I had a meeting with a customer late afternoon yesterday. They just so happened to be 10 miles down the road from Llandegla…so what am I to do? A night ride, solo, in a Welsh forest is probably a stupid thing to do but sometimes you’ve just got to grab any opportunity you can to scare yourself silly.

Meeting ended after 5pm and by then it’s properly dark. I’d heard that night riding at Llandegla is frowned upon but I decided that given I’d taken the trouble to bring a bike with me, I was going to drive over there and do it anyway. The alternative was sitting in the traffic on the M56.

Starting on the red route, my helmet light was casting the usual spooky shadows that you see when shining 20 watts of halogen into a forest. Still, that made me put the power down a bit more.

The start of the black route appeared and from that point it was a terrifying mix of berms, cautious covering of brakes and the occasional locking up of the rear wheel.

Back at the car within 90 minutes. A short ride, but way off the thrill scale.