Two events having to do with China,,,
Last week, I was coming home in the secluded dark of the just-post-
solstice
Hudson River Greenway. I vaguely make out a... well, a vonce would be
the
correct term. A little annoying thing in my mirror. Wonderful, someone
kid wants to ride in my draft, doesn't flash a light or signal or call
out
or anything, now I have to get out of my reverie of solitude and pay
twice
as much attention. Then eventually I wanted to see what I was tugging,
so
I pull to the right and slow down. And it's a miniature version of
Number
One Son -- swear to christmas -- on a high end Brompton. So I say,
hey,
is that a Brompton? And he answers in a comic accent: Fastest fold-up
in
the world. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. So I let
him
run a little ahead of me, then I pass him, then he makes a move between
oncoming bikes that wasn't safe for a full-size, then I'm behind him.
By
mile four, I couldn't catch the little so and so, spinning the pedals
like
all get out he was. I never owned a fold up that I could get to 20 MPH
for
a full mile. So I guess Brompton really is a fast bike, or fast for
this
guy, anyway.
This weekend, I was riding the narrow stretch from Atlantic Beach to
Long
Beach, and I hear something start to go horribly wrong with my rear
wheel,
and then, KA_BLOING! and I look down and see some who-knows-what
happened
to the cluster. I get off the bike to take a look, and it seems my
bungee,
made in China, seemed to have extricated itself from its secure position
on
my rear rack and snagged a spoke, wrapped itself around the cluster, and
then, before it could kill me or the bike or both, snapped clean in
half.
Never saw that before. I remember back in the days, they called them
sandaus or sandows or something, they cost $10, made by engineers from
Switzerland or somewhere, and could secure a boat to a car. Now they're
3
for a buck from China, but at least they have the good grace to break
when necessary.
--ag