Too bad this poor kid has to support his Hippy father\'s church of Eco-Sanctimony. Other kids get to embrace forward-looking technology that accomplishes great things. But, like the Amish, dad\'s Eco-soul will only be saved with giant leaps backward in time to show us all what sinners we are.

With gigantic untapped power sources on earth, in the earth, and the sun, the rest of us will create a better future that advances the human condition. Without guilt.

Todd, between you and Mr Stiffy I wonder about the type of people who comment here.
I\'d love to do something like this with my daughter. It would be a fantastic adventure of a lifetime. The hybrid bike is purposefully extreme to draw attention to itself and in that way get people talking and thinking about the sort of technology you (Todd) mention. It\'s called publicity and it is what people use to be newsworthy so they get a chance to spread their word. I\'m quite certain this \"Hippy Father of the Church of Eco-Sanctimony\" is well aware that the bike is impractical. The whole thing stems from him being cranky about his son never turning his light off, not from some deep seated desire to have everyone pedal a power limited bike around the country.
Grow a brain, honestly. And leave the Amish alone, they aren\'t hurting you or forcing you to reject modernity.

No kidding, Scion. Amen.

Looks like they\'ll be traveling over part of my usual bike route. Old route 66 between Rolla and St. James MO. I\'ll have to keep track of their progress and join them for a ways. I\'d love to have build something similar to this.

Dear heros at Gizmag, as soon as you implement a vote up/down function for comments, can you please add a thumbs up for me to Scion\'s comment above. Oh, and Todd, can you please point me to all the great work you\'re doing personally to create a better future for us all? I\'m so looking forward to that.

I\'m reading some of the comments. Yes, this is not showing any new technology. Yes, this will not make any difference as far as influencing people to save energy. People have been doing things like this for years and no effect.
This is just about a son and his Dad doing something together. As far as its signifigance on Gizmag, its a \"Puff Piece\".

\"Oh, and Todd, can you please point me to all the great work you\'re doing personally to create a better future for us all?\"

Scion and Russ, we all do great work all day long and it all contributes to a better future as you know. We call it \'the way the world works\'. And Gizmag features many great forward-looking innovations of course.

It\'s what Greenie Utopians are completely ignorant of. So it becomes their duty to lead the rest of us morons out of the mud. Only their priestly robes could point the way to their radically new technologies and innovations that improve the human condition... like quad cycles with the \"EcoSpeed\" brushless motor.

It\'s breathtaking that so many will fall for snake oil \'solutions\' to make you feel good inside. None of us will ever consider driving something so backwards and useless. Maturity lets you accept the reasons why.

And the name-calling and rudeness are necessitated by what?

I don\'t think every endeavor must involve new technology to have value or to be noteworthy for a popular science magazine. Often it just takes a willingness to get your hands dirty which can lead eventually to new ideas. The Wright Brothers certainly were an example, and the same criticisms were made of them (hopefully without the epithets). So were all those kids who were out there bulding rockets and telescopes in the 1950\'s. A fair number of them went on to create innovations, but it was those simple, early efforts that made it possible.

It Could be a \"Better\" vehical or it can be what it realy is, A vehicle for an idea that more can be done with less and a little energy saved can go along ways.