Quote Originally Posted by Ryllharu
In all seriousness, the largest disadvantage to all-electric and fuel cells is added weight. Batteries or the cells no matter how high tech they are today, are no where near as energy dense as fossil fuels. Currently, we make up for that with added weight of more of them. If the RideBacks are mostly used for racing by enthusiasts, they want them to be as light and as powerful as possible.
It does contain significant battery power already as all the initial movement was done with batteries, not the engine. Actually all things considered that's a bit odd. A normal motorbike has no other use for the engine but to power the rear wheel and a small generator, but this thing can transform and has arms and everything. How do those gain their power? It would seem electricity would be far more logical than any mechanical means (like the rear wheels of our day bikes).

But aside from that detail a fuel cell is using chemical energy just like an internal combustion engine. Only it doesn't burn it for mechanical energy but oxidises it to produce electricity directly. The efficiency should be much higher. And it wouldn't produce vibrations, noise, or air pollutants (like oxidized nitrogen and particles), and it would be far more maintenance free.

But I guess those things I listed as negative are actually really important to real bikers...