I had the offer of a ride on a Zero SR ZF13 on Monday. I wasn't sure about clambering aboard a binfull of batteries with a wheel at either end. I thought it would weigh at least 500 kgs. I thought it would run out of juice after a few miles, I thought it would be a bit underwhelming like most "save the planet" concepts. A little to green.
Well brothers, I am here to tell you that I may have glimpsed the future of motorcycling.
It looks like a motorcycle, when you sit on it you feel immediately at home (well almost, where have the clutch and gear levers gone?). The weight was around the same as a 900, about 190 kgs but of course you don't have to add fuel. It was suggested that I select "Eco" mode to start off with, I thought "Here we go, this is going to be so dull". But it wasn't. Not even in Eco mode. It pulled away with no effort, well it should do with 144 Nm of Torque from the off. I meandered through the housing estate where The Bromsgrove MCC club house is located and made my way down to the A38. It was weird, there was no noise other than the tyres and a muffled "wow wow wow wow" which turned out to be me being impressed and talking to myself. People on the pavement didn't glance around as I passed which I found uncomfortable and I think there needs to be something to warn of your approach. Speakers pumping out a noise of your choice (I'm thinking big block Chevy, or Concorde on re-heat or perhaps something left of field to please the Greens such as a sperm whale, a baby kitten or a cicada).
Having arrived at an empty stretch of the main road, I thumbed through the modes to "Sport" and gave the throttle a bit of a twist............................. Well I wasn't expecting the explosion of acceleration that followed, good thing I was holding on to the bars, really...... It piled on speed so quickly that I had to test the single ABS disc a bit harder than I'd anticipated as a traffic island loomed, but chassis, suspension and brakes are all a class act and I made it round without incident. To be honest I kept it in Sport mode after that and had a ball. When I got back to the club house after 10 minutes or so of fairly disgraceful behaviour I was grinning. The Zero was a really good motorcycle by any measurement - forget the power unit and saving the Earth, it was a terrific bit of kit. OK the price was astronomical, I think £12 - £14K but I could see why people would buy it if they lived in a city centre.
Range is claimed to be around 120 miles ridden normally i.e briskly and apparently if you were to ride full throttle (just over 100mph, down an autobahn of course) you would travel 70 miles on a charge. That's from Bromsgrove to Bristol. Full recharge time on a domestic plug is around 8 hours.
I would urge all of you, if you get the chance, to try one of these devices, it was the most impressive bike I've ridden this year.