THE other day I watched a grown man use a scooter. Not a scooter of the Vespa variety, but a good old fashioned foot-powered version.

He was scooting (if that's the right word) past Darlington's Civic Theatre heading in the general direction of the town's railway station.

Scooters are the latest gadget for city slickers with more money than sense.

These new versions are marketed by a company called City Bug as an environmentally friendly alternative to the car or the bus.

The Micro Skate Skooter, at £120, is the cheaper of its two offerings boasting alloy construction, 100mm PU Abec five bearings (a big deal for scooter fans, apparently) and, most important of all, it weighs in at only 2.76kg.

Best of all you can fold it up and carry it away, making it just the job for big city traffic jams.

I remember the Honda Monkey Bike that did exactly the same thing. Only it had the advantage of a little 50cc two-stroke engine that took all the effort out of travelling to work (but wreaked havoc with the environment, no doubt).

Gadget or no gadget, I'd rather take the bike.

Which is just as well because bikes are back too.

All those mountain bikes and BMXs may have been consigned to the back of the garage but fear not, because the ubiquitous racer is making a comeback.

Only those of us who did our paper rounds on a Raleigh Olympus five speeder may have difficulty recognising a modern racing cycle.

Modern frames aren't made from old fashioned (and heavy) steel anymore. Today's top bike is more likely to be held together with aluminium or even carbonfibre.

And shifting gear isn't left to an unpleasant stick somewhere around your crotch. Today's shifters are push button affairs on the handlebars that make changing up or down as easy as Michael Schumacher flicks through his Ferrari F1-2000's gearbox on a Sunday afternoon run out.

Just like Schumey's F1 racer, every aspect of the cycle has been re-examined in the name of aerodynamics. Even the humble front forks have been reworked for maximum aero efficiency.

There's only one problem. The racing bike saddle that looked and felt about as inviting as sitting on a pair of scissors hasn't changed a bit. It's still agony until your backside has got used to its, umm, unusual contours.