When the Zero X wheeled onto the dirt track at Lake Elsinore, the Colgate-white motocross bike looked positively virginal next to the belching, candy-colored models that leaped from mound to mound around it.Not surprisingly, the Zero X drew a lot of attention.
Two-stroke? Four-stroke? That wasn't the question riders were asking after watching the electric dirt bike roll around the track a few times and do everything a traditional, gas-powered motocrosser could do, minus the noise and pollution. No. The biggest questions were: "What is it?" and "Where can I get one?"
The Zero X is a big deal for a lot of reasons, the biggest being that it's actually in production. Unlike so many other electric vehicles that are bandied about in the media, it isn't a prototype. It's been on the market since April.
Nor is it an electric retrofit of a gutted, formerly gas-powered machine. Its 300-plus component parts were engineered from the ground up, sourced from manufacturers around the globe and assembled into fully functioning motorcycles in a facility in Northern California.
The $7,450 motorcycle was designed by aeronautical engineer Neal Saiki, whose mountain bikes have won design awards.
No comments:
Post a Comment