I'd seriously like one of these around town.

Listen to him, the bike is not powered by pedaling. Pedaling is used to control the speed. It's just a gimmick to "allow" you to exercise while riding your electric motorcycle.

Or can buy a normal bike for your exercise, and make a serious downpayment on a house with the leftover money.

^If you can quote something that proves that I'd like to see it. He clearly says that if you don't pedal it doesn't move.

From the BBC article: "Stefan Gulas has developed a system that amplifies the effort you put in by a factor of 50, meaning you can accelerate quickly and maintain high speeds with very little effort"

I get the sense the "effort amplification" bit is intentionally worded to be utterly misleading. He's more likely saying "2% of the energy used by the bike is coming from you, 98% is coming from the battery." So the pedaling charges the battery slightly, but it's almost negligible.

In fact, this sort of thing already exists and there's a name for it, it's an electric moped. (only not a street legal moped since it's speed is similar to middle range electric motorcycles) You can pick up an electric moped now for under $1000, if that's the sort of thing you think you might be into.

http://www.metaefficient.com/electric-bikes/the-best-electric-scooters-of-2008-a-review.html

Yes, this seems to be terrible reporting by the BBC.

^Interesting, so there's no free lunch here. It's partly powered by cycling but you'll need to charge it up as well.

I dunno guys.

Have you ever seen the amount of work required to turn your car alternator??? I'm thinking the pedals turn a super efficient alternator that can probably generate 10-50 Amps (a few hundred watts) and that goes straight to electric motor.

I'm sure there is a ocmplicated tranny as well instead of a direct drive electric motor. It is possible that a single alternator can power it.. I guess it depends how much energy is needed for a properly geared electric motor on a few hundred pound bike.