Bicycle racing in a tie . . . and on a folding bike?

Our friends across the pond have given us some true gifts:

• The Beatles
• Top Gear
• Monty Python
• Rapha cycling gear

Now you can add folding-bike-racing to the list.

Bicycle of the future. Aero? Yes. Electronic Shifting? Yes. Brain-controlled shifting? Yes?

If you thought Shimano’s electronic shifting Di2 was futuristic, how about shifting using your brain? It’s like a cycling-Jedi-mind-trick. Its helmet picks up brain waves, which are transmitted to the bicycle’s brain-controlled electronic derailleurs.

Before riding the cyclist needs to train the bike to read his mind. The cyclist acquires Jedi powers by practicing with an experimental iPhone app, moving a cube on its screen until the neural technology associates that thought with the neurotransmission. Once the link is made, all the cyclist has to do is think in that way and the bike’s gears will shift accordingly.

This seems like a great product addition for SRAM, maybe the 2015 version of the “Force” gruppo?