Poll: Are electric bikes the future?

Electric bikes would be awesome if they could have decent range(milage), quicker recharge time and were cost competetive.   What about fuel cell tech. The exist methane and methanol fuel cells that can produce up to 5kW, they are expensive now but little research has gone into manufacturing efficiencies.

Another possibility is capacatance storage instead of or in conjunction to battery storage. The beauty of capacitance storage is the speed of recharging the system.

 

Sorry, I was being selective but wasn't trying to be miss leading. I wanted to just mention the battery swap but the the engineering to get the weight off is impressive. Ok, i'll clear this up Ripperton R1 chassis, electrics, motor etc.... = 91kgs Battery pack = 50kgs Total = 141kgs I can't remember which year R1 he converted sorry But a 2005 R1 dry weight is 172kgs and wet 193kgs. Just so you dont think i'm being selective, the 2013 R1's wet weight is 206kgs. The Ripperton R1 is a race bike so the battery is sized for the tracks he races on in Australia. As for recharge time it all depends on the power supply at the track. Anything from 30mins upwards. The batteries aren't always the limiting factor now. Anyway, his battery pack lasts a whole race and he can swap to a spare in 15seconds so there is no problem for him. As for cost? he is a privateer, so probably a bit cheaper than what Honda would spend on a race bike. He doesn't need to think about environmental impact, he can just discharge the batts and put them in the bin to dispose of them or recycle them. They're not toxic nowadays. http://www.bmfa.org/resources/lipobatteries.html Oh, and they only allow water in the cooling systems on tracks in Aus, no additives to prevent slipping on spills. Which is very odd as petrol and oil are obviously allowed?