General Cycling Stuff

This snippet from South African War history:

At Graaff Reinet five hundred bicycles were confiscated under military orders.(Where are they now??) This step was necessary because of suspected disloyalty among the Dutch-speaking British subjects in the region.(56) In Pretoria the Boers also strictly controlled the use of bicycles. At the time of Winston Churchill's escape from Pretoria, two Englishmen were jailed for having left the town on their bicycles without a permit.(57) The fact that on both sides strict measures were taken against the use of the bicycle by civilians is an indication that it posed a real threat as a quiet, relatively fast, and cheap mode of transport.

I've spent quite some time during the last two weeks doing an apprenticeship under Olaf at Crosstown Cycles recently (mostly doing the highly-skilled, technical stuff like hanging new racks and fixing punctures)
Actually, it's a great learning experience for me, watching a highly-skilled and highly experienced person like Olaf working on a bike.
Sure as hell beats sitting in Prince Albert waiting for the municipality to realise that the view in front of them is the edge of a cliff and that the lake they can see is a mirage.