Popular Mechanics - USA (2019-09)

(Antfer) #1

A


CCORDING TO
social media, the
Rockingham traffic
situation is a disas-
ter. The Friday night
crowd coming to the
first-ever Epicenter
Festival, a three-day
concert in rural North Carolina,
has overwhelmed the local roads,
leading to backups miles long. I
scored cheap tickets for the next
two days, but I’m wondering if
I’ll end up spending my week-
end idling in gridlock with angry
Korn fans. So on Saturday morn-
ing, I head to the venue to do some
recon, armed with perhaps the
ideal vehicle for this mission: the
Zero FX, an electric dual-sport
bike. I figure if I get stuck in pave-
ment-bound traffic, I’ll just find
a path through the woods. That’s
the theory of the dual-sport—it’s a
dirt bike with a license plate.
The FX, like Zero’s street bikes,
is scary-quick off the line. Its stats
are unlike anything you see from
an internal combustion engine.
In terms of horsepower, the FX is
like a healthy 450-cc dual-sport.
But it makes more torque
(78 lb-ft) than a Ducati
959 Panigale, and all that
torque hits at 0 rpm. Get
too bold with the throttle,
and it’s like doing a clutch
drop from 10,000 rpm.
Which is something to
bear in mind when you ven-
ture off-pavement. You can
light up the rear tire on the
road, so whiskey throttle on
the dirt is going to be like
drinking from a fire hose.
Fortunately, the FX has
an Eco mode, which dulls the vio-
lent throttle response. On the
road, it helps you recapture more
energy anytime you slow down, so
as with electric cars, you get more
range in stop-and-go traffic (

P R I C E
$10,

HORSEPOWER
46 at 4,300 rpm

PEAK
TORQUE
78 lb-ft

WEIGHT
289 lb

R A N G E
(MILES)
91 city;
39 highway
at 70 mph

TOP SPEED
85 mph

MAKE⁄MODEL
ZERO FX ZF7.

The


Amazing


Silent


Speedy


Electric


Dirt Bike


Powersports


// B Y E Z R A D Y E R //

PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAYMOND MCCREA JONES

4


12 September 2019
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