What do you buy for the U.S. president who has everything? When former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi traveled to the United States in 2006 for his "sayonara summit" with George W. Bush, he presented Dubya with a CD of Elvis numbers, sung by his good self, as well as a far more inspired gift — an electrically assisted bicycle.
While international diplomacy saw Bush feign great interest in Koizumi's croonings, the bike-mad potentate was far more interested in his new wheels — in fact he couldn't resist doing a lap of a room in the White House.
Bush is not the only one intrigued by these bikes that take some of the legwork out of cycling. Legions of Japanese commuters have discovered that electric bikes can transport you from A to B — gliding past traffic jams and zipping up hills — without raising a sweat (well, no more than on a regular summer's day).