4 weeks Zero SR/F – Nix? Nada? Niente?

A new quality of motorcycle riding, experienced on the Zero SR/F. Weightless, silent power and highly emotional dynamic experiences – on an electric motorcycle! Unimaginable? A field report.

Before you read, please note: this blog post was translated with the help of Deepl.
If you find any errors – please have fun first and then give me a hint if you don’t mind.

The ignition key is in, but when turning to the right, nothing happens. Pressing the start button – it will turn out to be the button for the cruise control – has no effect. The kill switch is “On”, the side stand is up – nevertheless silence remains unbroken.

If you want to pull the clutch lever when starting, as you are used to do on some motorcycles, you are reaching for nothing. And anyone who, as usual, turns the throttle in a sweeping manner to bring the motorcycle to life with an extra portion of propellant, will experience the Enterprise command “Skotty – Energy!” in its most violent form. Because the Zero SR/F has neither a fuel pump that buzzes when the ignition is activated nor an electric starter that is thrown into a gear wheel with a cracking sound. There is no idle that cannot be found and no gear noise when engaging the first gear.

The SR/F is quite different: it doesn’t start, it boots. It connects via Bluetooth to the driver’s SmartPhone. Without increased revs during cold start, its engine is ready for use after the first system check. A twist of the throttle – there aren’t many more possibilities – is enough to push the bike forward with force.

Zero means “nothing”, and in the SR/F there is almost nothing mechanical. The engine which, according to the data sheet, pulls up to 110 HP and 190 – yes, HUNDRED NINETY! – Nm of torque, contains only one single moving part. And: this part’s not connected to any gears or transmission shafts, but tears directly the belt, and this one at the pulley screwed to the rim without a shock absorber. As a result, the play in the drive train is exactly – zero.

No play
  in the drive train

When conventional gasoline-powered motorcycles generate a cloud of sound and smell that takes a complicated coordination of clutch hand, shift foot and throttle hand to leave, the Zero SR/F simply floats away silently like a flying carpet. Strangely enough, the numbers on the speedometer increase rapidly without the ups and downs of revs and without interruptions in traction, leaving the motorcyclist’s left extremities unoccupied. Then, closing the throttle leaves the lonely brake lever on the handlebar almost superfluous – the SR/F doesn’t converts its kinetic energy into brake disc heat but into watts, and sends them back to the battery to extend the range.

Curious processes take place under the somewhat roomy “fuel tank” which is now filled with the charging cable. Inexplicable, invisible currents of electrons and charged particles flow through finger-thick cables and produce a low hum that does not at all match the violent acceleration of this roadster, which after all weighs 220 kg. Luckily for the possibly unobservant environment of a starting SR/F, the well-demanded timing belt sometimes squeaks a little warningly.

Nada
Dezibel

For the rider, this squeaking, which can be eliminated with soapy water and talcum powder, disappears in the rush of the wind after just under 3.5 seconds – that’s how long or short it takes the SR/F to sprint from 0 to 100 km/h. Vibrations from angry pistons and violent detonations in the cylinders, the blazing heat from exhaust gases chasing through narrow pipes and enormous gyroscopic forces from crankshafts and transmission shafts – all the things that for so many people make up the emotions of riding a motorcycle are completely missing on the SR/F. Zero – Nothing. Nada. Niente.

And yet the first pull on the non-existent gas cable already chisels slipped facial features into the helmet. This ultra-spontaneous acceleration, the full power from the first moment of the desire for speed – no combustion engine can do this unless it is powered by nitroglycerin. The mere thought of a desire to overtake is enough to get back in line well ahead of the “opponent”.

This becomes a whole new quality of motorcycle emotion. The buyer of a SR/F can bend thoughts about PowerCommanders, retrofit exhaust, brighter burning spark plugs and better breathing air filters. Engine oil, which is supposed to produce a quarter of a horsepower more because of NASA additives, and diamond-like-carbon coated chain links aren’t of interest anymore. Maintenance intervals can still be found in the SR/F manual, but they are limited to checking the drive belt and the brake fluid.

So – no more black fingers after a more intensive occupation with the motorcycle, and no more oil stains on the domestic driveway or the garage floor.

Niente
  Maintenance

Playing with the levers on the handlebars and the footrests, learned in many years, is no longer necessary. On the other hand the Zero SR/F requires compliance with other requirements, such as charging: a wrong sequence when plugging into the charging pole or an ignition switched on or off at the wrong time can slightly disrupt the flow of kilowatts. And the fact that you should not charge in the rain because drops fall directly onto the charging plug can become a slight problem.

But when all other motorcycles turn into little specks of color in the rearview mirrors within seconds when accelerating out of the hairpin bends, then after a week the cumbersome handling of the charging cable, which never fits into the tank compartment the first time, is forgotten, and reaching the next charging station with as little residual energy as possible becomes the new fear stripe challenge of e-motorcycling.

Perfectly matching