A Current Affair —————-

Riding an Electric Motorcycle Doesn't Suck So Bad After All!

All photos: Alex Washburn | The Zero's been good for commuting and light errand duty, but more storage would be a plus.

Living with an electric motorcycle is like living with a smartphone: You plug in every chance you get.

I discovered this simple fact of life a few days after taking delivery of a Zero DS, the electric motorcycle that I’ve decided to make my primary form of transportation for six months. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I was reconsidering my experiment in electrification during a ride to my mom’s place.

It’s a trip of 65 miles. Totally a piece of cake for internal combustion. But that kind of distance, at freeway speeds, on an electric motorcycle teaches you the definition of range anxiety.

By the time I rolled into mom’s driveway, I was down to one blinking bar on the “fuel” gauge. I plugged in, spent a few hours doing my filial duty, then rode to a friend’s place across town. I immediately plugged in and shot the breeze for an hour, then hit the road for home.

I was halfway back to Oakland when I needed to top up again. Thankfully, I found a Chargepoint station nearby, which provided a great excuse for a late dinner. I got enough juice into the bike’s 11.4 kilowatt-hour pack to get home after chowing down on some perfectly mediocre wings.

It was a bit of hassle, frankly, and it underscored the need for planning ahead if you’re doing anything more than commuting around town. But it was the only time I experienced any hint of range anxiety since starting my experiment.

Still, living with an electric bike has been far easier than I expected.

Three weeks into this and the honeymoon is over. Life with the Zero is just part of the routine, along with suiting up like an armor-clad superhero, keeping tabs on weather and traffic, and plugging in at every possible opportunity. (The EV set calls this opportunistic charging, while detractors of the tech call it mooching electricity. So far, everyone’s been cool with me taking about 11 cents of electricity whenever I've plugged in somewhere.)

So far, the biggest challenge hasn’t been learning to live with an electric motorcycle. It’s been learning to live on two wheels. It's been equal parts invigorating and harrowing. Although I’ve had my motorcycle license for the better part of a decade, I never rode regularly. That made me an ideal candidate for a Zero.

The bike maker is well aware that its $15,000 DS is substantially more expensive than anything else with similar performance and capabilities. Simply put, it’s crazy costly. For that kind of coin you can take your pick of sexy Italian, burly German, or hyper-fast Japanese motorcycles.

That's not the market Zero is after, and if you’re looking at something like that, you’d probably never consider going electric anyway. Although Zero is all too happy to convert petrolheads, it’s more interested in getting new riders on the road. Specifically, people like me: tech-obsessed early adopters on the fence about getting a bike.

So after lining up time with the DS, I booked a basic rider class through the Motorcycle Industry Council to get me back up to speed. Then the fun began.

The first thing that, ahem, shocks you about an electric motorcycle is the silence. That’s a given with any electric vehicle, but it’s otherworldly on an electric two-wheeler. There's no vibration coming from the motor. No transmission noise. No exhaust roar. At 65 mph, it's just you, the wind, a slight engine whine and the thrum of tires on pavement. It's odd, but also oddly cathartic.

This is not without risk. The big drawback of a motorcycle is you’re essentially invisible. Motorists aren’t looking for you, and they don’t see you. On an electric motorcycle, you’re invisible and silent. Riding an electric in traffic demands constant vigilance.

And then there’s the performance. With 68 pound-feet of torque available at any speed, a quick twist of the throttle elicits instant acceleration. Shooting up on-ramps and making passes has never been easier. This thing is crazy fun, especially in the twisties. Just point and shoot, rolling on and off the throttle. The brakes and suspension leave a bit to be desired (more on that in a future installment), but the DS is surprisingly nimble despite its positively porcine weight of 415 pounds. (Blame the battery for most of that heft.)

The solitude may be the biggest appeal of life on two wheels.

So far, the biggest challenge hasn’t been learning to live with an electric motorcycle. It’s been learning to live on two wheels.

As for range, well, that’s entirely dependent upon your riding style. Cruise along at 70 mph for any length of time and you’re lucky to get 65 miles to a charge. Mix it up with some in-town cruising and the occasional run through the hills, though, and you’ll see 90 to 100 miles. Charging hasn’t been an issue because you can find 110-volt outlets anywhere and, if you’re in an area that’s even halfway receptive to EVs you’ve got the occasional public charging station.

None of this has been surprising. What’s been surprising is how going electric has changed my lifestyle.

I'm not drinking as much and I’m working out more. Anything that clouds decision-making is ill-advised when riding, and manhandling 400-odd pounds of motorcycle requires a fair amount of strength and agility. The DS has turned into a personal fitness regiment.

But the biggest surprise, and greatest joy, of zero-emissions motoring is the sensations. Everything’s heightened, especially my sense of smell. Whether it's an oil-burning beater, a breeze coming off San Francisco Bay or the surprising number of people toking up on the way to work, the olfactory onslaught has been eye-opening.

More than anything, though, it’s the intense mental focus of the ride that I’ve come to love. Motorcycling requires absolute concentration; let your mind wander and things can go sideways (literally and figuratively) in an instant. When I’m on the bike, I am focused entirely on that moment – there’s no music, no email, no screen demanding my attention. There's something life-affirming about that kind of purity of purpose, and in three weeks I've gone from asking myself "What have I gotten into?" to not being able to imagine a day without a ride.

The fact the bike is electric is just icing on the cake.

Round trip from home to work is a little over 40 miles, exactly the national average.