My Mates Had An OFF

Well the day started off very nicely, being a beautiful warm sunny day, and the prospect of trying out a local’ish road that I found the previous week-end. For those that know the Shropshire area I’m talking Bridgnorth High Street to Brosley and onto Much Wenlock, most strange having been riding for close on 40 years now and theres local fast sweeping roads that you’ve not been on before! Anyway, as I said, the day was going well having met at the Bikers Cafe at Quatford, the group comprising of – Me (K7 1000) Goff (04 Blade), Jason (98 Thundercat) and Steve (97 R1), setting off taking in Bridgnorth, Brosley, Much Wenlock and stopped for a break at Craven Arms, then set off again through Clun over the Kerry Hills to Newtown where we had a non-smoking break, then it was over to Crossgates for a coffee then through Llandrindod Wells, Builth Wells, New Radnor, Presteigne and stopping to watch the world fly by / take off / land at Shobdon Airfield and partaking of yet another coffee. We left there and headed back in the direction of home via Lucton, Woofferton Junction, Tenbury Wells, Clows Top, Great Witley and headed for the agreed saying our farewells spot in Bewdley. Goff and I arrived and 5 minutes later the mobile rang, it was Steve saying you best get back (3 miles) along the switchback road (thats its local name – it connects Bewdley with Stourport and is notorious for the number of fatal accidents, being fast, twisty and amongst trees) as Jason has crashed and were awaiting an ambulance. When we arrived at the scene the ambulance had arrived and Jason was lay in the road clutching his right shoulder having come to grief on a very large section of washed out gravel whilst riding closley behind a car and then hitting the wall of a sandstone cutting. The ambulance crew thought that he had sustained a dislocated shoulder, but upon further examination thought it could be a broken collar bone. Jason was whisked off the Worcester A & E. He phoned me last night to say it was a fractured collar bone and he’ll be laid up for 6 weeks, he had been dreading ringing his missus as she isn’t really pro-bike, but he said she was OK with him as she (and the rest of us for that matter) realies it could have been much worse. Steve and I am off to collect his bike, by van, tomorrow as me managed to leave it at a local property.

I’ll leave the post off by saying that throughout the course of the day it was very noticeable that there is a LOT of grit building up on the roads this year, no doubt as a result of last winters frosts breaking up the road surfaces and then settling in patches when heavy rain causes flash flooding. Anyway here’s a few pics:

Jason (seated right) and the others at Newtown

Gravel in the foreground, sandstone face to the right of the ambulance, his bike finished up past the position of the ambulance