LivinLOS
Senior Member
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2011
- Bikes
- Gas Gas 250 (Trials), YZ250 (enduro), DRZ440 (Supermoto) CBR900 Streetfighter (scary !!)
"Holy s##t!" ? the amazing Zero SR electric motorcycle blows our minds
It's been about three years since we last tested one of Zero Motorcycles' electric bikes, and in that time, the company has been very busy. Compared to the 2011 Zero S, the 2014 Zero SR has between 200-400 percent more everything – riding this bike was an absolutely shocking progress report on the state of the art. The SR represents a liminal moment in motorcycling. We may look back in years to come and see this as the first time an electric motorcycle stood shoulder to shoulder with petrol powered bikes, and made them feel like yesterday's heroes.
When we last rode the Zero S about three years ago, we came away thinking "what a nice little commuter, shame about the battery range."
Things have changed, and in a big way. The graphs below tell the story. Zero motorcycles have been on a steady diet of protein shakes, creatine and anabolic steroids in the last few years, and boy has the gym work paid off.
Just to ram the point home, here's how the 2014 Zero SR compares to the 2011 S: it has a 3.2 times bigger battery, almost 4 times the range, just under 2.7 times the power, 2.4 times the torque and a 50 percent higher top speed. Oh, and the battery's service life is nearly four and a half times what it used to be – the SR will go nearly half a million kilometers (310,000 mi) before the battery drops to 80 percent of its normal range.
On paper, that's a gigantic leap forward. In the saddle, it's absolutely spectacular. I went around the block ONCE in sports mode, then came running in shouting "holy shit!" to anyone who would listen. Then I rang as many biker friends as I could get at short notice, and stuck all of them on the SR to make sure I wasn't dreaming.
I wasn't – this is the sort of bike that flips switches in people's brains. Every single dyed-in-the-wool, petrolhead biker that took this thing around the block said a different version of the same thing: wow, that's awesome, I want one.
The Numbers
The Zero puts out just under 70 peak horsepower (50 kW) and a monstrous 106 ft-lbs (144 Nm) of torque. That's about 10 percent more than the 1200cc EBR 1190RX, the current torque king of the superbike world. Its kerb weight is 452 lbs (205 kg). But the bike feels much, much smaller and lighter than that, and the power figures don't really tell the whole story either. A decent comparison in the petrol world might be something the size and handling feel of a nimble 250cc nakedbike, but with the power of a 600.
Riding this thing is a transcendent experience. The performance and acceleration feel absolutely excessive in the way all the best bikes do. There's no clutch or gears, it's pure simplicity to ride, provided you can keep the slim rear tire from spinning up in the wet.
Full throttle from a standstill causes the SR to leap forward in a much more urgent fashion than its predecessors, and it gathers speed and power furiously as it heads for its governed 100 mph (160 km/h) top speed. It dispatches traffic in the blink of an eye and hits 60 mph (~100 km/h) in a brutal 3.3 seconds – all with an addictive, turbine-like electric whine from the motor.
It's been about three years since we last tested one of Zero Motorcycles' electric bikes, and in that time, the company has been very busy. Compared to the 2011 Zero S, the 2014 Zero SR has between 200-400 percent more everything – riding this bike was an absolutely shocking progress report on the state of the art. The SR represents a liminal moment in motorcycling. We may look back in years to come and see this as the first time an electric motorcycle stood shoulder to shoulder with petrol powered bikes, and made them feel like yesterday's heroes.
When we last rode the Zero S about three years ago, we came away thinking "what a nice little commuter, shame about the battery range."
Things have changed, and in a big way. The graphs below tell the story. Zero motorcycles have been on a steady diet of protein shakes, creatine and anabolic steroids in the last few years, and boy has the gym work paid off.
Just to ram the point home, here's how the 2014 Zero SR compares to the 2011 S: it has a 3.2 times bigger battery, almost 4 times the range, just under 2.7 times the power, 2.4 times the torque and a 50 percent higher top speed. Oh, and the battery's service life is nearly four and a half times what it used to be – the SR will go nearly half a million kilometers (310,000 mi) before the battery drops to 80 percent of its normal range.
On paper, that's a gigantic leap forward. In the saddle, it's absolutely spectacular. I went around the block ONCE in sports mode, then came running in shouting "holy shit!" to anyone who would listen. Then I rang as many biker friends as I could get at short notice, and stuck all of them on the SR to make sure I wasn't dreaming.
I wasn't – this is the sort of bike that flips switches in people's brains. Every single dyed-in-the-wool, petrolhead biker that took this thing around the block said a different version of the same thing: wow, that's awesome, I want one.
The Numbers
The Zero puts out just under 70 peak horsepower (50 kW) and a monstrous 106 ft-lbs (144 Nm) of torque. That's about 10 percent more than the 1200cc EBR 1190RX, the current torque king of the superbike world. Its kerb weight is 452 lbs (205 kg). But the bike feels much, much smaller and lighter than that, and the power figures don't really tell the whole story either. A decent comparison in the petrol world might be something the size and handling feel of a nimble 250cc nakedbike, but with the power of a 600.
Riding this thing is a transcendent experience. The performance and acceleration feel absolutely excessive in the way all the best bikes do. There's no clutch or gears, it's pure simplicity to ride, provided you can keep the slim rear tire from spinning up in the wet.
Full throttle from a standstill causes the SR to leap forward in a much more urgent fashion than its predecessors, and it gathers speed and power furiously as it heads for its governed 100 mph (160 km/h) top speed. It dispatches traffic in the blink of an eye and hits 60 mph (~100 km/h) in a brutal 3.3 seconds – all with an addictive, turbine-like electric whine from the motor.
