Motorcycling and the Future

Been reading a great deal on electric motorcycles; and of course enthralled over the years with such things as "Speeder Bikes" in Star Wars and some of the motorcycles such as the flying one the cop rode (flew, rather) as well as Captain Kirk's bike (though never clear on what powers it, though obvious an internal combustion engine does not) in Star Trek. Some have wondered where are the flying cars sci-fi promised us, I on the other hand was more excited about the flying motorcycles. In a since though, they do "fly"...giving us incredible performance and improved reliability. Change comes rapidly and improvements are dramatic; and I enjoy checking out new developments that years ago were undreamed of. There are all sorts of bikes out there from the basic to the technology packed. Now you can change power settings on many sport bikes with the touch of a button; need some help on that track day...there is a setting you can change to make the bike more manageable. ABS, GPS...all sorts of letters that can help you in a ride; things are forefathers never dreamed of on their motorcycles, and more is coming.
Also coming are electric motorcycles, like it or not. All sorts of posts in all sorts of forums have knocked those who ride them as tree huggers, and point out that they also need energy to make power. That is true, but they also can be charged with a variety of forms of power, and that is what makes them interesting among other things. Forget saving that planet (though that is important, that being where we ride currently). There are like it or not limits to fuel in this world. One of those fuels; aka gasoline is getting harder and more importantly more expensive to find. Sure there are new techniques such as pumping fluids into old sources to get the last oil out. That reminds me of the old trick of putting water into a shampoo bottle to get enough soap to wash your hair one more time; sure it works but for how much longer? Fact is the days of cheap oil are long over.
Here is my thought on electric motorcycles. Are they ready for prime time for the typical rider? Probably not; range and cost are issues. Of course of the latter, cost tends to come down with more production. Look at what happens with most things; plasma tv's, computers, digital cameras (you get the idea). As for improvement range is continuing to get better, charging times faster. Plus there is the thought that development may even involve machines that don't use batteries as the storage media. Fuel cells, alternative fuels (perhaps a natural gas powered generator); the field is wide open.
I can say this; take a well developed future electric motorcycle with price, power (easy to do that with electric motors, they drive trains with electric motors) and range and then tack on say an arab oil embargo (happened before) some sort of series of natural disasters (say a few hurricanes), or just a dramatic rise in prices and this motorcyclist will be more than happy to give electric motorcycles a closer look.
The time of electric motorcycles may not be here for most of us, but that time may well be coming. As with many changes, that may be more remarkable than most people think; just look back at those who sold horses and carriages at the dawn of the internal combustion engine.