Zero DSR/X Electric Adventure Motorcycle - Review and Xperience Day

[@MostlyBonkers]

Great review John, thank you. 👍

[@RoadcraftNottingham]

I was hoping for how the bike feels, comfort, riding position, footpeg placement etc but specs and the odd moan are also welcome 😉 I'll be taking one out soon so will no doubt find out for myself. Thanks for the upload. ☺

[@jtchivers]

I tend to do similar to this on any bike, really. The feel of a bike is going to be largely subjective anyway, I would say depending on your own metrics and how the bike is set up. It's certainly comfortable. Footpeg placement felt good to me. Rear brake better positioned than on the SR/S (I found that a little set in to the bike). Hope you enjoy the bike. If you do take some off-road rides, I think it's a belter, though the prospect of taking the best part of £30,000 of your own money off road might mean that more people buy this for the style rather than its intended application. Have to get in the odd moan. Nothing's ever perfect and I'll keep on hammering that DC charging door with Zero. 😁👍

[@dennisnl7125]

On my SR-F the usb sockets moved upwards when charge/powertank installed. Would expect the same here.

[@jtchivers]

Good to know, Dennis. Thanks for the info! 👍😊

[@gmy33]

So nice to see bikes are getting better !!! .. i hope zero service has been improoved too !! .. lets see this beautifull dsrx compaired to the new energica experia ! ..i think they are different . But also compareable

[@jtchivers]

I've ridden the EXPERIA too (before the DSR/X in fact - video will be forthcoming) and they're comparable if you remain strictly on road (charging capabilities aside), but as mentioned here, the DSR/X is an adventure bike and designed to do the kind of riding I did here. If I were an adventure rider, the DSR/X is currently the better choice in my view. It would have been the perfect bike for Boorman and McGregor.'s Long Way Up trip and they would have charged much faster for most of the journey too.

[@gmy33]

@@jtchivers is it the rider position? Standing on an experia little different .. experia is 10kg heavyer but has 6kwh more .. i know the experia is not completely made to be an adventure bike ..

[@jtchivers]

@@gmy33 I only rode the EXPERIA on the road, so I can't comment on its off-road capabilities, but Energica don't sell it for its off-road capabilities, whereas the DSR/X is explicitly designed to be ridden off road as well as on the road. The DSR/X has 190mm suspension travel. The EXPERIA has 150mm. They were both great on the road as far as I'm concerned.

[@NewZeroland]

Great video, John! You're totally right that Ewan and Charley would have loved one of these all those years ago. What were your thoughts on the bigger, beefier belt? Zero's promotional photos show someone taking it off a jump, and I can't imagine it would like too many of those, although who knows.. it might be impervious to snapping now! What kind of range were you getting? How did the weight and balance compare to the Experia?

[@jtchivers]

Thanks, Sam! You're right about the belt. It would be difficult to know exactly how it would fair on a truly challenging adventure. The two-and-a-half times stronger claim is interesting, but I wonder how it would fair over lots of jumps. I guess if you were doing a true round-the-world adventure, it would be prudent to do the chain conversion. I have to say though, they were quite happy for us to thrash the bikes around over those railway sleepers. I stupidly didn't get the start and end mileage, though the nature of the riding wouldn't have been a reliable translation to road mileage anyway, given how much of the day we spent riding off tarmac. But 32% of the battery for that whole day's riding tells me that range just isn't an issue if the off-road domain is your thing. In fact, if I were pretty much just commuting and doing this kind of off-road riding for fun, I wouldn't even bother with the Charge Tank. But that's not what I do. I realise I didn't comment on the weight and balance and I realise that's because there was nothing really to comment about them. They were honestly unremarkable and felt similar to the EXPERIA to me. The EXPERIA definitely feels a little more flickable than the Ribelle to me, but it's nothing that would make me want to move from the Ribelle to the EXPERIA personally.

[@NewZeroland]

@@jtchivers glad to hear it! That range sounds really impressive and lines up with their off-road claims. You're right though.. for the epic journeys you like to do, DC is a must. I have a good feeling about Zero's next model(s) having CCS. Surely.. they must.. >__>

[@jtchivers]

@@NewZeroland Yep. DC on the next generation of Zero bikes. Surely they've got the memo! 👍😁

[@markgr1nyer]

£28,267 for one plus charge tank and luggage....might as well get an energica experia with DC charge, longer range, with the optional keyless ride at £28,137, with a center stand. No doubt stick some 50/50 tyres on it the experia would be a dab hand at off roading like this as well. For instance the BMW R1200RT-P I had was a surprisingly capable at light off roading even on road tyres. The only benefit of zero over energica for me is belt over chain drive for touring, but then a scottoiler touring kit will take care of most of that. It would take an awful lot for me to go back to zero after the cypher store saga and the issues I had with my DSR (High to low voltage converter in front of the rear wheel would short after riding in rain causing the low voltage circuit to remain on even with the key out of the ignition). Only saving grace for me were that Streetbikes were brilliant about it

[@Zelidar]

I tried it as well but would not have guessed the difference you've noticed between the "similar" Energica model. An interesting observation, and nice review overall, thank you for that. Regarding charging speed, last week I have reached 52'000 km on my SR/F with the factory installed pair of 3 kW chargers. I've pondered going up to 12 but didn't want to sacrifice the frunk, and the price was also an issue. There are probably only a tiny few like me but I am not that interested in DC charging on motorcycles. There are three times less of them, for the kind of tours that I am doing (Switzerland) they are mostly located at unattractive places (near speedways), their kWh is priced higher, and they are considerably more fragile. From experience 6 kW corresponds ideally to the charging speed I need in relation to the roads I favor. If the SR/F would be more comfortable and I would be able to ride chunks longer than 60-90 minutes, then 6 kW would feel too low. On the other hand, anything lower than 6 kW AC would not work for me. I was really hoping the DSR/X would have 12 kW AC charging and still a frunk. This bike is quite a bit more comfortable and 600 km per day on Alpine roads would seem much more within reach there than on my SR/F.

[@andypitch]

Enjoyable, even for a non enthusiast. “no intentional off-road experience” 😅

[@jtchivers]

Yep. This one sprang to mind. Fortunately, Chris had done all the BMW off-road courses, ridden quite a lot of off-road stuff, and was invaluable! kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZqrdJ57pLBqjLc

[@jtchivers]

Just realised that was exactly 6 years ago to the day! 😄

[@AaronCocker]

@29:50 Cough cough Harley Davidson Cough cough :P

[@jtchivers]

Now you've said too much! 😉😂