bikes in this week's gizmag

Dave C forwarded this week's Gizmag newsletter, and there were two bike-related things that caught my eye. The first is another company making bamboo bikes:

They're the first bamboo bikes I've seen where the tube joints aren't horrendously ugly. Most bamboo bikes build up the joints with strips, then slather over the top with some kind of plastic-y compound. But at least a little attention has been paid to making these joints look finished:

They're obviously trying to show off that thsese bikes can take some abuse, too:

The other article is about Marrs M-1 electric bikes, heavy bikes that are an unapologetic mix of bicycles and motorcycles. According to the article, they weigh about 140 lbs. which is about as much as the rider on many of the Tour de France bikes. Still, "The smallest [battery] pack (20 amp hours) reportedly allows a 175-pound (79-kg) rider to travel up to 20 miles (32 km) on one charge without pedaling."

They're obviously going for an early-20th-century-Harley look:

One of the things I like about the whole electric bike thing is that the models are so different - this is a huge departure from that Faraday Porteur I posted last week, and both of them are far away from that boring, utilitarian Schwinn Tailwind.

But I still don't think there's an electric bike in my near future. Or a bamboo one, either.