I used to work at a shop that sold bikes with electric batteries. The only problem is they make the bike really heavy, and they're unreliable. We sold one on the merits that you could ride it on electric mode to work and then pedal it home, but the battery crapped out after very little time, and we had a very unhappy customer on our hands...

I know people have to be presentable for their jobs (well, I don't, but I'm a grease monkey), but I think the solution to that would be for companies to provide lockers and showers, rather than fix motors to bikes. I live in Atlanta, and Turner provides all their bicycle commuters with stipends and free gym memberships so they can stow their riding gear and shower before work.

first off, correction: Shimano is not a bicycle company. Bicycle components are among the many technologies they design and manufacture (once, my shop got a mis-shipment of a carbon fiber fishing reel rather than a high end derailleur)...

Second, this has been done before. It's not experimental. It's a marketing ploy. I've talked to my local sales rep and his boss about this campaign, and I think it's probably one of the stupidest things in recent marketing history. They'll be over priced, and they won't work well for anything but beaches and boardwalks. We already have beach cruisers for that...

How about focusing on the innovations being made in commuter and utility bikes?

Note that she's painted "Orwell" and "1984" onto it.

And L Ron Hubbard doesn't belong in any Best Of list anywhere, ever. He was a hack, a bad hack, and he doesn't deserve any place on the list.

In response to Ted:

First of all, Mary Shelly wrote one of the first science fiction novels. Frankenstein was not exactly fantasy, and it's taught in most college-level science fiction course I know of... Also, women started into SF a good bit earlier than you give them credit for, and they didn't "just start in fantasy." I suggest you look up Octavia Butler, James Tiptree Jr, Joanna Russ, C.L. Moore and Judith Merril before shooting your mouth off...

The list is not just "the classics," and it includes a good number of books that have had little to no influence in the genre. I don't know why all of Neal Stephenson's books seem to be included, while nothing of Nalo Hopkinson's or JG Ballard's show up... Like I said in my previous comment, it seems to be a popularity contest more than a "best of" list. If I were to put such a list together, I would look at who's influenced changes and trends in the genre, who's being researched the most and why. In short, it wouldn't be a list of who's had movies made out of their books...

Like I said, I have a degree in this crap.

I'd love to see what the standards were for this list... Only 6 female writers in the whole thing. Octavia Butler gets no love. James Tiptree Jr gets no love. Most of the books on the list are not studied in college level science fiction courses and are only given a nod by SF researchers... I feel this should be titled "The 100 Most Popular SF Books" list... For god's sake, how does Dune beat 1984 and Frankenstein?

Sorry, I have a degree in this shit, and it tends to rankle.

Okay, so Awesome-Redneck-Camo-Hat kid has some pretty sweet flames, but what's Emo-Hair kid getting? Some totally wussy dolphin tat? Chump.

Y'know, I think the answer is obvious. Carpet the forest with rolling papers, pipes and lighters.

"Dude... There's some infidels over there..."
"Dude, ya think we should like... what?"

Because Paris Hilton is the new superhuman.

So can I!