There are some around.
electric motorcycle - Google Search

I suspect diesel bikes will be next, like this:

Thunder Star 1200 Diesel by Star Twin

Or, even better, like this:

Military’s Diesel KLR 650 will be produced for civillian use

Bio-fuels are already available for diesel engines and these bikes can be fun. But I wouldn't worry too much. For the rest of our lifetimes, regular gasoline will be the norm. After that, either a gas substitute will enter production, or the technology used in electric vehicles will make serious advances... maybe they'll even be really fun! (But you'd have to put a baseball card in the spokes to get the sound.)

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Jeremy Kroeker
www.MotorcycleTherapy.com

Oil will not run out .
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that oil is produced by bacteria and not from rotting dinosours and primaeval forests as is conventionally believed .
Bacteria have been found that produce hydrocarbons in areas that have the right combination of heat and raw materials .
Furthermore ,methane producing bacteria have been found in coal bed methane wells ,which proves that the methane within the well is not a finite resource . Modern science will ,no doubt, enhance these naturally occuring bacteria and use them to provide oil and natural gas .

Also vegetable oils and fuels are already being used in environmentally sensitive applications and their use will increase .

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Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light. - Spike Milligan
"When you come to a fork in the road ,take it ! When you come to a spoon in the road ,take that also ."

I have every confidence in the oil companies being able to sell me something to put in my bike until the end of time. The fact that everyone talks about electric and fuel cell vehicles when you can run an internal combustion engine on liquified Hydrogen directly seems odd. Maybe it's not that simple but if you could just replace the fuel tank with one full of liquified hydrogen and ride away why are we pissing around with electric vehicles?

Get used to the idea of no oil for private consumers, i say! As the huge rise in private-vehicle ownership in China/India (the £1400 Tata Nano, anyone...) results in massive demand for oil then the dwindling supplies will be reserved for Governmental use for the Military/Emergency-Services. According to a recent radio program, 1981 was the year when demand first outstripped supply (but who listens to scaremongering?). Anyway, i reckon that if you want to enjoy gadding around the planet in your own vehicle do it soon. Dave the Doom-monger.

Mwwaa ha ha ha ha!!!

I'm pretty sure we won't run out of petrol. When new technology comes along, the old stuff doesn't disapear. I have a PC but can still get paper, I use a battery driver but also have a screwdriver. You can still buy leaded petrol and if I want to run my steam engine, I can still get coal and water.

Let the cuddly-bunny-tree-huggers come up with alternative fuels; it'll take the pressure off the oil supplies. They even believe that some of this technology is going to save the planet. It won't, (switch to Scottish accent) "we're all doomed"

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But not for a while

- But a steam traction engine isn't really a practicable form of personal transport. Alternative fuels are the most realistic fallback we can use with our current vehicles, but to grow biofuels to cover our current needs would apparently need all currently available arable areas - so Hydrogen it is, then (good job Honda now have a prototype - Hurrah!).

I dont know if it's helpful to dismiss ecologists as "cuddly" etc. Many scientists are ecologists. You probably share their ideals even if you dont agree with all of it. You dont want to sound like the Daily Mail or J.Clarkson and we don't like him, do we?

That depends what he's saying, does it not? Mr C is capable of great lucidity (allegedly, ho ho), in amongst the bombastic rubbish he often spouts. No comment on the Daily Mail

But think how many letters you post now that you have email. Are records electronic or paper driven now? Apart from the antiquated NHS... Paper will not last as a main form of info storage so I do not feel the analogy is accurate. As for the screwdriver, how many people use that screwdriver since they bought the cordless? I certainly don't unless I forgot to charge the spare...

I am interested and concerned about protecting not just the trees, but the environment as a whhole and yet, but by painting it in that light its made out to be something to scoffed and laughed at....why?

We get all excited about a new technology for, say, PCs or Digicams or TVs, but if its something that might make our overlander, V8, racerep, less growlly, we reject it...I don't get it. The IC engine must have been mind blowing when it was invented: I would like to see what next big leap we can achieve rather than leaving it to the sci-fi programmes to dream up! I want to see it happen. After all the IC basically helped society expand the way it has, but not always healthily IMO, would it not be cool to see in what new ways and directions we can grow with an all new concept? Imagine a society where oil was not the global priority. Not easy to do, is it?

The only reason that alternative fuels will not save the planet if because people are too lazy to make a change to their lives, or they do not like the idea of abandoning what they like, regardless of the advantages....

As for not being doomed just yet. Well, IMO, that depends on what we do now, because there is an almighty cluster-f#!k bearing on down on human society and to think otherwise, I think, is gonna get you sand in your ears...

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Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

I'm not convinced.

Do you realise the biomass you would need to produce oil on the scale you are suggesting? Plus these bacteria, if they do indeed produce oil of the right grade and composition, do not do so out of thin air: they need their own metabolites to process, and where will they come from? Even if its possible, I do not think this is a viable or sensible solution: we need to move away from oil. Think of oil as the "tasty but very bad for you health" saturated fats of today's global economy...

Again, biofuels are not carbon neutral, and they use up a lot of arable soil that we are going to need if we are to feed everyone on this planet. I don't think we can afford to give up the 30% of arable land expected to be needed to replace oil to any comparable level; not at the rate humans are spawning left, right and centre.

And, frankly, even if oil needs could be met continually, do we really want to keep using such dirty fuels if there are cleaner and cheaper alternatives waiting to be developped? If in doubt take a few breaths from an exhaust pipe and see how good one feels...

Personally, I expect that there will be a period of clutching at straws and trying to hold on to the IC concept, but I think electric will follow. And why not? after a few years of demand for better products I expect battery technology will come on in leaps and bounds. Imagine a bike where you can map the power delivery,at home, not by tweeking fuel maps or carbs, but simply drawing a graph on your laptop and uploading!! Two stroke power bands without the smoke and rebuilds!! Brilliant!

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Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

I agree. There have been some recent tests of electric off-road bikes, in TBM I think, that have shown the potential. Problem is, we need to look at how we generate the electricity. Can you feel great about driving/riding your electic vehicle if the you get your charge from a coal fired powerstation?
I like the idea of an electric bike for some stealth green laning. Who would know you were out there ?

Your comparison with food "tastes great but bad for you" is what I was getting at. As alternative fuels/power become mainstream, the reserves of petroleum products won't be depleated meaning you could still rag about on your 2-stroke bike or drive your V8 pickup. (assuming you could afford it)

OK. I get your point about freeing up resources, but I think this only an interim situation.

Would you actually want to rag around on those, that you have to pay to fill up, when you could get similar performance from electric, all "filled-up" from a panel on your roof, not from a speciallist supplier, "by appoinment" only!

Before dismissing references to the power of electric (easy to do given what is on the market now), just think about the changes in performace for digital cameras, PC harddrives and processors and mobile phones over the last 15 years: all thanks to the demand existing. Now super-impose that potential, on a market as important as personal transport.....

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Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

I find it interesting that everyone has focused on the enviromental issue's,and not the legislative side of things

The way thing's are going in the UK,and Europe it seems that bikes will soon be outlawed as expensive playthings that cost millions every year in medical/accident costs.

The cost of just getting a UK licence is getting ridiculous,with more training costs being forced onto learners.And the time required to "jump thru all the hoops" are pretty much equal to gaining a PPL licence.

When Mayor Boris allowed bikes to use some bus lanes in London,he was praised for forward thinking to help reduce some of the traffic entering C London.

When the number of commuters using bikes/scooters rose by a significant amount,Westminster Council decided to scrap free parking for bikes!!

Enjoy your "freedom" while you can

Andy

They can already do it. Now they have to learn how to do it cheap. Petroleum oil is still cheaper, so this isn't popular, but they will get there- the incentive is huge.