Well this is duller than a typical day in Melbourne

So I thought I'd go for a wander back though history. I found this little gem on a cyclingforums thread from 1988. The thread was called "What's the weirdest thing you've ever seen on a bike?"

Posted by: sssamcz

Back when I used to work in a bike shop we saw all sorts of oddballs come in. However, none was odder than Fish Tank Man. Of course, there is a story behind how he got the appelation of Fish Tank Man, and this is how it goes.

We were seeing through a fairly uneventful weekday afternoon in the shop when one of the strangest contraptions ever pulled up outside the glass front doors. The bike itself was fairly standard, a cheap, low-end MTB; but atop the rear rack was a big fishbowl. Into this fishbowl were inserted two electrodes, attached to wires running down to a generator of the type more commonly used for powering a light. The strangest was yet to come though, the bowl was covered by a plastic lid which had a tube running to the riders mouth by means of a face mask.

We were understandably quite astonished by this bizarre contraption, and had to ask the good man what all this was in aid of. He kindly explained the physics behind his set-up, the current passing through the water would apparently free the oxygen of its bond with the hydrogen, and then be funneled by means of the tube and mask to provide an extra boost of oxygen which would clearly provide greatly improved capacity for stamina. Well, obviously his logic was impeccable, and we didn't dare point out that perhaps he'd just be better off without the 20 litres of water on the back of his bike, and from that day on Fish Tank Man always received a warm welcome in our shop.

So that is undoubtedly the weirdest thing I've ever seen attached to a bike.

Sam



And welcome to Monday