Electric bikes will start to take on the aspects of gas bikes if they suddenly have much lighter batteries. |
What does this mean for motorbikes? Imagine a Zero motorcycle with a battery that weighs half as much (making it lighter than a gas equivalent motor), that produces four times the range (better than a gas motor). If the glucose solution that provides the charge can be packaged separately, you may very well pull into a refuelling station in 2020, pull the spent fuel canister out from where your gas tank used to be and buy a new one. You'd be ready to go in five minutes, pretty much just like a modern gas stop.
That spent canister would get recycled, the spent glucose solution either reused or composted. Since new solution is created primarily from natural sugars, it would be a matter of growing more fuel. Enhancements to the enzymes that break down the sugars would open up a strange new bio-tech world of performance enhancements. People would customize how their bikes consume sugar in order to focus on performance or efficiency. Advances in enzyme efficiency would allow for greater range and power.
These living bikes would consume sugars just like their riders do, they'd even breath as they did it.
The Brammo Empulse, a shockingly fast electric bike still hobbled by battery weight and range, but for how long? |