CHAPTER 14
HEADLIGHTS 1 AND 2.
Late70`s / early 80s
Headlights. 1
We were off down the pub once again, of course it was the Plough and Harrow in Monknash, the pub was just outside the village of Wick and this was our destination.
The pub is in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fields and country lanes and the pub sits quietly among an old monk’s grange overlooked by a number of medieval ruins, the pub itself is old and most likely dates from the same medieval period as the ruins, circa 1300s.
There were four of us traveling down together through the lanes, PJ was in front on his Honda CB 550f1, Wobble was directly behind him on another CB 550k3, Brian followed Wobble on his Suzuki GS 750, lastly myself at the tail end on my Honda CB 550f1.
We were coming out of the Pant bend section of road just before the village of Saint Brides Major very near to the large grove of oak trees that were planted during the war with France in 1815, the oak trees were planted mainly to replace all the ancient oak trees that were cut down to make the wooden warships that were used in the war with Napoleon Bonaparte.
This section of road keeps popping up in my story’s.
I know it is on the main route to our end destination which was mainly the plough and it is well traveled for that reason, but I’m beginning to think it must have some mystical origins.
I have always thought it odd, that for many decades or even century’s that there were no houses, building’s of any kind, street lighting or any kind of farming on this part of the road, not even hedges lining the road, like it is everywhere else on other parts of the road, I’m thinking this way mainly because every other part of the same route has been built on or used as farm land, after all we have been farming this part of Wales in one way or another for around 3000 years.
Yes, I know Hobbs quarry is nearby before someone mentions the big hole in the mountain.
Before you say anything, digging a number of huge fuck-off holes in the ground do not count.
Try and look at it this way, step outside the normal reasons for this area being totally different to the landscape of the nearby area and think outside the box, what if there was some mystical reason for the absences any industrial or human occupation on this part of the road, maybe, just maybe the old Celtic Gods put a stop to any human involvement in this area and just said no to building on this area of ground, after all it has all the sacred elements that the druids were looking for, a hollow ( druids loved hollows for their pagan rituals ), Oak trees another element that is important to pagan beliefs and a river/spring ( many rivers and springs are named after long forgotten Celtic gods, take Ewenny for example ).
It is an ancient landscape.
Quite recently in the last decade or so, it was still illegal in the U.K. to get married under the eve’s of an oak tree because the Christian law regarded the wedding ceremony to have pagan origins, this law as now been relaxed and now it is possible to be married in a shed, in toilet, a cave or even under a tree.
Who knows.
Ok, I am just talking bollocks, but I still find it odd that nothing has been built there.
( Photo 1 ) . y pant / the hollow, looking towards the village of Saint Brides Major, Hobbs quarry out of sight on the right side and the 18th century oak trees on the far right.
Back to the story.
It was a dark night.
It was late October and the sun was going to bed earlier every day.
We were later getting to the pub then normal.
The time was only a little after 19:00, but it was already dark, as there are no lights on the Pant just like all the country lanes outside the villages, it was necessary that someone with a good set of head lights should be at the front.
On this occasion PJ and Wobble were taking the lead, the reasons for this was because PJ and Wobble had driving lights fitted to the front of their bikes, they also had H4 lights in the Honda’s standard head light cone these lights gave a better and brighter beam then the standard Honda light bulbs.
Wobble also had a pair of square fog lamps fixed to the front of his bike, he also added one reversing light to the rear of the bike, because he never took his panniers off, and it helped him park his bike up when he visited Brian at the Miners Rescue Center in Brynmenyn where Brian lived, he fitted this rear light mainly because every time Wobble tried to back the bike up when it was dark on to Brian’s driveway, he would catch one pannier every time on a wall, so to combat this problem he fitted a reversing light.
( Photo 2 ) . Wobble heading down to Pant bend, with me riding directly behind him, Hobbs quarry in the distance on the left.
PJ and Wobble also had twin tone FIAMM air horns fitted which made a hell of a noise when they were used, there would be no way anyone would not notice these little babies being sounded off, this kind of kit was really necessary because car divers seem to be blind when there is a bike rider on the road, and if they don’t see you it always ends up worse for the rider, I always made sure I had eye contact with a car driver if I had seen a car waiting to pull out of a junction.
I remember at one rally wobble had all the lights switched on entering the rally site on his Honda 400/4, it was dark but with the help of his driving lamps, he lite up the whole area like daylight.
The lights were so bright it silhouetted the people inside the tents, some of the guys in the tents though they were being raided by the police and this brought out all the bikers that were already in the rally site, all they could see was a series of very bright lights brightening the camp site up with no idea what was behind the lights, they just stood there and stared into the light, hiding theirs eyes from the brightness.
Wobble parked the bike up and left the lights on so it would make it easier to put the tents up with his lights acting as spotlights, he left the bike on tick over, but not long after the 400 was idling the engine died and everything went dark, the driving lights had drained the battery to such a degree that we had to bump start the bike in a wet and muddy field to get the bike going again.
The battery was so dead not even the starter motor clicked, the lights had drained the battery so very fast they suddenly went dim and then there was complete darkness which caused a lot of confusion and swearing.
Ok back to the story again.
Everyone with a driving license knows that if you are using a high beam when you are driving, you dip your lights if there is any on-coming traffic so you do not dazzle any other drivers coming in the opposite direction.
Well the dickhead who came out of Saint Brides village didn’t think he needed too, after all they are only bikers they don’t count, well that’s how the car driver must have been thinking.
PJ flashed him to dip his lights which the driver ignored, this is where this car driver had a very big wake up call.
( Photo 3 ) . The scene on the road looked something very similar to this.
Standard practice for drivers who ignore other divers in the nighttime was to flash your own main beam to make them aware that they still had their high beam still on, so they could react and switch back down to the low beam.
On a bike you had a pass button which allowed you to leave your dip on and switch the main beam on all at the same time, just for a few seconds to let them know to dip their lights.
This car driver had the shock of his life, PJ and Wobble switched their driving lights on at the same time, myself and Brian flashed our main beams as well, all four of us doing this at exactly at the same time turned nighttime in to daytime.
( Photo 4 ) . PJ`s Honda in the middle of the two bikes, showing the extra two driving lights fitted to the front of the bike. " Dylan relaxing on the back of my 550 ".
( Photo 5 ). PJ`s CB 550 with the driving lights fitted, the photo was taken outside the plough and harrow with beaker and Lawson in the background.
The car driver slammed his brakes on and skidded to a halt.
It was the best emergency stop I had ever seen, the driver reacted well but a little to late, he should have dipped his lights sooner, as we all passed him we blasted our horns, my air horns and Brian's added to PJ`s and Wobbles FIAMM`S.
I could see the drivers face has we passed, he was in a state of shock, he just stared directly out in front of him, he didn’t know what had hit him, it must have been like looking in to the sun, hopefully he learned an important lesson and would dip his lights in future.
I could hear everyone laughing as we slowed down and cut our speed as we entered in to the village.
Brian turned around in his seat and with a wide grin on his face and gave me a thumbs up, it was fun for us, maybe not for the car driver.
It was a dangerous thing to do, the road was very narrow he could have wiped us all out if he crossed over onto our side of the road, after all he couldn’t see where he was going, but he didn’t, and we lived to ride another day and I still find it funny and satisfying even today.
Headlights. 2
I had another experience with headlights in near enough the same place at a different day and a different time, this time it was a headlight failure.
I was on my own heading down to Wick to pick up my girlfriend and then from there onward to the Plough.
It was dark and I had just ridden around Pant bend, once out of the bend, I then started to accelerate on the straight part of the road.
I was riding my Z1000, I climbed up through the gears has I passed the entrance of Hobbs quarry and then my headlight flickered on and off a couple of times and then it went off and then immediately for a few seconds and then came back on again.
I wasn’t to worried about this, it had happened a couple of times over the last week or so, it happened time after time and always fixed itself, so I had been meaning to fix it and to see what the problem was, but I never got around to sorting it.
I was hitting just under 80 mph and my headlight flickered off and stayed off, I suddenly had total darkness in front of me, I hit the brakes in seconds, when I said the road was straight earlier, I may have exaggerated the extent of the straight part of the road.
The straight part of the road is a very short distance really, and soon I was now negotiating a bendy road in total darkness, my brake light cast a slight reddish shadow in front of me which gave me a little idea of where I was going.
I manage to stop without leaving the road, more by luck than skill, I tried to follow the white line in the middle of the road, it was quick thinking and it guided me until I stopped.
I was very close to the earth banking on my left side of the road when I did finally stop, closer than I wanted to be, trying to negotiate a bend in the road in total darkness was a little difficult, if I had gone a little further on I would have left the road and I would have ended up in the trees or in the ferns or upside down in a gorse bush, completely out of sight of anyone that would have passed by.
I was just lucky once again.
My headlight had gone off completely, not even my park light was working, the engine was still ticking over and my brake light was working fine but nothing that could help me see in the dark, my clocks glowed back at me with a dim yellow light, all they did was to light up my keys and handlebars which was no help.
I stopped without hitting anything or falling off which was a bonus in my eyes.
I was thinking “ bollocks, I knew I should have taken a look at the electrical problem earlier in the week “, being a qualified electronics technician It would have taken me minutes to sort it out, I had all the necessary equipment, so shame on me for not taking a look at it.
I sat silently on the Kawasaki in almost total darkness, there was no sound except for my bike ticking over and a screech of a bird a little way off in the dark somewhere, I had no idea what bird was flying around in the dark, I guessed it was a barn owl or some other bird that didn’t need a torch to see where it were going in the dark of night.
So the first thing I did was to lean over the front of the bike while I still sat on it and do the most technical thing I could think off at the time, and hit the headlight with my gloved right hand, nothing happened, so I hit it a few times more hoping for a miracle.
Strangely nothing happened.
I should have know better with my technical background but well what the fuck, it may have worked, it was worth a go, it is always worth hitting things first if it doesn’t work you haven’t lost nothing, it’s not a very scientific approach to the problem, but people always feel better after doing it, well I hit, it may have worked, it was better than just sitting there doing nothing .
So I sat on my bike in almost total darkness, only my rear tail light putting out any form of light and an invisible bird somewhere in night as company, I tapped my brake light, the light flashed brighter which was a good thing to see, at least I could be seen by any traffic coming up behind me.
I could see the lights from Saint Brides village twinkling through the trees in the distance they were close but to far for me to risk riding in the dark .
I sat and waited which seemed like ages, but in reality a few minutes, maybe 5 minutes not much more, but it felt a lot longer and then a set of lights approached to my rear, I thought this is my chance, I’ll tuck myself in behind the car and follow it in to the next village, I flicked my left indicator on and pulled my front brake leaver in to make myself look brighter to the driver, I pulled the clutch in and clicked the bike into first gear and waited for the car to pass me.
The car was a mustard coloured Volkswagen Beetle his lights were super dim, a little better than my Speedo lights, all his headlights did was to highlight the white lines in the middle of the road, I think he could have done with some driving lights, but they were good enough for me, if he could see where he was going that was fine with me, as soon as he was level with me, I would pull off behind him, my plan was to use his headlights to get me to my destination.
The V.W. rattled past me, the car had two surfboards strapped to the roof rack, there was also a couple of clues on the rear window of the beetle that gave away what the pastime of the two guys in the car was, there was a round sticker with SEX WAX displayed at the center of the decal and a longer decal with BORN TO SURF in large bold red letters.
Ok, it’s a wild guess, but I think they may have been surfers.
I thought I maybe lucky with this car, they were maybe heading for LLantwit Major to catch the early morning high tide or if I’m not so lucky Southerndown beach, I was hoping for llantwit if they were heading down that way they would most likely pass though WICK and that would be where I was going.
In no time we were into the next village, everything was going fine until he put his indicator on to turn right onto the coast road toward Ogmore by sea.
They turned and I carried on using the streetlights to find my way, I passed the village pool called “ pwll y mer “ then past the Farmers arms pub.
I rode up the slight incline from the pub towards Wick, the lighting here was very sparse there were only 3 – 4 houses on right hand side of the road and just fields on the opposite side of the road, the lamp posts were very wide apart, I travelled on a little further and I then passed the last street lamp and there I pulled over into a field gateway just opposite Slade Farm just outside Pitcot and waited for the next car to drive past.
( Photo 6 ) . The lane between Saint Brides and Wick, it looks a lot different in the dark.
Ahead of me were just dark county lanes with no lighting, not until I get to Wick village would I see any street lighting again, this was a very narrow twisty turny road with high hedges and very little opportunity to pull off the road, so I sat on the Kwaka and waited once again for a car to pass.
a couple of cars came in the opposite direction, I could see their lights getting closer in the darkness, the lights dance their way through the dark trees and hedges these guys didn’t dip their lights when they saw me either.
It didn’t take long before two cars came up from the village behind me, I intended to do the same thing with these cars as I did with the Beetle, I would wait for them to pass and pull out after them and then follow for as long as I can.
The cars came passed at around 50 mph, there was a red Datsun Cherry in front followed by a green Fiat 125, I tucked myself in behind them and followed them into the dark country lane.
I was hoping I would stay behind them until I arrived in Wick, but this was not going to happen, after we traveled together for a couple of miles they both put their right indicators on to turn down the lane that leads to the Plough.
I did think of staying with them and just go straight to the plough, but Gaenor my girlfriend did not have a phone in her house, and she was waiting for me to pick her up and I was already late, I didn’t think it would be fair for me to be drinking in the pub while she was stuck in the house and worrying about where I was while she was sitting around in her house not knowing why I had not turned up, there were no mobile phones back in the day, so I could not contact her, and let her know why I was late picking her up.
So with no other option, I pulled over once again on the side of the road and waited for the next car to piggyback me into Wick.
I could see the glow of the streetlights from the village up ahead from me, the lights reflected off the grey clouds that covered the night sky, it was as if the village was telling me, here I am over here only a mile or so in the distance.
There was a lot of darkness from where I was parked up at the side of the road and my end destination, and the dull yellowish glow from the village would not help me get any further.
I couldn’t see shit in front of me, it was a very dark night.
So I waited and a little while later a car came, this road was never really very busy, but it seemed quieter than normal, I took the opportunity and I jumped in behind the car, it was a two-tone creamy / bluey coloured Humber scepter with a black clothy type roof, I distinctly remember what car make it was because, I had not seen one of these cars for ages and I think Lawson owned one once.
This Humber was going into wick, I knew this because there were no other turn-offs or junctions in the lane, so my open prison sentence was over.
Freedom at last.
It was only a short ride, and I was back in civilization once again, the car carried on its journey towards llantwit major or where ever it was going.
I stopped in the middle of the road to turn right off the main road, I had to wait for an oncoming car to pass before I could move off and ride the last few hundred yards to Gaenor’s house, the car passed me, and he helpfully sounded his horn at me obviously trying to point out that my headlight was not working.
I said to myself mumbling under my breath “ yes I know “.
Two guys came out of The Star pub that is situated right by the junction and one of them said “ Oi butt, your headlights not working “.
My answer to this helpful observation was pretty short, I shouted back “ no shit, Sherlock “ and I promptly pulled off.
I parked up outside my girlfriends house and hit the headlight again, I did this out of frustration and would you believe it, the fucking thing flickered and back came on.
I popped into Gaenor’s house to tell her why I was late and then I walked a quarter of a mile to the nearest red B.T. phone box on the village green, there I phoned the plough, Beryl the landlady answered the phone, I could tell by her voice that she was already pissed again, I tried to explain to her that I was stuck in Wick and would she ask a couple of the boys to come and pick us up, this was hard work, she was slurring and didn’t seem to understand what I wanted.
The phone went quite for a few seconds and then harry her husband Harry came on the phone, I explained everything to him, to be fair he sorted it straight away, he also said that Beryl was a little under the weather and that’s why he came on the phone, I told him I understand, we all knew she drank too much, but nobody mentioned it.
Well not to Harry.
Don't get me wrong Beryl was a great landlady and a very nice woman, she put up with all the nonsense that we got up too, and we had a lot of respect for her, if she told us to stop whatever we were doing, we did so without mouthing her back and would always apologize and believe me she had to put up with a lot of crap with us, like I said the best landlady ever and a lovely woman.
God rest her soul.
In no time two of my friends came and picked us up, and then we went straight up the plough.
( photo 6 ) . The Plough and Harrow at Monknash on a damp wet day.
I stayed at my girlfriends house that night and in the morning, I stripped the headlight off and found a couple of wires had been chaffing on the steering head and had been making and breaking the electrical contact which caused the light to flicker and go dead.
I sorted that out in minutes.
I repaired it with some tape I had in my tool bag, which I always kept under the seat and after doing this roadside repair I never had a problem with the lights after repairing them in all the 155,000 miles I rode on the Kwaka.
Nowa days a quick mobile phone call would have sorted any problem like a faulty headlight out in no time, a friend or one of the family would come and help.
But there again I think most modern bikers would use the option and phone the AA ( Automobile Association) or the RAC ( Royal Automobile Club ) and wait for them to fix it or to take them home.
Technology has taken all the fun out of modern biking.