Weak April 1 jokes I enjoyed

Well, kind of got a giggle out of, anyway.

Firstly, aligning stripes on a jersey with ancient 'lines of force' to get getter cycling performance is not just amusing, it's believable that someone somewhere will believe it, too. "Skeptics try to play this down because they cannot explain it with science," said longtime ley line expert Martyn Erlin to Cyclingnews on Monday. "They need to see to believe, they need to be able to measure and to quantify for something to exist. However there's a huge amount of examples from the recent and distant history of this country to show that something inexplicable, unquantifiable yet wonderful is going on." Manchester has long been regarded as a fast track but the number of world records, track standards and personal bests broken during the recent championships led experts such as Mr M. Erlin to ponder if something more significant was taking place.

Next up is wrapping old bike parts in new materials, and I have to say that it's an intriguing idea. I have a rusty old frame that's too far gone to restore, or to be bothered restoring. What if I could coat it instead with carbon - or some other substance - and get more life out of it? Would I trust it not to fail? No. Anyway, nice joke that we'd like to believe in: However, when Colorado retailer Chris Jacobsen first informed us of his intriguing Jacobsen Carbon Wrap-It system, we were rightfully skeptical. Jacobsen proposed that consumers could wrap their own frames and parts and achieve nearly the same results as far more expensive factory jobs. As such, his rather inexpensive do-it-yourself kit could transform relatively mundane aluminum frames, forks, stems, bars, or nearly any other bit into a stronger and stiffer equivalent, all at a surprisingly reasonable cost as well.