ASUPER EXPERIENCE
Get a taste for adventure riding on a Yamaha 660 or Super Ténéré in Wales
IF YOU’RE LIKE me, you could do with making some improvements in your life. Cut down the fat, do more exercise, put another two per cent in your pension each year – all that good stuff. I’d also add ‘riding off-road’ to that list – it’s great for your road-riding skills, it keeps you fit, and being in the great outdoors is always A Good Thing. But of course, that’s all easier said than done. So where do you start?
These days, most manufacturers have a tie-in with an off-road school or tour provider. Yamaha has a new portal for all its off-road and adventure tours across Europe (www.destination-yamaha.eu) to make them easier to find. The British arm of the operation is the Yamaha Off-road Experience based in mid-wales, offering a range of courses from enduro training and one-to-one off-road tuition to ‘experience’ courses for those who have done less - or no - off-roading. As well as the Off-road Experience, there’s a Ténéré Experience – what I’m here to sample in the hottest weather I’ve encountered in the region.
First impressions of the school are good – we’re in a lovely little valley, on the outskirts of the small town of Llanidloes, on a working dairy farm. The school is run by Geraint Jones – a tough, weather-beaten character who is a proper off-road legend, with ten British enduro titles to his name. Together with his son Dylan, he takes us through the day’s activities.
But first, we have to select the bikes. There’s the choice of 1200 Super Ténérés or 660 Ténérés, some with low seats (just the
job for a stumpy Scot like me). I’ve brought my own riding gear but the school can provide it if you don’t have your own off-road kit. When my fellow riders are togged up, we’re good to go.
There’s loads of space available: Geraint has his own big chunk of land, plus a seven square-mile forest section next door. There’s also a World Rally Championship test and stage area – the Sweet Lamb Complex – just up the road, which the school can use as well. This part of Wales is rammed with Byways Open to All Traffic (BOATS) and the school uses these green lanes to get from location to location. That means there’s a wide variety of conditions for dirt riding available.
We start off on the forest section, which is a nice gentle introduction with wide, simple gravel fire roads and some easy elevation changes. Dylan leads us off, with the school mechanic/fixer John Begley following, and we’re soon riding in the sort of scenery that makes you want to just quit your job and go off on an adventure. Dylan and Geraint are always offering pointers as we go along, and their advice is tuned to your abilities. Novices get good entry-level tips and expert riders get more in-depth instruction. They normally tend to split the groups up later in the day, typically giving the slower riders an easier course, while taking more advanced or experienced off-roaders on increasingly tricky and demanding routes.
After the forest, we hit the back roads for a short distance and then it’s onto some byways, to the Sweet Lamb complex. Set
in the Cambrian mountains, this is a properly-stunning location and is where all the big rally teams come to test. We keep off the main routes (there’s some testing here today apparently) but fit in a couple of river crossings, with some useful instruction from Dylan on how to get across various types of water successfully.
Back onto some byways, we climb up and out of one valley, over the top of the hills and down into another. It doesn’t feel at all like an hour’s ride from Birmingham here – the landscapes are impressive, the silence deafening, the lack of humanity beguiling. It’s a small taste of what you’d get on a full-bore adventure ride of course, but for my Metropolitan mind, it’s utterley fantastic.
The bikes are helping too. I’ve stuck to the 660 for much of the day; I’m not complaining at all – this bike is far better than me and is ideal for teaching me the skills I need. The engine is soft yet grunty and tractable, while the non-abs brakes have ample feel and control. I switch to a newer, fancier 1200 Super Ténéré and while the suspension and brakes feel more refined, and it doesn’t feel much heavier, I’m still happy to jump back on the 660.
After lunch at an excellent local pub, we’re back onto the byways towards base. These look simple, but every now and then there’s a trickier section, with deep ruts left by 4x4s, bumpy rocks, or some mud. I’m kept on my toes to stick with the group, yet not under any pressure at all. Dylan stops regularly for the tail-enders to catch up and regularly checks we’re all comfortable with the pace.
Before I know it, we’re done. I’m a little sad to be finishing (though pleased to have escaped unscathed) and it’s been a fantastic day out, with amazing scenery, great bikes – and enough of a challenge to make me feel that I have learnt a bit more in terms of dirt skills. I’ve also had a decent workout, and lunch was excellent. All I need to do now is find that extra pension payment for this month…
“A slower, steadier approach is best, with feet down...”