The insurance is offered through ETA.
Wannabe spies and eight-year-olds will be queueing up at next week's Cycle Show in Earl's Court, for a glimpse of this 'Bond bike' (clumsily, it stands for Built of Notorious Deterrents).
Some insurance firm (whose name we'll obscure in the fine tradition of spies and cyphers) surveyed 800 cyclists to discover their top gripes. They then designed a prototype bike to counter the top challenges of city cycling. The enhanced velocipede (which isn't for sale) boasts a side-mounted flame thrower to dispatch errant vehicles, caterpillar tracks and ski mount for coping with snow, and an ejector seat to deter would-be thieves.
Judging by the promotional video, the 'flame thrower' might be better employed as a cigarette lighter, and the ejector seat would struggle to jettison an infant hamster.
A fine piece of marketing, but we doubt the creatives behind it will be getting a phone call from Q-branch any time soon.
When carjackings were all the rage in South Africa a decade ago some entrepreneurs decided "This is a market opportunity!"
A test driver disposes with some local difficulty
Car drivers in South Africa are being offered a new method of preventing hijacking.A blaster, flame-thrower operated by a foot pedal inside the car, blasts a jet of fire at a would-be hijacker.
A person confronted by an armed hijacker simply presses a pedal and the "blaster" ignites gas that shoots from the under-side of the car.Doctors say the device is lethal - but the police have confirmed it is perfectly legal.
Johannesburg seems to fill car drivers with fear. In the province which includes the city, there were 4,000 car hijacks between January and June this year.People pull up at traffic lights, they stop their car and then someone comes up to the window with a gun and tells them to get out.Charles Fourie, who invented the blaster, says drivers should put their hands up and then step on the gas."This is a case of opting for the lesser of two evils," Mr Fourie said."Either you get shot, your wife is raped, your child is murdered - against him getting burned."
No legal problems
Police say they cannot see any legal problems with the blaster - so long as the right people are blasted....BBC
