I was approached by the administrators at the school I teach at with a very interesting opportunity. The New York City International Motorcycle Show is next weekend and they need licensed instructors to teach people to ride an electric motorcycle indoors! http://www.motorcycleshows.com/content/discover-ride I am in! It pays $200/day and free access to all areas of the show. I'll be sure to take loads of pictures of the new BMW that I am going to steal and leave with.
I've ridden the Zero before, it is very interesting. I got into a bit of trouble at a traffic light though. I am used to blipping the throttle when I'm stopped, just something I do that serves no real purpose. On a clutchless electric bike, that is pretty dangerous since it just wants to go when the throttle is turned..lol But mother of god, can those bikes pull the front wheel to the sky on demand!
My mate has recently taken in the Zero franchise in Cardiff in South Wakes here in the UK. He got on board early as his thinking was as an early adopter of the technology it can only get better. Ironically he also has his own wheelie school near Cardiff (or at least he did last time we spoke).
I looked at and test road a Zero Ds ZF13.0 last November before buying my first blade and to be honest it was great - the only stumbling block was insurance. The quotes were ridiculous (nearly £8,800 fully comp was cheapest on the comparison site) and even going with the recommended brokers zero put forward it was daft amounts (£4,200 ish). Hopefully that will change as its a serious piece of kit
How the heck can they justify that. We're incentivised to 'go green' but then turned red with these out of the blue quotes. I'd be really browned off about that!
I’ve had conversations with some insurance people since and the main thing was there’s nobody to do repair work on them in the UK. I pointed out the wheels, forks, bodywork etc are all the same as any other bike but was told it was the drive unit and battery that are the issue. I was told “If you have a spill its got to go to Zero in Holland or all the way back to California” Now there’s a carbon footprint. As I say hopefully they’ll get there support infrastructure sorted and the insurance companies will stop running scared. It was one hell of a machine and but for the insurance I’d have had it.
Would have been a great ride, I am sure. I was looking at picking one up second hand earlier in the year, solely out of interest to experience 'the future'. Seemingly nothing about under three grand which is a lot of money for a bit of fun. I must point out here that three grand must be taken in context; for an experimental bike there is high risk of enjoyment, whereas for the wife's 34C implants there's guaranteed enjoyment. It's all a matter of priorities!!
