The idea behind having a long-term fleet is to learn more about a motorcycle than a launch or a two-week loan will reveal. It’s the everyday riding that will reveal nasty surprises a bike is hiding. Thankfully, poorly built motorcycles are few are far between these days, and our long-term updates generally revolve around our adventures or the accessories we fit. But our Zero SR long-termer took me on a journey of understanding that revealed how easily an electric bike fits into everyday modern life, and it’s all thanks to the smartphone.
What’s the first thing most of us do when we arrive at work or home? We plug our smartphone into a charger. No one complains that the battery life of a modern day smartphone is not overly impressive, many of us probably rarely see our phones at low power levels because keeping them charged has become as much a part of our daily routine as teeth brushing.
Having an electric bike in your life simply requires you to treat it like your phone, keeping it topped up by putting it on charge at every opportunity.
My daily commute to the office is a 150km round trip. Most conventional motorbikes will require a visit to the service station almost daily. Since taking delivery of the Zero I have enjoyed riding straight home to a waiting powerpoint instead of the daily detour to the local service station.
If your life consists of short-range commutes, always plugging in will ensure the Zero stays topped up and ready to tackle a 150+km journey.
I’m not predicting the overnight extinction of the petroleum industry, and we could argue all day about the pros and cons of electric bikes, but having lived with the Zero SR electric bike for the past six months I can visualise a time when internal combustion engine bikes are an oddity. People will point and stare at them when spotted out for a ride on a sunny Sunday.