The world’s largest manufacturer of electric motorcycles has just launched an all-electric adventure bike, the 2023 DSR/X.
Four years ago, California-based Zero Motorcycles essentially reinvented the street-legal electric motorcycle with the 2018 launch of its SR/F. A muscular naked with performance and handling to match its appearance, and no more compromises like running on skinny tyres to increase range, or downsizing on brakes to reduce weight. For the first time, the industry leader in e-bike production had produced a genuine rival to more conventional internal combustion-engined bikes, and specifically the Ducati Monster 1200 which was Zero’s declared paradigm among such competition.
Now Zero has aimed to repeat that achievement in the adventure sector, with the launch of its 2023-model DSR/X, its debut offering in the segment that’s currently responsible for around 40 percent of global sales for 250cc-plus premium motorcycles. To create it, the company didn’t just add long-travel suspension and a taller handlebar to its existing SR/F platform, instead it created its first true dual-purpose model since its founder Neal Saiki established the company.
TEST // ALAN CATHCART
Read the full feature in the next issue Vol 72 No 07 on sale Thursday 29 September 2022.
