I would also like to point out that in his previous review of the Zero DS Wes was provided a bike to test with no factory or dealer support and no particular riding agenda. He just rode it around randomly (like an owner might do) without really knowing its performance envelope until it just died when the batteries became discharged. With the Brammo Empulse R review, he was riding with their employees in a group ride to a destination that Brammo knew they would make without a problem. Plus, the destination was at a location where Brammo had installed a charging station where the bikes could be recharged for the ride back to the factory. While he raved about the handling of the 470 pound Empulse, I can't recall his article on the 340 pound Zero complaining about its handling. Plus, he also expounded upon the Empulse's mass centralization, but my observation is that the Zero has even better dense packaging of its battery pack in its chassis. I base this observation on the ability to raise my Zero S using a lifting stand under the center of the "skid plate" with both wheels coming off the ground and no tilting to the front or rear.
I have no doubt that the much heavier Empulse, with its better suspension and road racing development program will handle better and be more stable than the Zero at high speeds on fast highway roads, but I imagine that the Zero models will handle better and easier in town and around tight slow-speed corners. The lighter weight of the Zero will be an advantage to many riders, especially ones with less experience with heavy IC motorcycles. Then there is the fact that the Empulse R costs $5000 more than the ZF9 Zero S and is currently being mass-produced and readily available to consumers.
I suspect that if both bikes had been ridden together along the same route and over the same distance, the Empulse R would still have been determined to be the better bike, what with its higher top speed, greater range and higher specification, but I don't think the Zero would have been trashed in the Hell for Leather's the write-up the way it was. And if Wes had ridden the Zero S around the Santa Cruz Mountains, while accompanied by a couple of Zero employees to a nice restaurant for lunch at a location that they were sure that the bike would reach before running out of power, his review of the 2012 Zero would have been much different and likely more positive.
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Topic: Hell For Leather reviews the Empulse R (Read 1813 times)