smccrory

Has anyone had a chance to ride one yet? http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/ - You can read stats on the bikes at the URL or even schedule a ride in Dayton or Brook Park (Cleveland), which I might do next spring, but I'd love to hear other's impressions especially if you've had direct contact with a Zero. See, I was at a Salesforce.com I.T. conference this week and Zero Motorcycles was there showing off their collaborative with the cloud company. I got a chance to see their 2014 Zero S and FX models up close and also talk with the CEO, product manager and operations manager. I was impressed not only with the bikes, but especially with their approach to business and building a next-gen customer experience. Keep in mind that I had just previously stopped by the Toyota (Prius) booth and the Tesla booth, and the similarity between strategies was striking, with Toyota probably being the pioneer 3 years ago. Here's what I came away with... One might expect an electric bike to have configurable controller parameters for different drive modes, and it sure does. You can go all the way down to define how much regenerative braking (aka engine back-pressure) you prefer without swapping cylinders, cams, mufflers, etc. There is no other technology that lets you do that to anywhere near this degree. You can also bias the torque curve to suit your wrist because it's a fly-by-wire mechanism - they told me about one customer with fused wrist bones from a previous injury - he was able to program the curve to increase sensitivity around the center where he does most of his riding, thus extending his ride times before he's too sore to continue. You can say he's a loyal owner now :-). You'd also expect to make all manner of telemetry data available via bluetooth, which the bike also does, and you can hit a "Help Me" button that automatically sends the controller logs to Zero for analysis and pre-staging of parts if necessary. They told me they're looking to add more telemetry in the future, and I gave them a bunch of ideas, like recording ride distances for logbook entries, being able to share select info to social media and even push telemetry into Virb/GoPro videos, and announcing alerts into a BT headset. The overall idea is that they know they are in business to sell an experience, especially since in our kind of climate, a motorcycle isn't a necessity, and certainly one costing $12-17k with a range less than 180 miles. They are also acutely aware that riders coming from other bikes, especially ones with big tanks, are worried about battery range and getting stuck somewhere (even if for several recharge hours), so I'd expect them to get more ride videos out that show riders managing battery charge in real-world situations. Do I think Ohio is the best place to own a Zero? No, nor is it the best for a motorcycle overall, but I do believe I'll own an electric bike someday, maybe in a couple years even. They won't replace the oily, greasy, noisy stink of an IC engine that's a core part of the experience for many of us, but they will offer a different, much higher-tech experience that I think cause many BMW riders to spend the extra coin.

I'm with Pokey - the 650 size/weight/power trifecta gets great reviews for corner carving, commuting and light hooliganism, SV style. The 1k seems to be going for wider use, like light touring, but I think still comes up well short of Suzuki's DL650 and DL1000 near the same price points.

Awesome! I'll bring good whiskey ;-)

I like it. I also like the Triumph Bonnie.

And people condemn "liberal elites" for twisty, abstract logic? To me, it's far more basic. The officer was entrusted to look after a living being and he failed to do so, resulting in his K9 partner's death. This is the same officer we're now supposed to re-entrust with a gun, a badge and enforcement of the law. I say fire the jerk and ban him from public service.

Yea, but he presided over one hell of a prolonged winter, that F'er.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Ee02WLxGk

Hopefully your real name isn't Gabriel. Or Dracula.

I agree. Next thing, people will sue for not "getting the girl" after buying a guitar, cologne or motorcycle. I've never had that problem of course, but I hear that some have... Besides, I respect the money Red Bull has put into the Air Races and various X Games sports. Those take a lot of skill, and at least you don't hear about their athletes beating up family members in elevators.

To be fair, Brian IS totally right. I just hadn't Googled long enough...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

Good lord, talk about 6 degrees of separation. I'm sorry CSC - that's unspeakable evil right there.

You disappoint me. I mean, I knew there was only a matter of time until some fidiot linked this with Hitler, and you came soooo close.

Thanks guys!

I'm trying to figure out if I should do this job myself or farm it out to a more professional restorer. I'm have a 1966 Honda CB77 gas tank that's rusty on the inside, has a few small dents, some surface rust and chipping paint on the outside. I've been soaking it in Metal Rescue, and it's helping, but it would benefit from professional handling to complete the rust removal and repaint. I don't believe there are any leaks or pinholes. Anyone know of a place in Central Ohio who does a good job that's reasonably priced? Thanks - Scott

Agreed, It's hard to beat U-Haul if you only need to transport a bike a few times a year, especially if you live only a few miles away like I do.

^^ Ditto on Hoblick - great guy and he did an outstanding job on my CRF230L's tires.

I watched that as well and am really intrigued by the idea of selling my current 1600 square-foot home for a 500-1000 one with a spacious heated garage for my toys and man-cave. Like you, I'm not ever going bigger than this house - just too much space that I wouldn't use, and my daughter will be going to college in a year anyway. Ditto here as well. I probably have 300 square feed of unused or rarely-used space. Think about it - if one is fortunate, take the equity of their house and buy a smaller place outright and already you've shed $700-1500 in payments. That's $7.2-18k/yr less you have to earn, which is less pressure to push, shove and struggle in the job market. It's not retirement, but it'll get one to retirement a lot faster.

I'm sincerely sorry to hear CSC. The measure of a wo/man can be found in how they treat animals. Props to you sir, for your level of care for your fuzzy family member.

Congrats Brian!

Congrats!

^^^ This ^^^ And I'm calling BS on being disabled while idling or on the highway unless the devices were programmed wrongly. It's more likely the borrower was pissed and made up the story to create faux outrage. Or the lender is engaged in unfair practices as defined by multiple regulations that will ultimately fine them back to the stone ages. You see, loan losses are passed on as higher interest rates and tighter credit markets for everyone else. It may seem undignified to put a device like this on a borrower's car, but the alternative is that they won't get a loan at all, which is why they'll willing to accept the stipulation. Nobody owes subprime borrowers a car.

8.0.1 update pulled due to reports of multiple issues like loss of cellular service.

Great article!