VOL. 52 ISSUE 17 APRIL 28, 2015 P79
to a stop and have to get going
again the power can come in too
strong and instant wheel spin is
often the result. And because the
weight is higher than a traditional
bike you've got to be careful
about quick direction changes,
as well as tight switchback turns
because the turning circle is
about as wide as France.
Funnily enough, halfway up
this hill after a couple of minutes
of constant, high load riding I
think I've broken the Zero. The
bike loses a large chunk of its
power and the temp light flash-
es. Five minutes later we're good
and away I zip, but it shows you
can still overheat this thing. I
guess one of the nice things
about an electric bike is instead
of blowing a gasket, it just tells
you to stop and give it a tick
until it's not all hot and bothered
by the torture. Don't worry too
much if you think you'll get taken
out on the freeway due to the
power dropping because you
won't: sustained high speed use
may cause the battery to get hot,
but it will take a couple of notch-
es off the top speed to bring it
down to the correct temp, say
80mph to 65-70. When it's back
within operating range you'll get
full power again.
Another interesting experi-
ence happens when riding
downhill. The absence of noise
indicates an absence of another
thing riders have come to just
expect – engine braking. On
the road this phenomenon isn't
half as noticeable as the trail. No
engine braking means I'm on the
anchors all the way down the hill
(and it's a big hill), trying to bal-
ance strange weight distribution
with ABS and a small chassis.
It doesn't do what I define as
freewheel – there's a tiny bit of
braking coming from the electric
motor – but for the most part it's
just you, the brakes and the Pire-
llis doing their thing. The ABS
is disengage-able but I leave it
on for this little experiment and
it works quite well – the pulsa-
tions are slight and the system is
pretty unobtrusive, but if you're
serious you'll tell the Bosch ABS
to go on leave for a few hours.
The braking is regenerative,
but I don't see it making much
of a difference to charge rate.
The braking power itself is quite
impressive from the front J-Juan
caliper although the routing of the
