Bike Porn

In Milan for Design Week I came across the Biomega bike showroom. These bikes are high-design concept commuter bikes typically with shaft drive. And they are SUPER cool. These are from left to right - the Amsterdam, the Copenhagen, and the Boston.

The really cool stuff was inside. 

This is a concept bike from Ross Lovegrove (a superstar designer.) Carbon fiber with a shaft drive.

This one was the most exciting.

It is a bamboo bike. Fully production ready after five years of development. The tubes are real bamboo and there is no reinforcement running from the aluminum joints/lugs. It is like a work of art! And they know it, so they included some features to make it easier to hang on your wall. The pedals "butterfly" so you don't poke a hole in your sheetrock and the handlebars have a keyed quick-release on the stem that allows you to rotate the bars independently of the front wheel. It also works as a security feature - making the bike very difficult to ride.

I think the Amsterdam model is available from Design Within Reach for like $1,600. By no means cheap, but great to look at.