Engadget shreds on the Zero S all-electric motorcycle (with video!)
By Tim Stevens 
posted Apr 23rd 2009 11:08AM
posted Apr 23rd 2009 11:08AM
History and design
Ironic, then, that he's shifted his focus over to things that provide their own power -- alternative though it may be.
His company, Zero Motorcycles, started with rechargeable bikes intended for playing in the dirt, but its latest creation, the Zero S, is rather more of an all-rounder. It's a supermoto or motard, a breed of bike that slots in between a purely off-road dirtbike and a road-focused naked sportbike. While most in this class are little more than dirt models with fewer knobs on their tires and and more preload in the dampers, the S is a totally custom ride, sharing nothing with its trail-blazing predecessor.
Nothing, that is, except for incredible lightness. At just 225 pounds it is about 75 heavier than the Zero X dirtbike, but that's still a massive 75 pounds lighter than a comparable petrol-powered bike, like the 300 pound Yamaha WR250X. A quick look 'round the thing and it's plain to see why. Tap the frame and the aluminum feels thinner than the door panel on an econobox, but it's of course far more rigid and weighs a sprightly 29 pounds. Frame and sub-frame meet at a cylinder that bisects the structure and serves as the mounting point for the rear-suspension -- a trick job from Fox with a remote reservoir.
That shock is mounted to a similarly light and stiff (and also similarly bisected) swingarm, which provides nine-inches of travel on the rear. The front forks offer eight. Wheelbase is a lithe 55.75-inches, with 16-inch wheels on either end. Both sport disc brakes that look nothing if not lightweight; tiny and slender and perhaps better suited on a top-end mountainbike instead of a new-age motorcycle. But, they do the job.
It's all built around an 80 pound battery inserted where a typical bike's motor and radiator would go, sitting on a brushed aluminum tray with some die-cut flourishes on either side for strength and a little bit of style. Beneath that sits much of the electronics, cooled by a pair of small ducts on either side (plastic in this model, but they'll naturally be carbon fiber on the production bike). There were a few other differences here from what you'll see if you were to order one, the other primary one being the turn signals.
Those in the pictures are tiny, LED-infused, European-spec affairs, while the US Department of Transportation requires something rather larger -- and surely uglier. Regardless, it's a good looking bike for those who respect simple, minimalist engineering. Yes, anyone looking for aggressive styling like that found on the Suzuki B-King or Hayabusa will surely be disappointed, but even so there are a few things that could be improved. The tail section, for example, looks unnecessarily long, even if it's there to keep you from getting a line of gunge up your back, and the plastics on the front fairing ahead of the battery could use a little tidying up.
Like most great bikes the motor is fully exposed for you to gaze at appreciatively, but unlike most great bikes this one is so small it sits down between the pivot points for the rear swingarm, with a sprocket directly attached that turns the drive chain. A skilled mechanic can pull that motor in under two and a half minutes, and yanking the power cell doesn't take much longer. Why is that important? Saiki wanted to stress the upgradability of the bike: the battery is said to last five years, and while right now a new unit will set you back a massive $5,000 (half the cost of the bike), by the time you'll need one Neal hopes a replacement will have dropped to just $1,000 or less, and despite that will offer even more power. The same goes for the motor -- if you have more kilowatt-hours on tap you can pair that with a bigger motor for more power over the same range.
In other words: this is state of the art right now, but in a few years, when it isn't, you'll be able to easily swap the motor and battery for whatever the current hotness is. And, whether upgrading or just replacing that battery, it's important to note that it's largely salt based and contains no heavy metals. It can be thrown away in any landfill if you should desire and, believe it or not, it's edible. Well, the goop on the inside is, anyway.
The ride
Anyone who doesn't ride a scooter (or any of the disconcertingly growing number of automatic motorcycles) will feel a bit strange fondling a left grip with no clutch lever. Its omission makes starts and U-Turns somewhat jerky affairs, especially given the torque of the motor. It feels something like a newly introduced gas-powered bike with poorly sorted fuel injection, and much like the engineers of those bikes Saiki assures us things will be a bit more smooth on the production model.
The torque that makes starts a little shaky also makes the thing fun to ride. With just one mare over 30 horsepower it has the top-end oomph of your average 250cc buzzer, but with 62.5 ft/lbs of torque available from 0 RPM it gets up and goes like no little single or tiny inline twin could hope to. Sure, it lacks the rush that you get when your fire-powered econo-machine spins up north of 12,000 RPM, but most would trade that for twice the torque -- we know we certainly would. It was enough to zip us up to 50 mph (and stop again) well inside the span of a city block, and this was on a pre-production bike with about 25 percent less oomph than the ones customers will start receiving next month.
That said, some more top-end would certainly be nice. As it is maximum velocity is a paltry 60 mph, and while that's presumably limited to preserve motor and battery, if the Electric Motorsport GPR-S can go faster with far less power we'd like to see what the Zero S could really do with another gear. As it is this bike isn't really a safe on highways.
Many, of course, would argue that the thing isn't safe anywhere given the general lack of noise that it makes. It isn't totally silent, in fact it isn't much less noisy than a Kawasaki Ninja 250R at mild revs, but it's quiet enough that you can hear unexpected things, like the clashing of the chain and the subtle squeak of the brakes. It's a far cry from the average symphony (or drone, depending on your prerogative) of an average bike. Do loud pipes save lives? Saiki calls that an "absolute myth" and we agree; an inattentive motorist who doesn't see a motorcyclist isn't likely to hear them, especially since the Doppler effect means those rumbling pipes aren't doing much more than annoying those behind you -- and anyone within a few city blocks.
Suspension is on the soft side, very compliant over the potholes and creases we aimed for on this road, which should set this up to be very good for off-road duty. However, things didn't feel so soft that the bike wouldn't provide a clean, confident lines through faster turns. The brakes, however, don't give much confidence. The bike certainly stopped quickly enough, but without the immediate bite and responsiveness you'd expect on a lightweight like this. Looking again at the limited surface area on that front disc tells you why.
Wrap-up
You'll have to be the sort who wants to change the planet, be on the cutting edge of the future of transportation, or simply ride something that's different. Most of all you'll have to not want to go anywhere further than 60 miles round-trip, because that's as far you're going to get on a charge. Given the skinny, moto-style seat here you probably wouldn't want to sit on it for much longer than that anyhow.
It's a great bike, a real bike, and while it has more than a few shortcomings and a price that places it well into the "want" category and far from the "need," it's hugely fun to ride and, given that it makes no noise, legal to take to places where noise regulations would otherwise prohibit. Oh, and did we mention it's good for the environment? Yeah, that too.
Update: We're getting a couple questions in comments we wanted to address:
Q: What's the recharge time?
A: "Less than four hours" is the official line. We naturally didn't get a chance to find out just how much less.
Q: What's the seat height?
A: 35.5-inches, but the bike is so skinny so it doesn't feel that tall.
Q: What was the power delivery like?
A: A little like a bike with an ever so slightly loose chain; snatchy at first but totally usable. Throttle response was good at all speeds once moving.
Q: WHERE ARE YOUR GLOVES!?
A: Stupidly sitting right there on the curb, somehow forgotten until the shoot was over.
needs some kind of sound.
Just clothes pin some baseball cards on the forks so they buzz on the spokes.
If you're riding silent, no one knows you're coming. Don't underestimate sound as a safety precaution.
What they should do is put a sound synthesizer in it and provide customers different sound themes to it. Like.. tie-fighter sounds! :)
oooohhh.. that'd be cool... have the sound of some of those pod racers!!! i seem to recall an electric car company experimenting with a front mounted speaker system that would synthesize engine rev and exaust notes... prolly harder to do here on this bike, but it's true that sound would be a safety issue... better than yelling "LOOK OUT!!" and "behind ya!".... all the time..
I almost got hit by a hybrid just yesterday because it had just made a turn and was coming up the street that i was crossing...NO warning whatsoever....this, and all hybrid/electric road vehicles will go under my folder named unsafe crapgadgets.
There's no substitute for people to actually paying attention to their surroundings.
It should make a
pew pew pew sound when you honk the horn
Now that would add sprinkles to an already sweet package
It does not need any more sound. Sound is a byproduct of an inefficient process, and electric vehicles are designed to be efficient. In the future, all vehicles will be similarly quiet, and people will just have to be more vigilant about actually looking before crossing the street.
@Mike Cerm,
Except for blind people, though. I think there was an article on here a while ago about a city or state (probably Cali) looking to require all electric cars to make noise so blind people don't get smacked.
I vote with Kimmo, I want mine to make a Tie Fighter sound!
Simulated Fart Can?
@Dorf
The needs of the (very few) blind people should not supersede the needs of the people who can see, and would prefer not to be burdened with noisy, inefficient vehicles. Besides, if you're a blind pedestrian, you can probably hear an electric vehicle coming from the friction of the tires alone. This would be especially true if there weren't so many loud, gas-guzzlers on the road masking the noise.
In New Jersey, we have a state law which requires that all vehicles must yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. So, as long as the blind can find the crosswalks, they can cross whenever they like. Instead of making vehicles louder, perhaps crosswalks could just emit an audible beep every minute to let any blind people know that they're near a crosswalk and it's safe to cross.
"It's good for sneakin' up on muthafuckers!" -- U-Turn
You didn't hear anything? I certainly did.
Firstly, Thanks Engadget for the review. I'm going to test drive one of these in Calgary, Alberta on my way to the west coast in June.
But, I have some concerns...
My biggest concern is the control you would have over the bike seeing that it is indeed clutch-less. The precision of control afforded by finger-squeezing action (ie. clutch) is much higher than that for wrist turning (ie. throttle). On a motorcycle, this becomes especially important considering that it could be life or death.
As for the sound... "It's quiet... too quiet."
While silence is beautiful it's also dangerous. If the designers of the future electric cars want to build ergonomic vehicles that include considerations for safety they will not ignore the millions of years of evolution that have allowed for object-sound localization. We use it every day much more than we'd think - especially for internal modeling (think maps of your environment) and it could be debilitating to remove this. Yes, your eyes are part of your attention system and supercede the auditory system, but their range is very low (ie. detail only for objects close to you and directly ahead of you; depth perception for a low angle (less than 180). Audition allows for 360-degree spatial orientation. In this sense, audible pipes (read: reasonably loud) do save lives. The chain on this, however, sounds unbearable. Tightening it slightly should correct this a bit.
I see this as a good concept for FUTURE motorcycle manufacturers. It's something to learn from, but not something safe.
P.S.
Helmet cam? I'm looking for something like that. Yours seems to do video decently. Could you post which helmet/helmet cam you used, Engadget? Can it be fed directly into a computer while in use (ie. a motorcycle computer to record trip)?
ice cream truck anyone
I think that we add sounds to things because the human race has fallen into a state of lousiness and laziness. If we all took the time to pay attention to things instead of texting while walking or driving, then we wouldn't have to worry about warnings of danger; we would be more perceptive and notice these things ourselves. I think we have all just become so hogged up and burrowed into technology that we've become dependant on it to survive when we all have the ability to do these things ourselves.
Is that the best helmet cam engadget can get?
WANT
Recession antidote?
Yes, please.
Hahaha, yeah I'd totally take one for free!
I love electric motors, I think they're much more elegant than combustion engines. However, the problem has always been delivering juice to the motor. And when you run out of power, it's not a simple 5-minute stop at the gas pump. Slap on some solar panels and I think it makes it more viable, yet more expensive. People see it as "green" yet the batteries aren't exactly great for the environment, plus the fact that most of our electricity comes from coal (and not to mention we're having an electricity crisis here in So Cal).
"the battery is said to last five years, and while right now a new unit will set you back a massive $5,000"
That's a worrying statement. What the heck does "five years" mean? Some people park their motorcycles in their garage 90% of the time, while others (like me) put hundreds or thousands of miles on them per month.
If I had lots of extra money to blow, I'd totally buy one though.
"a video that will take you along for the ride"
Well, not really. More like a short, rider's eye view of the controls and another short rider's eye view of the ground in front of the bike.
What, you didn't like duct taped helmet cam footage? :D
Um, no gloves? Real safe, there, chum.
@ninjagin I would like to say that was indeed very stupid. I honestly didn't realize I'd forgotten to put them on until I pulled up to end the shooting.
ATGATT (all the gear, all the time) folks!
I was also wondering about that.
That was the first thing I thought when I saw the picture!
I was like, "full gear, but NO gloves???"
I dunno how you forgot man, I feel totally naked getting on my bike and not having gloves on. But I've been riding with Held gauntlets for years so it feels so natural.
Hey great review though btw, it's great to see an engadget editor who rides, I knew someone must because I keep seeing articles for electric bikes. If I wrote for engadget I'd definitely work that in too :)
how long would this take to re-charge?
This thing is going to be really quiet on the roadways....there's enough motorcycle accidents already and they're usually pretty loud. I'm guessing this thing is going to be an accident magnet.
Motorcycles are not in accidents because they are not "heard" - it's usually intoxicated riders (50% of the time), inattentive drivers (a big percentage) and other causes. Bikes are hard to "see" for the most part. It takes active work ont he part of the rider to make sure they are seen. Take it from someone with 25 years experience and 200,000 accident-free riding miles in all types of environments. "Loud Pipes Save Lives" is just an excuse for ego-dorks to annoy everyone around them. All my bikes save one have had nice quiet stock exhausts. But I wear a vest and white helmet so I can be seen and ride very defensively. That's not so say slow, just smart. Seems to be working so far.
Kudos to Zero for developing this bike. Hope its the start of many more quiet, electric bikes. True the price is high (for now), but you don't have to buy gas, oil, tuneups, etc.
@robersonphoto-
Fair enough. I'll definitely take your experience and word on the issue. I would imagine though that the exhaust sound helps alert drivers to some extent though, even if not loud. Hearing the motorcycle coming from behind you or in front of you might help you to become more visually aware of the motorcycle on the road. I'm not saying that the lack of sound would be the primary cause of the accidents, but I think some exhaust sound is going to help drivers get a head's up.
@robersonphoto-
+1
I have had quiet pipes, it is alllll about defensive driving. Even when dumb friends of mine are convinced the loud pipes that you need earplugs to ride with are their savior!
when are you giving one of these away?
I saw him take off at the beginning and was like "Oh snap, that bitch stole the bike!"
I’ll ditto the sound. That is why I got rid of my Vespa. But, I do want!
It's a fun "toy" to have and zip around on, but at $10K it will never fly off the shelves. Even if they sold it for half that amount, it's still a tough buy for a "toy" (bike) with such limitations... I'm all about going green, but I'm not about to waste that much of my hard earned green on something that shouldn't cost more than $3K...
Why no gearbox? Do you have to pin the throttle, use max battery power and spin the motor all the way up (which goes weeeeeeEEEEEEE as it goes faster) to get to a decent cruising speed? Dumb. In order to maintain decent speed and conserve battery power at 55mph, it does not take much power - that's why gas bikes have gears and get incredible mileage - there's almost no throttle used. I'm not saying it needs a complex 6-speed, but how about three? So it has big torque from 0 rpm - great. Add a small gearbox to extend range, save power and cut down on wear. Duh. And then work on the price (Obama tax credits or something?). It looks great - supermoto format is the way to go!
The efficiency of an electric motor v. RPM is more or less flat from 20% to 80% of power, after which it drops of slowly. Also, unlike gas motors, you are not burning more juice just because you are at 8k rpm - power consumption is going to be whatever power is being put out, less heat generated in the motor. A gearbox would thus probably reduce your overall efficiency, and increase the number of moving parts by a large factor (right now, it looks like there are less than 10, counting the brake calipers).
The introduction of a multi-speed transmission is NOT to save gas, it is to battle a common problem of combusion engines, and that they are very PEAKY (== narrow power band). Electric motors do NOT share this "feature" with combusion motors, and have a much wider power range. Not to say, that electric motors have infinite power band; Tesla, for example, was originally going to be released with a 2-speed transmission. But generally, very few electric motors need more than one gear.
It's a common arguement (usually by gas-guzzler owners) that engines use less fuel at lower RPMs. The engine speed is NOT directly proportional to gas consumption. Simply put, an engine at LOW rpm has to dump a lot more gasoline PER STROKE, then the same engine at HIGH rpm - to maintain the same speed.
The Tesla was originally to have a single-speed transmission. However, the first test units *broke* under the motor's torque, so they shipped the first hundred or so production Teslas with temporary 2-speeds. The transmissions were upgraded to single-speed at no cost to the buyer a year later, only after their supplier came up with one strong enough to endure the torque.
how is it washine that thing?
Can you just powerwash it like a normal bike?
Actually you should NEVER powerwash a motorcycle. There are plenty of rubber gaskets (fork seals, chain o-rings, electrical connections, etc) and electronics that do not like having water forced inside them. Plus it's hard on your paint. But you get water inside areas that are sealed to prevent water from getting in. Even getting water under metal fittings that would never have water under them from a gentle wash can cause corrosion.
Well.. after 14 years riding motocross i cant see any other way of washing a bike efficiently 5 times a week..
As long as you wash it carefully and grease it up theres no problem..
this is a super moto bike.. so it gets dirty..
Beware the silent pedestrian killer...
They should add an external speaker with a sound selection of different motorbikes. Small dirt bike up to a hog or something. That would add some novelty as well as some safety features.
Do a barrel roll
please tell me this was in reference to star fox/lylat wars and not you being a tit?
Quiet? The gear whine seemed rather obnoxious to me.
It looks uncomfortable.
Like a pommel horse with wheels, with no chick gymnast camel toe shots.
"It's not the first. It's not the fastest. It's not the lightest, the strongest, the cheapest, or even the best looking electric motorcycle out there"
And you still want me to red...why?
Well... If you had read on - "It is, however, one of the very few you can order today".
And cause you're apparently twice as dumb, Ill post this in reply for the other one too.
"It's not the first. It's not the fastest. It's not the lightest, the strongest, the cheapest, or even the best looking electric motorcycle out there"
And you still want me to read...why?
Well... If you had read on - "It is, however, one of the very few you can order today".
And cause you're apparently twice as dumb, Ill post this in reply for the other one too.
I see what you did here.
Wow, who peed in your coffee today?
I like it. If it had better range it might be something i could talk the wife into. With that difference in distance (35-60) miles? 60 is more than enough, but 35 is only enough to make me have to push the bike the last 7 miles or so for my round-trip.
There seems to be alot of space above the battery. Why don't they make a fold out solar panel there or something? It could only help when parked, right?
QUESTIONS FOR TIM:
Just a few questions that weren't answered in the review.
What is the seat height? Usually motards are so tall I can't ride them, but since this is really just designed ground up as an urban commuter, instead of a street-ready dirtbike, did they address this? No need to have 12 inches of travel for a commuter!
What is the power delivery like? You mentioned that the full torque at 0rpm is a bit tough to manage at slow speeds. It is a really on/off snatchy throttle? Worse than a bike w/ bad FI mapping?
Thanks!
Hate to reply to my own comment but forgot to mention - I agree that loud ass pipes are annoying. But I live in SoCal and have to say that with lane-splitting it DOES help. I totally agree in most places it doesn't matter especially since ppl in front of you dont tend to hear them, but when you're lane splitting in stop-and-go and only moving a little faster than traffic, ppl DO NOTICE. I always watch the cagers' heads while lane splitting to anticipate a dive into the adjacent lane, and I always can tell when they hear my bike coming and look in the rear-view. Then they mostly move over for me, or in the case of most Expedition drivers, move over to block me.
@Richard answers to your (and other) questions have been added.
I wouldn't mind riding that around town. I hardly ever go over 20 miles.. I know this because my bike dies every 20 miles
i don´t care about the motorcycle and it´s electrical engine. but i do care that this dork doesn´t seem to remember where he put his gloves. i mean its half a promo here and he doesn´t need gloves? what, is he too cool for gloves? can he fly? is this guy too awsome to be hit by some jackass in a car or does he simply counter the impact of a crash with his undisputable coolness?
point is: please children and grown ups alike, don´t waste your hands. i´m sure your girlfriends agree on that.
Gloves are for women, and the little girls that bitch about a 3 min ride promo guy not wearing any. The guy OBVIOUSLY has gloves, look at the suit... not to mention HE TALKS ABOUT THEM ABOVE!!!
Girlfriends? Do no gay men or straight women ride bikes?
alright i dont know much about battery design but how come we cant make batteries in different shapes other than just a box?
I want to work for Engadget :(
Pretty good for a first effort. Hopefully more competition comes out to drive prices down.
How about offering one of these in your next recession beating comment contests? :)
It's so sad that environmentalist are screaming for people to be more green and lower their carbon footprint but don't scream at so called "green" companies that make consumers pay considerable more than for an electric powered alternative in order to "save the world." There needs to be a bigger push to make affordable "green" transportation. Meaning, in the same price range as normal gas powered vehicles cost.
Yeah, I'd like to help save the environment too but I can't afford to pay what it costs to make it happen. If Zero S was really concerned with the environment they would meet or beat the price of the competition so it would be hard not to choose their product. I'm all for capitalism and making a profit but I think this bike is just a ploy to gouge the "green" consumer than to save our planet.
Take econ 101, and read the part of the post about the cost of the battery.
How much do you think a Honda Civic, for example, would cost if Honda only sold a few thousand, didn't share components with other vehicles, and Honda didn't have the huge network of service organizations that make money?
I don't know. I do know it would be a whole lot more than it costs today. I also know that LiIon batteries are really expensive to produce.
@CraigJ
Thanks professor for the econ 101 lesson. Common sense 101 would lead a manufacturer to maybe shop around and find a less expensive vendor to purchase their batteries from. The point of my post is that it is ridiculous the amount of money one must spend to purchase a "green" alternative for transportation and the environmental community, who spends much of their time screaming about so called carbon footprints, really say nothing to say about these type solutions being so costly that most Americans could/would not see this as an option in their decision to make a purchase. Maybe if the environmental wacko's made a fuss about the cost of batteries then the battery manufacturers would feel the pressure to lower the prices now and not 5 years from now.
That is the silliest argument I've heard in a long time. You think that someone would go through the process of design and manufacture of a motor vehicle and not try and find the lowest possible cost versus best possible performance on all parts of their product? That would be incredibly dumb. The fact is, batteries are expensive to produce, especially batteries capable of delivering massive amounts of amperage to accelerate a person to 60MPH repeatedly, and still be able to take a full charge in 4 hours, and do that reliably for 5 years.... all without melting or exploding. If you think you can make a battery that can perform better and last longer and cost half as much as the one used in this bike.... then go do it, you will be a billionaire overnight.
Honestly, comments like yours show a complete lack of understanding of both basic engineering and simple economics. But I guess this is the kind of blind ignorance that pioneering manufactures have to deal with day in and day out in order to teach the public about their products. It takes time for manufactures to figure out the cheapest way to build things, and it takes scientific breakthroughs in order to make significant leaps in reliability or energy density. Cars have been around for only slightly more than a hundred years. The whole 'green' movement is only a few years old.
You are expecting miracles to happen overnight. You want flying cars that cost a dollar, and run on piss, but are not willing to wait the thousand years it will take to figure out how to build them.
As someone who'd be interested in owning a motocycle, at 140lbs, I can see myself buying one of these. A few things would influence my decision. 1) the top speed of 60mph (a comparative gas-powered bike would hit 120mph). 2) the total makeover of the gears & clutch system (no choice of manual/ auto) which is probably how they limit the top-end speed. 3) the small quiet sounding engine (you won't be able to show-off how furious your engine sounds). When I drive I normally listen to the revving sound of my engine to know when to switch gears- heck you can tell if something is wrong by the sound the engine makes. 4) how it'll handles in the snow/ice or off-roading (this is North America) esp since I tend to like the super-bike category more (for it's speed).
You probably get home, and wonder how you can tell if your toaster is about to break, and you probably bring up your ear to the toaster trying to listen for a knocking sound, or sniff it for any gasoline vapors.
"Anyone who doesn't ride a scooter (or any of the disconcertingly growing number of automatic motorcycles) will feel a bit strange fondling a left grip with no clutch lever."
-real scoots have a cluch and 3-4 gears on the headstock. what you are referring to is a twist and go, which barely qualifies.
i'll stick with my lambretta sx150 for the moment. almost the same performance and i'm guessing a heck of a lot more fun.
cool bike though, i would love to try it out.
I need it! A great replacement for my slightly aged Auranthetic.
haha i know exactly where that was taken, and i didnt know i was so close to engadget.
this thing reminded me of the Brammo Enertia Electric Motorcycle the Zero S i think gets more miles and is faster that that bike cheaper to.
Loud pipes save lives.
So does this thing have an extension cord under the seat that you plug in, or is there another apparatus that you need to carry if you wanted to drive it to a friends house, charge it, and drive it home.
I would almost rather a non-eco Lithium Ion battery as it would probably be a lot more powerful that salt water. Its no more hazardous that a gas tank between your legs. You can always recycle the battery too.
If I had an extra 10k lying around, I'd be on board.
No regenerative breaking? Seems like that would extend the range a bit.
I think for this first model, simpler is better. No need to pile on complex electronics, extra electrical systems, a heavier motor/generator, more software code, etc.... on the companies first model. It would be kind of expensive too, and could be a potential failure point.
I think the goal for this company right now would be to get the cheapest, yet still well-performing, bike to market as quickly and as simply as they can. Get some cash flow, and generate some buzz, then they can think about adding on fancy systems (that is, if it reaches an efficiency vs. weight break-point.... the energy recovered by the system is more than it takes to accelerate the system's extra weight).
hrmm....I think I'll keep my ninja250 for now. the extra $7,000 I save on not buying this bike will be nearly a lifetime supply of gas for my motorcycle.
Loud pipes only save minds if you expect others to not hit you. In order to ride safely, lane positioning and situational awareness is needed, not loud obnoxious pipes. As a rider, it is YOUR responsibility to not allow a driver to hit you, plain and simple. My current bike was bought with a loud pipe, and if it wasn't an old bike, I'd replace it with something quieter.
That being said, I think noise equal to a quiet conventional motorcycle/scooter would be good to have, as I can see a bicyclist cutting in front of you since they can't hear you...
Not bad, but the Bramo Inertia looks superior.
Next video should have a burn out and few tricks like Endo and a Wheelie. :-D
Much like a twist and go scoot, but man i'd miss the sound and feel of the 2 stroke. That said, I do like hte jetsons like whirl this thing makes.
WOW is that crazy expensive. Thanks but we'll stick to our Lambretta's, Vespa's, Stella's, Buddy's, Honda's.......
That was a great review and a thoroughly enjoyable read :-) thanks!
Nice. Salt based battery.
Way cool Idea. High torque for squrting away from traffic lights is a bonus in the big City. When I can get 100miles and 100mph on one charge then ill consider one.
62.5 ft/lbs?! That sounds high. That is like my R1 that will do 110 in first gear and barly keep the front wheel on the ground. If true a smaller rear sprocket would let the bike go 75-100
Note they could also simply add a power limiter switch to a resistor (on a relay) to make it more usable at low speed.
I dont really like the sound it makes
Not sure if this was mentioned or not... but...
Zero Motorcycles had a 24 hour endurance race called "Electricross" event a few weeks ago, using the ZeroX of course. Info, pics, etc at -
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/electricross/
Believe the ZeroX is cheaper too. Plus is a great way to sneak into areas in which the noise of a regular bike would get you busted in no time flat. (OK, OK, not that I recommend that... but quite a few ZeroX owners have joked about that!)
It does look sorta like the drones in HL2...eso with the led headlight...
Hey, it's faster than my Honda Ruckus(so's everything) and it's still automatic. This would be just fine for around town. Especially given the instant torque delivery is a great safety feature if you need to get the hell out of the way real quick. Too bad about the cost of batteries though. There was an interesting article sometime last year in Popular Science about energy storage being a big factor these days. I think were just a single good idea away from electric cars and bikes. There's some interesting new research coming out of super capacitors lately. It would be killer if there was some sort of tax credit for buying one of these. I think a $3k credit would get me to bite.
And I second the sound maker idea. Put me down for tie fighter sound too! They could offer new sounds by download, It could detect any surrounding cars and default to "dump truck sound" until they pass. What if the SAE got together and made an "electric car sound" that could be standard to all electric cars, with maybe just a little variation for branding and such.
I'd love an electric car and/or an electric bike, but, like most people in London, I live in a flat, so it's just not going to happen.
Cool, but it seems like it would get boring very quickly. I'll stick to my Victory Vision. www.TheVOG.net
Hmmmmmm so whats the wheelie factor on this thing?........... 12 O'clocks anyone lol
Nice bike! Definitely noisy, but chains tend to be. A drive belt seems more appropriate for an electric.
I've been commuting to work on a 40-mph electric bicycle for the better part of a year and find the lack of a noise-maker to have little to do with safety issues. A sound synthesizer would be cool, but is hardly a necessity. And my bike is way quieter than this one.
Riding with nothing but the sound of the wind is so refreshing!