As a proud owner of a Zero FXE after 40 years of ICEs, I can quite honestly say it is a sweet spot machine in all respects. Acceleration, brakes, handling, suspension, flickability, smoothness are all perfect for city and backroads. I would buy a big Zero if I did longer distances but my average commutes mean that I have plenty of range between charges. I would really recommend people to test one before judging. You really do get used to the quiet and riding without a clutch. I hardly ever miss my Triumphs, Ducatis, BMWs, etc.
I just got done writing an article for Web Bike World about why I went from gas to electric, and back to gas. I owned a Zero DSR with Charge Tank and rode it for several thousand miles over my 19-month ownership. I waited to see what Zero released with the DSR/X along with the offering from Energica, their Experia. Both are 'around' the same price and then I considered and purchased a 2022 Ducati Multistrada V4S. Just the suspension feature tech ECLIPSE both the Zero and Energica. I really loved my DSR, but for me, right now, an EV bike just doesn't offer me the freedom I seek in a pleasure-only motorcycle. I do not commute on my bike, I ride them for recreation. My realities of charging at EVSE stations that were out of service, broken, or shared power. Having to consider temperature and wind speed sapped my enthusiasm for impromptu riding. Sure the Energica can use DC to DC fast charging, but those are not nearly as prevalent as AC chargers like ChargePoint. And I live in the SF Bay Area of California. I like to ride the coast, and EVSE stations; DC to DC or AC are non-existent along the coast. I used ABRP (A Better Route Planner), purchased a Tesla Tap which allowed me to charge at Tesla Destination Chargers. I didn't go into this half-assed, but with enthusiasm. After a time I felt that for me the pleasures of riding eroded after the realities I encountered. I loved the silence, the lack of fluids, the instant torque, no maintenance, and the lack of smells. So for now I weighed the values and decided to return to gas....for now. And the joys of riding have returned to me, the freedom. One day the charging infrastructure will be mature, battery storage tech will improve and I will gladly return to EV two-wheelers. How we will address the nonaerodynamic nature of the human form that saps battery life at highway speeds is yet to be addressed.
An excellent review! You nailed the problem of electric; the cost and the range. Just great insight that you have for such a review! Thank you for such an honest review, which we all want and desire! Peace.
Very good that you do electric bikes and this is a very gorgeous one! But, as ever you nailed it so right en honest, Scott! Exactly the problem! A wealthy and fashionable guy who doesn't ever leave the city will enjoy it and say there is nothing better, but...but... for experienced motocyclists this is horror. Especially the range! Have you been following the German vlogger MarcTravels? He went from Berlin to Ireland and back. He does his utmost to stay positive, but how hard that was! The range-anxiety, the charging problems and even the reliability wasn't to write home about (Dutch expression?😄). Now he wants to do around-the-worldtrip on this Energica. Not for me, not for me! Thanks for the review!
@@austinmatthews347 They also tend to forget where the electricity they charge with comes from... which most of the time is also not green. Just another 'green' marketing scam to make people feel better. And when the batteries die in a few years and need to be replaced..
It’s not really the range but the speed of charging. I’ve had bikes that I had to fill every 100 miles but you could fill it in 2 minutes. That’s the issue
Great review again 👍👍 The price is ridiculous. I am diving bikes the last 27 years and honestly there is no way in hell I would drive an electric bike.
Your two last questions are the kicker and why I have no interest in an electric bike. That price is way too high for what you get and the range is a killer for me. I do two long bike trips a year of 2000 - 4000 miles per trip. Typical weekends I do trips of 120 - 280 miles so this bike doesn't work for me at all. I think the target customer is someone who has lots of cash and wants a cool toy. Its not practical for its mission of an adventure bike. Great review as always though. Thank you.
Electric cars have 300+ miles of range with 20 minute recharges that give you 80% of that range back, in all honesty it's all anyone needs. But with EV motorcycles 90 mile range--combined with not nearly as fast charging speed--just doesn't make sense like EV cars. I think the correct application of electric and bike is e-bikes, for the moment. I ride my e-bike all the time to the store and cafes and such. This motorcycle and my bike have short ranges, and my bike can only do about 25mph/40kph. For in town stuff, those range and speed figures work great. But my e-bike costs $1500 USD and the Zero is almost $30k. If they get about the same task done, it's a no-brainer IMO.
Your summary was correct, nice bike but price and range still the problem. However if I win the lottery tonight I'll be round to the Zero dealer next week. 😊
Terrific review ! you have a good unique style! Electric bikes are good on the golf course. That electric sound would put me to sleep and then I would crash.
Thanks! And hey, give us some feed back on your Tiger when you get some time on it. I love hearing from actual owners and their experience on their own bike. take care, Scott
@@NothingToProve Scot If you go to my channel, you can watch some videos I have done on all my motorcycles. I do videos just for posterity and I am not a PRO Vlogger like you Sir. Ask me some questions and I'll give you my answers. Cheers Scot! Best channel on the net! ride SAFE and BE safe.
The noise you got around 30km/h will be possible to adjust with alignment and tension of the belt. Possibly wrong adjusted. Silicon spray also helps. Had the same problem of belt noise on my SR/F. Got a lot better with the proper adjustment. My wife and I newly bought a DSR/X each. Have only tested my wife's DSR/X, and no noise like your from hers. About the price, remember that you have little to nothing in service and maintenance cost, and way lower fuel cost. Even have a little lower insurance cost.
Like always a brutally honest review ... I missed "any day on 2 wheels is a great day" .. Energica has an electrical adventure bike .. price is ridiculous , let's hope H20 bikes will come as an alternative
Sorry, I'm trying to shorten the videos as much as possible, you probably also noticed some hard cuts/transitions too, all in an effort to make them shorter and get to the point. take care, Scott
Thank you for the honest review! But all these EV's mean just dressing the windows green. Electricity is just no viable concept for non-urban environments. BMW once officially declared this technology to be nonsense concentrating on hydrogen instead. But as politics financially supported EVs (some guys must have spent a lot of money in the process of convincing the politicians,who then decided in their favour - as the former german chancellor...), companies economically had to do what they knew was technologically wrong. It's a pity that we go full-steam-ahead into the wrong direction with open eyes... btw: love your voice und your style of presentation (old straight male - no worries!...)
Perhaps the noise is a good thing for pedestrian awareness (design feature?) when driving in a in town (or village), and let's face it, you are going to be in town a lot, looking for charging stations. Cheers, Gordon.
Yeah, I'd "love" to have an electric bike (the silence and lack of vibrations!), but for it to be practical for travelling, it would have to have a range of good 300 km. That's a reasonable range for a day ride, and then recharge overnight. It would be nice to also see how it's in low-speed handling.
Great review! I really want an electric Adventure motorcycle, but as you said I need a tad more range. I also want it to be silent. Perhaps if the batteries have a giant leap in performance it would make a shaft final drive feasible in the future. I would also really like to see a 2x2 or Limited Slip All Wheel Drive mode (like the Christini motorcycles) for difficult terrain while out solo in remote areas. For safety I'd advocate for an electric clutch / kill switch where the traditional ICE clutch would have been to kill the motor if I wind up in a Whiskey throttle situation due to losing my balance on difficult terrain. And lastly I'd also like to see it shed around 75 lbs or so.
Just thinking about the range, many adventure youtube bikers seem to be off road and doing about 45 to 50 miles an hour, so wouldn't that spike the rang to acceptable? Have to admit the price is too high, I will wait for a demo or second hand, still got the DSR which is awsome. Great video review as well. Thank you.
until range, speed of recharge and charging station infrastructure are greatly improved, i cannot see buying an electric except for a little naked used for short commutes and rides. an adventure bike is for long all day riding often in very rural areas. in other words, the bike presented seems fairly useless but at a very premium cost.
Scott, please review & ride when they become available the following 2023 models: Honda Hornet 750; Honda CL500 Scrambler; Suzuki GSX 8S. I greatly appreciate your reviews. Thank you.
I do not think it is too expensive, it’s the same with electric cars, they are expensive compared to fuel driven cars. The range will remain a serious issue as long as they do not invent better battery packs with much more capacity and less weight. You don’t have as much space on a motorcycle than you have on a car. The only solution is to raise the energy density drastically.
Quite a nice looking bike, and a very good honest review. The technology isn’t ready to be anywhere close to our i.c.e. and promises that electric will make the advances needed to compare with petrol are only speculations. If technology in this area doesn’t move much by the time we must give up our beloved vroom vrooms, the way of life that we have known will never be the same and our world will become very small.
Another thought, I wonder why EV Motorcycles don't use regenerative shock absorbers to improve range. Which, per the google, is a type of shock absorber that converts parasitic intermittent linear motion and vibration into useful energy. Maybe it's not possible for this application?
Great review as always! The electric bikes are not ready for me, they have long way to go. Going on vacation with a bike like that is like bringing my mother in law with me for a week vacation..LOL ( too many worries, it can turn my vacation into a nightmare, sorry my .02)
I rode a Zero and liked it. It seemed quieter than this one. I could live with price and range. The resale value, or lack of, is my main concern. I have no idea who would buy a 2-3 y/o electric motorcycle and for how much.
I'm at a loss for how it doesn't have fast charging as standard... If I'm in my bike gear and get caught short I want to spend as little time as possible charging.
It looked like the tank storage wasn't lockable. That seems quite strange? I always see these bikes as R&D exercises. I don't know anyone mad enough to buy one at the current prices/range. An electric scooter makes total sense, an electric adventure bike makes 0. Thanks for the review, maybe try toasters next, great as always.
Watch the video, you'll see that I use the ignition key to open it. Left hand holding the gopro and right hand has the key. You cannot open it without the key. ride safe, Scott
Fast charger and the extended range battery should be included in that base price. The fact that Zero cannot even do FC and bigger battery together just shows their incompetence.
At this point Electric motorcycles only make sense as city use only, and must be easily affordable. Range wouldn’t be an issue as there would be no need to travel over 75-100 miles on a charge, and that’s city e-mpg, so the battery wouldn’t need to be so large and expensive. The technology needs to work it way up for longer range highway use.
No sound, no character, no range and ridiculous price. So glad my biking career only has about 15 years left and I'll never get involved with electric bikes.
Imagine going on a tour as a group of say 6 electric bikes....it will probably take at least 48hrs per stop to try and charge all the bikes to continue your journey.
As long as Zero goes forward with software-locking features that are already physically on the bike, I'm not interested in anything they offer. Doesn't matter how good they get.
Silly concept indeed. Not much adventure in this. Planning a tour-de-charge and waiting for hours while a Tesla takes all the electricity. Remember, the claimed charging time is at the best conditions. If there's another vehicle at the stand, the electricity available is divided=longer time! Thank you!
Yea, I didn't even want to get into charging station issues that we have today (out of service/broken/working but at a low current/waiting for the previous guy to finish...etc.). There are a million videos out there on it, that's why I said minimum 3 hours to do a full charge and that's in the best conditions. 🙁
This ... vs the Ducati. It's really not a contest (if you were spending that much money) for that type of riding. I think the Energica might be a better fit, I'm also not liking the slow charging on this (and other niggles I have with the brand). I guess you could live with it but you'd really have to bend your needs to the bike. I'm not even discussing the character of the bike. To me the application of this type of bike does not fit with the current technology. I don't think electric bikes are a good fit for (adventure) touring or weekend blasts and to be honest the electric bikes NEED to be better then the petrol ones. Sure you could do it but you can do an adventure on a unicycle as well, it just depends how far you're willing to bend to make things work. I am following and enjoying Marctravels with his Zero adventures, the difference is that the bike is the right fit for his character and his workflow. Good luck on matching that. Nice to hear your thoughts on the bike. A CHEAP electric motorbike or scooter for commuting, now that I can get behind.
The dealer network is even worse than Zero, I took a look at the dealers near me, guess what, I would not be able to buy one and ride it home on a single charge! If I took the Autobahn, I'd have to charge it 3 times to get it home, taking "B" roads and staying under 80 kph then I might make it home charging once...if I'm feeling lucky. No thanks. So a 2 hour ride on a internal combustion engine would turn into 6 hours for an electric and that's just getting it home. Sad, sad, sad.
I’m dreading the end of the internal combustion engine motorcycle. E bikes do nothing for me. The freedom that a motorcycle brings and mental release from daily worries will be replaced by range anxiety and worrying if the repayments are really worth it. Iron butt day long high mileage rides will be replaced by sitting in servos waiting for the chargers to come free. Plus all the new tech, high carbon, earth raping requirements for precious metals to build batteries. My existing bike will never in its life produce the co2 that will be released in building these ‘eco efficient’ e-bikes 😞
so on a tour you would drive for an hour, charge for an hour, drive for an hour, charge for an hour, drive for an hour, charge for an hour, drive for an hour, charge for an hour........................
Looks like you're sitting on a white coffin Scott! Not for me, I won't buy a Lecky until there is no over choice, IE you can't buy petrol any more, even then I'll have a bloody good go at brewing my own 😁
EV bikes seem to have wonderful utility for urban commuting, but outside of that, they’re just not good enough yet. If you’re just doing a commute, you’re sure as hell not going to buy something like this.
Zero is so much anticonsumerist and unreliable, I'll wait for Honda to release their own adventure electric bike :-) To replace my awesome VFR800X Crossrunner one day
Great review but the bike is ugly and about as practical as a a pair of roller skates on mount Everest plus the fact that I believe we are still may years away from anything sensible, reliable and economical both in price and running costs and range
Battery powered adventure touring bike is the biggest oxymoron! Two things humanity must NOT adopt, battery powered toys that limit your freedom and Digital Currencies that will enslave and be used to control every aspect of your slave life!
My Zero FX 7.2 is good for 46 miles real world range. My work is 11 miles one way. Its a perfect commuter as i can take dirt roads or paved. E-bikes are shitty toys but good for limited distance commutting.
Yea, it's perfect for commuting a set distance. I actually like the 7.2, light, agile and easy to flick around and enough power to put a smile on your face whenever you twist the throttle. take care, Scott
As a proud owner of a Zero FXE after 40 years of ICEs, I can quite honestly say it is a sweet spot machine in all respects. Acceleration, brakes, handling, suspension, flickability, smoothness are all perfect for city and backroads. I would buy a big Zero if I did longer distances but my average commutes mean that I have plenty of range between charges. I would really recommend people to test one before judging. You really do get used to the quiet and riding without a clutch. I hardly ever miss my Triumphs, Ducatis, BMWs, etc.
I just got done writing an article for Web Bike World about why I went from gas to electric, and back to gas. I owned a Zero DSR with Charge Tank and rode it for several thousand miles over my 19-month ownership. I waited to see what Zero released with the DSR/X along with the offering from Energica, their Experia. Both are 'around' the same price and then I considered and purchased a 2022 Ducati Multistrada V4S. Just the suspension feature tech ECLIPSE both the Zero and Energica. I really loved my DSR, but for me, right now, an EV bike just doesn't offer me the freedom I seek in a pleasure-only motorcycle. I do not commute on my bike, I ride them for recreation. My realities of charging at EVSE stations that were out of service, broken, or shared power. Having to consider temperature and wind speed sapped my enthusiasm for impromptu riding. Sure the Energica can use DC to DC fast charging, but those are not nearly as prevalent as AC chargers like ChargePoint. And I live in the SF Bay Area of California. I like to ride the coast, and EVSE stations; DC to DC or AC are non-existent along the coast.
I used ABRP (A Better Route Planner), purchased a Tesla Tap which allowed me to charge at Tesla Destination Chargers. I didn't go into this half-assed, but with enthusiasm. After a time I felt that for me the pleasures of riding eroded after the realities I encountered. I loved the silence, the lack of fluids, the instant torque, no maintenance, and the lack of smells.
So for now I weighed the values and decided to return to gas....for now. And the joys of riding have returned to me, the freedom. One day the charging infrastructure will be mature, battery storage tech will improve and I will gladly return to EV two-wheelers. How we will address the nonaerodynamic nature of the human form that saps battery life at highway speeds is yet to be addressed.
Thank you for telling us your personal experience on a Zero!
An excellent review! You nailed the problem of electric; the cost and the range. Just great insight that you have for such a review! Thank you for such an honest review, which we all want and desire! Peace.
Very good that you do electric bikes and this is a very gorgeous one! But, as ever you nailed it so right en honest, Scott! Exactly the problem! A wealthy and fashionable guy who doesn't ever leave the city will enjoy it and say there is nothing better, but...but... for experienced motocyclists this is horror. Especially the range! Have you been following the German vlogger MarcTravels? He went from Berlin to Ireland and back. He does his utmost to stay positive, but how hard that was! The range-anxiety, the charging problems and even the reliability wasn't to write home about (Dutch expression?😄). Now he wants to do around-the-worldtrip on this Energica. Not for me, not for me! Thanks for the review!
@@austinmatthews347 They also tend to forget where the electricity they charge with comes from... which most of the time is also not green. Just another 'green' marketing scam to make people feel better. And when the batteries die in a few years and need to be replaced..
Energica? Has he changed bike? He went to Irland and UK on a Zero. (Which leaked oil!)
It’s not really the range but the speed of charging. I’ve had bikes that I had to fill every 100 miles but you could fill it in 2 minutes. That’s the issue
@@johnDukemaster Could be I’m wrong about that. Thought he called it “Eve” from the name Energica.
@@larryvanputten4048 That would make sense since Energica has a model called Eve. But he calls his Zero Eve since it is a Electrical VEhicle. 🙂
I’m sticking with the combustible engine
Great review again 👍👍 The price is ridiculous. I am diving bikes the last 27 years and honestly there is no way in hell I would drive an electric bike.
Such a weird future where we are being asked to pay more to go backwards, the future is supposed to be progression, this isn’t it.
Problem for me would be te fact that every year or two there will be a better model with a bigger range and a smaller price.
No more engine oil, no more transmission kits replacement, no more fuel, no more noise. Very good job of this American motorcycle brand.
Your two last questions are the kicker and why I have no interest in an electric bike. That price is way too high for what you get and the range is a killer for me. I do two long bike trips a year of 2000 - 4000 miles per trip. Typical weekends I do trips of 120 - 280 miles so this bike doesn't work for me at all. I think the target customer is someone who has lots of cash and wants a cool toy. Its not practical for its mission of an adventure bike. Great review as always though. Thank you.
Well reviewed Scott. 2 of the most important factors precisely 👌
So it's an "urban" adventure bike, due to the range. Good review. Electric bikes aren't for the rural areas yet.
👏😀Good job Scott. Cheers!!!!
Electric cars have 300+ miles of range with 20 minute recharges that give you 80% of that range back, in all honesty it's all anyone needs. But with EV motorcycles 90 mile range--combined with not nearly as fast charging speed--just doesn't make sense like EV cars.
I think the correct application of electric and bike is e-bikes, for the moment. I ride my e-bike all the time to the store and cafes and such. This motorcycle and my bike have short ranges, and my bike can only do about 25mph/40kph. For in town stuff, those range and speed figures work great. But my e-bike costs $1500 USD and the Zero is almost $30k. If they get about the same task done, it's a no-brainer IMO.
Your summary was correct, nice bike but price and range still the problem. However if I win the lottery tonight I'll be round to the Zero dealer next week. 😊
Terrific review ! you have a good unique style! Electric bikes are good on the golf course. That electric sound would put me to sleep and then I would crash.
Scot
AWESOME review Sir! I think I'll keep my brand new 2023 Triumph Tiger 1200 GT Explorer for a while longer... 😂
Great video Scot!
🙌👏👏👏👏👏🤙👍🖖✌👌👋🙂
Thanks! And hey, give us some feed back on your Tiger when you get some time on it. I love hearing from actual owners and their experience on their own bike.
take care,
Scott
@@NothingToProve I will do!
@@NothingToProve
Scot
If you go to my channel, you can watch some videos I have done on all my motorcycles. I do videos just for posterity and I am not a PRO Vlogger like you Sir.
Ask me some questions and I'll give you my answers.
Cheers Scot! Best channel on the net!
ride SAFE and BE safe.
The noise you got around 30km/h will be possible to adjust with alignment and tension of the belt. Possibly wrong adjusted. Silicon spray also helps. Had the same problem of belt noise on my SR/F. Got a lot better with the proper adjustment.
My wife and I newly bought a DSR/X each. Have only tested my wife's DSR/X, and no noise like your from hers.
About the price, remember that you have little to nothing in service and maintenance cost, and way lower fuel cost. Even have a little lower insurance cost.
I love to ride my Zero SR/S and ordered the new DSR/X
Like always a brutally honest review ... I missed "any day on 2 wheels is a great day" .. Energica has an electrical adventure bike .. price is ridiculous , let's hope H20 bikes will come as an alternative
Sorry, I'm trying to shorten the videos as much as possible, you probably also noticed some hard cuts/transitions too, all in an effort to make them shorter and get to the point.
take care,
Scott
@@NothingToProve I for one like that there is not "any day on 2 wheels is a great day", keep going :-)
Thank you for the honest review!
But all these EV's mean just dressing the windows green.
Electricity is just no viable concept for non-urban environments. BMW once officially declared this technology to be nonsense concentrating on hydrogen instead. But as politics financially supported EVs (some guys must have spent a lot of money in the process of convincing the politicians,who then decided in their favour - as the former german chancellor...), companies economically had to do what they knew was technologically wrong.
It's a pity that we go full-steam-ahead into the wrong direction with open eyes...
btw: love your voice und your style of presentation (old straight male - no worries!...)
Perhaps the noise is a good thing for pedestrian awareness (design feature?) when driving in a in town (or village), and let's face it, you are going to be in town a lot, looking for charging stations. Cheers, Gordon.
Yeah, I'd "love" to have an electric bike (the silence and lack of vibrations!), but for it to be practical for travelling, it would have to have a range of good 300 km. That's a reasonable range for a day ride, and then recharge overnight. It would be nice to also see how it's in low-speed handling.
What a great review you are all ways honest that why i follow your channel. can you please tell what backpack you are riding in the film
Thank you, it's a Ogio Mach5 👍
Great review! I really want an electric Adventure motorcycle, but as you said I need a tad more range. I also want it to be silent. Perhaps if the batteries have a giant leap in performance it would make a shaft final drive feasible in the future. I would also really like to see a 2x2 or Limited Slip All Wheel Drive mode (like the Christini motorcycles) for difficult terrain while out solo in remote areas. For safety I'd advocate for an electric clutch / kill switch where the traditional ICE clutch would have been to kill the motor if I wind up in a Whiskey throttle situation due to losing my balance on difficult terrain. And lastly I'd also like to see it shed around 75 lbs or so.
Still not convinced, unfortunately. But great video again!
Another great review!
Just thinking about the range, many adventure youtube bikers seem to be off road and doing about 45 to 50 miles an hour, so wouldn't that spike the rang to acceptable?
Have to admit the price is too high, I will wait for a demo or second hand, still got the DSR which is awsome.
Great video review as well. Thank you.
until range, speed of recharge and charging station infrastructure are greatly improved, i cannot see buying an electric except for a little naked used for short commutes and rides. an adventure bike is for long all day riding often in very rural areas. in other words, the bike presented seems fairly useless but at a very premium cost.
Scott, please review & ride when they become available the following 2023 models: Honda Hornet 750; Honda CL500 Scrambler; Suzuki GSX 8S.
I greatly appreciate your reviews. Thank you.
Will do, when they are available. :)
price is ridiculous, not even worth considering this bike. needs to cut the price by 50%
...and increase the range by 4 times!
Thank You
The emperors new clothes? Drop it, drop it now like a hot rock!
I do not think it is too expensive, it’s the same with electric cars, they are expensive compared to fuel driven cars. The range will remain a serious issue as long as they do not invent better battery packs with much more capacity and less weight. You don’t have as much space on a motorcycle than you have on a car. The only solution is to raise the energy density drastically.
Quite a nice looking bike, and a very good honest review. The technology isn’t ready to be anywhere close to our i.c.e. and promises that electric will make the advances needed to compare with petrol are only speculations. If technology in this area doesn’t move much by the time we must give up our beloved vroom vrooms, the way of life that we have known will never be the same and our world will become very small.
Best reviews, like olways. Hope to see "suzuki GSX s1000" soon..thanks!
Yea, I'd like to see that too!
Maybe in 10 years, but I stay a petrolhead on my Honda nt1100 DCT. Thanks
Glad you've asked theese ;)
Another thought, I wonder why EV Motorcycles don't use regenerative shock absorbers to improve range. Which, per the google, is a type of shock absorber that converts parasitic intermittent linear motion and vibration into useful energy. Maybe it's not possible for this application?
Great review as always!
The electric bikes are not ready for me, they have long way to go.
Going on vacation with a bike like that is like bringing my mother in law with me for a week vacation..LOL ( too many worries, it can turn my vacation into a nightmare, sorry my .02)
The reason behind it or any other EV being built is reason enough to not give it a second look, and this rider won’t. Great review though!
I rode a Zero and liked it. It seemed quieter than this one. I could live with price and range. The resale value, or lack of, is my main concern. I have no idea who would buy a 2-3 y/o electric motorcycle and for how much.
I'm at a loss for how it doesn't have fast charging as standard... If I'm in my bike gear and get caught short I want to spend as little time as possible charging.
It looked like the tank storage wasn't lockable. That seems quite strange? I always see these bikes as R&D exercises. I don't know anyone mad enough to buy one at the current prices/range. An electric scooter makes total sense, an electric adventure bike makes 0. Thanks for the review, maybe try toasters next, great as always.
Watch the video, you'll see that I use the ignition key to open it. Left hand holding the gopro and right hand has the key. You cannot open it without the key.
ride safe,
Scott
Fast charger and the extended range battery should be included in that base price. The fact that Zero cannot even do FC and bigger battery together just shows their incompetence.
At this point Electric motorcycles only make sense as city use only, and must be easily affordable. Range wouldn’t be an issue as there would be no need to travel over 75-100 miles on a charge, and that’s city e-mpg, so the battery wouldn’t need to be so large and expensive. The technology needs to work it way up for longer range highway use.
Just do what they did in long way up, have a gas powered generator truck meet up with you to get charged 😂.
You literally made me laugh out loud!!!! With tear in my eyes!
Make it a small generator on a trailer?
is it restricted to 178 km/h?
I’m too old for this to affect me, but I do wonder about the future of long distance travel by car or bikes. 👍🇨🇦🤪
No sound, no character, no range and ridiculous price. So glad my biking career only has about 15 years left and I'll never get involved with electric bikes.
No, not rdy at all. Range is ridiculous 😏. I understand that there is no space for bigger batteries.
Imagine going on a tour as a group of say 6 electric bikes....it will probably take at least 48hrs per stop to try and charge all the bikes to continue your journey.
As long as Zero goes forward with software-locking features that are already physically on the bike, I'm not interested in anything they offer. Doesn't matter how good they get.
Why don’t they build a Cruiser or scooter?
Silly concept indeed. Not much adventure in this. Planning a tour-de-charge and waiting for hours while a Tesla takes all the electricity. Remember, the claimed charging time is at the best conditions. If there's another vehicle at the stand, the electricity available is divided=longer time!
Thank you!
Yea, I didn't even want to get into charging station issues that we have today (out of service/broken/working but at a low current/waiting for the previous guy to finish...etc.). There are a million videos out there on it, that's why I said minimum 3 hours to do a full charge and that's in the best conditions. 🙁
Why?
The camera angle change is annoying
This ... vs the Ducati. It's really not a contest (if you were spending that much money) for that type of riding.
I think the Energica might be a better fit, I'm also not liking the slow charging on this (and other niggles I have with the brand). I guess you could live with it but you'd really have to bend your needs to the bike. I'm not even discussing the character of the bike.
To me the application of this type of bike does not fit with the current technology. I don't think electric bikes are a good fit for (adventure) touring or weekend blasts and to be honest the electric bikes NEED to be better then the petrol ones. Sure you could do it but you can do an adventure on a unicycle as well, it just depends how far you're willing to bend to make things work.
I am following and enjoying Marctravels with his Zero adventures, the difference is that the bike is the right fit for his character and his workflow. Good luck on matching that.
Nice to hear your thoughts on the bike.
A CHEAP electric motorbike or scooter for commuting, now that I can get behind.
Not for me!
Great review though!
Energica Experia I’m sure was first.
Ah, that is a tourer not an adventure bike.
I thought adventure bikes needed spoked wheels for rough terrain. Which would also make the Zero a touring bike.
A driver /rider of an EV has to take a while lot more care when there are pedestrians around, that audible warning an engine gives its gone
37k? 107 miles?! That's hilarious.
Oooooooffffffff, the price. Yikes, on the range. Seems like a nice bike otherwise, but it's not time yet for electric bikes, IMHO.
Pit mining and Blood Cobalt so nice.
Go track down an Energica Experia which has better technology and pricing
The dealer network is even worse than Zero, I took a look at the dealers near me, guess what, I would not be able to buy one and ride it home on a single charge! If I took the Autobahn, I'd have to charge it 3 times to get it home, taking "B" roads and staying under 80 kph then I might make it home charging once...if I'm feeling lucky. No thanks. So a 2 hour ride on a internal combustion engine would turn into 6 hours for an electric and that's just getting it home. Sad, sad, sad.
137km highway range, that's not fit for purpose, I can get more than that on my honda grom with a 5.5L tank.
I’m sorry, after price and range I had to switch off☹️
I’m dreading the end of the internal combustion engine motorcycle. E bikes do nothing for me. The freedom that a motorcycle brings and mental release from daily worries will be replaced by range anxiety and worrying if the repayments are really worth it. Iron butt day long high mileage rides will be replaced by sitting in servos waiting for the chargers to come free. Plus all the new tech, high carbon, earth raping requirements for precious metals to build batteries. My existing bike will never in its life produce the co2 that will be released in building these ‘eco efficient’ e-bikes 😞
Oh Nooooooooooooo!!!! NO, NO & NO!!! Did i say NO?!?!?! BLIAHHHHH!!!!!!!
so on a tour you would drive for an hour, charge for an hour, drive for an hour, charge for an hour, drive for an hour, charge for an hour, drive for an hour, charge for an hour........................
only if the place you are charging has the up-rated/fast charger, if not then 2 hours per...
Looks like you're sitting on a white coffin Scott! Not for me, I won't buy a Lecky until there is no over choice, IE you can't buy petrol any more, even then I'll have a bloody good go at brewing my own 😁
👍👍😁😁🤣🤣
I think it's a pointless to own an electric bike. Range to too short. And charging takes too long. Maybe great for city trips. But that's it.
110 mph is not awesome either
Big adventure bikes are bought primarily for touring. You can’t tour on this. Utterly pointless.
EV bikes seem to have wonderful utility for urban commuting, but outside of that, they’re just not good enough yet.
If you’re just doing a commute, you’re sure as hell not going to buy something like this.
the range is insufficient.. as always
Zero is so much anticonsumerist and unreliable, I'll wait for Honda to release their own adventure electric bike :-) To replace my awesome VFR800X Crossrunner one day
37,000 euros
140km range (adventure??? 😂)
2+ hours charging
.................................
ok tit is a bad joke!
Not such thing as I know adventure bike with belt drive😳 stones getting in there not good 😮😎🏍💨💨💨💨💨💨💨👍🏻🇨🇦
Great review but the bike is ugly and about as practical as a a pair of roller skates on mount Everest plus the fact that I believe we are still may years away from anything sensible, reliable and economical both in price and running costs and range
"roller skates on mount Everest" 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Good one, I'll have to remember that one! 👍
I’ll never buy an e bike.
That price point and range is garbage. I'll pass
looks horrendous
It's a joke. But there are also many jokers...
Battery powered adventure touring bike is the biggest oxymoron!
Two things humanity must NOT adopt, battery powered toys that limit your freedom
and Digital Currencies that will enslave and be used to control every aspect of your slave life!
nonsense
My Zero FX 7.2 is good for 46 miles real world range. My work is 11 miles one way. Its a perfect commuter as i can take dirt roads or paved. E-bikes are shitty toys but good for limited distance commutting.
Yea, it's perfect for commuting a set distance. I actually like the 7.2, light, agile and easy to flick around and enough power to put a smile on your face whenever you twist the throttle.
take care,
Scott