Members of Stone Scooter Club took on the North Wales 300 Challenge in some very typically British weather, riding over 350 miles in 13hrs 45mins – with 10hrs 30mins in the rain, to raise £1055 for charity.
The Stone Scooter Club take on the challenge each year, riding each time for a different charity. This year the club chose the British Red Cross, which is raising funds for the Ukraine Crisis Appeal.
Len Hamilton from Stone Scooter Club told A Little Bit of Stone about the ride:
“We undertook the challenge on a Sunday at the end of July, a time you would have thought would have been filled with summer sunshine, however, it wasn’t!
We left Stone at 6am, riding into Shropshire, bypassing Shrewsbury and picking up the A49. The rain was relentless, and by the time we reached Crossgates, some of our waterproofs had already started to leak!
We took a pitstop at a cafe en route to refuel our stomachs and dry out as best as we could.
For 2022 we had decided to tackle the 300 via a different route, so we left the warmth and dryness of the cafe and headed out of Rhayader and through the Elan Valley before moving on to some unclassified roads until we got to Devil’s Bridge.
The clouds were very low on the hills, and the reservoirs were also very low. Although the country was heading into a drought there was to be no shortage of rain on our journey.
The narrow roads were swimming with rain, and most mountain streams were overflowing. This led to some incredibly tricky road conditions, which ultimately hit our average speeds.
Despite the weather, the scenery was still breathtaking. From Devil’s Bridge, we rode to Aberystwyth, where, much to our relief, the rain had stopped.
The joy was short-lived, though; after only 15 minutes, the rain started once again.
Our next planned stop was in Porthmadog, where we parked up at the harbour and slowly peeled off our wet riding gear.
Following a quick snack, we were ready to move on; any biker who has gotten wet on a ride will appreciate the struggle of putting wet gloves and gear back on. As we left Porthmadog, the rain once again descended on us.
Feeling totally cheesed off, we decided to ride straight into Caernarfon, followed by Bangor and Conwy.
We rode on to Llandudno to be met with a strange unfamiliar yellow thing in the sky. After enquiring with the beachgoers, it turned out that the weather had been sunny all day – damn you British weather! The time was now 5:30pm; we’d ridden 262 miles in the most appalling weather, so it was time to make the most of the long summer evenings and head back to Stone.
Thankfully there was no rain on the return stage, and everyone arrived back home dry – as if it had never rained at all.
What an experience and what a tour – completed by determined enthusiastic scooters.”
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