#zero

I really like these things. Riding a Zero FX along a babbling brook and over some granite outcroppings a few years ago while hearing the water gurgle and the birds chirp was a come-to-Jesus moment that showed me the potential of silent running and instant torque. But I haven’t spent any time on electric bikes since that one.

One-hundred and six pound-feet of torque is an addictive drug if you can get your hands on it, and it’s even better when it’s available to you almost instantly. Thankfully for us this dream has been a reality since 2014, in the form of the Zero SR. It accelerates like few other bikes can thanks to its 660-amp motor controller and higher-temp magnets. Couple that with new-for-2015 bits like Showa suspension, Pirelli tires, and Bosch ABS, and you have the makings for our Best Electric Motorcycle of 2015.

Remember that time, two years ago in 2014, when we put an electric bike up against an ICE motorcycle… and the electric won? The two protagonists in that matchup were the Zero FX, modified for supermoto use by our friend Harlan Flagg, proprietor of Hollywood Electrics, and the Suzuki DR-Z400SM. At that time Zero had yet to officially have a supermoto version of its FX in the lineup, but other than the obvious change in wheels, brakes, and tires, the FX was otherwise a stock bike.

Zero Motorcycles turns 10 years old in 2016, and anyone who has followed the company’s progress, even from the periphery, can’t deny the progress Zero has made in advancing electric motorcycles. Giving his take on the electric motorcycle movement, and the role Zero Motorcycles has played in it, is company CTO Abe Askenazi. In his statement below, Abe argues the benefits of electric propulsion (though range and charge times are curiously absent from his statment). Clearly he has a stake in the electric game, but for those unfamiliar with Askenazi you should know that he spent a significant portion of his career in a similar role working alongside Erik Buell at Buell Motorcycles. A company, if you’ll remember, whose name was built on building a sportbike out of the unmistakable, gasoline-burning Harley-Davidson V-Twin. -TS

If you’ve seen Deadpool, you’ll remember the chase and fight scene that took place on an urban expressway bridge. Naturally, the scene was made even better by having motorcycle-riding bad guys. This video shows that the coolest motorcycle in the fight wasn’t even seen. It was the camera platform. The production crew modified a Zero to carry a camera and all of its support technology in multiple positions on the motorcycle, giving fluid camera tracking in and out of both moving and stopped cars . The video is well worth a minute and forty seconds of your day.

Eight years ago we were the first to get a ride on a Zero electric motorcycle, the 2008 Zero X. Back then Zero was a very different company than it is today – Neal Saiki is gone, the machines are immensely more evolved, and they now look like motorcycles rather than converted mountain bikes – but reading Mark Gardiner’s and Micky Dymond’s positive thoughts about the 2008 Zero X confirms the impressive performance of electrics. Even crude ones. By today’s electric motorcycle standards the X is hardly worth mentioning, but for historical value – and as a measuring stick for progress – the X is hugely important. In only eight years Zero Motorcycles has greatly increased power and range, while lowering prices at the same time (government incentives also help). Zero’s make reasonable commuters or trail bikes for some people, and it started with the Zero X. Read about it below, and be sure to check out the photo gallery for more shots. 

Bob Burnquist is a legendary name for anyone who follows skateboarding or extreme sports. As the winningest X-Games athlete in history, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise the adrenaline junky is also a motorcyclist. A Zero motorcyclist, in fact. As the owner of both a Zero FX and a Zero DS, Burnquist has grown quite fond of the electric motorcycle lifestyle, so much so that he will be featured in Zero’s next “ZeroCast” on Wednesday, March 16 at 1pm PST.

A self-described underwater photographer, technology entrepreneur, helicopter pilot, and Pacific Cup sailing veteran, Kerry Brown is a man of many interests. When it comes to his transportation on dry land, Brown is the owner of a 2014 Zero DS. Considering his many interests, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Brown customized it. For this he took inspiration from his love of underwater photography and went nuts making his DS look like something at home in the ocean.

If you’ve been keeping tabs, we’ve ridden the Zero FX quite a lot. First in 2013 when I rode one to the top of Pikes Peak, during the 91st running of the iconic event. Later that year I was fortunate enough to be drafted onto a team that raced another FX twice around the clock, making history as the first electric motorcycle to do so. In 2014, Zero’s VP of Global Marketing, and off-road racing legend, Scot Harden, invited E-i-C Kevin Duke and myself to his backyard track to get a taste of the FX in its natural (dirt) environment. Following that, Editor Roderick and I took another FX to Adams Motorsports Park to put it head-to-head with a Suzuki DRZ-400SM, for a gas vs. electric supermoto face-off – where it won! And, because I hadn’t had enough of the FX, in early 2015, I had the bright idea to take one to the short track at Del Mar to try my hand at flat track “racing” (in quotes because I had no idea what I was doing). So, with no less than five Zero FX stories in our archives, a natural next question might be: “Another Zero FX review?!”

I still remember how wide my eyes were the first time I twisted the e-throttle on Zero’s new-for-2014 SR. Any word associations I had prior to “electrics” and “slow” were well and truly shattered. With a claimed 106 lb-ft of torque – more than a Suzuki Hayabusa – available at an instant from its high-output motor and 660-amp motor controller, and no clutch or gears to finesse, there are few things that can beat it in a stoplight-to-stoplight dash.

Your regular Skidmarks Correspondent, Gabe Ets-Hokin, is on an extended leave pending official investigation into the true meaning of his last column. We have provided the following roundup of this week’s motorcycle news highlights in place of his regular writing.

It’s time once again for AIMExpo in Orlando, Fla. We’ve got the latest announcements right here on MO including on-the-scene video reporting by Tom Roderick and ace shooter Chris Blanchette from the Orange County Convention Center.

Maturity. For me, I look back at the point I became a mature human as the time in my life when my voice deepened, I was hungry all the time, and I was incredibly awkward talking to girls (some things never change). I’m guessing it was an awkward time for many of us, but the term “maturity” is also one I hear a lot when it comes to electric vehicles. As I noted in my long(ish)-term review of the Zero SR, my wife and I had contemplated an electric car for our daily transportation.

Silicon Valley is home to some of the brightest tech minds in the world, many of whom are working tirelessly to develop answers to questions most of us haven’t even thought of yet. Take Cloud computing, for instance. The invisible hard drive in the sky has transformed how we compute and communicate. You may not know it, but chances are if you spend any time on the internet, you already have some connection to the Cloud. But who’s making sure the Cloud is evolving and advancing like the rest of the devices we own? This is what folks like Curtis Schwebke think about all day long.

Things are moving steadily forward in the electric department, but for 2015, the Zero SR maintains its place atop the electron chain due to Zero’s customer support, parts availability, dealer network and relative affordability. Zero’s SR shattered our expectations in 2014 of just how powerful a production electric motorcycle (one able to be bought today) could really be, with a claimed 106 lb-ft of Hayabusa-style torque coursing through its 458-pound frame. The Santa Cruz, California-sourced sizzler uses a high-performance 660-amp motor controller and high-temp magnets to produce 25% more power and 56% more torque than the S model.