SWM for it!
PREFACE
I apologise in advance to any pals who have heard this story before-many,s the time it has been told!
I have no photos taken on the day(no digital cameras in those days)-so I,ve had to substitute modern pics as appropriate.
Chapter 1
A weekday stolen from the working schedule.
A days trailriding in Mid Wales with my pal Trevor Lyons.
I dont know about nowadays but back in the late 80,s
a winter weekday guaranteed a quiet days greenlaneing
-especially so when the weather was abominable!
(and on this occasion the weather WAS abominable
-too bad even for the snowman!)
We left Stoke on Trent at the crack of dawn
and arrived in Rhayader in torrential rain.
At this point we should have cancelled,but after a 2 hour journey,
well………it,s bound to improve ,is,nt it?…..
Of course it didnt ,and by the time we had ridden the 20 or so road miles to the start of the Strata Florida,waterfalls were cascading off the cliffs and we were already soaked.
We reached the first river crossing.
Not too bad-in we go -”ah good-only just reaching the bottom of the tank!Not too deep then….”
Safely across,we rode to the next crossing;
Normally the river here is wide but shallow with a large exposed shingle bank in the middle-not so today-no sign of any shingle -just a wide raging torrent!
Ah well-scary but do-able;
Following the east bank for a few yards brought us to the problem.
A tributary,cascading down the steep valley side and no more than 15 feet wide, (flowing incredibly swiftly)blocked our progress.
We parked the bikes and waded into the water to ascertain its depth
We could barely stand against the pressure of water-a dignified retreat would have been the most sensible option,
But then it was as far back as going on- oh what the Hell!
Chapter 2
Trevor eased the SWM 250 into the boiling soup;
Down,down,-up to his waist, feeling his way -feet planted on the rocky streambed.
Progress was good;
Then without warning( like a tree being felled),he tipped into the water in slow motion.
Gone!
Gone!
Man 6feet 4inches tall with large white enduro bike
-disappeared under the surface and were gone!
Like they say in the movies-”my life was replayed before my eyes”
What to tell his wife,
how to recover the body,
how to get home………..
and then,with me deep into panic mode,
Suddenly,
Trevor bobbed up 50yds downstream
in the main river complete with SWM
.- Like the Phoenix from the Ashes
I helped him ashore,no worse for wear.
He was wearing a waxed cotton Belstaff jacket,
and when he undid it he was bone dry,underneath!
Remarkable!
We tipped the bike upside down.
removed the sparkplug and drained the airbox.
The bike was turned rightways up.
2 kicks and the bike fired up.
ONWARDS
We both stood up to our waists in the stream
side by side and passed the bikes
one by one along the line.
Safely on the other bank we continued for the remainder of the day with
No further problems;
The rest of the day passed off without incident,but we were mighty glad to get back to Rhayader.
We were completely saturated and knackered;
Footnote
We loaded the bikes on the trailer before getting changed.
By this time it was going dark,being a November day;
As it was tipping down, we got changed in the public lavs on the car park.
Completely stripped off
we were both stood in the lav in our soggy underpants.
The door opened an an elderly local chap, (obviously tired and emotional as they say)
staggered in.
Seeing us undressed-he quickly left
-”Oh sorry boys,carry on” and beat a hasty retreat.
He obviously thought he,d stumbled in on a gay biking scene!
He probably still talks about it down the pub to this day!
Bye for now. 
