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Archive index"Shoddy preparation" an old school friend declared as I tried to repair my old D3 Bantam by the road side nearly thirty years ago. These words have never left me, so before meeting the massed ranks of the Thames Valley section (all four of us) for our first run, I topped up the fuel, inflated the tyres, oiled the chain, and tried to run a drip of 3-in-1 down a screwdriver blade onto that tiny piece of felt by the timing cam.
At the rendezvous I was the last to arrive but in the hope that more might turn up we waited in the car park and admired Colin King's Winged Wheel and Derek & Lorraine's newly acquired Firefly. A passing lady, heading for the bottle bank, was induced to take a group photo. Eventually we set forth with myself in the lead, a position for some reason I was forced to maintain throughout.
Our figure of eight route took us through the quiet lanes of central Berkshire and northern Hampshire, a total of 23 miles. First stop was the Roman town of Silchester where we sat for a while on the great wall in the sunshine with the muffled sounds of the church choir singing in the background. (This is what life is all about.)
At the bottom of the hill was a ford, which we had omitted to tell Derek about, he having the only friction drive motor. Contrary to our expectations he happily went through the water (There's always one!) while the rest of us took to the foot bridge. The Firefly showed no ill effects and continued to pull like a train (relatively speaking) throughout, although I'm told the braking was somewhat less effective.
Onward to The New Inn at Stratfield Saye where a very pleasant hour was spent sitting outside consuming packets of crisps and restrained quantities of alcohol. Two old countrymen vacating the public bar inspected our bikes lined up against the car park wall and reflected on similar machines they once owned in earlier days. A short run back to the starting point completed a very enjoyable first group outing with not even a misfire from my well-prepared Cyclemaster.
First published - December 1997