A trolley declined

Passing through the Kokoro passage from the Station Approach end yesterday morning, I found that the stack of trolleys of reference 1 had gone, apart from a Sainsbury's trolley, now rather full of fast food litter. It was already rather warm, so I decided against clearing it and walking it along to Kiln Lane.

Instead, carried onto Fudge's cycle shop in Upper High Street to inquire about palm guards to provide some protection to the hands in the event of their hitting the road - which might be messy given that I am on warfarin. I felt sure that I had seen cyclists wearing gloves with palms but no backs. The chap in this shop - the second at which I had asked - didn't know about anything like that, but he did offer what he called mitts from Specialised: padded palms, no fingers and ventilated backs. It seems that the idea was to cushion the palms against the handlebars, thus protecting the blood supply to the hands. And to be fair, I have noticed the circulation in my hands grinding to a halt when on the Jubilee Way run, needing a bit of rubbing, flexing and shaking to bring them back to proper life. Sold. We shall see how I get on with them. Will I bother to wear them at all?

I was rather surprised to find that I could spend more than £10,000 on a bicycle, with the most expensive one featuring a battery which would probably get me up Box Hill, a feat I might just about have managed fifty years ago, but would not think of attempting now. Nor would I care to come down, not being keen on downhill speed on a bicycle. Looking closer, I found that lots of the bicycles on display came with batteries - and I remembered that one does see quite a lot of them on the roads these days. Would have been considered unsporting fifty years ago.

A lot of the cycles on view were from either Brompton or Specialised, but they also had a few from Trek - with lots of gears and looking nothing like the Trek road bike that I have been using for more than a decade now. It suits me and I dare say it will do until I retire from the road. Unless, that is, I move onto a battery assisted tricycle.

BH was temporarily absent on a farming expedition (see reference 2), so back via Costcutter to get some of their rolls for lunch. Plus a Guardian. Two of the rolls went into the construction of excellent fried egg sandwiches, leaving the third in reserve. The Guardian provided some entertainment, but also included a fair amount of padding.

I then inspected the mitts more closely, to find that they had been made in Vietnam. Complete with double gel, ergonomic design and scientific testing. Almost as much flannel as you get on packets of food at Sainsbury's.

PS 1: I might say that my road bike doesn't look very much like this one either. A snip at £3,000 or so. The sometimes all-knowing receipt folder does not reveal what I paid, but I do feel sure that it was in hundreds - say less than five - rather than thousands.

PS 2: ask gmail, and after a bit of poking about I turn up an exchange from 2006, about the time that I retired. No receipt, but it does suggest that I paid something more than £750. All those extras that I needed, like mud guards. So rather more than I had thought and rather longer ago. 

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/08/trolley-525.html.

Reference 2: https://www.bockettsfarm.co.uk/. Bit of a cheek describing it as a working family farm. Small visitor attraction yes, working farm no.

Reference 3: https://fudgescyclestore.com/. The Upper High Street store, not the one which has appeared on the Harrow Road, on the other side of the river.

Reference 4: https://www.specialized.com/gb/en.