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/809757
FEATURE E-TOURING IN CALIFORNIA P98 Later in my tour, I discovered that rush hour begins early in California, so even at 3:00 p.m. the freeways were crowded. But lane-splitting (legal in California, but nowhere else in the USA!) is a cinch on any electric bike, because you just twist, go or brake—no fiddling with the clutch lever and the gearshift to change gears back and forth, as I could hear Phil doing behind me on the Triumph. I can see why e- bikes are becoming must-have commuter conveyances in the Golden State. Before heading up the moun- tain pass leading to our over- night destination at Lake Tahoe, we needed to make a stop to top up the charge for what would be a steep climb that would drain the batteries quickly. Locating a government ChargePoint in the little town of Placerville, we stopped to hook up, but there was nowhere to go and nothing to do that didn't involve my hitching a ride with Phil on his combustion bike to find a coffee stop or suchlike. I decided to stick around to make some notes, and it was just as well I did, because on one of my frequent checks to see how the recharge was going, I found the charging station had packed up—and I had only 84% of charge! Hmm. The sun was go- ing down, and we needed to get going, so I selected Evo mode on the Zero and set off behind Phil now leading the way on the Triumph, to try to get extra range by slipstreaming him. We were now on U.S. 50, the legendary transcontinental highway first built in 1926 linking San Francis- co, California, with Ocean City, Maryland, and we had to crest Echo Summit, its highest point in California at 7382 feet, before dropping down to Lake Tahoe. By now it was dark, and the road became so steep that I couldn't use Evo mode all the time, because this reduced torque so much that the fully loaded bike occasionally just lost momentum. So, hoping that I would at least reach the summit before running out of charge, and could then coast down to Tahoe, I selected Sport but backed off the throttle, then crouched down behind the DSR's quite narrow screen to try to minimize wind resistance in slipstreaming Phil. Even so, the charge needle plummeted as we climbed ever higher, with marker signs every 1000 feet in eleva- tion to remind me how high we were going. At least the e-motor was unaffected by altitude, un- like a combustion engine! I was down to just 7% charge when Cathcart spent one night in Hollister, California, and checked out one of motorcycling's most historic spots.