Riding fixed is just like riding a normal bike, except you never stop pedalling - right? Sounds easy enough or so he though, but unfortunately - locked in a battle involving a fixed-gear, pedalling and gravity, Jon lost. With pretty painful consequences.

Fortunately, as it happens - he is fine. Managed to fall over in front of an ambulance as fortune has it, and got looked after straight away. Nothing broken, some road rash yes and pretty bad bruising on the shoulder, but the man is in one piece. Thank God. 

However, I feel I’m partially to blame - having got the hang of this fixie thing myself I have certainly had some scrapes and plenty of near misses, but fortunately (knock on wood) nothing serious. I think this hubris of mine, thinking fixie riding is a piece of cake, probably infected Jon into not thinking too much about it himself either. But it is actually a matter of reprogramming your brain. Coasting is just something one does, normally - like the computer switching on to screensaver after a while.. yet you can’t, not without dire consequences.

However, this gyrobike could at least help - using a gyroscopic effect to keep the bike upright, even at slow speeds. Perhaps this will be more helpful to kids learning to ride, rather than folks who already know how to ride a bike, but instead forget they can’t stop pedalling. So perhaps there is no other quick-fix than tons and tons of practice, concentration and hard work? Or a note permanently taped to the handlebar saying - pedal, mother****er! Any ideas?