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Zero Electric Sportbike

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killvino said:
It's the R&D costs and battery + motor costs. ..
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I call BS on that one, the motors and battery are not being R&D designed specifically for small production runs of motorcycles they are just electric motors powered by a battery that is suppose to revolutionize the entire motor vehicle industry. Where did they spend all the R&D money? on producing a better battery or electric motor :/ neither is motorcycle specific, lots of people trying to build a better battery and this one is not that battery.
 
Electric motorcycles at this time are missing one thing.A market.
 
When it gets to the 300km range i'll be looking for one as a commuter.
 
I admit it, I want one because it is a cool toy.
It performs the way it performs, but that can't come at the cost of a brand new car.

... and the motorcycle industry needs to get over the fact that small motorcycles are a single passenger vehicle, putting 2 seats on every tiny motorcycle produced is totally dumb. None of these electric manufacturers has stated speed and distance numbers with 2 up ever! It's a sick joke that increases our insurance costs and forces GVWR numbers on motorcycle design that costs us huge money for the rare time you could ever want to use it.
 
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The first mass-production EVs flopped. So we had hybrids for a couple of decades.
The original Tesla Roadster made them worth talking about again, and the current line of heavy, expensive, not-very-green Teslas have made it a household conversation.

I wonder if motorcycles, which barely has a market in NA anyway, will follow the same path?
 
Trials said:
Electrics are said to be the future, not a niche market, theory is in a very few decades we will all be riding one of theses toys.
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It's more like if we aren't riding these within a decade (actually needs to be less.) We're ****** as a society and planet. Either we'll see the effects within our life time, or the next generation will.
 
GreyGhost said:
A golf tdi has way more torque than a gti but half the hp. Nobody argues a tdi is fast. It's great for heavy loads at constant speed.
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This isn't the right comparison. Traditional motors need time to hit that amount of torque. Electric motors can literally hit the torque from a 0 to 1 fashion. The only reason why they aren't designed that way is due to traction; if they float then they could near instantaneously hit max speed.

This bike is theoretically faster from 0-100 than any petro based engine; the only reason why it wouldn't be is ****** engineering (wheels, frame, weight distribution, suspension) and software limitations (they don't allow the bike to run with a 0% buffer for traction for safety reasons as an example.)
 
油井緋色 said:
This isn't the right comparison. Traditional motors need time to hit that amount of torque. Electric motors can literally hit the torque from a 0 to 1 fashion. The only reason why they aren't designed that way is due to traction; if they float then they could near instantaneously hit max speed.

This bike is theoretically faster from 0-100 than any petro based engine; the only reason why it isn't is software
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Ever hear of a thing called a torque converter? It is very basically a fluid drive coupling :| <- +put a lever control on that and you have something that performs like a clutch.
 
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油井緋色 said:
It's more like if we aren't riding these within a decade (actually needs to be less.) We're ****** as a society and planet. Either we'll see the effects within our life time, or the next generation will.
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I agree. Considering that motorcycles are the main mode of transportation in the most populated countries in the world, this has a huge positive impact on air pollution, noise pollution, and thereby human physical and mental health.

Here in Canada, electric motorcycles have nowhere to open up shop. I was hoping the government would consider offering rebates like they do with electric cars, like other provinces do, but Ontario was only offering it to the largest, heaviest, least environmentally friendly electric vehicles.
 
Trials said:
Electrics are said to be the future, not a niche market, theory is in a very few decades we will all be riding one of theses toys.
WTF is with the passenger pegs that appear to be an important integral part of the motor casting, the bike can hardly carry one rider the distance and they are already designing it to haul two, the final drive is a rubber band and it has a coal shovel fender plate holder hanging off the rear swingarm as far as possible :/ dumb ideas proliferate on these bikes considering all the knowledge gained over the last years of motorcycle development.
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Until there's more development and competition to drive the price down it will remain at these price points, thus niche.

Playing off of what was previously said, whose going to pay twice the money for 'less' overall performance.
 
Is true motorcycles are a niche market here now,
and an even shorter niche season exists for snowmobiles, unless you get one fast enough to go on water :|
One of those in electric would work for me if it takes the same batteries ;)
 
N234 said:
I agree. Considering that motorcycles are the main mode of transportation in the most populated countries in the world, this has a huge positive impact on air pollution, noise pollution, and thereby human physical and mental health.

Here in Canada, electric motorcycles have nowhere to open up shop. I was hoping the government would consider offering rebates like they do with electric cars, like other provinces do, but Ontario was only offering it to the largest, heaviest, least environmentally friendly electric vehicles.
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I think the reason Canada is kinda against electric vehicles is because our economy heavily relies on fossil fuels.

...which is ass backwards because that's what's gonna send us into an ice age lol
 
Trials said:
Ever hear of a thing called a torque converter? It is very basically a fluid drive coupling :| <- +put a lever control on that and you have something that performs like a clutch.
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I don't know enough about mechanical engineering or electric engineering to comment on whether or not this would work.

What I do know is that you can technically get a bunch of readings from different instruments, feed it into software, and the software can modulate the power based on this. This makes more sense to me than using mechanical parts but I'm probably missing info due to ignorance.
 
油井緋色 said:
I don't know enough about mechanical engineering or electric engineering to comment on whether or not this would work.

What I do know is that you can technically get a bunch of readings from different instruments, feed it into software, and the software can modulate the power based on this. This makes more sense to me than using mechanical parts but I'm probably missing info due to ignorance.
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Your automatic transmission car has one. It is close to a hydraulic pump in principal, bone simple actually, it is what allows your auto transmission to spin up and you still not go anywhere fast.

or i suppose you could spin it up using regenerative brake forces if you were really slick and needed the extra energy :| nobody seems to be doing that so guessing regenerative braking must be a lost cause energy source.
 
Lost my old email in the move... oh well.

Man, this looks way better than the older generation. Zero is not what one would describe as a large manufacturer, I was at the dealer (when open) and visited the head office and factory. The company is physically much smaller than you would think. They do not build the battery cells on site, that is done by a supplier, but they do combine them and set them all up in house, which is really neat to see. Their motors are purpose built for only this application. I was (and am) still very impressed by their power density, which is way better than Tesla.

The electric motorcycle market is lacking in northern North America. Zero's philosophy was to fit into a commuter segment, where their products would be used instead of cars etc. In some spaces (namely most of Canada) this is not practical year round, but we are only a very small portion of worldwide motorcycle consumers. As for pricing, new bikes are expensive. Supersports seem to be starting at $15k now. That's the new normal as far as I know. You can still get non-current GSXRs for under $10k but it's not for me to evaluate if that is a fair apples-to-apples comparison, non-current vs new and all that.

I have ridden most of their previous models and had a S and SR as a demo for a while for riding between Oakville and Ancaster. I never managed to get 300 km per charge, but then again, I haven't been on many supersports that could get 300 to a tank the way I ride either. I did squeeze out 200 km once or twice, but realistically, I was riding to my destination and then plugging it in. Last time I did the math it only cost me about $1.50 to charge from empty-ish to full. As a personal note, if I was still living in the GTA I would have considered having a Zero for my spring, summer and fall commutes. The cost and time savings alone would have made it worth it for me, but it would not have been my only bike
 
Evoex said:
140lb ft of torque, because it's instant wouldn't this murder anything in the corners and from a start?
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Didn't Carrol Shelby say "HP sells units, torque wins races".
 
EV bikes are just about where motorcycles were in 1910

440px-Henderson_model_F_%281000_cc%29_1916.jpg


$325 dollars when that was a year's wages or more. In the UK where average wage was around £70 per annum.
 
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