2016 ZERO FXS
TRACK TEST
P72
bikes will become fully accepted
until they are able to be charged
at the speed of filling a tank of
gas—but battery and charging
tech is moving at such a pace
it wouldn't surprise me if in five
to 10 years this is the case and
Zero goes from big to absolutely
huge. Remember, these bikes
are still very new. How long has
the internal combustion engine
been around?
I rode the Zero FXS around
Costa Mesa in California for a
couple of months and for bar-
hopping or hitting the beach,
this thing was awesome. Plenty
of immediate torque, an ex-
tremely light and nimble chassis,
in that instance of short runs
from home the FXS was very
hard to top. Translate that to the
highway, and it was a different
matter. I sucked through nearly
an entire charge going from
work to home on the 55/91 free-
ways while in ECO mode, and
as I was limited to 70 mph, that
made for some, err, interesting
moments. Kinda felt like rocking
up to a paintball match with a
butter knife. I could have taken
it out of ECO and gone Sport,
The ZF6.5 battery
pack will give you
about 40 minutes
of flat-out riding,
after that it's either
a new pack, a two-
hour charge on the
power charger, or
day over with an
eight-hour charge.
(Left) Hard-anodized
footpegs are a nice
touch on the FXS.
(Right) These J-Juan
brakes are not as
bad as you might
think for a company
hardly anyone's
heard of.
FOR BAR-HOPPING OR HITTING THE BEACH,
THIS THING WAS AWESOME.
