Evening Ride Out to Pitstone Reservoir - May 12

With the unerring precision of a homing pigeon Paul Lewis led seventeen CWAMs to the placid waters of Pitstone Reservoir (just north of Northampton) on Wednesday evening. The odd spots of rain at the Long Itch were replaced by an almost cloudless sky and a brilliant orange sun at Pitstone, although the sunny aspect belied a chilly temperature. The good turn out illustrates that the evening ride outs are going to be just as popular this year as they were in 2009 and it was good to see some new faces amongst the regulars.

Leaving the tranquil scene at Pitsone, Paul found time to take a circular tour around the narrow streets of historic Moulton before starting the journey home. Having unthinkingly cleaned my glasses too vigorously during the break and wiped the anti-mist layer off them, it was necessary to raise my visor whenever we stopped at junctions and I was surprised to see my breath puffing out in mid-winter mode. In fact, Mike reliably informed us that at Flecknoe, it was down to 4C.

When I brought my last helmet, a pin-lock visor was a priority and I was quite disconcerted to find myself misting up on its first outing - so much for double glazing. I spent several miles roundly cursing so-called anti-fog visors until I realised the cause was, of course, my untreated glasses. Over the years I’ve tried a host of anti-fogging agents with little degree of success until (and I hesitate to admit it) I was dragged off to a craft fair one rainy Sunday. Amongst the plethora of knitted gnomes, crocheted cats and painted plant pots, was a stall selling small tubs of a pink (it would have to be pink at a craft fair) gunge that was guaranteed to clean spectacles to a brilliance never before imagined by man. There was even a small steam generator demonstrating it's anti-fogging properties.  Envisage my utter delight when my wife presented me with a tub (birthday & Christmas present combined you understand). It almost physically hurts an old cynic like me to admit that something bought at a craft fair actually works but two years on, the tub’s only half empty and we still have the sparkliest, fog-free spectacles in Warwickshire

.

With Paul's ingenuity for finding 'interesting' routes, we were lucky enough to finish off on a stretch of ‘road’ which internationally renowned geometrists spend many hours dreaming about, there being more right angles to the mile than any other in the country.  The evening was a great success in that, due to Paul's careful shepherding, the group stayed together throughout the whole journey despite one escape attempt being made on one of the many roundabouts in Daventry. Thanks to Paul for another good ride out and for guiding us back to The Bell & Buck just before darkness fell.

Thanks to Trevor Smith & Alan Robinson for the photos.