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Zero Motorcycles

V

vman

New member
Joined
Apr 24, 2008
Location
San Mateo
Moto(s)
Your mom.
Hi guys,

Has anybody checked out Zero Motorcycles? Sounds like a pretty darn good concept to me. Plenty of torque for city hopping, 4 hours to re-charge. And no shifting gears :)
 
Very odd wheelchoice: 16" on a supermoto rather than 17".

Bad choice of battery chemistry: LiIon may allow a 4 kWh battery pack rather than the 3.1 kWh battery pack in the Brammo Enertia, but LiIon really is good for <500 charge cycles, and will be damaged if changed at >90 degrees farenheit.

LiFeP on the other hand, is good for 2k charge cycles and doesn't have the heat issue.
 
hybrid super bike anyone? imagine all that torque from the electric motor, i wouldn't be surprised if honda had something like this in the works.

of course its all just in my head.. lol what next toyota prius super bikes..:laughing
 
Rode one during their demo day.........it's decent. I couldnt justify spending up towards 10K on a bike I couldnt take on the highway unless I had the money burning a hole in my pocket. You have to remember that you can't pull on the throttle at all or the bike will lunge fwd, which took me a few accidental lunges fwd to learn. haha
 
Top speed of 55mph, and range of only 50 miles? I wait and check back in 10 years. At least the weight 270 Lbs is decent and it looks nice too.
 
When i worked for santa cruz bikes Neil brought one by to give to Rob. We all got to flog it. It was very rad.
Don't forget you can 'legally' ride one on all the sweet 'legal' bike trails around.
 
Great thing about electric bikes is that other riders can't hear you coming up behind them to bump wheels.
 
Neat concept, but nowhere near ready for prime time. Not even close. None of the zero emission motos are anywhere close to being market ready.
 
Archimedes said:
Neat concept, but nowhere near ready for prime time. Not even close. None of the zero emission motos are anywhere close to being market ready.
Click to expand...

Actually, they are close: For a lot of people, getting the range to a real 60-80 miles would be sufficient for a lot of stuff, and the top speed really only needs to go up to about 85-90 MPH.

LiFeP batteries are especially interesting, because unlike LiIon, they have the longevity and they are getting up there in capacity.
 
kiltwearinfool said:
Paint that red and you've got the Akira bike!

I hope I live long enough to see all Harleys run with electricity.
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405143160_054040ada8.jpg

dedicated fan.. i personally think he did a fantastic job replicating the akira moto

then they officially produced the bike from the film :laughing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAQ99gnHe34&feature=related
 
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Man! How come nobody ever searches for my stories on Google? Odds are if it was new in the last 5 years, I've ridden it:

http://www.motorcycledaily.com/04may09_zeromotorcycles.htm

Oh, and I saw this comment to the story:

"Thank you for covering this interesting bike. Might I make a few comments? First, it should have the rear brake control moved to the left hand grip, so that the rider could have greater control over the rear brake. I agree that its main strength, for now, is as a commuter, so they should add some storage or bags of some type. Until battery-charge density improves markedly—and acceleration along with it, they have a dandy commuter and fun city bike. It really is a one-speed scooter-type bike no matter how it is styled or marketed. Glen "

I think Glen has an interesting point: why not move the rear brake to the left handgrip?
 
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nweaver said:
and the top speed really only needs to go up to about 85-90 MPH.
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The Virago 535 I commute on only goes about that fast at the top, but I never use anything more then 75. They can keep that extra 10-15 MPH for something more important.
 
vman said:
Hi guys,

Has anybody checked out Zero Motorcycles? Sounds like a pretty darn good concept to me. Plenty of torque for city hopping, 4 hours to re-charge. And no shifting gears :)
Click to expand...

let me guess... you have a copy of this month's Playboy? LOL... Zero Motorcycles has a nice short article in there... I was wondering who was going to be the first to post up a question on Barf.
 
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