Easy there dude. This is essentially what I say in my first post. I don't trust my eyes to make such assessments anymore. :-) I go on to say things like 'love' 'great bike' 'amazing' etc.

Now, knowing it's his personal bike, IMO that's a perfect place to try something new and innovative and take design/engineering "risks"* like thin tubes or truly integrated racks like the above. So, I suppose I could say that now it makes even more sense than the tons of sense it made before knowing that it is his bike.

*By 'Risks' I mean both from a customer looking at it and saying 'Whoa, English's bikes are weird, I don't want one' or 'Whoa, that's so cool, I want to buy 1000 of them to give to all my Facesbook friends for Christmas this year'(ie may present production challenges) to a risk of mechanical failure. Again, not because I think it will fail but because sometimes when we try something new, it fails. If you never fail, then you're not trying hard enough.

Rob, if you're reading this, nice solution to a rear rack. very cool.