Meet other members locally, make friends throughout the UK and overseas and find the freedom to be yourself with like-minded bikers. To join GBMCC, complete the application form. I Lost My Virginity At Barmouth or, I went, fell in love (with the place) enjoyed myself, all in 48 hours and then wrote about it using only a little poetic licence. I decided it was about time to find out for myself what all this fuss was about when people talk about the club weekends away. Now that I am now longer one of the 9 to 5 ers (well it was 8 to 6 but who cares anymore) I felt that I could spend a weekend away. I know that I should have made time for it before now but when the weekend is usually the only time to get things done and not spend 2 hours each day on the motorway in the car, it makes it hard to think a weekend away is a relaxing pastime. So I saw the advert for Barmouth,where is it?, I asked, WALES!!!, (how?, it doesn't have a double "L" and has enough vowels to make it pronounceable, even to a Glaswegian) and especially since there was a single room available, I know that shouldn't matter but I am afraid it does. How any of you can manage to, be up half the night, not get sleep in a dormitory and then be bright enough to spend all day in the saddle with your wits on the look out for daft car drivers, amazes me. So I booked, the events co-co-ordinator rang to make sure I was feeling all right, and paid the money to myself (I am the treasurer for those not in the know) and waited for the weekend to arrive. Being one of the, how I ever managed to find time to work, classes I set off early on Friday afternoon, having planned a journey that not only didn't touch a motorway but hopefully didn't even mean more than 500 yards on a dual carriageway. It was only coincidence that the direct route managed to pass through Matlock Bath. I entered the Principality to find all these unpronounceable words added to the road signs and the roads. The councils budget must be twice as much as in England. Places I have only heard about whizzed past, Llangollen and up the pass, Bala where the petrol pump swung out into the street and someone to serve you, just another distant memory of petrol at 3/9d a gallon (yes old money AND old measure). What a magnificent road, widened in places but only so that it gives you a better view of the surrounding countryside, and then back to the old winding road through the forest of trees. Down to the valley plains and just when you think you are nearing your destination in the outback of Cambria you come across a dual carriageway!! With my wits about me I take the right road and find the river estuary on the left of me as I spy the railway bridge and I know I have arrived. Follow the given directions and find the hotel. Easy. Made it. Stop, switch off. Drop bike. Oops. Right in front of the hotel close to the other 3 bikes already there. Look around. No-one. Hotel. No-one. Embarrassment factor reduced. Little old man appears and I ask for help. Just to guide it I say, just hold there (and you had better lift, I mutter). Back on the stand in no time at all. So an hour and a half before most will be arriving so decide to walk DOWN into the town. Its 5.30 so managed to find just one shop open, the Co-operative Wholesale Society, selling Wagonwheels and back copies of the Radio Times and even managed to get the divi added to my book. Around the railway station was the entertainment, this was definitely a down-market Blackpool. Candy floss , bingo and a burger. Most of the restaurants had signs saying that they would be opening at 7pm. Its a good job I didn't have to wait to find out if they did. The climb UP to the hotel would at least give me an appetite. By this time the others members had begun to arrive and it was good to renew old acquaintances and meet new friends with drinks on the verandah. The one thing I haven't mentioned is the weather. Well what can you say when the journey West was made under clearish sky's making a very pleasant journey. (apparently the journey North from London was sprinkled with rain!!) By the time we were supping a few bottles in the evening we basked under a clear blue sky, the sun eventually sinking into the blue sea, as we watched from our advantage point above the cliff with the camp site down below and the promenade stopping the sand from encroaching as the tide came in. Between drinks we had had a very enjoyable meal, tasty, very well presented and most enjoyable. So no gossip on the first night, well just a little. We all felt sorry for the bag of ice!!! The bag of ice that is that was wrapped around one of the members ankles. The ankle that would have been swollen otherwise, from falling off his bike. The bike that was stationery at the time in the person's own driveway. Apparently the cause (excuse!!) was the Velcro straps on his boot!!! I think that will get into the top ten of insurance companies list of"reasons why I ran the pedestrian down a second time while reversing because I didn't see him, as he was still on the ground after I knocked him down the first time". We awoke to a leisurely breakfast of anything you wanted to eat. It had been decided that a group was to go off to Anglesey to have a look at the venue for the Trackday event coming up in September. Mark would also take a run around the roads of the North Wales countryside. A few of us did not join either of these runs. A couple of us went and had an interesting day at Portmerion to see if they could rescue The Prisoner. Actually I think they just wanted to go and play with the big rubber ball!! The ankle (see above) was given a rest and had a pleasant day seeing the sights of Barmouth. A nasty toe injury also needed attending to, its a good job that the apothecary was open. I decided to make my own way around the locality having made the decision not to take the train along the coast and up the Ffestiniog railway!!. I have to say that I had the most enjoyable day out on the bike I have had for years. Firstly I took the coast road to Porthmadog, from windy to straight to very windy to "Oh! that was a bit tight without a warning sign" bends. The castle at Caernarfon beckoned. Not stopping but all the way around the outside this rather impression building in a commanding position overlooking the sea and river. The roads have been improved in parts to make them very enjoyable without to many villages to crawl through. The last time I was in the area the quaint old Conway bridge, was the only way to get across the river and Isambard was there with his surveyor. Then onto the Menai straights, across one bridge, back on the other and then the start of the climb. Climbing up from the coast up to Llanberis, where I stopped for a nicotine break. I must have been enjoying the ride as this was my first. While viewing the lake and the steam train leaving for the summit of Snowdon a group of bikers went past and Yes it was Roger and his merry band of Anglesey aimers, apparently my butch wave didn't get noticed at all. I hadn't even finished the cigarette before another group of bikers were heard to approach, at the speed limit I hasten to add, passing in the same direction,and, of course, it is Mark in the front with his party afollowing. The Llanberis Pass must make a wonderful settings for any film with a rock strewn hillside. Climbing up was not hard and at the top I decided to take the road to Betws-Y-Coed, where I am led to believe is full of bikers on a Sunday, doing what bikers all seem to want to do on a Sunday all over the country and that is, see where you can get the longest line of parked bikes in a row without a car in sight. Well there weren't many the day I arrived, perhaps because it was a Saturday, but apparently there was bikers weekend at a holiday camp on the coast, so there were expecting to get busy. From there I took another excellent road to the top end of the Ffestiniog railway, at Bleanau Ffestiniog and not only was this road just amazing but to see so much slate piled up so high with small mauve rhodedeneron bushes pushing through at all peculiar places made it a delight to remember. (am I sad or what!!!) The journey back to the hotel was the taken passed the forbidding fortress of Harlech and the coast road. I was pleased to join the others for another very enjoyable meal and evening on the patio and to hear all the news of the day of adventure. Am I pleased I lost my virginty?, absolutely and would do it again, anytime. To anyone who has not yet taken the plunge then you miss the chance of seeing one of our members taking a dip in the sea at 8 am on a Sunday morning or even find that half the group haven't returned from there ride because they had stopped off to see what happens when you visit the local nudist beach in your one piece leathers. Is it etiquette, to pile all the leathers together, and make a separate pile of the boots? Fortunately I will never know but if you stay the extra day then perhaps you get the chance to find out for yourself, not that I am implying that anyone did. (not half!!). You would also miss the amazing sunsets, beautiful biking roads, pleasant beaches, so many places to visit and chatting with friends and the chance to see a souvenir of the longest railway station name in the world, being of course, LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIO- GOGOGOCH back to magazine                         Back to top