Zero Motorcycles has a problem, they can’t keep up with demand. Looking at them in August of last year, they seemed promising. Right now, the $7500 standard model is selling well enough to require expansion to meet all of the orders coming in.
Neal Saiki, founder of the company, formerly worked for NASA and decided he wanted to create the world’s highest performance electric motorcycle. Well, that seems to be a rapidly moving target but whether or not he accomplishes that, he has built a pretty nifty off road bike that’s quiet and emits no pollution.
Batteries, unfortunately, have perception problems just like diesel engines. Even though diesels have come a very long way, are a lot quieter, emit far less pollution and perform really well, lots of people still think of the old, smelly, noisy lumps from years ago. Batteries are becoming smaller and last a lot longer but a lot of folks haven’t gotten the message. Companies like Zero can help change that and they seem like a company worth watching.
Link: Zero Motorcycles via Silicon Valley Business Journal (subscription required)
Related: Zero Electric Motorcycle
JC says
140 lbs, 23 HP, sounds like some freeride potential there!!!
Indoor MX?
No clutch, so it’s beginer friendly.
Kind of impressive, other than the price.
Pete says
Very cool. But I’m still waiting for more running time per charge and a little more power. I’m sure it won’t be long before you can get 200 mi. per 2 hour charge and 40 hp. As opposed to 40 mi./2 hour charge and 23 hp.
I’m excited to see these types of products hitting the market!
Those brakes look really tiny.
Nicolas says
Great technical achievement. Now, sorry if I’m retarded, but isn’t the noise part of the cognitive / sensitive experience of riding a bike ? Never tried an electric bike, but to me it would seems like doing sweet love with a silent partner … boring ? 😉
Phoebe says
I would love to take one of these for a spin. I’ll bet it would be a ton of fun with that low weight and that amount of horsepower. =)
Timothy Personal Trainer Austin TX says
Pretty cool…We’ll see how this all turns out soon.
Jake says
I have two of them. They are the bomb for poaching illegal MTB trails. They have pleanty of power and a decent chassis that seems, thus far, to put up with everything i have thrown at it. Throttle modulation could use some work but in gernal a bad, super quite urban freestyle machine
ROHORN says
Need noise?
http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/Loud-Pipes-Save-Lives-Cassette-Tape-p-17391.html
Once you ride a bike with NO noise or vibration, you’ll be amazed at what you can feel and hear at the limit. But if you don’t ride hard enough, then noise and vibration may be your only sensory input.
pghcyclist says
Noise always comes up with electric bikes. I for one hate the sound of a little 2-stroker screaming in the woods. Big brushed electric motors do make noise. Its a wonderful sound. They whine and whir with a precision not found in the gas world.
Congrats Zero! Thanks for pushing the envelope.
Charles says
Great idea, but definitely some conflict going on with the overall aesthetic language of the bike.
If his marketing strategy is to sell this as ‘future bike technology’ then the form should be representative of his intent.
I know a few industrial designs students who would probably love to take a stab at this project. Too bad its already in production.
jeremy says
This idea is pretty good, except for the MTB parts. The good thing about sticking with MX parts is that the economy of scale makes the MX parts WAY cheaper.
The $7500 pricetag won’t have much room to move, even after the development costs are covered – just ’cause high end MTB parts are THAT expensive.
A mid-range freeride bike will cost between $3500 and $5500 anyway – and that’s with a mass-manufactured frame. Custom bikes get WAY more expensive.
todd says
The thought is more to have it take off with much higher volume than a custom MB. Think of a NEXT bike from the local Walmart or Toys’R’Us. If China was pumping these things out for Zero (they might be already) the price would be somewhere closer to the $500 mark; definitely less than $1000 and closer to all the other electric scooters available. So, this one has knobby tires.
Complain all you want about China quality; it’s only as high as the customer is willing to pay for. People buy $100 mountian bikes because they don’t want to buy the $200 “higher quality” bike sitting right next to it. I’m not saying the Zero bike is assembled in China but it probably should be if they want to see a decent profit and increase production. They only need to sell enough to fit in a container to make outsourcing a viable, realistic alternative.
-todd
JC says
I don’t see any way a Chinese made motorcycle will compete with this.
The motor controller alone costs more than $500, same for the motor alone, and same for the batteries by themselves.
Cheap lead acid batteries and a cheap motor and cheap motor controller will make for a bloated underpowered but cheap electric bike, not an electric motorcycle.
FWIW, the MTB parts are a big factor in getting the weight down, personally a bit more weight would be tolerable, especially if the price and durability are improved.
Chris says
To be honest I’m getting one while I can. Things like this tend to be flash in the pan, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we had to wait another 10 years before a better design/model comes about.
Some neat information. Prior to 2008, zeromotorcycles (formerly electricross), had the whole bike you could buy in pieces from the web site. I hope they bring that back because it was darned cool. For example, you could buy the frame+swingarm+shock for $1,800.
The cost is reasonable until you get to the $3,000 battery pack. You can literally cut $3k off the price if you go with the lead acid pack, but then it weighs a bit more and the range is more limited. Some day the li-po batteries will be cheaper.
As others have mentioned, the power to weight ratio is important. I don’t think 20HP would be very fun on a 200+ lb bike. I would like to see a CVT designed into it though.
benorthup says
These bikes are going to represent a whole new direction in the sport, indoor tracks, stealthy access to secret spots , simple maintenance, I can hardly wait to get one..or two…or three