30. TOTALLY NOT ROCKET SURGERY.

I like bicycles. That is fairly obvious to anyone casting more than an extremely superficial glance over the contents of this Blog. It is my belief that the lives of anyone who comes into contact with these wonderful devices is enriched by the interaction.

Which is not to say that there aren’t a number of areas that I can’t help but think could be improved somewhat.

I would very much like to know, for example, why the brakes supplied on nearly all kids bikes are so entirely crap. I’m talking about the entry level bikes here. The very first bike that most children will sling a leg over. Right at the point in their bicycle riding career where just about any negative experience has the power to forever taint the way a developing mind views the pastime and even most fairly reputable manufacturers don’t seem to be able to attach a handbrake to their products that will stop the bike worth a damn.

Sure, they all come with backpedal brakes that work effectively enough. But they depend on your feet being in the right place to properly apply them and when a kid needs to stop suddenly (like just before they plunge down that embankment onto the 6 lane highway) they are often not in a state of mind to correctly position their frantically whirling legs.

Most modern adult bikes come equipped with disc brakes that can stop dead a wheel with the pressure applied by one finger, even if the bicycle the wheel is attached to is plummeting down a nearly vertical cliff face. Sure, those brakes cost a bit more than the two bits of rubber and shitty metal that comprise the brakes attached to my little girls death machine, but I seriously reckon the subsidising of higher quality brakes on bikes like hers would pay a dividend in terms of kids who end up riding for their entire lives instead of quitting after some ineffective brake related riding disaster.

Small exaggeration but this is JUST LIKE the bicycle I had to ride at the Western Plains Zoo.

Likewise, the industry could to a lot worse than provide free (possibly second hand) bikes, or at least people who could effectively maintain the piles of twisted steel that pass for bikes in establishments like the Western Plains Zoo that hire them out to unsuspecting punters who wish only to have something moderately comfortable on which to ride around and see the nice animals.

I mean this is an opportunity for the industry to get it’s hooks into a group of people who probably haven’t ridden a bike since they were teenagers and they end up rattling around on noisy, wobble wheeled nightmares that probably ensure they won’t do it again until the one they get issued in heaven by the angel in charge of environmentally responsible transportation....

Next: Drivetrain. Woot.