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Kooky, 'Green' Japanese Electric Bikes Were Ahead of Their Time

by Caleb Johnson on November 3, 2009 at 09:28 AM

These days, everybody's looking for "greener" ways to get around town. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise us to discover that our mom had ditched her SUV for a bicycle. This wasn't the case until fairly recently in the U.S., but the Japanese, ever the technology mavericks, were green when green wasn't cool. Need evidence?

Just check out these bike models from Shukuno Rintendo that Today and Tomorrow found. Yes, it's awesome that one, the Fire Trick Bob (pictured above), is powered by a tiny turbine that'll produce 4.4 horsepower of raw cycling energy. Another, the Aqua Trick Bob, uses a series of tanks filled with water and air that'll propel the bike 50 meters -- also awesome in our books. But it's even more awesome that this series of bikes was manufactured between 1996 and 1998. Back then, our bicycles were still gathering dust in the garage.

We've seen plenty of wacky bike mods in our time, but Shukunko Rintendo takes it to another level. These two-wheeled wonders look like something Willy Wonka might ride to work -- there's even an electric bike with a propeller on the back! We're more than down to ride one of these crazy things, but only if the instruction manual comes in English. [From: Today and Tomorrow, via Good.Is Blogs]

Tags: bicycle, bike, green, invention, japan, top, transportation, turbine

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