill, downhill, whatever it never changed. That meant braking to avoid running in to him a couple of times, then pushing hard to stay with him over the lumps. It was when the road climbed for a couple of miles up to Red Roses that we finally lost him. We both started to fade a bit from there, my brother also feeling the effects of a curry the night before. But after a short stop for a drink we kept it going to the end. We managed to do the whole ride in the big ring, averaging 18.5m/hr for the 55m trip. My brother said afterwards that he had really enjoyed riding the tandem. I was surprised how fast we were able to go together. Now if we did some training…
At the finish:
