Guest diesel_jim Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 I took these pictures yesterday (Saturday) as i wanted "one last drive" of the great lane. I buzzed up from swindon about 11:00, got to the gap around 12:45, and was met by a huge traffic jam! i've never seen so many people on one byway! lots of groups of 4x4's (ALL LR products apart from one lonely SJ413!) various vehicles, S1's, a few S2s and S3's, 90/110's, disco's and rangies. As i got to the gate on the southern end, i had to wait about 40 minutes for the oncomng group to overcome the gap. was good watching. some pictures: some of the people!! quite an audience A few motorbikes came through, it was a group of KTM's form Gatwick, they vanned the bikes up and did a days laning. one of the chaps seemed a bit wobbly: and after about 10 minutes, they all decided that they didn't need to wait any longer, and proceeded to ride down the gap, eventhough there was a vehicle waiting to come up! madness!!! He proceeded to knock into the series 2's wingmirror, nearly dropped his bike into his door, and then most of the bikes managed to pebbledash the back of the series 2 in stones as they wheelspun up the slope. you'd have thought they'd have waited! :roll: a few more: A group of Army who were on a map training excercise prior to deployment to Afghanistan: and a few scenic shots. had no other problems, met lots more vehicles, and one arsey mountainbike rider who thought i was "hassling" his overweight missus in my "truck". hopefully by now, he's fallen off and broken his pelvis, and mashed his face into a rock. :evil: :evil: and one of my fragile passengers..... it was his first serious off road trip! (well, as serious as bimbling along the Gap in my mainly road-going 110 gets! :wink: ) (and no, that's not rubbish that we dropped... there was a load of McDonalds wrappings in a layby just near the southern end of the byway, near the reservoir.... Walkers eh? :roll: ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white90 Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 when does The Gap road close? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dottythe90 Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 when does The Gap road close? End of Sunday - by the time it would have opened to vehicles again, NERC will have been enacted in Wales and this will be a Restricted Byway We did it from the North end on Friday (2 90's and a Classic RR). We caught up a group of 3 other vehicles at the steps through the notch and some trail bikers came by as we prepared to climb it. The RR was first through the Gap and got stuck at the bottom. Some shovel work allowed the rear overhang to get free and make the transition onto the climb less severe. The first 90 up had a 2.5 NA diesel and it got stuck about 2/3rd the way up and was winched the rest of the way. I also got stuck in the same place, but after backing down a bit, and with the help of some more shovel work to get rid of a hole, got up at the second attempt. We then made our way over the hills to Tal-y-Bont. Only did 3 lanes all day - but by afternoon the weather and views were fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Countax Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 Jamie, That is a real good set of photos. what camera did you use to get such sharp pictures? Nigel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest diesel_jim Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 Nothing special, just a little HP707 digi. Got it for christmas a couple of years ago. quite small, fits in my pocket easily, has got a video function and a few other gimmicks, but ideal to leave in the car for off roading shots! I've not done anything to the pics, thet are just as they came out of the camera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JST Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 its a fantastic lane, we did it a couple of weekends ago and met one other group whilst we were up there. You will notice the signs in the second to last photos saying no vehicles or motorcycles, what you cant see is the clips that were on the ground at the base of the pole that used to hold the 2nd sign which stated the open times of the byway. so someone removed the sign with the open times which means it reads no vehicluar access all the time. I bet people will turn up to drive it knowing that you can drive it but maybe being unsure of when it is open. My point being removing the open times sign prob means more people drive it outside of the open times as everyone knows its open for some of the time. if that makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJ101 Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 The last chance to do the Gap road !!! ,, was on a few other forums, so would guess it was pretty busy !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest diesel_jim Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 And why can't us byway users in the UK be as organised as Le French B) B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBMUD Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 And why can't us byway users in the UK be as organised as Le French B) B) I see that the proposed legislation in France affects road bikers too - a great many more people to add their voice to protests. I like the idea of all going to protest in regional towns, we should do that in the UK next time - after first making sure that our MPs are in their constituencies. Far more effective than blocking London for a few hours. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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