Jim Adams (Letters, December 8) is right re bicycle bells being needed. Trouble is today like a lot of things once well made, they are mostly rubbish, produced cheaply as a pretend accessory. We now live in a pretend world with everything including clothing being a pretence instead of practical. Try buying a shirt with a pocket deep enough to hold a ballpoint pen. They are few and far between.
But back to bicycles. They once had mudguards front and rear with 12 inches of white paint on the rear and a red reflector in the middle of the paint. Also a bracket in the centre of the handlebars for a light.
That was once law and I don't ever remember a law change allowing these things to be no longer needed. Yet they are not available even for street bikes which now are rarer than hen's teeth. Mountain bikes are all the rage but the tyres are not suitable for our roads and footpaths. Once riding a bike on the footpath was illegal but not any more.
I once rode a bike to work and all I used was a pair of spring clips around my cuffs to keep them from catching in the chain. No lycra back then.
Maybe old people should have to have a bike bell on their walkers to warn selfish cyclists or yapping tourists they don't own the footpaths. They could then perhaps use the green corridor, as nobody else does.
