Roads in North Wales

[Sandgrounder]

Hello again, tomorrow I am planning a road trip with my son. Last year we did the mountain passes in the Lakes (Hard Knott, Kirkstone, Wry Nose, etc), which was most excellent, but life limiting for my exhaust.

So, tomorrow, we are planning to travel around North Wales, but my knowledge of the roads in Wales is limited, so if anyone can recommend a good stretch of road that I should include in our route, feel free to advise?

Many thanks.

PS. I recently travelled on the road past Bala Lake, which I must say was very good, so that's probably a suitable lunch stop venue!!

[greymrj]

Hi Graham, lots of good roads to choose from, but without knowing where you will enter Wales from it is a bit difficult. As a general rule the west coast road gets busy and the A5 is difficult in most states of the traffic. A5104 was a good run in last time to Corwen. A4212 to Trwasfyndd, possibly with loop on B4391. Some good B roads W of Oswestry, seem to remember a good run on the Honda across on the B4391. Pretty well all the A470 from Builth Wells to Conwy is good but some roads are better on a 'bike because overtaking slow traffic is so much easier. Have a good run and report back.

[Sandgrounder]

Thanks Richard, I'll get the atlas out and see where these roads are. We will be travelling via the Mersey tunnel as I want to hear the exhaust in a confined space, but clearly won't be exceeding the 40mph limit ;-)

Just got to hope for decent weather as the test run today was a wash out!!

Cheers, Graham

[jwigglesworth]

Have you tried looking on the EVO website for details of the EVO triangle?

[SteveOS3]

A few of us did this route on a Saturday last year, starting from Bala. We decided to head west to start and east to finish to avoid driving into the sun and the Trawsfynydd->Bala road is a gem.

A494 north to A5

A5 west through Bettws y Coed and on to Capel Curig.

A4086 west toward Llanberis (stopped here for Electric Mountain tour)

Continue on A4086 to Caernarfon then A487 south all the way to Penrhyndeudraeth(stopped off at Portmeirion)

Continue on A487 to A470 then south to Trawsfynydd then A4212 back to Bala(great road, best of the day, long view ahead and plenty of turns)

I've been on lots of the 'B' roads up there but get fed up with the bumpiness; they are quieter though.

The 'A' roads give plenty of scope to overtake if you want, but we managed 55-60 on most stretches without too much trouble.

If you're tempted by Anglesey be aware that most of the roads are 40mph.

Hope you enjoy it.

Steve

[Sandgrounder]

Thanks Steve et al. We took the A5104 as suggested by Richard, good road and not too busy. Then called in at Bala LAke, but unfortunately, it was so cold, I had to put the roof on at this point. We left home in sunshine (and T shirts) but the weather in Wales was quite different.

Then we made our way to the coast and followed the coast road clockwise. Was particularly impressed with Barmouth. The rain then started so for the rest of the journey, rain was on/off until we got home.
So, good run, but definitely not planning another road trip without confirmation of sunshine. I hate the roof on!!

Major plus was that my recent overheating issue didn't show up, so a trouble free 250 miles!!

Cheers, Graham

[greymrj]

Glad you enjoyed the run despite the changeable weather. You must plan to 'do' the A470 throughout some time. I would say south to north but that was on a 'bike. Good to hear the overheating didnt come back to worry you.
My fan relay is also on a separate mounting now as the original base had been damaged by overheating. I would ask Car Builder Solutions for a copy of their catalogue, an absolute mine of information on what is available out there to update/restore/improve your car.