Spot the dot

Ha! Bet you thought I would be posting a picture of something dirty, didn't you?

The last few years have seen an avalanche of small and interesting innovations when it comes to cycling. This bloke has a small reflective dot on the back of each shoe - each is about the size of a 10 cent coin. When you pedal, the dots go up and down as your feet rotate, and the movement draws the eye - especially at night.

It's a small thing, but if it's enough for a car driver to pick you up at night from behind, it might save your neck (unless the driver is pissed - then you're rooted).

Lots of little things like this have crept into cycling without most people noticing. They are not the result of government mandates or OH&S legislation - they are generated by people having a brain wave and either producing and marketing a new product themselves, or it being introduced by one of the major equipment manufacturers who see such innovations as giving them an edge in a very competitive market.

It's just one of those little indicators as to how the free market constantly improves our lives in little ways - in ways that sclerotic, centralised, ham-fisted bureaucratic government never can.