2017 Zero Motorcycles Zero SR Release Date, Price and Specs – Roadshow

The Zero SR, despite the racy-sounding “R” in the title, actually sits somewhere in between the two. The look is definitely sporty, but the riding position is upright, with a wide, comfortable seat and pegs that move your feet forward.

It splits the difference in other areas, too. It certainly accelerates like a sportbike, a middling 70-horsepower figure quickly overshadowed by 116 pound-feet of torque — more than all but the biggest of superbikes. Its curb weight of 414 pounds is also on par with big sportbikes, but the no-name, single-sided front brake disc points to more humble performance.

The Showa suspension is fully adjustable, but out of the box it’s definitely tuned for comfort, while the Pirelli Diablo Rosso tires are a solid choice for spirited riding.

On the road

Having ridden previous Zeros as well as a number of electric bikes but not the SR, I was really looking forward to my first time twisting the grip here. So I got geared up, coasted down my driveway, pointed the nose of the bike towards the open road, and was immediately, utterly heartbroken. I leaned forward with the expectation of a massive surge of torque, and very nearly found myself falling over the handlebars. The acceleration was more Prius than Porsche.

Thankfully, I quickly realized the bike had been left in Eco mode. After two taps on the Mode button, just under my right thumb, I gave it another twist. About two milliseconds later the front wheel was off the ground and I was laughing like an idiot.

There is, as it turns out, a pretty big difference between the Sport and Eco modes. Most vehicles give you the same amount of ultimate power regardless of mode, just changing how that power is delivered. Not so here. In Eco, the SR is completely gutless. I’ve ridden faster scooters. And so you’ll only want to use it when trying to eke out the maximum range — something you may find yourself having to do more often than you’d like.

Range

In its default configuration, with the 13 kilowatt-hour battery pack, the 2017 Zero SR offers a claimed 161 miles. I’ll just come out and say it: I couldn’t get anywhere near that. Riding the bike as I normally would ride either of my motorcycles, I could barely manage half.

That is, needless to say, disappointing. I’m used to driving cars like the Tesla Model X or Chevy Bolt EV, cars that almost always do even better than their rated range, even when you drive them like normal cars.

Zero does sell a bigger $2,695 battery pack, which fills up the handy cargo compartment in the tank while digging a pretty sizable hole in your bank account. That pushes the promised range up to 202 miles — meaning you can probably get a safe 100 miles riding normally.

Or, you can instead opt for the $1,995 charging pack, which puts a level-two charger up in the tank, letting you go from zero to charged in about two hours. By default, a full charge from empty on a 110 outlet will take about nine hours.

It really didn’t take long for me to realize that I wasn’t going to be able to come close to the Zero SR’s advertised range. About 40 miles into my first ride, in fact. When I noticed the bike was already down to 50 percent charge I told myself I’d better take it easy.

For my second ride I had about 50 miles to cover, with a short stretch of highway in both directions. I left the bike in Eco, forced myself to be gentle accelerating away from every light, drafted as much as I safely could on the highway, and just barely got home with five percent showing on the display. That’s well into proper range anxiety time.

But, when I wasn’t worrying about range, I really enjoyed the bike. The storage compartment in the tank is handy, big enough for a smartphone, wallet, gloves, and a bottle of water, and the suspension, seat and position are all comfortable enough for longer rides — rides of the sort that sadly would take you well past the range of this thing.