Chris Heimbuck, marketing director for Zero Motorcycles, on the company's Dual Sport (DS) model. All Zero motorcycles are 100 percent electric. Photo by Chip Scheuer.
At first glance, Chris Heimbuck doesn’t look like an adrenaline junkie. With short, combed hair, a collared shirt, pale brown eyes and a calm voice, the Palo Alto native seems more like a high school chemistry teacher— the fun one everyone wants to have.
But beneath that cool, relaxed exterior is a guy who likes to ride motorcycles that reach speeds of almost 100 miles per hour.
“That’s because when you go and ride, and you’re out having fun, you get all that adrenaline out of your system for a little while,” Heimbuck says. “Until it all builds up again.”
Heimbuck, marketing director for Zero Motorcycles, is standing in the company’s showroom, next to the all-black, fully suspended FX Stealth Fighter, which is plugged into the wall. Like all of Zero bikes, it runs purely on electricity.
This one happens to have the fastest acceleration, and looks like it’s out of the new Batman trilogy. The Zero FX goes from zero to 60 in under four seconds—as fast as a high-end sports car. “We fondly refer to it as our hooligan motorcycle,” he says. “It’s just super fun. It can be ridden on- or off-road, but it’s lighter and super quick.”
Built for Speed
Zero headquarters is tucked behind a Scarborough Lumber store in Scotts Valley, with its back to Highway 17. First founded in 2006 as Electricross, the motorcycle company has a way of staying on the cutting edge.
Zero made big strides in battery life in 2011, when it switched from tiny cylinder cells—which left pockets of unused space in between cells—to larger pouches, which fit together tighter. “We were able to get more range out of it or more power because we could fit more cells in there,” says Brian Simmons, an engineer for Zero. That means a longer battery life. “And we also upped the voltage of our system, which translates to more speed and more efficiency.”
Zero’s 2012 breakthroughs were in speed. For the 2013 models, the company’s innovations were in acceleration and in design. The new Zero S bike, which is designed for street riding, has it all: a battery life of up to 137 miles, top speeds of 95 miles per hour and acceleration comparable to a high-end sports car.
The stylized new bikes come with a sleeker design, too. It’s the opposite of the mentality found among those Toyota Prius owners who seem to want to buy the weirdest looking car possible in order to show off their reduced carbon footprint. Motorcycle aficionados have different priorities. Bikers want a cool-looking vehicle that isn’t going to get them made fun of when they’re soaring up Highway 9.
“Motorcycles tend to be a bit more on the conservative side in terms of looking different,” Simmons says. “For the most part, people want to buy a bike that looks cool, not to stand out as an electric, but to stand out as a motorcycle.”
Zero also launched a new smartphone application in the spring. The bikes have a Bluetooth-enabled device that transmits info about speed and miles traveled to a user’s iPhone or Android device. The app keeps track of how efficiently someone’s riding, how much money a driver is saving by not filling up with gas and how long it’s going to take to charge up. “It’s everything you want to know and more,” Heimbuck says.
Running Silent
An electric bike isn’t so different from a gas bike in terms of how it works. The bike’s battery is basically the fuel tank, its energy source. And instead of a carburetor or fuel injection, it has a motor controller, which tells the motor how much power to give the bike—without ever having to change gears.
“No shifting. No transmission,” Simmons says. “That’s one of the advantages of the electric motor.”
While gas bikes lurch forward and slow as bikers switch gears, Zero bikes instead pull on riders more steadily as the motorist climbs toward their top speed. “It feels very odd at first. But once you get used to it, it’s all you want,” Simmons says. “It’s much more natural.”
“It’s direct-drive,” says Heimbuck. “For people who enjoy riding—enthusiasts—it really reduces complexity when you’re riding, so you can focus on becoming an even better or competitive rider. In addition to that, it’s exhilarating. You have no sound. You don’t have to shift. It’s almost like a magic carpet ride.”
The bikes are quiet, too, practically silent. Last month, Simmons took his friend out for a ride to the beach and was able to have a conversation with her until wind noise became an issue at about 35 miles per hour.
People sometimes ask Heimbuck if a quieter bike reduces safety when drivers can’t hear the motorcycle revving in their blind spots. It’s always a biker’s responsibility to pay attention to traffic, Heimbuck says, but he believes less noise can actually help.
“When you have a quieter motorcycle, you can hear more about what’s going on around you and be more aware,” Heimbuck says.
The bikes range from $8,000 to $16,000 in price. Heimbuck says that’s a steal when you factor in money saved on energy. Additionally, the City of Santa Cruz has charging stations around town, where people can plug in and charge up for free.
Simmons, who’s been with the company a year and a half, gets to check out the bikes and put test miles on them. He hasn’t touched his gas bike in months and wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I don’t really miss the noise,” he says. “It’s fun knowing you’re not using any gas, and that you can go home and charge and charge at work and never have to stop at a gas station. It feels great.”
