The end of combustion is nigh.
This looks a little bit boring without a gearbox but i suppose its a start?
http://www.brammo.com/racing/

 

After riding several electric bikes I have zero issues with them once they've developed more. Only thing now is most aren't suitable for use outside of cities. Once things have matured they'll be alright.

btw that wasn't even the bike that won. The one that won was a gsxr600 converted to electric. Made by Agni motors.

 

Yeah i noticed it only came third, it says it was "the first finishing production motorcycle", but i dont think a 102 mph version is available to the public yet?
This video in particular really gave me a feel for what it may be like in times ahead.
I was only talking to a friend lately about a world without petrol, and he does'nt think we'll see it in our lifetime, i think yeah right, we will!

 

It will take quite some time before gas disappears and it won't entirely with us needing oils for gear boxes and differentials still. Though that can be synthetic.

I think if 4-5 years we'll see more motorcycles available that are strictly electric but still way down on power compared to what we have now. But they will have the running time that we're looking for. Major downside right now to any electric vehicle is you can't just "fill it up" with fuel like our gas cars. Most of the electric motorcycles now require 2-4 hours charge time. Some of quick swap batteries but that doesn't help much since there's no standard and you can't have any infrastructure setup to swap them out kind've like you do with propane tanks or something. Definitely issues to work out but we'll see practical vehicles very soon.

 

So once the running time is improved it would be almost viable. I know that development goes full throttle under huge demand (just look at the mobile phone over the last 10-15 years), so i'm prepared to be surprised, but i wish it didnt have to happen!
Its like the smoking ban, you hear a few things about it and next thing its in!

 

The technology isn't there yet, but these electric racing endeavors should help development along.
.

 

zero motorcycles had a demo this weekend. i didnt go but some friends said the bikes rode pretty good. the only issues i have is that they go so slow! i think they top out at like 50mph. way to slow for practical city use

http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/

 

Probably cost twice as much as a petro bike... I'm down to save the earth but fu*k this. These are weak. Get a smart car, Bikes are already good on gas.

 

Zero tail pipe emissions? Cool. Don't say it's a zero pollution vehicle though.

 

It might be, depends on where you plug it in. Also, technically, the VEHICLE is zero pollution.
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Don't interchange gas mileage for good emissions. Bikes get good mileage but only recently have they started tossing on emission controls. Also the current bikes are about the same cost as a street bike.

Also as someone else mentioned just because the vehicle itself doesn't put off zero emissions doesn't mean the manufacturing process or disposal of it won't. Take for instance making batteries. This can cause more pollution then a conventional gasoline motorcycle would put out in its lifetime.

 

Even solar energy has a dark side. Think about the manufacturing process used to create the cells and you will see. Wind energy is only viable in certain areas where wind is constant and reliable. The land to power production ratio is aweful and it's effect on wildlife is recognized (US Fish and Wildlife Service). Also, the turbine blades are made of FRP's, most of which contain carbon fiber (coal and petroleum based or PAN) and epoxy

When the vehicle has past it's useful life, it will biodegrade? Until we come up with a better battery solution or a cleaner way of disposing the ones we've got, all we're doing is trading air pollution for ground and water pollution. The rest of the vehicle is made of the same materials that current vehicles are made of and will affect the environment the same way.

If the manufacture truly wanted to impress environmentalists instead of marketing to a trend, they'd build these things with recycled aluminum frames, plastic bodywork, copper wiring, rubber, etc in an energy efficient factory that produced its own power.