New small offering from Zero

raylo32

100 kW
Joined
Jan 4, 2019
Messages
1,084
Location
Frederick, MD USA
Looks like a super refined Sur-Ron, or something. 48 HP, 100 mile claimed range. ~$11,000... about the same cost as a high end Specialized Turbo Creo... though this lacks pedals. ;)

https://advrider.com/zero-fxe-2021/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_content=07_19_2021
 
That new Zero bike is badass. I pity gas bike riders. I gave all mine away because after you get electric motos you never see reason to start them again.
 
Could the range be better? Sure it could. But maybe range isnt everything. I live in the city and would love a supermoto style electric bike to go do hooligan stuff on after the kids go to bed.

I work 22 miles from home. This zero would handle that as well. There is definitely a market for these. If the argument is framed around this bike sucking or being badass overall then there is going to be drastically different opinions.

When I ride my gas dirt bike we go all day in the woods and stop to play on fun trail features. Once everyone is tired out we call it a day and the gps shows that we rode only 20 miles. So aging a zero would do more than I need.

These things are all about being honest with your use case. If you go tour highways all day on a motorcycle then this is not the bike for you.
 
ebuilder said:
They have no range if riding on the freeway with automobiles where power is proportional to the 'cube of velocity' and aerodynamic drag 'the square of velocity' and gasoline has '100 x's the energy density' of a Li-Ion battery.

If you are riding a motorcycle on a freeway, you are an idiot. You are in the most hideous place on earth, out in the open, sucking in the maximum amount of pollution, next to tractor trailer rigs. Even in a car, freeways are a nightmare.
 
ebuilder said:
How ignorant for you to say. A good friend just returned from a 5000 mile road trip on his Harley Ultra touring the continental US.

Just to throw a little light on your ignorance. First of all, touring on the freeway is my idea of torture. If we are traveling for pleasure, the interstate is not even a consideration. If I need to get to the emergency room, then sure. But otherwise, why would anyone put themselves through that?

As for cross-country motorcycle touring, Alan Smith sets the standard for me. He understands that physics you were talking about, and is ambitious enough to do something about it. He recently switched from ICE streamliners, to an Energica electric streamliner.

If you don't know who he is, check out the Vetter Challenge sites. Ever hear of any of these folks?

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVRgpJKErh0Dxfs7eJ4GPjA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Hershner

https://www.facebook.com/people/Moto-Electra-Racing/100063706110665/

https://www.facebook.com/BenRidesElectric/
 

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ebuilder said:
Anybody who rides a 'streamliner' around in traffic of any powerplant persuasion is a crackpot.

And your friend is a dinosaur. I toured the Harley plant in middle school. In my youth, we laughed at the Harley-Fergusons. I am older than your friend, and rode to Montreal on my 1967 Triumph Bonneville to the Worlds Fair.

The future is electric. Harley knows it as well as anybody. They have a huge problem, living off the nostalgia of a dead era, while trying to interest the smartphone generation in their new electric bikes.
 
Never mind Warren. The guy trolls extolling his genius, typically insulting and trashing contrary opinions. If we were around when the kid has a few more decades of experience we might see some maturity, then again…
 
ebuilder said:
Only a fool would attempt to make his ride on ANY electric motorcycle.

I am surprised that anybody who have ever owned a Triumph Bonneville is now afraid to ride on the freeway.

It has been done, and more. Did you bother to look at any of those sites?

I am not afraid to ride on the freeway. I wouldn't ride on the freeway because it is filthy, noisy and unpleasant. Is this your idea of fun?

stupid.png

I have ridden my electric recumbent bikes 6,300 miles a year, for ten years, so 5,000 miles sitting on a Harley doesn't impress me at all.
 
ebuilder said:
Anybody who tried to do this ride on a production electric motorcycle would have run out of battery at 150 miles or less and taken 4 hours to recharge if you could even find a charger.

So you didn't bother to read any of the sites I listed. I won't both talking to you again.
 
I've traveled up and down the west coast on my Zero DSR, and I've done it on my previous GSXR1000 gas sportbike.

I ran 22kW of inboard charger and tapped 4 x J plugs or Tesla destination charger plugs. I was using a modified digiNow setup to charge at this power and the bike looked visually stock. I never did an Iron butt on my DSR like Terry Hershner on his modified Zero, and I never rode 850-950miles in a day on a stock Energica Ego like Brandon Miller, but I had many 400-500miles per day rides on my DSR, and it's so much better of an experience that it's worth it to me even if my GSXR would have covered additional miles, the quality of riding experience is so much more pleasant and enjoyable it's worth it.

Imagine riding around on a gas powered bicycle conversion, being an obnoxious stink while getting pathetic performance. Compare that with the ebicycle experience most of us are familiar with, and how many of us would want the stinky slow put-put experience?

This is my wife on her Zero SR-F first pass down a dragstrip racing a modern Ducati >990cc sportbike.
[youtube]onkDwEBsMqY[/youtube]

I personally have no interest in gas bike riding for long rides, or short rides. Propulsion sources that make narrow useful power delivery ranges feel as clumsy and unsatisfing to ride as dialing a phone number on a rotary dial. The noise and vibration of gas bikes causes pointless fatigue to yourself on long rides.

I've also never lost a race from a dig to any gas bike on my hotrodded Zero DSR or Zero SR-F. I would never go back to feathering the clutch from rev limiter on a GSX-R to launch, half the time losing traction from not reading the pavement grip well enough, only to lose every race to electric bikes with TCS and a rider willing to pin it.

Even Lunas hotrodded Sur Ron never lost a race to any gas bike challengers up to 50mph or so when a quick sportbike can overtake it.
 
liveforphysics said:
I've traveled up and down the west coast on my Zero DSR, and I've done it on my previous GSXR1000 gas sportbike.

Luke,

I dream of getting back on a MC, once we move into a retirement place. That way I know my wife will be OK, if I become an organ donor. But I have no interest in riding a hobby horse ever again.

I'd love an electric Monoracer, if it was beginning imported, and didn't cost two arms and a leg.

https://www.peravescz.com/electric-version/

But even something like the Honda NM4 Vulcan,

https://www.rideapart.com/news/245683/love-it-or-hate-it-the-honda-nm4-is-back-for-2018/

with a 24-30 kWh pack, down low, makes more sense to me that what is available.

Make an old man happy, and make me one. :wink:
 
ebuilder said:
Anybody who tried to do this ride on a production electric motorcycle would have run out of battery at 150 miles or less and taken 4 hours to recharge if you could even find a charger. Electric motorcycles unless a a short hopper/commuter suck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozjqs7MohZU
You honestly sound like every anti-EV, anti-ebike person I have seen on Facebook. "It takes HOURS to charge!" "You'll run out of juice and be STRANDED!" "You can't get anywhere!"

Perhaps you can't. But millions of other people can. If you don't want to be one of those people, that's your choice. But it's really not hard.
 
ebuilder said:
Jack, one thing the forum can count on, you will conflate, distort and obfuscate. I have written extensively on the subject. I just came in off my ebike. I love ebikes. At higher speed, 2 wheel EV's fall on their face in range.This will likely go over your head but drag is proportional the square of velocity and power proportional to the cube of velocity which kills two wheel vehicles at high speed because they have a very poor drag coef.
Yep. And thus to the ignorati EV's DON'T WORK! Even though gas vehicles have exactly the same issue.
You probably don't understand any of the above which I accept.
I surely cannot compete with your Twitter master's and your Facebook doctorate. Thank God us ignorant slobs have you to tell us what opinions to have, else we would be lost.
 
ebuilder said:
Physics you might have forgotten from schooling. Elementary to anybody with a math brain. You have no excuse for your blind spot.

Hahahahahaa...

Talk about a faux pas :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

I doubt you could make a bigger one on this forum. For grins you might want to read some of LFP's old posts. The man's a pioneer in the modern battery development and a friend of many of the old timers here (including myself). I sincerely doubt you could match his experience building and racing both cars, motorcycles and ebikes. When was the last time you've raced an ebike at Laguna Seca?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX-ki3pP8YU Mind you, this was 11 years ago.

As to the point you were trying to make; You're just wrong.
 
Touring on an electric motorcycle depends on your charging rate and cruise power for the miles you cover in a day. With 22kW charging, I can ride 2hrs of highway for each 1hr spent charging. This makes it practical to get 8hrs of highway riding and 4hrs of charging, and still have 4hrs for meals and 8hrs for sleep each day of touring.

Up and down the west coast charging infrastructure is abundant. In some areas the charging infrastructure is few and far between today, but it's rapidly growing.
 
ebuilder said:
Come on Nick. Why am I wrong?

I don't have the time or inclination to argue with you.

Let's just say that there is more to life than straight physics. Mental health and Mother Earth are more important to me. And like Luke, I put my money where my mouth is.

Not saying that you don't do the same but I don't know how you live your life, only know what you post.
 
I have co-workers who currently ride Harleys. I am happy for them, and they seem to enjoy riding them. I don't have a motorcycle at the moment, but I've owned several including a Honda 750, and I've ridden a Zero Model-S. I got my M1 license in 1976, and all of them were an absolute delight to ride.

The longest ride I've been on was Los Angeles to San Diego. It took about two hours each way. At the end of each leg, I was ready to get off, stretch my legs and have a nice meal and a beer with a friend, maybe looking out over a beach on a fresh sunny spring day.

I've heard that some Harley owners will ride up to four hours or so and then stop to fill up, which takes only five minutes if you are in a hurry. I have so many good things going on that I really don't have time to try and convince someone else that something that they like is bad, and that...they should like what I like.

Slowly...some of the people who had a motorcycle that burns gasoline, are buying a motorcycle that uses electricity.

Have you ever met a guy who has a 1968 Triumph 500 that has been meticulously restored, and he rides it often? I suppose you could try to tell him that there are new 500cc motorcycles that have 10 more horsepower, and really grippy disc brakes, plus it doesn't leak oil and it has an electric starter. But...for some reason he just keeps thinking he's happy with that old Triumph.

I don't know why he clings to that, but I can tell you he's a really fun person to spend time with, and to talk to. I hope Zero continues to be successful, and I hope a lot of people take one for a test ride. Every year, quite a few people buy one, and I don't mind that at all...
 
ebuilder said:
See Jack, you don't even understand the subject or you wouldn't have written what you did in bold above.
Exactly. None of us have your brilliance, wisdom or huge array of Facebook and Twitter experience to be able to understand such complex topics as drag or specific energy. We are just posers, attempting vainly to match the legend that is you, as seen in your own mind.

But back to the topic -

We've seen a lot of offerings of overpowered ebikes with the weasel words "for off road use only" or something similar. It will be interesting to see if more companies start pushing things from the other direction - smaller road-legal motorcycles.
 
Some n00bs have no inclining as to the reality of ES… And sadly don’t take the time to learn or step back and familiarize themselves with those that have given far more than they take without having to blow their horns.

They come and they go, and the stalwarts stay and the dream and progress continues.
Now we’re the “latest fashion” when in fact ES has been in existence before most knew what a ebike was. Before me for sure. But it’s hard to be humble…

Eventually they’ll get bored or finally insult enough valued members for the moderators to time out or drop the ban hammer. And before long another savior will come along and save us from our damnation. In my group home parenting days we called them high stress heroes.
Aren’t we seeing eMcs’ delivering nearly the mileage of a stink pot? And batteries capable of much faster charges, or are we locked into taking the piss on a single maker?
 
ebuilder said:
Physics you might have forgotten from schooling. Elementary to anybody with a math brain. You have no excuse for your blind spot.

Like a 5th grade maths teacher telling Einstein he doesn't know what he's talking about.

A signal for setting the forum Ignore function, total waste of time to read much less engage with your posts.

People like this just cause so much harm to a community...
 
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