It seemed like a good idea – 1.2

Here we go with a small update on the whole bike ride thing…

I have bought my bike to a rideable standard. It seems there’s no puncture in the back wheel afterall. Have tightened the brakes so that they stop the bike and sorted the front wheel.

I even went for a ride for a few miles. My legs still work without a problem but the saddle… it seems to be a bit personal for a first outing if you ask me.

I shall need to get myself down to Halfords soon to get some new brake blocks, a new saddle and a helmet.

Though it’s a shame I can’t get a hairmet like this:

For technology’s sake

A bit of a rant, but.. a couple of things have caught my mind lately when it comes to the ever-growing fascination with in car technology. I’ll state this now: I’m against it.

Firstly there’s this article in which one woman’s sat-nav failed to inform her that, while driving at night to her boyfriend’s house, she had been directed onto a railway crossing. Her car was promptly destroyed. She claims to have had no idea that she was on a railway crossing.

I have a couple of questions regarding this matter. Firstly, did she not notice a different texture to the road when she got out to open the gate? A certain… railway track type quality? Secondly, surely her car was fitted with those new age things called headlights that should have quite clearly illuminated the area around her car and revealed… again…. a certain railway track type quality?? Was this woman honestly expecting to tell her something she could’ve looked out the window and seen herself? Did she need it to tell her she was wearing blue jeans too? Or has it now become the case that unless the sat-nav says something is there it’s not?

What happened to looking at a map before you set off or using street signs? The government spends huge amounts of our money each year on those huge things that point the way to our destinations, why not use them? Tom-Tom? how about a map? or look at the road signs?! Next it’ll be “is that traffic light red, Tom-Tom?”

As a ‘valued member’ of the AA I was recently asked to complete a survey on in-car technology and whether I would find various bits of kit useful. I closed it down halfway through – technology to alert the car going past in the opposite direction of hazards, a computer to tell me the weather at my destination… pointless. Why do I need a Wi-fi connection in my car? If I want to check my emails I’ll do it at home or work not sat in a car in a car park or have the temptation there to try and check it while lobbing down the motorway. I can almost see the Land Rover Discovery hurtling past me at 90mph, driver with one hand on the wheel and the other on his / her laptop logging onto hotmail.com with barely half their attention on the road.

If it’s illegal to sit and text on a mobile while driving surely it’s illegal to sit and push buttons to tell an oncoming car that there’s a dead badger in the road ahead?!

Last night while I was driving home in the crepuscular light I was stuck behind a car with dvd screens set in the back of the front headrests. Sure it may keep little Britney and Keanu quiet for the trip home from Asda but it’s distracting as hell for the car behind. As attentive driver as I am I kept finding my eyes drawn to the penguins on screen in the car in front – weirdly enough it was a Toyota. I only knew it was time to move forward at the traffic lights because the penguins started getting farther away.

I know it’s not exactly Pimp My Ride levels of insanity – though a fully functioning fireplace in the back of a car may also prove a bit distracting – but surely potential safety infractions should be thought about as much (if not more than) as the gadgetry goodness of half these things?

I’d rather have a safe journey than know where the nearest AA approved hotel is to my current GPS position. I’d also rather the kids in the back we playing I-spy or even pulling faces at each other than think the car behind was likely to rear-end me at the next set of lights because Charlie and Lola were more enthralling than the rest of the driving environment.