Day 8: The Long Ride Home…. With No Rear Brake!

Goodbye Hay-On-Wye, goodbye Wales, it'll be a while until I'm back in my home country.

Google says it's 270 miles and 5 hours without stop offs, of course I'll stop off at various points so it’s likely to be more like 7 hours. But at the end I'll be home, with my own bed which I've definitely missed. Woke up this morning with aches and pains all over, I can't tell if it's from the riding or the soft bed I've had for the past three nights.

Of course, it’s typical, for the ride home the weather is the sunniest weather I’ve had all week. The morning started foggy, being next to the River Wye and it was also a little chilly. As the day progressed, it just go hotter and hotter. The plan was to take the A roads through Gloucester and Oxford and then join the M40, M25, visit Ryka’s Cafe and then head home. I packed and checked out of my accomodation, loaded up the bike and got on the bike, I put my foot of the rear brake to hold the bike in place and nothing. I pumped the braked a few times in case there was an air blocked, again nothing. I started off, and thought, I can use the front brake and gears - the rear brake is not something I use to stop hard but usually as a supplementary to the front brake or to hold the bike when stopped at lights on a hill. So off I went, however, I decided to re-think the route and took the A438, A479, A40 and A449 down to the M4, and then the M25, M26, M20, M2 and A299 - whilst this was a less exciting ride, it felt the easiest. I was also pretty tired, with 270 miles ahead, this seemed the easiest option. So I took it easy. The roads were pretty empty, an early Sunday monring, but I went past a lot of bikers going the other way - probably on there way to the Devil’s Bridge Waterfall Cafe.

I stopped at Leigh Delamere Service Station, as I pulled in to the services my fuel light came on.

After some breakfast, terrible coffee, and re-fueling I was back on my way again. A full petrol tank would give me enough to not stop again until the M25 (Clackets Lane). The M25, as usual, was a bit busy from J15/J16 and then through the roadwork restrictions, so filtering was in order. It’s been a few years since I did filtering on the M25, but having commuted around the M25 for 3 years, it didn’t take long to be weary of drivers changing lanes - one did it 1-2 metres in front of me and if I hadn’t been concentrating I would have been knocked off. The driver, didn’t look, and even when he just missed me he still kept moving, once he completed his manouvere he saw me and then apologised and he realised he missed me by a small distance. All of this happened with a Police car just a couple of cars behind me. I then got stuck behind a Belgium Adventure bike rider, with panniers, who couldn’t filter quickly - 1) probably not used to it and 2) the width of his bike with the panniers meant he couldn’t get through some smaller gaps. He also didn’t notice me behind him, so I was stuck for a little while until he took an inside lane.

So onwards to Clacket Lane, just after I parked up I was joined by another Biker, Lucky, he was travelling from Birmigham to Dover and then onto the Pyrenees to ride, camp and enjoy life. It was a real pleasure meeting & chatting to Lucky. After we chatted for 10-15 mins, three Belgium Adventure bikes parked up, including the one I was stuck behind earlier.

I was going to stop at Ryka’s but I was getting too tired and wanted to get home.