Friday, June 29, 2007

Bike Shop Developments

When I last visited Bundanoon in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, I found a bike shop that served coffee and cake. It was an excellent idea, a marvellous opportunity to acquire a new cotter pin or an inner tube for a 27" wheel and combine it with a piping hot expresso and a slice of Bakewell tart (or whatever the Australian equivalent is).

A few years later in New England, in the pleasant (but emphatically shut) town of York, Maine, I came across this development in the wondrous world of cycling emporia. Although neither coffee nor cake was obviously on offer, I could, if I was overwhelmed by heat and the desire for something supposedly healthy, augment my purchase of a chain link remover with frozen yoghurt.

What a interesting idea but not one, I imagine, without its difficulties. I have tried eating a conventional ice cream cone in a high wind and the spattering effect across all parts of the body is most unwelcome. I should think frozen yoghurt has the same sort of consistency and would perform in a similar manner when cycling along. Also, unless some sort of cone holding device is available, the need to pedal along with only one hand on the handlebars for more than a few seconds is to be deplored, what with the amount of traffic on the roads today and the standards of driving. I'm sorry but I can't see the bike and yoghurt combination as a world beater.

Perhaps a substitution with fruitcake would be in order - it had the solidity to be slipped into a pocket between bites and suggests no more danger than maybe a poke in the eye by a dislodged currant.

2 comments:

Lee said...

No, the two do not seem to go together. Unless there is a quiet brook to sit beside while getting your culture hit and then you can cycle on afterwards.

Pauline said...

Ah, it's simply because you go too FAST...try a more leisurely pace while eating your cone, and then go fast to burn off all the calories, ayup.