Now I wish I had taken a picture. Hand on heart, I saw it, and rode it. No, it wasn't a busted Sturmey Archer. I guess they put out a few test bikes. I can't see them becoming standard either, due to cost, and they're also odd to use, if cool, and probably not appropriate for a lowest common denominator sort of bike.

It's hard to say, but my impression is that the new style bikes are coming back, and there have been more of them in the last few weeks. It seems they've done some work to overhaul them. The hand grips and shifters are a bit different, and I haven't run into gear issues lately.