If you have a child who wants to get into motorcycles an Oset Electric Dirt Bike is worth looking into. They are comparably priced compared to a Honda CRF50 and don't make any noise or have a hot engine and exhaust. Less noise means less intimidation. If the kids are riding more, so are you. Yes, it is OK to be selfish. You can ride the bike too as it can carry up to 300 lbs. Check them out at OsetBikes.com

Source: Electric Motorcycle Forum

National Motorsports will make two Daelim scooters availiable to the Canadian market in 2009 beginning with the Cordi R and the S1-125. Daelim is a South Korean manufacturer that has not had as much press as thier neighbor Hyosung. That might change over the next few years, stay tuned.

Press release follows:

Chinese Moto GP team Maxtra Racing has chosen Michael Ranseder as the first rider. Maxtra Racing is the first all Chinese entry into Moto GP and should be a great step for parent company Houjue and the Chinese motorcycle industry in general. Ranseder brings 3 years of increasingly successful Moto GP experience to the team.  There is a second rider spot still open.  Maxtra will race in 2009 Moto GP in the 125cc class.

If there was an question about the demand for electric motorcycles or EV's in general here is proof. Zero Motorcycles sold out of all thier Zero X.

Electric Motorsports is selling an $8000 all electric motorcycle called the GPR-S. This bike has similar power to a 125cc four stroke and a top speed of 70 mph. The range is 30 to 60 miles depending on riding style. 30 miles of flogging sounds pretty good for riding local roads.

The ELMOTO HR-2 was displayed at Eurobike show this year. There is not a lot of information about it in English.

 Swiss Electric motorcycle manufacturer Quantya introduced a fully electric enduro version of the FMX called the Strada. This bike uses an LiPO battery and has a maximum speed of about 43 miles per hour. Power has been described as on par with a 250cc dirtbike. I think a street legal enduro is a great segment for electrics.

  Looks like the team at Maxtra Racing is considering a production version of their 125cc MotoGP race bike. Chinese company Haojue has teamed up with racing legends John Sutrees, Gary Taylor and others to build a motorcycle from the ground up and race it in the 125cc class of motoGP.

This may be the coolest display I have ever seen at a motorcycle show. The 2008 Shineray XY250GY with all it's parts suspended as if it just exploded. The XY250GY also looks great put together.

Asiawing recently redesigned their website and has some details on new models. Their home page claims 2008 will bring some large capacity motorcycles to the market. At the time of writing this there were still some dead links so it looks to be a work in progress.