Hot contender for this year's daftest bike accessory idea, the concept behind design outfit Gelardi's Contrail Biking Community Tool is actually on the right lines, though it's hard to be certain whether it was chalk or some other powdery substance that got them enthused to the point of prototype... the mechanism is interesting enough: a small amount of chalk from a seattube-mounted container is brushed onto a felt wheel, which then transfers onto the rear tyre leaving a fine line on the road. As well as your chain, derailleur, rims... maybe.
So, er, why exactly would you want to do this? Well, the Big Idea is that getting enough road riders to use the device would make it colourfully clear to motorists that a lot of cyclists also use the roads these days. As more riders use the same route, it becomes a kind of collaborative DIY bike lane, all bonny colours an' that, reinforcing the presence of bikes, encouraging more riders to use the same route and so on, a bit like ant trails. Potentially, it reverses the vicious cycle of more cars present = more perceived danger = less bikes present, claiming the tarmac back for us less conspicuous two-wheelers. It's certainly caught the imagination of the tree huggers, anyway.
So is it a good idea or what? Will it reclaim the roads? Will it be deemed a hazard to other road users and get the rozzers all uptight? Will Top Gear retaliate with a car-based version? Will the roads become a slimy mess of chalk in the rain? More to the point, will it be so cheap people actually buy it in droves and actually use it so we can find out? Ay, there's the rub...
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