Test riding Zero electric motorcycles

Zero came to town to offer test rides on their electric motorcycles

I have seen the future, and man is it quiet.

Electric vehicles may never completely replace gas-powered ones, but I have to believe the day is coming when they will be as commonplace as laptop computers. Who thought, 20 years ago, that we'd carry around light, compact computers with more power than those that sent spaceships to the moon?

So the boys and girls from Zero Motorcycles sent a van with a bunch of bikes to our city recently so anyone interested could test ride these bikes. I had been in touch with Chuck Pratt, the local Zero rep, for some time about doing some test rides and we were just waiting for the weather and both our schedules to make that possible. Then the folks from the factory resolved the whole issue.

Zero has four models, the S for street riding, the DS for dual sport, the X for trails and technical riding, and the MX for motocross. All four were on hand, although I only rode the S and DS as we were in a paved, flat parking lot and it just didn't seem a realistic test of the dirt bikes.

The first bit of thinking you have to change when you ride an electric bike is the idea that there should be noise. When you turn the key on a Zero the only thing that happens is a sweep around the dial for the speedometer needle and a diagnostic by the CPU. Yes, the bike is really on now, although until you raise the kickstand you're not going anywhere.

While gas-powered motorcycles have starter buttons and kill switches, Zeros have an On/Off switch. Flipping to Off does not actually turn the machine off, it simply interrupts the power to the drive.

So you've got the key turned on, the switch is set to On, and the kickstand is up. And as far as you can tell, the bike is running about as much your dinner table is running. But twist the throttle and oh boy, you are launching. There's no slipping the clutch because there is no clutch, and no gears. The power is direct and linear, so there's no torque curve. The farther you twist the throttle the faster you go, up to 67 miles per hour, where the delimiter kicks in.

Of course, maximizing battery life is absolutely crucial with an electric vehicle, so the bikes are light and agile. Running through the cones in the parking lot the S and the DS both handled very well, and when I would just turn away from the course and blast across the lot the acceleration was easily up to the task.

   Dan Spellman shows where the power cord is stored on the DS

The lowdown

So what's not to like about the Zeros, and electric bikes in general? Well, at least for now, your range is very limited. The Zero guys say that you'll get between 30 and 60 miles to a charge, depending on how you ride. So you're not going to be making that ride to Yellowstone on a Zero any time soon. Besides, loading it up with luggage would only serve to reduce battery life even further.

What they are good for right now is commuting and running around town. There's a cubbyhole in the frame where your cord resides, ready to be hooked up to top off the battery anytime juice is available. If you'll need to reach more than 12 feet you'll want to carry an extension cord.

On the dirt-oriented bikes, the X and MX, the battery is smaller and the bikes themselves are lighter. The batteries are also designed to slip out quickly and easily, so you can ride on one battery, then when it starts running low you swap out and put the first battery on a charge while you ride on the second.

And did I mention that they're quiet? One of the biggest problems dirt riders are facing these days is having their riding areas shut down because of noise complaints. I'm betting that the dirt riders will be the ones who really take to electrics in a big way before anyone else.

So how do these things stack up price-wise with other motorcycles? Well, it depends on a variety of factors. The base price for the S and DS is about $10,000. The X and MX cost less. But the federal government and some state governments offer tax credits for purchasers of electric vehicles intended for use on the roads. Which means the X and MX don't qualify.

Colorado has the best tax credit of any state and that means a Colorado resident can, with rebate, own an S or DS for $5,100. Georgia is second in the generosity of its tax credit, and Hawaii is working on a credit that may be very good as well. You'll have to check and see what your state offers, although the federal credit applies everywhere.

As for maintenance, the only things that are expected to be needed for the Zeros are tires and brake pads. Plus the batteries. Batteries do eventually die, of course, and there's currently a lot of research money going into making them better. Zero is pledging to sell new batteries to Zero owners at cost, so as to ensure to them that they can benefit from advances in the technology. Currently batteries cost about $3,000.

That's the scoop in brief. Colorado Motorcycle Travel Examiner Dom Chang also came to the demo and has published his own appraisal of the Zeros.

Make no mistake, electric vehicles are the wave of the future. And think about it. Cities will be so much quieter, and air will be so much cleaner. Yes, there will be pollution created by manufacture of the machines and production of electricity to power them, so nothing is truly zero emissions. So it won't be perfect. Just better. And better sounds pretty good to me.