misterprofessionality
Road warrior
Thread starter
Where to begin...
I had the opportunity to test ride the latest model Zero sR/F in a group environment and initially went into this with the thought process that this would never be a purchase i would make. Mostly that predisposition is due to a strong ideological difference i have with Zeros policy on software updates. If youre not up to speed on what they tried to do with their 2022 bikes check it out some time.
The basic gist is that they intended to "lock out" physical features of the bike (extra power, extra battery range, even the heated grips) by making you purchase a separate software update to gsin access to them. I consider this scummy because the hardware for these features are already on the bike but theyre thinking they can make you pay extra to gsin access to them. Its like buying a bike and being told the top speed is 100mph, but if you pay an extra $1500 for a software update itll go 120mph. The bike could always do 120. They just artificially locked it out.
Anyway, for the above reasons i had resolved to never buy a Zero, because i dont want to support a company that would do that. I did, however, want to finally get onto a full sized Ebike and feel it for myself.
My first impression when i sat on the bike was, "man this thing is **stiff**. " the seat felt like a plank, with those hard edges that cut into your legs. The suspension was dialed way up too. The pegs were higher than i expected and the bars lower than i expected. All in all it was a very very aggressive posture. I could tell immediately that the bike wanted me to be in track mode.
When you activate the bike its just a matter of turning on the key and the kill switch. The kill switch works like a kind of safety. As long as that isnt on the throttle isnt live. Once the throttle is live and you touch it, you know it. 140 ft/lbs of torque right away. A lot of bikes will use the phrase "neck snapping torque." Theyre liars. This is the real thing. I asked for the full beans twice dueing the demo ride and both times the acceleration quite literally overwhelmed my neck muscles. I can say that i have never felt anything so assertive on the road. But ok. Everybody knows EV bikes have power.
The ride was.....eh. twist and go is super convenient but ultimately soulless. The engine brake (or brake regen as they call it) is strong but also 100%uniform. It doesnt transition across the rev range and thus behaves awkwardly when engine braking into a turn. Without a clutch to smooth out your inputs the turn entry and exits feel stilted. Its also a bit harder to load and unload your suspension smoothly when tipping into turns. This coupled with the badly distributed weight from the battery makes the bike kind of a dog when it comes to your side-to-side action. Its reallly not excited about being flipped over. Add all that to the 80% aggressive ergos and the very very stiff ride and what you get is.... a lot of work. Really. Thats what it felt like to me 30 minutes into this ride. Work. I can get loose and flow on my CB. I can dip and plunge and climb all over a middleweight naked like an XSR700 or a z650. This thing just wasnt having any of that. What it boils down to is theres a great deal less of an **interface** between man and machine.
Tech and wizbang features were cool and fun. The bike looked and felt extremely high quality. The high-pitched whirring sound of the E motor was cool and satisfying. People keep talking about these bikes like theyre silent. They definitely are not. I could hear the motor over the wind noise, through my earplugs and my music.
Overall this bike is a 6/10 but i am excited for the future of Ebikes. I still would not buy the Zero SR/F but i did come away with some very good news: the scummy software policies are actually being scrapped next year to due an extremely negative customer response. It shows that Zero is really listening to everybody, and i found that refreshing and came away from the experience with a different level of respect for the company.
I had the opportunity to test ride the latest model Zero sR/F in a group environment and initially went into this with the thought process that this would never be a purchase i would make. Mostly that predisposition is due to a strong ideological difference i have with Zeros policy on software updates. If youre not up to speed on what they tried to do with their 2022 bikes check it out some time.
The basic gist is that they intended to "lock out" physical features of the bike (extra power, extra battery range, even the heated grips) by making you purchase a separate software update to gsin access to them. I consider this scummy because the hardware for these features are already on the bike but theyre thinking they can make you pay extra to gsin access to them. Its like buying a bike and being told the top speed is 100mph, but if you pay an extra $1500 for a software update itll go 120mph. The bike could always do 120. They just artificially locked it out.
Anyway, for the above reasons i had resolved to never buy a Zero, because i dont want to support a company that would do that. I did, however, want to finally get onto a full sized Ebike and feel it for myself.
My first impression when i sat on the bike was, "man this thing is **stiff**. " the seat felt like a plank, with those hard edges that cut into your legs. The suspension was dialed way up too. The pegs were higher than i expected and the bars lower than i expected. All in all it was a very very aggressive posture. I could tell immediately that the bike wanted me to be in track mode.
When you activate the bike its just a matter of turning on the key and the kill switch. The kill switch works like a kind of safety. As long as that isnt on the throttle isnt live. Once the throttle is live and you touch it, you know it. 140 ft/lbs of torque right away. A lot of bikes will use the phrase "neck snapping torque." Theyre liars. This is the real thing. I asked for the full beans twice dueing the demo ride and both times the acceleration quite literally overwhelmed my neck muscles. I can say that i have never felt anything so assertive on the road. But ok. Everybody knows EV bikes have power.
The ride was.....eh. twist and go is super convenient but ultimately soulless. The engine brake (or brake regen as they call it) is strong but also 100%uniform. It doesnt transition across the rev range and thus behaves awkwardly when engine braking into a turn. Without a clutch to smooth out your inputs the turn entry and exits feel stilted. Its also a bit harder to load and unload your suspension smoothly when tipping into turns. This coupled with the badly distributed weight from the battery makes the bike kind of a dog when it comes to your side-to-side action. Its reallly not excited about being flipped over. Add all that to the 80% aggressive ergos and the very very stiff ride and what you get is.... a lot of work. Really. Thats what it felt like to me 30 minutes into this ride. Work. I can get loose and flow on my CB. I can dip and plunge and climb all over a middleweight naked like an XSR700 or a z650. This thing just wasnt having any of that. What it boils down to is theres a great deal less of an **interface** between man and machine.
Tech and wizbang features were cool and fun. The bike looked and felt extremely high quality. The high-pitched whirring sound of the E motor was cool and satisfying. People keep talking about these bikes like theyre silent. They definitely are not. I could hear the motor over the wind noise, through my earplugs and my music.
Overall this bike is a 6/10 but i am excited for the future of Ebikes. I still would not buy the Zero SR/F but i did come away with some very good news: the scummy software policies are actually being scrapped next year to due an extremely negative customer response. It shows that Zero is really listening to everybody, and i found that refreshing and came away from the experience with a different level of respect for the company.
hy:
