America’s Most Underrated Motorcycle Might Surprise You
When you think of American motorcycle brands, you think of all-metal cruisers and full-dress tourers that have heft as a feature. You don’t think of light motorcycles, despite there being manufacturers like Buell around. Brands like Janus have light motorcycles as well, but they are extremely niche products. Harley-Davidson, to its credit, has taken steps to shed weight with the modern chassis on the new Sportster range, but they still aren’t what one would call truly lightweight motorcycles, even for their class of product. That’s where the most underrated American motorcycle comes in.
Sometimes An Alternate Solution Is The Answer
There are some very interesting American brands that have turned to alternate fuels to achieve their goals. Namely, electricity. The number of brands is surprising: you can count among them Livewire, Lightning, Ryvid, Can-Am, and Zero. The kind of motorcycles they make are just as varied, with cruisers, nakeds, dirt bikes, supermotos, and even an adventure bike thrown in. The oldest among them is Zero, and it was also the first to get its commercial production going.
Starting At Zero
American motorcycles are supposed to have massive tank ranges, because the riders fancy crossing state lines – but how often do they actually do that? Zero has been selling electric motorcycles for two decades now. It understands what the market wants, needs, and has navigated through everything in between. It understands that there is infinitely more value in a motorcycle that can be ridden (and give you pleasure) every day. And we thus find America’s most underrated motorcycle in the most unlikely of places – the electric vehicle segment.
The Zero FXE Is A Surprisingly Good Underrated Motorcycle
Zero’s products are understandably heavy. That is one of the penalties of having an electric powertrain. But what happens when the best electric motorcycle manufacturer decides to focus solely on weight reduction? The result is something like the FXE, a supermotard designed to be almost exactly the same as its gas-powered counterparts: light, fun, and with a hooligan element to it. The ‘light’ is an understatement here: the FXE weighs considerably less than its gas-powered counterparts, offers more power, and the peak torque is available across the rev range. If you’re looking at a fun city runabout, the FXE is definitely America’s most underrated motorcycle, and a ride will surprise anyone.
The Price Of Admission Is Slightly High
The FXE retails for $12,495. That is a genuinely high price for the performance it offers, and as with nearly all EVs, if you want a fast charger, you’re going to have to get one separately. The price is mitigated somewhat when you look at the spec sheet and see that the components are all high-quality items from reputed component suppliers, but the sticker shock remains.
An Electric Motor Means Instant Fun
Most of us equate supermotos with fun, and for maximum fun, you need maximum torque. That is exactly what an electric motor provides right through its rev range. The FXE has Zero’s Z-Force 75-5, a passively air-cooled, radial flux, interior permanent magnet, brushless motor mated with a 550-amp, three-phase brushless controller.
It generates 46 horsepower at 4,300 RPM and peak torque of 78 pound-feet right through the rev range. A look at the FXE’s performance shows that Zero claims that it can max out at 85 miles an hour, but a sustained top speed is 75 miles an hour. This motor is also equipped with regenerative braking as standard. A carbon belt sends the drive to the wheel, but one can also opt for a chain and sprocket conversion kit.
The battery pack is a Z-Force lithium-ion integrated battery pack with a max capacity of 7.2 kilowatt-hours. The integrated charger is a 650-watt one, and it takes 9.7 hours to go from zero to 100% using a wall charger. This time is cut down to 4.1 hours if you have the accessory charger, and with the max accessory chargers, that time comes down to 1.8 hours. The maximum charging rate can take it to 95 percent in a minimum of 1.3 hours.
Premium Chassis Components Ensure Great Handling
Zero uses aircraft-grade aluminum for the FXE’s chassis as part of its drive to keep weight low. It has had pretty much the same layout over the last decade with refinements. Showa provides the suspension; it has 41 mm inverted cartridge forks, and there is a Showa rear mono-shock with a piggyback reservoir. There is adjustability for preload, compression, and rebound damping at both ends. The travel available is seven inches at the front and almost nine inches at the rear.
The brakes are similarly high quality, with J.Juan supplying the components. There is a single 320 mm disc gripped by a two-piston floating caliper, and at the rear, there is a 240 mm disc with a single-piston caliper. There are 17-inch cast wheels at both ends shod with Pirelli Diablo Rosso II tires, which are exceedingly grippy. There is no doubt that with tires that were less performance-focused, Zero could have upped the range of the FXE. We’re glad that it hasn’t, because the sticky tires on such a light bike only prove that lightweight motorcycles are more fun.
This Is One Of The Lightest US-Made Bikes
This is a small, narrow motorcycle as a supermoto should be, but it is very nimble because of the 56-inch wheelbase. The seat height is reasonable at 32.9 inches, but the headline figure is the 309-pound curb weight. This is significantly lighter than any of the 400 cc supermotos, and coupled with the lack of gyroscopic effect from the electric motor compared to a gas engine, it makes it one of the new lightweight motorcycles that redefine agility.
Old-School Set Of Features Helps Keep Price And Weight In Check
The FXE has an old-school set of features, but it is modern enough for its purpose, which is why we like it so much. It has a five-inch TFT dash that can sync with a smartphone to turn it into a secondary dash. It also offers detailed ride stats. Zero used to have a basic version of navigation before, but that feature has since been deleted.
The electronics consist of ride modes. The eco mode maximizes the range of the motorcycle, whereas the power mode gives you the full performance. There is also a custom ride mode where you can tweak the parameters to your liking. The Bosch ABS is switchable at the rear so that you can back into corners like a supermotard. There is no traction control or wheelie control.
And this brings us to its negative points. It does not have a very good range. The maximum you can eke out of it is 100 miles in the city, and if you ride it as if you stole it, you can expect just 59 miles out of it. An average of 66 miles is what Zero claims. The FXE is also not capable of taking the additional battery pack that Zero calls the Power Tank that helps extend the range.
The Competition Isn’t Perfect, Either
Let’s be clear: not only is there no American bike like the FXE, but there is also no electric bike like the FXE. If you want an American electric bike that can do city duty, the nearest you can come to this is the LiveWire S2 Del Mar, but that is a larger, heavier motorcycle, although it does give you much more power and range, and has the ability to charge with Level 2 fast charging. This puts it firmly in the conversation with the top American bikes for daily riding as well as weekend thrills,
If you look at the gas-powered options, there are two distinct ways of looking at it. One is the ones that compete on performance: there is the Kawasaki KLX300SM, the Suzuki DR-Z400SM, and the KTM 390 SMC R, which is a big problem for the Suzuki. The Kawasaki is an older model that comes pretty close to the FXE’s curb weight but makes only 23 horsepower, which means it will not do well on the highway. That is a complaint that you will feel with the Suzuki as well, with its five-speed gearbox. The KTM offers some incredibly modern features like a six-speed gearbox, a six-axis IMU, and TFT display navigation, but it is a little heavier than the others.
If you look at the Zero’s price bracket, you are looking at larger supermotos like the Husqvarna 701 Supermoto and KTM 690 SMC R, which are daily riders with a wild side. These are both very high-strung machines – this is the most powerful single-cylinder production motorcycle in the world – and do not allow you to carry a pillion since the subframe is the fuel tank. However, they were recently updated with the same features as the 390 SMC R, namely the six-axis IMU, by-wire throttle, and the TFT screen with Bluetooth and navigation.
Source: Zero Motorcycles
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