![]() I found the seat too hard, and the brakes too stiff. I found the standard suspension settings too firm for the pothole-ridden streets but was able to adjust them. Like all the Zero machines I’ve ridden, this DS felt well-built, balanced and solid. So, a month of doing a lot of my daily commute on this bike cost me less than $5. I haven’t seen the electric bill for that period yet, but Zero sets the average cost to recharge at 73 cents for a full tank of power. I just plugged in overnight, once every five or six days, and rolled away full the next morning. And that charge lasted me another five days of commuting.Īlthough I had the hardware for it, I never visited a Chargepoint station. The next morning, it was restored to full charge. On the fourth night, I plugged the Zero into a standard 120-volt wall plug in my garage. Riding mostly in Sport mode, because it was more fun that way, I put about 40 miles on the bike over the first four days. I left the office the first day with 100 percent battery capacity and 34 miles on the odometer. ![]() Since my route to and from work involves some freeway riding, would I find myself charging up every time I commuted, or every other? Would I arrive at work, where there’s no place to plug in, without sufficient electricity to get home? The Charge Tank accessory, a $1,995 option that enables the Zero to plug into Chargepoint and other public stations, cuts charging time on the DS 6.5 to about 90 minutes for a full “tank” of juice - from about 41/2 hours without that accessory.īut even with the Charge Tank installed, that short city range had me a little concerned. The larger-battery DS has a claimed city range of 147 miles the DS 6.5 has a city range of about half that. The smaller DS 6.5 weighs 100 pounds less than the more powerful DS model. (The company’s FX model, which features an even smaller battery, can be had for $8,495.) While it’s not as quick as the big-battery version, it’s more affordable, with a suggested retail price of $10,995. Its smaller battery makes 34 horsepower and 78 pound-feet of torque. The DS 6.5, new for 2017, is the stripped-down city version. Quick off the throttle, the most powerful DS has been tested rushing from zero to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds. Strapped with Pirelli MT-60 dual purpose tires - on a 19-inch front wheel and 17-inch rear - it has a 33.2-inch seat height. ![]() ![]() It features fully adjustable Showa suspension, front and rear, and Bosch ABS brakes. Its brushless, air-cooled Z-Force electric motor produces the equivalent of as much as 60 horsepower and 81 pound-feet of torque. ![]() The DS, one of six models currently offered by Zero, is a dual sport bike. I reported on visiting the factory for one story and have tested several of its models, such as the lightweight FX.Īlthough I’ve been riding internal combustion two- and four-stroke motorcycles for decades, and truly love the sounds and smells they make as they carve the canyons and hurtle down the highways, I have also come to love the tremendous torque and sweet, smooth silence of the electric motorcycle.īut how would it behave as a daily driver? Where, how and how often would I charge it? The object of the experiment was to discover whether a lighter-weight, lower-cost, limited-mileage electric motorcycle would aid in my commute. I recently completed a monthlong loan of a 2017 Zero DS 6.5. Although there are several electric scooter companies fighting for market share, and Alta Motors and its Redshift MX are the recognized leader in electric motocross machines, most of the electric motorcycles on the street today are made by Zero. Zero does not release sales numbers - except to say that sales grew 50 percent from 2015 to 2016 and are expected to grow more than that this year.īut the Scotts Valley, Calif., company controls most of the U.S. ![]()
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