My Electric Motorcycle Demo ride

http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/zero-ds/features.php
A local bike shop is a dealer for Zero motorcycles. I went looking for tires for my other bike and ended up looking at the Electric bikes in the showroom .The sales guy says do you want a test ride? Sure why not. I had my gear on already so signed the waiver and in 2 mins I was ready to go. Putting on earplugs sales rep says you wont need them (put them on any way) quick tutorial and I was off. No clutch just twist and go. If the kickstand is down the bike wont go,makes sense . Off we go. The bike feels light and nimble. Its set up like a supermoto so nice tires,suspension and brakes top class. Its quiet but not very quiet,Just a kind of whirring noise from the motor. Wind noise becomes more apparent now that theres no engine noise so glad I left the earplugs in. No gears but no shortage of speed either. Deceptively fast 0-50mph easy in short Brooklyn blocks. Very fast off the line from the traffic light ,surprising good at take offs I found the more times I stopped. So its time to bring it back and I'm thinking I really like this thing. Park up and the sales man takes back the key and I ask him how much is it? $16K ! Ok I was thinking maybe $8-9K but $16K makes it too expensive. I could buy more desirable machines for that money. No gas usage is going to justify it either as I dont need a bike as a daily commuter.
So to recap if you are in to bikes take a test ride like I did. Actually in fairness the company are giving out test rides which is rare in NYC so kudos to them in that aspect. No pressure to buy afterwards. Some purists will say its not a real bike without gas in the engine and thats fine but theres still a grin factor to be experienced on this thing. Take a test ride you wont regret it.

I like the new ones real well, but the price tags exceed the "ridiculous" range. The factories are trying to recoup development & tooling in far too short order; they need a much longer-term plan or they'll dry up on the vine.

There are less expensive ones out there.

The local Subaru dealer had a Triumph dealership added a while ago. They also took on the Electric bike sales. I stopped in for a peek one day. No one looked at me.

I did like the bike thou. Looked well layed out and good components. But the price is about double what it realistically needs to be.

ask how long the batteries last and how much they cost the replace, at today’s prices :shock:

Bernhard said:

ask how long the batteries last and how much they cost the replace, at today’s prices :shock:

Click to expand...

Do you know? I never asked them that.

I love riding motorcycles which make me fee l like the hairs are growing on my chest. Is there any place on those electric bikes where a clothes peg can be used to hold a piece of cardboard to the frame, so it can run against the wheel spokes and make a noise like a short stroke manx ?

When I was a kid we would use clothes pins and clip baseball cards to the fender stays to ruffle against the spokes on our bicycles (my brother had a banana seat stingray and I had a 2 speed Schwinn Racer.) As a Detroit Tigers fan, I usually used a card for NY Yankees player. I haven't thought about that in 45 years...

If ya want the best there is for spoke motor noises they sell a great one that got composite flapper that is magnified by the header muffler assembly. Electric craft are being required to make noise but most use a speaker system which of course takes away some battery range. The electric bike fad will fade with the first battery bank replacement times. When fuel cells come on line say bye bye to cave man fire engines as could power a concert or your home in a black out.

Fan of electric bikes here.
I believe that once battery technology gets refined, costs will come down.

I've got an old Yamaha DT-1 carcass that I keep thinking would be fun to stick an electric motor into.
another project on the list......... maybe someday.