Last week, I finally said goodbye to one of the longest press loaners I’ve ever heard of. After a year, six months, and nearly 3,000 miles, my 2023 Zero DSR/X tester is finally going home back to California. As I reflect on my lengthy adventure, I think electric motorcycles like this Zero are still a great option, but only if you can live with some rather glaring issues common with most EV bikes right now. Here’s what was great and here’s what sucked during my time with the Zero.
My loan for the 2023 Zero DSR/X was originally for two months, but Zero graciously extended the loan through winter 2023 so I could continue having fun. Then, I got to hold onto it for longer. In Zero’s eyes, letting me hold onto the bike was better than having me ride it to a dealership where it would just sit idle until a truck picked it up.
In doing so, I’ve gotten to experience the electric motorcycle life deeper than any normal press loan would have allowed me to. I got to live with the Zero in a way most journalists would never get to witness for themselves. Now, I’ve written a lot about this motorcycle over the past year and a half and you can scroll through my previous coverage by clicking here first.
Through all of this time, I learned what electric motorcycles do best, but also why the companies selling electric motorcycles are having a tough time right now.
What Was Great
Back when I picked up the Zero in June 2023, I immediately entered a familiar, yet different realm. Yes, I’ve tested electric motorcycles before and I’ve tested electric motorcycles after. But, press events are well-controlled to make the best qualities of a vehicle shine bright. This was the first time I got to choose my own adventure.
The familiar part of the Zero was the motorcycle part. Electric bikes ride just like ICE motorcycles, but they’re devoid of loud noises and vibration. They also benefit from the instant snap of power electric motors are known for and in the case of the Zero, most of its 545-pound weight was down low, so it actually felt and handled way lighter than that number would suggest.
The Zero DSR/X is one of my favorite motorcycles in terms of acceleration, handling, and well, the whole package. It never got old twisting the throttle and popping a small wheelie by way of 100 HP and 166 lb-ft of torque. It never ceased being fun to carve corners leaned over enough to scrape my boots on the ground. Zero calls this an electric adventure bike, but it really feels more like a sportbike with a forgiving suspension, an upright riding stance, and tires good enough for dirt play. If I could sum up the Zero’s ride with a single word, it would be: Exhilarating.
The Zero did most things well. It had an adjustable windscreen that helped keep my helmet quiet, the heated bars kept my hands toasty even when I rode in the snow, and the cavernous integrated trunk was large enough for me to haul my swimming gear out to the beach with room to pick up some small groceries on the way home. I also liked the bike’s secret trunks up in the fairing which were perfect for hiding stuff on the bike for when I parked in a sketchy area.
The Zero’s base-level storage was good enough that one day, I was able to haul a motorcycle battery and tools in its trunk to help myself revive a different motorcycle.
The software was also top-notch. The Canyon and Sport modes did exactly as they said on the tin and tuned the motorcycle for the most aggressive rides possible. The Off-Road mode’s tuning let me kick the rear end out and have fun in the dirt while the Rain mode kept the shiny side up in slippery conditions. Eco mode also did a great job at reining in my throttle-happy hand, helping me get to the best range of 140 miles on one ride.
Speaking about that battery, the Zero forced me to take things slowly and enjoy the tranquility of a great ride. I rode on backroads rather than the highway and I was content at cruising at 65 mph rather than trying to set a speed record. If I did so, I usually was able to ride 120 miles on a charge and I’d get home with 10 to 20 miles to spare. Zero’s range estimates are accurate so long as you’re realistic about the limitations of the batteries.
Moving back to the software for a moment, I also loved how Zero’s software not only gives you a general idea of what’s wrong with your bike but also allows you to clear codes. No scanners or special tools are needed. I’ve said it before, but all vehicle diagnostic systems need to be this pro-end user.
Then there are the little bits of nice tech, like the fact that you can almost come to a stop on regeneration alone. The bright LED lights also seemingly got the attention of the vast majority of drivers. That’s right, you don’t need loud pipes to save your life. Just make yourself seen and ride defensively.
The DSR/X was such a good all-round motorcycle that it became my primary mode of transportation so long as I didn’t need to travel more than about 120 miles in a single trip. It was just that comfortable, fun, and easy to ride. I rode the Zero immediately after the roads were cleared after a snowstorm. I rode the Zero on days over 100 degrees. I rode the Zero through a severe thunderstorm. Heck, I even tried riding the Zero on a day that was below zero degrees.
On most occasions, the bike never ever let me down, even if I did something questionable or goofy with it. The speed was always there, the handling always inspired confidence, and I’m still sure the Zero helped me become a better rider. How much did I enjoy the Zero? I gave it a name, something I do only for vehicles I become attached to.
What Sucked
As much as I loved Olive — that’s what I named it — not everything was perfect. In fact, there are some limitations that may be dealbreakers.
When I picked up the Zero, the ZF17.3 kWh battery (15.2 kWh nominal) lost about a percent of charge with every mile. I basically watched the battery gradually fall in real-time. Again, that’s not a big deal in a press event where you know you’ll reach the end before you hit zero percent, but now I was in control of charging.
My charging situation isn’t an ideal one. The vast majority of EV owners can charge from their houses. However, I’m one of millions of Americans living in apartments and lots of us don’t have options for charging. Our complexes don’t have EV chargers and a lot of us have to park in an open lot or on a public street. That means we have to depend entirely on charging away from home.
In my case, the vast majority of the Zero’s charging came from the public charger at a nearby college. I charged the motorcycle roughly 27 times during my loan period. In all but a couple of instances, all of those charges happened either at the local college or the local hospital. On average, I had to keep the Zero hooked up to one of those Level 2 chargers for 2.5 to 3 hours. This meant riding out to the charger, hooking up, having my wife pick me up, and returning later. I did this almost every single time. The one exception was the charge in which I just took a nap next to the bike.
This is the unfortunate reality of charging if you live in an apartment outside of a major city. The fastest chargers in my town are Level 2 units that get up to 6 kW. The Zero can charge in as little as an hour if you buy the optional charger speed upgrade and if you can find a faster Level 2 charger. My bike didn’t have that option, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway since my local chargers were all slow.
One of my favorite rides is the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive, which starts in southeast Wisconsin and snakes its way to a marsh just past Road America. I’ve done it in countless cars, motorcycles, and trikes. But I couldn’t do it with the Zero. Why? I would have needed at least three charges to do the whole ride, which meant at least 6 hours of charging. This is a ride that normally takes almost all day as it is, so it was impossible to do unless I desired to get back home at or past midnight. That assumed all of the chargers were even working when I rolled up to them.
To be clear, this isn’t really so much a Zero problem as it is a problem with electric motorcycles in general, regardless of make. Americans love riding all day and love riding far, but the Zero, like most electric motorcycles, just can’t do it unless you go no faster than about 20 mph.
There’s another downside of this charging situation, and it’s that public chargers are often garbage. Gas cars have it easy. You just stick the pump nozzle into the hole and squeeze the handle. EVs have to make an electrical connection with the charger. If that charger is broken and you don’t notice, the charger will also break your charge port. That’s what happened at around the third-month mark with the Zero. I tried a random public charger, not noticing that one of its prongs was bent.
Well, that bent prong then bent a pin in the Zero’s charge port. I was able to bend the pin back, but the lasting damage meant that about half of the public chargers I tried to use no longer made electrical contact with that pin.
About six months into the loan I started renting a garage at my apartment. Finally, I thought, I’d be able to charge an EV at home. Unfortunately, the garages in my neighborhood are wired so that there are three garages per circuit. So, if you have your EV slow charging on Level 1 (which takes the Zero around 12 hours) and your neighbor fires up their man cave, the breaker will trip, locking the three of you out of your garages.
Again, I want to be clear that these challenges are not specific to the Zero. This is something I would have dealt with regardless if I had a Harley-Davidson LiveWire or a Th!nk City on hand. That raggedly public charger would have broken any EV’s charge port, the Zero was just the unfortunate recipient. But these are limitations you need to know about if you live in an apartment and decide to buy an EV.
With that said, the Zero itself did bring a few of its own limitations to the table. Last January, I found myself in a bizarre situation. The motorcycle’s high-voltage battery died in the freezing cold, which is bad for battery longevity. The 12V battery soon followed suit. First, I had to revive the 12V battery with a charger before the bike would even wake up. But even when I did wake the bike up, the high-voltage battery refused to charge.
I later found out that Zero motorcycles are designed to cease charging when the temperature drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. However, there’s a twist as the motorcycle will continue to operate until temperatures reach -4 degrees. So, it’s possible to ride your Zero somewhere in the winter but not be able to charge it once you reach your destination.
In short, most of the downsides involved with the Zero DSR/X, and just electric motorcycles in general, revolve around range and charging. If you ride an electric motorcycle gently, you can get decent range out of them. However, if you’re unlucky and cannot find a fast enough charger, or don’t buy the faster charging options, you will spend too much time charging.
Then there’s the price of it all. Batteries are not cheap, which means that any electric motorcycle with a decent range means paying a lot to get it. A 2025 Zero DSR/X starts at $22,995, and you have to pay $3,000 more for faster charging. You can get a very fun gas bike for less than $10,000, so EV brands have an uphill battle. Sadly, that also means that I cannot afford the electric motorcycle I love so much.
Again, in all fairness to the folks of Zero, this is an industry-wide issue. I mean, the Can-Am Pulse is $13,999 and in my experience, you’re going to get just 40 to 60 miles of range on that unless you legitimately never leave the city.
What Broke
I’m happy to report that, despite nearly 3,000 miles of hard riding, off-roading, and some outdoor storage, the motorcycle survived largely problem-free. As I noted earlier, the bike suffered from that bent charge port pin. I also managed a freak accident where I was off-roading and somehow got a fallen tree branch to pole vault into the side stand, which caused the stand’s spring to eject. I had that back on in a jiffy.
Sadly, in October 2024 I encountered a new issue that I could not figure out. I hooked up to my favorite public charger and nothing happened. The motorcycle wasn’t charging and I couldn’t even get the charging screen to come up. When I checked the battery system status, the motorcycle claimed that nothing was plugged in. Yet, this was the charger I used successfully for nearly a year and a half by that point.
I took the motorcycle back home and had to go on a series of press trips immediately after, so I didn’t have time to troubleshoot. When I finally did come back to the bike in November, I went for a short ride around town and then tried to charge again. Once again I got nothing. This time it was dire because the charge level had gotten to just 10 percent, which meant I could no longer make it to and back from a public charger. I got desperate enough that I plugged the bike into the Level 1 home charger. My garage neighbor hadn’t been home for a while, so there was little risk of tripping the breaker.
But even the home charger wasn’t doing anything. The charger had a green light and showed ready to charge, but the bike itself was defiant, stating it was still unplugged. It was as if nothing was plugged in. When the motorcycle died last winter it showed plugged in, even if it was too cold to charge.
I tried a little bit of everything. I cleaned the charge port, I cleaned the charger, I checked fuses, I tried different outlets, and I even tried resetting the motorcycle. Nothing I did resulted in the motorcycle detecting the charger. What went wrong? Well, it’s possible the charge port itself finally gave up. It’s also possible that the bike’s onboard charger is dead or the home charger somehow died. Some Zero fans told me I might have needed to reset the BMS. Either way, I couldn’t get juice into the bike and eventually, the HV found itself at zero percent.
Would Do It Again
Sadly, Zero picked up Olive on Friday, ending my troubleshooting path. Hopefully, they give me some good news. Maybe I was a goof or something.
One year, six months. That’s how long I got to enjoy this thing. I learned a lot from how much I now love electric motorcycles to knowing just how far electric motorcycles have to go before they can even have a shot at replacing their ICE brethren. Sadly, there’s a long way to go.
Electric motorcycles can be stupidly fast, remarkably good-handling, and superbly quiet. There’s just so much that these bikes do that’s so awesome. That’s why the Zero DSR/X was my daily whether it was blazing hot or snowing. But, at the same time, the coolest electric bikes cost a small fortune, still have limited range, and can be a nightmare to charge if you can’t charge at home. Unfortunately, I can see why electric bikes have a smaller appeal while electric cars continue to go mainstream.
Would I do it again? Oh yeah. I’m already asking Zero to pencil me in for a 2025 model this spring. If you can afford the price and the limitations don’t bother you, I’d say do it. Silently wheelie off into the sunset.
When I read the headline I thought the article would be about how Zero seemed to have lost track of things and that’s why you had the bike for 1.5 years, i.e. “here’s why they haven’t caught on” where “they” = Zero. 🙂
Hahaha I was just coming here to say exactly this
They are never going to get free of the “urban shuttle bike” moniker and that’s if you have your own driveway and power outlet. The technology isn’t there yet and the price is 3 or 4 times what it should be.
Thanks to both you and Zero for exposing the reality of the present. In not perpetuating a lie there may be some consumer trust at some point in the future.
I’ve said it here before, I’ll say it again:
There is currently no viable bracket for these things.
An electric car brings some objective plusses vs an ICE car: insane performance for the price, that costs orders of magnitude more money to get (just close to) on an ICE car, while keeping the practicality and every day driver-ness of an ICE car, or almost. There are clear disadvantages in some aspects, but those can be overcome by the advantages.
An electric motorcycle doesn’t bring anything at all vs an ICE motorcycle. It is beaten silly in practicality by a commuter ICE motorcycle, its performace is eye-wateringly caricatural vs 99% of the ICE motorcycles costing half the price, it weighs more, is slower, and can only fulfill the function of making an expensive statement. Statement of what exactly – I’m not sure.
And it’s killed at the bottom of the bracket on the city-commuter market by increasingly efficient electric scooters.
Anyone venturing into making one of these and planing on succeeding should pick one, and try to work from there: low weight and performance at the expense of laughable range, decent range and creature comforts at the expense of laughable performance – and it will still probably fail.
The one and only bracket I haven’t seen anyone cover, and whch might actually succeed, is the serious playbike market:
That’s about it.
So these really still are in their infancy, reading the couple issues with charging, not just the last one you couldn’t figure but the cold weather one, and the cost of the whole thing, it’s like some new startup, but Zero has been around longer than most in this space so that’s a little worrisome.
Where I think these really work is the Gogoro tech, urban quick swap battery stations, no wait, no charging at home, just pull up, swap the battery scoot away. Not so much for full on cycles, but for scooter sized it looks to be the right solution.
Energica (RIP) bikes are able to DC fast charge. This dramatically cuts down on the time you spend waiting at chargers, assuming you can find an EVgo/Electrify America/Tesla Magic Dock. Still sucks to be hanging around waiting for your bike to charge, though.
I had no previous knowledge of how much these were, the whole time I was reading this, I was like, damn, this seems pretty great, lots of range, no noise, very cool.
Then I read 25 thousand dollars and started laughing.
Maaaaaybe 8K and they might have a chance.
I could deal with all the EV-specific limitations you talk about here, but not with that price.
Most I’ve paid for a bike was about $12k, and that was a brand new 4-cylinder sportbike.
At $26k you’re in exotic bikes territory, that’s Panigale and MV Agusta money for something that should cost maybe a third of that.
It seems to me that the people who would benefit most from this EV (and most others) live in urban areas, and the people who have the hardest time charging this EV (and most others) live in urban areas.
On the flip-side, the folks who live in rural areas need long-range EVs and charging stations dispersed across huge areas with small populations (which are exactly the charging stations that will be last in line for maintenance, and make very little money for their operators even when they are working).
Charging infrastructure is the reason that I can’t see EVs outselling hybrids for at least another 20 years.
One benefit is that there are a decent number of EVs out there with 300ish miles of range, and if you charge at home overnight, you can leave your driveway every morning with effectively a full tank of gas.
I’m in traveling sales with a mostly rural territory, and I very, very rarely exceed 200 miles in a day, so the range limitation/public charger issue mainly comes in on road trips – which, then, are mostly going to be Point A to Point B things along major highway corridors, which are getting to be reasonably well covered by Tesla.
I’m not a huge EV evangelist, I wouldn’t want one as my sole vehicle, especially, but I can see how the numbers can be made to work for most people, and, frankly, I could definitely make one work myself as a daily primarily for business use, if I sprung for a home charger install. But, that’s with something like 3x the range of this motorcycle
I’m not a bike guy but can’t you buy a pretty nice gasser for 10 grand less…that’s a BIG price gap.
I think battery tech is going to have to show dramatic improvements before electric cycling will feel as free as ICE cycling and that’s important here where motorcycles are largely viewed as luxury toys versus primary transportation. If you can double (or more) the range, thereby also reducing the frequency of aggravating charging stops, all of this becomes tenable.