Today, Zero unveiled the SR/F, its newest range-topping electric motorcycle. The SR/F isn’t an iteration, marginal evolution, or slightly upgraded version of any bike Zero currently makes — it’s all new from the ground up and packed with technology you’d expect from a modern motorcycle, electric or not.
Starting at $18,995, the Zero SR/F is already in a lofty bracket for two-wheeled transport. At that price, the SR/F battery will take you about 161 miles per charge if you stick to city streets; alternatively, it’ll get you only around 99 highway miles, or a claimed 123 miles combined. Hold off purchasing until the fall, and you’ll be able to fit an optional “Power Tank,” earning you a 200-mile range per charge. Plug in the bike to a standard outlet and the charge from 0-100 percent will take 2.5 hours and 4.5 hours for the Premium and Standard trims, respectively. With the Rapid Charge system, you’ll see that drop to 1.5 hours and 1.8 hours, respectively.
Once you’re able to put all that stored energy to use, you’ll have 110 horsepower to play with, a 124 mph top speed to test out and 140 lb-ft of torque on hand (more than any top-flight superbike currently on sale). Then again, you’re going to need it to move all 498 lbs of mass the SR/F has to offer.
Despite the performance figures finally catching up to gas-powered bikes, the Zero SR/F’s selling point is the technology now wrapped in the all-new trellis frame. The Bosch Advanced Traction Control Management system and TFT display are making the rounds as the standard ECU of the motorcycle industry which isn’t revolutionary on its own, but Zero is going where gas-powered bikes can’t. Zero claims the SR/F is the “first fully smart” motorcycle on the market with its Cypher III operating system. By combining the Bosch TCM and ABS systems with the Cypher III OS, almost every aspect of the bike’s performance — handling, power output, top speed, stability control, traction management and ABS — can be customized.
And like the increasing amount of smart products in your life, you and your SR/F will always be connected via the cloud and through an app on your smartphone and the Cypher III OS. You’ll receive bike status alerts like charge levels, charge interruptions and bike tampering, plus have access to a Find My Bike function. In addition, ride data sharing (GPS, speed, lean angle, power, torque) and over the air software updates are all possible as well.
By no means is this a “Concord moment,” but the SR/F looks like a significant step forward for Zero and the way we look at and interact with electric motorcycles. The technology Zero put into the SR/F isn’t brand new to the industry, and neither is the idea of full-connectivity with a personal device. But Zero wants riders to interact with its motorcycles in the same way we all do the smart devices we already own. What other modern bikes, gas-powered or not, can claim the same?