World’s CHEAPEST ROAD LEGAL Electric Motorcycle!
So, this is the 2016 Zero FXS 6.5. This is the first road legal electric motorcycle that I have owned. [Music] And I’ve got to say, it’s very quickly becoming my favorite bike to ride for these very reasons. rocking a grand total of 44 brake horsepower and 95 Newton meters. stats which don’t get you too excited at first, but mixed with the fact that the bike only weighs 130 kilos, it’s more than enough power for the type of bike that we’ve got here. So, this is actually the 6.5 modular. Now, I will show you what the modular part means here. Modular. What does that mean? It means this. You can take the batteries out. It has two batteries, 3.25 kilow each. There’s something like 112 volts. Something ridiculous. The ZF 3.3. Zero motorcycles are not uncommon in the UK now, and they’re getting more and more affordable. Most modern models have a one piece battery now at 7.2 kW. I believe it has an absolutely ginormous motor in here, which is a ZF75.5 for anyone who cares. But in essence, yeah, two batteries. You can run it on one if you want to, which obviously makes it a bit lighter, but your power is decreased and so is your range, too. Talking of range, from a factory, it’s got a mixed range of between 49 and 62 mi. There is a city stat of 100 miles or so, but you aren’t realistically going to ride it that way all the time either. So, we’ll go for the lowest stats possible. From the factory, they also say that the estimated life at the battery at 80% you would have done 203,000 mi. This bike, I was told it had around 70% of its original state. And this has done 16,55 miles. So, I don’t know. So, I don’t know how they worked this out. Maybe this has had a hard life. Apparently, this bike was a commuter bike and it was used day in day out, left outside, hence the condition that it’s in. That suits me perfectly having old bikes. I don’t mind using them then. So, yep, there’s that. It’s got a 420 amp speed controller and it has got regen built in as well. So, I’m currently on eco mode. As you let off the throttle, you can feel almost engine brakingesque feels there. This is from the latest charge, but I have done 30 miles here. I’ve done 30 miles and I’ve used about 56% of my battery. So again, for me that is mixed. Some of it is full throttle flat out. Some of it is slow speed stuff. Given that the bike only has 70% health apparently for the battery, I that is more than enough for me for what I use the bike for. These are so easy to ride and so nice to ride that if I did live in the city and had a short commute to work every day, I would 100% choose an electric bike. They are It’s easy to slate electric bikes if you haven’t had a go on one. And if you like if you like the noise all the time of the exhaust. Nobody likes the noise of an exhaust all the time. I don’t believe that. So it’s lovely riding in peace and quiet and you can just focus on your own thing. So this has got shower suspension front and rear both with 8 in of travel there or thereabouts. And I must say it works incredibly well. Again, you can really feel the difference in the suspension components and the quality of the components on this bike from the cheaper electric bikes. This is not a cheap electric bike. It is a quality qualitymade electric motorcycle for sure. It’s running Jaan brakes, which I know are a Spanish company, but again, they work well. Front brake, rear brake. It also has a Bosch ABS system, which I have actually somewhat deleted and got rid of the fuse. It was very intrusive on on off-road settings, which is mainly where I ride this. So, I decided to take that off. That does leave the front brake somewhat spongy because I think it has to pump the fluid through the pump in the ABS system before it gets to the front. I don’t know, but it works and it’s actually quite nice because it it’s almost like its own ABS when it’s switched off. It gives a really soft start of the lever and then suddenly comes in afterwards. So, yeah, that works well, too. Convenience is a big thing on electric bikes and obviously the fear of having to plug them in as you go across your journey is definitely something to think about. For my type of riding, again, that is not a concern for me because the riding that I do on this electric bike never involves more than 30 miles at a time of riding. This is my This is my fun bike, my my little blasting bike. So, I never need to think about recharging it whilst I’m on the go. It has a 650 watt inbuilt charger, which uses a three pin kettle type lead. So, you can plug it into any UK socket as long as you have a three pin lead with you and charge it. So, you haven’t got to carry around a spare charger. Again, I like that. It It makes sense and it’s easy to use. It’s now starting to rain. charging socket is just down there on the right hand side where the front radiator would be. There’s three power modes on here. We’ve got eco, there’s a custom mode which you can actually tune on your phone, change all the power settings if you want to. It’s not that great, but it works. And then we’ve got a sport mode as well, right? I’m going stick it on custom. Now, this custom map I have tuned for maximum power, maximum speed, maximum RPM, no regen as well. This was running the belt which you saw broke twice and the regen as you got off the throttle especially on the dirt didn’t help because it would lock up the rear wheel putting pressure on the belt. Now we’ve gone to the chain and sprockets that isn’t actually an issue. So the rear the rear wheel is now allowed to skip because because it’s not going to try and rip the belt from the pulleys with the new chain sprocket kit and the new gearing. It’s definitely got more acceleration. This is my concern. is that the front sprocket, the chain’s going to be fine and the rear sprocket will be fine, but the front sprocket was £12 from Amazon. So, I’m not sure how long that will last with the torque that this is putting through. The other issue we ran into with the chain conversion kit is that I could only get a 530 front sprocket. The rear sprocket only came in 520. It was a semi-custommade item, which I tried to inquire about a 530 rear sprocket. No reply back. So, I got the 520 rear sprocket. I originally intended to get the front sprocket machine down. However, I didn’t. In the end, what I done, I ran a 530 front sprocket and I’ve got a 530 chain, but I’ve got a 520 rear sprocket. So, there is a little bit of movement left and right on the rear sprocket and the chain. I done a bit of research on this to try and find if it was okay to run or not, and I didn’t find any. Well, I found exactly what you would expect. Some people were saying it was fine, and some people were saying, “Don’t do it. It’ll fly off and kill you.” I decided to find out for myself. So far, I’ve done 31 miles, I think, with this configuration, and I can find no faults. The chain is holding up well. It is an interesting one. I don’t know how it will wear. Also, on that, the chain does not like to run in the middle of the sprocket. Yes, I have checked the rear wheel to make sure it is in alignment. And I have also tried to space out the rear sprocket out out that way to then go into the middle of the chain. Every time I do that, the chain still seems to run to one side. I’ve left that as it is and I’m going to run it and see what happens. The full kit was around I’ll say 20 something like that. Maybe that compared to a belt worthwhile investment in my opinion. And we don’t have to worry about any more slippage. Custom mode. It has got a bit more. It’s got a bit more lower end now. It was bloody fast on the top end. Definitely fast enough for for this style of bike in my opinion before I changed the sprockets. That is on the lower end. Now there’s definitely a bit more pace. I will try and show you that. Although I must say I’m not the biggest fan of wheelies and I have hurt myself quite a lot in recent times. So I’m not going to try and show off anymore. I’ll just give you an example of the power. It was almost impossible to get it up to wheelie before. This is very soft on the throttle which makes it incredibly smooth to ride. However, there is a bit of a lag between your your foot you getting on the throttle and the throttle actually happening. Only a small bit before that is now much more is much more instant, but there is still a bit of a lag on the throttle. So, yeah, no trouble wheel spinning there. There we go. So, it’s power wheeling then, but you’ve really got to, and this is on custom mode, so you’ve really got to try and pop it to get it up. There we go. So, there’s a little example of the power. Definitely enough to have fun on 44 horsepower. You try and get a Siron or Salaria to get that horsepower and you’re you’re spending serious money. If this is 44 horsepower, I would love to know what a Stark feels like. 80 horsepower must be nuts to be fair. I do like them. Maybe one day, but they’re certainly not £1,300. And that is what I paid for this. What an absolute bargain at £1,300. It’s certainly noisier with this chain conversion. That was one of the benefits of the belt. It was truly silent, especially with the rubbing strip I’ve had to add. But it’s not too bad. It lets people know I’m here. It is definitely a bit slower on the top end. That being said, I am on 33% battery, so maybe that wasn’t helping. Definitely enough low end to get you in trouble. You have to keep your foot over the rear brake, but it does just put the power down so well through the trees. Hey, [Music] [Music] this is ebike heaven. [Music] [Music] Sorry. [Music] Oh yeah, I just love it. Oh, hazards again. I’m not even polluting the environment other than when I have to plug it in and charge it. slow speed control again that you can get on this particular bike. I’m a big v big fan of the Zero motorcycles. Now, the quality is second to none. I know I keep saying it, but it really is impressive. You can hear the chain just woring away there. I had to add a bit of a buffer to the chain because it now rubs on the swinging arm. If not, bit of a plastic buffer strip there just to stop it eating away at the swinging arm. So, that’s what the clattering noise is. There’s not really a lot I can do about that. So, yeah, in summary, I love this bike. It’s definitely got me more involved with electric bikes to the point where I would 100% have a road a road bike, but electric bike, unless you are a tourer and you do hundreds of miles at a time, most of us realistically do what, 100 miles a day in a ride averely. I don’t know, something like that. So, 100 mile range would be more than enough for most people to have a ride and when you get home, you just plug it in again. It makes it really easy and makes it nice not going to a petrol station all the time as well. So, yeah, I would definitely have a road bike version and they’re getting really quite affordable. For less than 10 grand, you can get a nice nice bike. I certainly recommend at least having a test drive on one because it will change how you think about motorbikes.
THIS VIDEO MAY MAKE YOU FEEL SICK.
I introduce to you what I consider one of better deals I’ve had – a 2016 Zero FXS Street Legal Electric Motorcycle costing me…£1300/$1700.
Sleek Supermoto styling, peaceful practical performance.
