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the Zeus steered, thanks no doubt to the new
linear-rate ratio Cornille told me he and R&D
engineer Tony Audette had dialled in to the front
suspension link. Right first time!
And it was great the way those shocks handled
the heav y 260kg weight of the Zeus in prototype
form (Cornille says upwards of 23kg will be
removed in production guise).
With 17-inch Pirelli Diablo Rosso II rubber
mounted on specially made BST carbon-fibre
disc wheels, ground clearance wasn’t a problem,
perhaps surprisingly with what seems to be a
bulky motorcycle low down – although, looking
at the Zeus side on, you can see that it rides quite
high on the axles. The electric motors mounted
either side of the swingarm pivot are lifted to give
more space for battery storage under them, and
the consequent steeply dropped swingarm is also
a factor in delivering that ground clearance, in
spite of the T-Block’s pseudo-Boxer format.When the E-Twin powertrain is properly
dialled in, the significant weight transfer
delivered by the huge amount of torque on tap
will surely make the significant droop to the
swingarm come into its own in combatting this.
Meanwhile, watching the upper link of the girder
fork bobbing up and down before you is definitely
addictive, and strangely reassuring.
Proof that the front-end set-up was dialled
in came when I braked for a turn and found the
Zeus to be relatively agile – nimble, even. The
reduced gyroscopic effect of the BST carbon
front wheel and downsized quartet of Beringer
brakes help speed up the steering, so it switches
direction from side to side pretty easily by E-bike
standards, albeit quite lazily due to the long
1480mm wheelbase and conservative steering
geometry, with 27.5º of rake to the machine-hewn
girder fork and 106mm of trail.
In spite of the dropped ’bars, this isn’t aDID YOU KNOW?
Glenn Curtiss
invented the twistgrip
throttle,aswellasa
W-3 three-cylinder
engine that was
essentiallyaV-twin
with a third cylinder in
the middle.- Enormous torque is fed
to the Pirelli rear tyre by a
sturdy chain - Curtiss uses lots of
aluminium, including a cast
monocoque frame that
encases the batteries - The new bike debuted
in May at California’s
prestigious Quail
Motorcycle Gathering,
where it won the award for
Most Innovative Motorcycle
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