Ballymena sits in the middle of County Antrim on the River Braid, a brisk market town of nearly thirty thousand people that most riders meet as a roundabout on the way to somewhere prettier. That undersells it a little. The town grew rich on linen in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the Scots-Irish settlers who came here left a dialect and a stubborn Presbyterian streak that you can still hear in the shops. Buses are the modern trade: the big coachbuilder on the edge of town ships its vehicles round the world.
For a rider, Ballymena is a staging post, and a good one. Every kind of fuel is available without fuss, and the high street has the usual bakeries and coffee counters if you need to warm up. Remember that Northern Ireland prices fuel in pounds and measures speed in miles per hour, which catches out visitors coming up from the Republic.
The reason to stop here is what lies on either side. To the east the land lifts to the Antrim plateau, and the road to Broughshane leads towards the cone of Slemish, the old volcanic plug where, according to tradition, the teenage Patrick tended sheep as a slave. To the north-east the Glens of Antrim open up, nine deep valleys cut into basalt and fed by peaty streams, with Glenariff the one most people ride. The surface on these B-roads is variable, patched after hard winters, and the sheep own the verges.
Weather here is the Atlantic kind: four seasons in an afternoon, with squalls arriving off the Sperrins in the west and the light turning brilliant ten minutes later. Late spring and early autumn give the best mix of dry tarmac and low traffic. Summer weekends can be busy on the coast road at Cushendall and Waterfoot, so go early and ride the glens first.
If you are heading for the Giant's Causeway, Ballymena is a sensible place to tank up and eat a proper lunch before the tourist coaches begin to crowd the north coast. Treat it as a base rather than a destination and it will do the job well.