DS ZF6.5 is the Tesla Model 3 of bikes
The electric Zero is reasonably priced and can go 120 kilometres with a 4-hour charge
For 10 years, California-based Zero Motorcycles Inc. has been carefully breaking into the broader bike market, offering powerful emission-free motorcycles.
Its newest bike, the Zero DS ZF6.5, is the two-wheel equivalent of the anticipated Tesla Model 3: cute, reasonably priced, and superb for dayto-day use. This is key, because even though consumers like to believe they’re altruistic, they’re in fact not. They say they’d buy an electric vehicle (if they could afford it), but studies show they’ll resist anything inconvenient. Who wants to worry about driving miles out of the way — and sitting and waiting — to recharge?
The DS 6.5 offers 120 city kilometres on one charge, usually more than enough for a day’s use. It’s easily topped off; you can plug it into your garage wall like a power saw (or even a lamp), and it will be fully charged from zero in four hours. A supercharger reduces that to 90 minutes.
For me — always on the move in a big city — the DS 6.5 is a perfect fit. It has enough power to blaze past cars on the highway but is quiet enough to allow a polite person to feel a glimmer of pride, rather than horror, when riding through a peaceful neighbourhood. And it is silent. Be alert when weaving through traffic.
The DS stands for “dual sport,” which means the bike was developed for a variety of terrain, including dirt, mud, rocks, and pockmarked asphalt. It handles these admirably, thanks to an adjustable Showa Corp. suspension and a stiff aluminum body with a low centre of gravity.
Like the Model 3, the DS 6.5 has a clutchless drive, which produces 19 per cent more torque than previous Zero DS models, plus an 11 per cent increase in power. This means it can accelerate incredibly quickly and smoothly — no gears — and hang on through turns with a startling alacrity. The fat, knobby Pirelli tires help. Top speed is just under 160 km/h.
As far as convenience, the bike comes with a fair amount of storage space; credit the newly compact 34-horsepower motor that helped shave 43 kilograms from the previous year’s model to get the bike down to a trim 144 kilograms.
At $10,995 (all prices $US), the DS 6.5 is among the most affordable electric motorcycles available.