The mountain bike world is awash with gimmicky little products that you just don’t need – lasers to align your stem so it’s dead straight, wobbly platforms to practice press ups, ceramic bearings for your jockey wheels. Incredibly though, I’m not adding Granite’s Pita Pedal Cover to the list, in fact it’s become an indispensable part of my riding routine.

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It is an incredibly useful product. I get to the trails by car, and until the Pita appeared, I’d take the pedals on and off each time to get the bike to lie flat in the back. If I didn’t, one of the pedals would gouge great lumps out of the backs of the seats, the other would get snagged on the removed front wheel, and the whole bike would slide around. The Pita stops this in its tracks and means I can save a couple of minutes faffing before and after each ride – not much, but it all adds up. And you know that delightful tangle spokes and pedal pins inevitably find themselves in when you’re shifting several bikes in a car or van? The Pita stops any of that nonsense too.

So that’s me then, I’m now the kind of precious fop who wraps his pedals up in little socks. I don’t care though, it makes moving my bike about much easier, something I really cherish in the age of the e-bike. After nearly a year using the Pita it’s still completely unmarked too, despite being spiked by sharp pins, and the stitching is still in mint condition. Is it too expensive for what it is? Yes, you could buy a thick sheet of neoprene off eBay for a tenner and staple or stitch it together yourself and save yourself a tenner. But I’d be happy to pay for the convenience of the ready-made version.