Bicycles (Again)

But before I start on bicycles, a story I was told this week by a friend who teaches eight year olds. One of hers told her that the ancient Egyptians killed their enemies with sparrows. It would appear that the child had got spears and arrows mixed in her mind and this conflation was the result.

To bicycles. I have a new one. I like to have an excuse, and this time it is the fact that this year the Royal Mail put up their charge for collecting my mail daily to nearly £500 per annum. Until a few years ago they didn't charge anything to collect, then they sneaked in a £150 charge, and since then it has gone up and up.

The worm finally turned as far as I am concerned and so since the beginning of the year I have been taking my mail up to the nearest Post Office branch, about half a mile up the road. The problem turned out that mail in bags is not only heavy, but bulky too, and I was hard pressed to get it all safely up the road on my present Dutch bike.

So after a bit of research I went to London last week and collected a Yuba Mundo, a German bike designed with heavy loads and African roads in mind. It is 2.1m long and supposed to carry 200kg of cargo. Which is probably more than I could actually pedal by some way. The secret is that the back carrier isn't bolted on, but part of the frame of the bike. All I have to do is put all my mail bags together in another mailbag and bungee the lot onto the carrier. Works well, and will also be useful between here and the allotment. See the link to the maker's website for pictures and YouTube video.