VOL. 55 ISSUE 25 JUNE 26, 2018 P119
are in the right place—nice and
low—which means that coupled
with its well-chosen steering
geometry and the compliant
suspension, the Zeus remained
totally stable after hitting a bump
cranked over at speed.
The girder front end and
the cantilever rear are both
equipped with Race Tech G3
monoshocks, fully-adjustable for
high- and low-speed compres-
sion and rebound damping, and
offering 4.95 inches wheel travel
up front, and 5.25 inches at
the rear. The way these shocks
have been set up to give op-
timum damping and excellent
ride quality was impressive, and
I was especially impressed by
the way the Zeus felt so taut and
confidence inspiring in the way it
steered, thanks doubtless to the
new linear-rate ratio Jordan Cor-
nille told me he'd dialed in to the
front suspension link, together
with Curtiss R&D engineer Tony
Audette.
And the way those shocks
handled the heavy 575-pound
weight of the Zeus in prototype
form (expect upwards of 50
pounds to be removed in pro-
duction guise, says Jordan) was
also good. With 17-inch
Pirelli Diablo Rosso II
rubber mounted on spe-
cially made BST carbon
fiber wheels, ground
clearance wasn't a prob-
lem, perhaps surprisingly
with what seems to be
a bulky motorcycle low
down—although looking at the
Zeus side-on, you can see that
it rides quite high on the axles.
The electric motors mounted
either side of the swingarm pivot
are lifted to give more space for
battery storage under them, and
the consequent steeply dropped
swingarm is also a factor in
delivering that ground clearance,
in spite of the T-Block's pseudo-
Boxer format. When the E-Twin
powertrain is properly dialed in,
the significant weight transfer
delivered by the huge amount
of torque on tap will surely
make the significant droop to
the swingarm come into its own
in combating this. Meanwhile,
watching the upper link of the
girder fork bobbing up and down
before you is definitely addictive,
and strangely reassuring!
Proof that the front-end
setup was dialed in came when I
braked for a turn, and found the
Zeus to be relatively agile—nim-
ble, even, with the reduced gyro-
scopic effect of the BST carbon
It's intended that the cast-frame singles will retail for
$20,000 each, within the same time frame. That's
about double the $10,495 price of a 2018 Zero FXS
ZF7.2, with the Zeus and its sisters likewise priced
at around twice the current $16,495 of a Zero DSR
ZF14.4. But all will have twin motors, insists Cham-
bers, so they'll have up to twice the performance,
though presumably, also half the range, which is
likely to require extra real estate to be found on the
Zeus and its kin, for additional batteries.
Curtiss CEO Matt Chambers in front of a depiction of
Glenn H. Curtiss at Ormond Beach, FL, where he rode
his 40 bhp, 4410cc V8-powered motorcycle to a world
land speed record of 136.36 mph in January 1907.
That massive tire is the
same size as found on a
Ducati Diavel.
