Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/502215
2015 ZERO DS RIDING IMPRESSION P80 front brake lines right over the dash looks like an explo- sion in a spaghetti shop and is my least favorite part of the bike. Actually, scratch that. My least favorite part of the bike happens on the way home. I've got 12 percent charge left and I've covered just on 90 miles. Not bad range but I've got about 10 miles left to my place and gas stations are flying past my visor at an ever increas- ing rate. They're ganging up and laughing at me. I've long ago switched to Eco mode and I'm nursing the Zero like my last beer, taking little tiny sips of the throttle, slowly watching the brew disappear. As expected the range starts climbing, and by the time I've got home I've got six percent juice left. For a while I was sweating bullets. It's not like the wife could come out with a tank of kilowatts from the electric station. They don't exist yet. It takes about nine hours to fully charge the DS up at work but there is the op- tional Quick Charge power adapter that Zero says will roughly halve your charge time, but I don't have that with me. You can expect about one mile per one percent of charge if you ride with anything that resembles vigor on a DS, however ride like a grandma and you could bump that to 130-140 miles per charge. And that's just no fun. But the Zero DS is fun. It's fun in a Nintendo kinda way; it almost feels toy-like – which it most certainly is not. The Zero is a premium product and you can shred your license just as easy on a DS as you can a CBR, so you've gotta take it serious- ly. The power is just about right but the delivery for dirt riding will take some fine- tuning, and a larger chassis for taller riders will do good things. Where this bike and I expect most electric bikes on the market – save for the bonkers Lightning LS-218 Superbike – is everyday commuting on short dis- tances. This is where the DS absolutely shines. My ride to work is only about nine miles, so a Zero makes perfect sense. Zipping be- tween traffic lights, running from Drops of Jupiter is the Zero's game. The Zero is a look at the future of motor- cycles because like it or not, electric bikes will eventually become cheaper, faster, more reliable and easier to maintain (in the case of a Zero, they already are on that point) than the grand old internal combustion engine. Get used to seeing Zeros, they're coming… CN S P E C I F I C A T I O N S POWERPACK: .....................Z-Force Li-Ion, brushless, sealed motor HORSEPOWER: ..................................54hp TORQUE: ....................................... 68 ft-lbs IGNITION: ............................................. Key TRANSMISSION: .................. Single speed FRAME TYPE: .......... Twin-spar aluminum FRONT SUSPENSION: ........ Showa 40mm inverted forks, preload, compression and rebound damping adjustable REAR SUSPENSION: .......................Showa monoshock, preload, compression and rebound damping adjustable FRONT WHEEL TRAVEL: ................... 7.0 in. REAR WHEEL TRAVEL: ...................7.03 in. FRONT BRAKE: ........ Single 320mm disc, twin-piston monobloc calipers, Bosch Gen 9 ABS REAR BRAKE: ...........Single 240mm disc, single-piston caliper, Bosch Gen 9 ABS FRONT TIRE: ......Pirelli MT-60 100/90-19in. REAR TIRE: .....Pirelli MT-60 130/80-17in. WHEELBASE: ................................. 52.6 in. RAKE: .................................................26.5° TRAIL: ...............................................4.6 in. SEAT HEIGHT: ............................... 33.2 in. WEIGHT: ........................................ 413 lbs. MAX CAPACITY: ............................9.4kWh Colour: Orange, White MSRP: ........................................... $15,345 See that little digital battery? That thing is a god when you're on a Zero.