‘It’s helped us discover so many new places’
● When it comes to group rides, Robert Setchell’s Zero DSR is handy to have around…
For many of us, the social side of biking is a huge part of the two-wheeled appeal and there’s not much that can beat going for a rideout with a few mates. Although, you might think that things may become a little difficult on a group ride if one of you has made the switch to electric, in reality electric and petrol actually work together in the pack, not just on the highways but on the byways as well, as Robert Setchell has discovered.
“I bought my Zero DSR outright from EEMC as an ex-demonstrator. It’s actually more of an adventure bike than trailie and surprisingly similar to my son’s Honda CB500X, both in terms of size and weight. It’s much quicker though, and a lot cheaper to run. The only modifications I’ve had to make is to lower the footpegs and add bar risers so that I can stand up comfortably, and fit more off-road biased tyres.
“You cannot beat an electric bike for trail riding, they’re just so easy to control on the dirt. I’m an intermediate rider who likes to take it slow and enjoy the scenery, and for that the DSR is almost perfect. You can’t stall it and riding is as simple as rolling on or off the throttle. The only thing that lets it down off road, besides the weight, is the limited steering lock which can make it quite a job to turn around on a narrow byway.
“I’ve been out on trails with friends who have been unable to start their petrol bikes for whatever reason and where slippery mud has made bump starting impossible. A nice steady footpeg-to-footpeg tow with the Zero solved the problem and has got more than a few other riders out of trouble.
“At least once a week I’ll lead a road ride with a group of friends who ride petrol motorcycles and we’ll cover up to 150 miles within a 40mile radius of where we live. I plan a route around places where I can get a free charge, such as council car parks and the like, and the result has been an encouragingly positive one for all of us – we’ve found so many interesting places locally that we wouldn’t normally go to and some great little cafés to stop at.
“I tend to use PodPoint for charging as they’re very common and almost every Tesco has one, but the real trick to running an electric bike is to keep topping up rather than run it low and then have to spend time waiting for a full charge.
“Sensible riding is the best way to get the most range out of the battery, if you stick to speed limits and stay off of motorways you’ll easily cover a mile for every 1% of battery and 120 miles is perfectly normal.
“To test the regen function for emergencies I ran my Zero until the battery was completely flat, then towed it with another bike to see if we could get it to charge the battery. It wasn’t very efficient, but we found that for every mile towed it put 1% (or a mile) back in – in other words, 5 miles tethered would allow you to travel 10 miles in total.”
‘It has towed a few petrol bike out of trouble off road’