That's not entirely true mate, a lot of the nice cafe's in the Cotswolds now have charging stations (some are still free, although I expect that to change as more and more EVs hit the road). Last week end I did a 150 mile round trip on my SR/F in the Costwolds and didn't have to ride a to a supermarket for a charge. Stopped at a nice little cafe which did corking breakfasts and there was a pod point charger in their car park (two points available). The Zap Map app is pretty handy as it will show all the little charge points along the way that you would never know were there - there's more than you think. However, I hear you on the sport mode. If you're in Sport mode, there's just no way you're getting anywhere close to 100 miles. I would say, if riding in a spirited fashion you're looking at 60-65 miles range. The 200 mile in Sport Mode is still a way off I fear :( But, if you get the chance to test ride a SR/F or SR/S I recommend you give it a go, they're great fun to ride.

@@SpottedCreeper at 60 miles I’m looking to refuel my GS!! On the Zap-Map point a quick look at 23 charge points around the Kent / Sussex coast, Folkestone, Hastings etc only 5 showed a positive and recent status. The rest were out of service (1 for 10 months), charging, or the status was so old I wouldn’t trust it. This doesn’t instill confidence to get into the electric bike scene. In a car with a 300 mile range the charging infrastructure is not such a big deal but a bike with a 60 mile real range it’s absolutely essential. It seems to me that electric bikes for commuting small distances into town make real sense but real world biking is still a way off. Maybe we need to wait for solid state batteries. Any research going on in that area for bikes? I see that small solid state batteries for smart watches and other wearables might be coming late this year.

@@kevmeister1702 Agreed, real world biking, as in touring and long distances are not really an option yet. My bike excels at urban/suburban commuting type runs (which you could argue is also 'real world biking' ;) which is what I bought it for really. Basically it's good for any thing where you don't need to run for more than about 60 miles in one direction. I charge at home (overnight slowly from a wall socket) and at work. So for me it's perfect (let's not mention the bloody price though!). That 150 mile trip I did in the Cotswolds was pretty rare to be honest, I used it more to illustrate it is sorta possible to go on a bit of a day trip out as long as you plan ahead with charge points. Zap map has been pretty accurate for me, so if it reports a dead charge station then I've tended to stay away from them. A shame so many are dead/faulty around your area, it's not typical I don't think, but I'm only one rider doing a couple of longish trips a year so I may just be getting lucky. Regarding battery.. *sigh.. i think the e-bike tech is just following the car industry to be honest and grabbing the best they can from that industry rather than heading off and doing much of their own battery research. The R&D cost for solid state to work in bikes is probably too much for the likes of Zero/Energica etc. We need the big hitters like Honda/Yamaha/BMW to start making more effort on that front as they'll have the budgets to perhaps experiment with different options. Currently there's no e-bike available to get close to your GS in terms of range for touring so I suspect you'll need to hang onto it for a few more years. Just as a bit of additional info on owning an e-bike. Dealer network in UK is still pretty limited, so if you need to send it for service/repairs it can mean a long ride. As an example, I live in MK and the closest dealer is in Peterborough. I can get there easy enough, but they need to charge it at the dealership otherwise I can't get home again :D - I suspect the service takes about 20min and the charging takes another 40min! Also, insurance. There aren't many insurers that have e-bikes in their databases yet so your options are much more limited on who to go with.

He was going straight home and didn't need to waste time charging all the way to the max

I'm not sure if it's actually a thing with lion batteries, but some people think fully charging can result in deterioration.

@@MalleeMate With Li-ion batteries, you optimally want to keep the battery between 30 and 70% (40-60% if long time storage). It probably doesn't hurt if you charge fully a few times, but, you you normally don't want to charge beyond 80% if you don't need the extra range that day, to preserve battery life over time. (Talking years)

@@MalleeMate lithium batteries don't get a memory when charging so that's the newest battery type But the whole high low is based around fast charging and on cars. You don't really want to wait an hour for the 90 to 100% on a car so yeah but this bike is slow charging and a small battery

@@nemistech5425 yes charging to 100% on these bikes is fine as it’s not actually 100% zero lock ur battery’s at 85% of what it can actually hold Spicy110 mentioned it

A little bit more. At motorway speeds it does about 1,5 % SoC / mile. In Eco mode. Most bikers avoid the motorway as much as possible anyway.

Oh do we avoid motorways? Not when you are trying to get to Scotland from the midlands or you have a meeting to get too - people all too often assume a motorcycle is just a recreational thing well it's not, it's got to be a viable form of transport.

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ftaKlLV9yMC2l4k.html

@@brucecutts8841 off course there are always exceptions to the majority..

@@annekecornee range test at 68 mph?? - now who's talking exceptions? Almost every serious motorcyclist uses motorways, how many 'bikers' do you know who would be happy to sit on a motorway for long at 68 mph? Until there is fast charging (5 mins) or bigger range then EV bikes are an expensive novelty for the weekend rider who likes to pootle down a few country lanes.

For charging cables and camera stuff. Plus to show the luggage possibilities to us viewers...

They forgot to mention they don't have a storage tank anymore on these bikes so need the boxes to carry cables. You either have 6kW extra charge tank, 3.6kWh extra battery or the storage in tank.

Yes, it's like that on their older bikes too, like my DS. There's a storage compartment where the fuel tank would usually be, you can sacrifice it for a bigger charger OR an extra battery.

No it has a drain for water and I let it charge in rain before (light not heavy) without issues. I believe zero doesn't recommend it though.

Makes quite a big difference. I have an SR/F and when I take the other half on the back I lose about 10-15 miles of range. I frequently ride out to a nature reserve near us. On my own I get there with about 70% battery remaining (30 mile ride), with my other half on the back we arrive with between 58-60% remaining. The route is mostly fast(ish) A roads, so we're sitting at 60-65mph most of the way. If the route was twister and slower there would be much less impact on battery - electric bikes don't like constant high speed runs, much more efficient in urban/suburban areas.

@@SpottedCreeper That’s really interesting. I now have an SR/S and have had a couple of solo rides along with a few with my wife on the back. I can’t say that I have noticed a huge difference. We do a combination of A and B roads taking in some hills and with the odd bit of spirited overtaking. Did 30 miles the other day and still had 80% battery. At that rate we’d get 120 miles and still have 20% left “in the tank”, and I’m more than happy with that! That was in my own custom mode which was basically Sport mode, but with increased regen. I truly love this bike. Could be a bit more comfortable in the saddle, but it is so beautifully stable and smooth as silk. It is so balanced and poised I don’t even notice my wife on the back. I wish these had been available 10 years ago! I honestly can’t see myself going back to a petrol bike again and will most likely sell my Thunderbird, especially after having to strip the carbs down and then do all the balancing and fettling. I also like the sound of the Zero, such as it it, and people do hear you coming, contrary to what some think. I also like the fact that you can go through villages and country lanes and not hack people off with a noisy exhaust. I’ve had a lot of bikes in my time and the SR/S is probably the one that brings a smile to my face the most!

It has a fully adjustable Showa suspension, it's pretty good.

The need for CCS depends on where you live and how you use it. In some countries there are only AC chargers along backcountry roads, in some countries DC is more common. At home and at destinations (work, bars) charging is mostly via AC. If you have the Premium model it is twice as fast as an Energica or HD Livewire (6 kW vs 3). With the chargetank it is 4 times faster (12 kW).

@@ghint But other bikes in the same price range have semi-active systems. Even having electric pre-load for when taking a passenger would help.

@@annekecornee My use case is out for a 300+ km blast with ICE bikes and maybe only getting one or two stops that might have a charger - I could probably convince the group to stop at one place with a fast DC for a 10 min coffee but may not get 20+ mins at a DC. I really, really want to get an E-bike but either we need another 10 kWh on the bike (300+ km at motorway speeds) or the ability to get 80% charge in 10 mins. It's getting close, maybe someone can get Tesla to sell them 4680 cells. Damon is looking very good (I have the HS reserved), but I'd prefer an adventure bike.

@@eubikedude And how long is the second stop? At least 1 hour for lunch? With my 6 kW AC charger, I will have it from 20% to full in that time. 2 stints of 150 km is very well do-able.

DC charging is only on energica/livewire motorcyles - ZERO has to low voltage (116V) for CCS charing (which is minimum 200V) I think they could do CHAdeMO bcoz its starts from 45-50V but for some point they dont do it :(

@@duniek86 They used to install Chademo chargers on older models, but they stopped it since many chargers would still fail to charge them (although they should as per standard). The Chademo Network is not that developed in Europe anyway. At least in France, all new DC chargers are Combo CCS.

@@corentinoger yeah, now i know - same thing - below 200V chademo ist much stable but depend of exact charger model - i hope some day they will redesign battery voltage etc and DC charging will be avaible