Honda Motor Co., the popular automaker and world's leading motorcycle manufacturer, is developing a gas-electric motorcycle that would use a hybrid drivetrain similar to the one in the forthcoming Honda Insight and could be available within two years, Autopia reports.

Honda said that it has figured out how to shoehorn an entire hybrid drivetrain within the small confines of a motorcycle frame, and that it's far enough along that the company could sell production versions as early as 2010 (for the 2011 model year). The report said that Honda will offer the hybrid motorcycles in displacements from 50 cc to 1,000 cc—which is a huge range—and that the gas-electric drivetrain will improve mileage by a stunning 50 percent. Meanwhile, the company plans to share components with Honda's hybrid cars in order to reduce production costs.

Honda had already said it was building an all-electric motorcycle (along with competitor Yamaha). Honda claimed that the all-electric version would have a range of about 60 miles; obviously a hybrid would go much further, since it would run on gasoline. (Pictured: a regular Honda Interceptor).