A slug of moulded plastic, trailing a single wire.
A simple (so they blithely tell me) sensor
That, somehow, feels the thousandth-of-a-second tug
From a passing pea-sized magnet
And from that infinitesimal impulse
Calculates my ground-speed
And telegraphs the blessed motor
All stop or full ahead.
Until it fails.
And in that moment,
Heart in shoes,
I am crushingly aware
That I have no idea
How any of this works:
I cannot make, mend or even comprehend
The least of all the myriad devices
That make my world go round:
No wheels, axles, cogs or clues;
They go about their work
Silent, motionless, inscrutable,
Leaving me on the roadside, wondering
Exactly which of us
Is truly in control.
Suffered my first away-from-home system failure on the e-mtb yesterday (error code 503 means a speed sensor issue, for any interested Bosch Performance CX users out there). Fortunately it happened a) fairly close to the main road; b) less than four miles from the bike shop; and c) during opening hours. All painlessly resolved thanks to Danny and his excellent crew; but a reminder of our profound, unthinking reliance on technology that we (or at least I) increasingly can’t fix ourselves, and don’t really understand. N.
Gonecycling (again) 
Ah…my friend you are not alone on that issue…I’m not sure how any of this stuff works.
Glad it’s not just me 🙂 Our daughter (18) despairs of me; and my colleagues find it hilarious when, at the end of a meeting and we’re putting in dates for our next get-together, they’re all jabbing at smartphones while I’m writing in my diary…! I love technology, don’t get me wrong, but it does worry me that I’m just a user or operator and entirely at the mercy of forces I don’t understand!