The Wayward Crutch
(Posted 21:53:08 on 11th May 2025 by Rag)
I seem to have a fated hour ride right now. There's a loop where I live that I've tried to record on a few occasions and something has prevented me from doing it. Either I've had the phone on the wrong settings, or my new GoPro has overheated or something or other. I did get a clip from the ride when my crutch flew its holder on the back of the bike, which you can
see here if you're interested.
This past weekend saw my camera stop recording shortly after the start. I'm not too sure what happened, but it was disconnected from its power supply when I returned so it was either that or it was moaning about the power supply which it seems to do all the time. Side note, the recommendation to stop the overheating is to not charge it which won't work as the batter doesn't last long enough. If you have to charge it, remove the battery and power from an external power source. When you connect to an external power source it tells you it's not delivering enough power even though it is ..... annoying.
Anyway, I digress. Back to the main story and my crutch went for a fling in exactly the same place - essentially it's when I hit the cobbles at speed that bike is very unforgiving and it rattles everything loose even though I'd fastened the crutches in with velcro straps on top of the holders they are in. The crutch didn't fully fly off this time, so I just pulled over and re-seated it in its holders and went on my merry way. When I got home, I noticed that there was only one crutch on the bike. It appears that both of them had come loose on the cobbles and the other one (not the one I reseated) had subsequently fallen off. This isn't a major problem as it's only an old pair and I have several old pairs lying around. They're only on the bike in case of an emergency if I need to get off and walk somewhere.
This was around lunchtime and the downtown area had been quite busy. I did decide to mount a search and rescue in the afternoon. More because I was concerned about littering than anything else. I hate seeing litter and I don't want to be contributing to it if I can help it, so I took the truck along the parts of the path you can drive on. I was looking in the gutter along the way and the crutch was nowhere to be seen. I figured I'd give it a second pass and just as I was about to start, the thought of an old lady jumped into my head. The old lady that finds a glove on the floor and puts it on top of a wall or a railing spike so the owner can find it (assuming they're looking up instead of down). Well, what do you know? I don't know if it was an old lady or not, but someone had obviously found my crutch and decided to leave it where they thought someone would see it if they were looking for it. Having driven by it once, there's no way I would have seen it unless I'd have taken the second pass and started looking where someone would have put it.


I guess the main thing is that I've now vindicated someone taking this action. I'm sure they've passed by, seen its gone and patted themselves on the back for the good deed they've done. I am thankful as it did allow me to retrieve it and dispose of it properlly.