It is quite surprising the range of products brought out for the bike and cycling market. Some are old ideas rehashed, some are innovative new takes on an known product, and some are downright odd.

Here is one item that could land you in trouble with the law on this side of the Atlantic.

A US company calls itself Nunchuck Grips. Nunchucks are martial arts weapons originally from Okinawa. While the company doesn’t actually make nunchucks, they do supply handlebar grips (as well as trekking poles and umbrella products) that have “useful interchangeable accessories” that are stored inside the grips. So far so good.

But the hidden accessories can be knives or pepper spray that you can “quickly pull out to defend yourself against a threat”.

Here’s what the Police.UK website has to say about knives: “If you are caught illegally carrying a knife or a gun, even an imitation one you will be arrested and prosecuted. It is no excuse to say it was for your own protection or you were carrying it for someone else” and under examples of knives that are completely banned are “disguised knives, e.g. where the blade is hidden…”

Web guides also state quite clearly that it is illegal to carry and to use pepper spray that contains a noxious gas.

I guess it is marginally better that somebody in the US is suggesting a knife rather than a gun as a “defensive weapon”, but it does show that while we have some parts of the English language in common, there is a lot that distinguishes us from the “cousins” across the Atlantic.

The Police.UK site also asks that you “play your part in reducing knife and gun crime by reporting people you know or suspect may be carrying a weapon illegally”.