The problem with the "fuel cell" bike, which produces no polluting emissions, is that it is too quiet.

But anti-noise campaigners said they welcomed the prospect of a motorbike without the usual excruciating roar.

For their part, manufacturers said the fake engine noise device, which could be switched off, would help alert road users.

The motorbike, known as an Emissions Neutral Vehicle (ENV), has a top speed of 50mph (80km/h), a range of at least 100 miles (160km) and can run continuously for four hours before the fuel cell needs recharging.

Its water-vapour emissions are so clean that they are drinkable, according to its designers.

Mobile energy source

But with a noise emission equivalent to an everyday home computer, motorcycle enthusiasts thought the "exhilaration" factor was missing.

"They can add all the noise they want, it will still lack the va-va-voom serious motorcyclists look for," Jeff Stone of the British Motorcyclists Federation told the BBC.

Concerns were raised that the motorcycle was too silent and might not be noticed by other traffic and pedestrians.

Harry Bradbury, chief executive of the bike's British manufacturers Intelligent Energy, said: "What we are doing is introducing flexibility into it, so that you can have ambient noise that is tolerable - low-level noise sufficient for safety reasons - but which can be switched off when desired."

Peter Wakeham, director of the Noise Abatement Society, who said motorbikes were among the worst noise offenders, welcomed the idea of a quiet bike.

"But it kind of defeats the purpose of designing a silent bike only to then add an artificial noise device," he said.

Dr Bradbury said the bike's detachable briefcase-size cell filled with high pressure hydrogen, or "core", could eventually be used as a mobile energy source, with the same cell used to power different objects.

He said the prospect of producing mobile hydrogen energy from a variety of sources, including crops such as soya or sugar cane, could benefit remote communities or developing countries, where large electric grids were not economically viable.

Who knows what the future will bring? Just be prepared for a lot of unsettled times and a lot of unanswered questions.

Althea; a loon call, nice touch...my wife is from Mn.
David

We have loons on our pond in Maine. I love the sound of their call,too.

AZDesertRat..I wasnt quite sure where you were headed with that statement about Marxism, too.
I do agree we are headed for a unknown future, such as life has been since the beginning of time.
The times do seem to be more acclerated, perhaps a bit more difficult to keep in stepwith, educating ourselves and others is the only thing that comes to mind, try to keep our little piece of this world as healthy as we can afford, and be kind to each other.

All I am saying is that a transformation to a hydrogen economy will leave us with questions that we never thought of before. What will happen to the oil companies like Exxon Mobil, Chevron and others? What will OPEC do--export water? OK, we can care less about the fates of oil companies and OPEC nations, but these are the types of questions that will come up. And what will Monte do?

All I am saying is be prepared for the unexpected questions that will crop up. A bike being too quiet is just the tip of the iceberg. It doesn't mean the end of the world is near. There are more than enough things going on the world to that without any help.

Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.
---Will Rogers

Also, the highly touted H consuming fuel cell can (and likely will) use fossil fuels as a source to get their H fix.

So with that thought, yes, I think piping water with all that oil equipment would be necessary in the future and most likely more profitable as our exisitance depends on it.

Wouldnt it be nice if water pipelines went to Oz and Az and any country in need of fresh water( which seems to be many).

As far as Monte, I hope he can afford to retire and live well before that time if ever occurs, or help pipe water around the world :)

The future Monte will still be finding and pumping oil long after people quit using it as an everyday fuel. He and his wealthy descendants will be selling naturally occurring organic crude oil at $500 per bbl to those who need lubricants for all those very expensive alternative fuel engines burning very espensive fuels. Hydrogen, alcohol, and bio-diesel are lousy lubricants and the synthetic silicone based alternatives would make every greeny shiver with great trepidation at their potential harm.

As a sideline, the future Monte will use his accumulated oil and gas fortune to get into the lucrative business of transporting and selling plain old tap water to all the idiots willing to pay several times more for bottled water with a fancy label and French name than they do for an equivalent volume of gasoline, just like the bottling companies of today.

I forgot about the lubricants side. I guess hydrogen doesn't address that aspect of it. My car uses synthetic oil for lubrication--I don't know what is in it, but that is what they tell me to put in there. The dealership changes and replaces it every 15,000 miles.

Conventional motor oils undergo much less refining, and as a result, contain other components that reduce the effectiveness and the useful life as a lubricant. In particular, many of the more reactive aromatics and related components remain. They breakdown and oxidize under the heat and pressure of the engine to produce reaction products that are damaging to the engine and the lubricating ability of the oil.

The synthetic lubricants I mentioned are silicone based oils. They are virtually indestructable and totally nonbiodegradable. Although not particularly toxic that I am aware, just like natural organic crude oil, silicone lubricants simply to not go away and are difficult, grading to impossible, to remove with anything, unlike natural organic crude oil and the related refined oils. Silicone oils are limited to extreme lubrication applications were their extreme high and low temperature tolerance, nonreactive nature, flame resistance, and electrical nonconductivity are distinct advantages.