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[GNU]

A friend of mine has a Brammo Empulse R motorcycle that we have been talking about comparing to the Zero SR.
Today was a sunny day and we both had some time over before the Super bowl game started so we decided that we would go for a ride.

We started off looking at the general design and comfort of each bike. The Brammo has a really nice seat that is more narrow at the front, compared to the seat on the Zero. The benefit of that is that it's easier to reach the ground firmly for short riders. But the downside is that it can be somewhat uncomfortable for male riders on long trips. Worth noticing is also that there's less margin for the rider to slide back and forth on the Brammo versus the Zero.

Since we were both relatively familiar with our own bikes we started out switching bikes.
We're both experienced riders and decided that we'd both start with the bikes in sport mode since that's how we would normally ride them.

My initial impression of rolling away on the Brammo on a parking lot is that it's a lot more masculine. I know, it's a weird way to describe it
The chain and the transmission slack in first gear made the start a bit less smooth than I was used to from the Zero, with its direct belt drive. Once I remembered that the Brammo has a clutch it made things much smoother. I also realized that starting in first gear, as I'm used to from gas bikes wasn't necessary with the Empulse R. In fact, for normal street use it's much more comfortable to start from 2nd gear.
I know from reading about the Brammo bikes that they have a unique gear position that I was somewhat worried about. The layout is as follows 1st, 2nd, neutral, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th gear. I think my worries were around finding neutral when stopping at a read light and accidentally putting the bike in neutral when up shifting.
It turns out that none of the above actually happens in real life. Finding neutral at a red light isn't needed since the electric motor comes to a stand still when stopped and accidentally getting into neutral just never happened.

Once we were riding down surface city streets I realized that the Brammo is lowder than the Zero. I think some of it is due to the chain drive. But even the sound of the engine was louder I think. Some of it could have been due to the speaker system that Brammo has installed inside the "tank". It makes a very futuristic sound when you turn the bike on and I think it's actively generatic sounds while riding.

While navigating city traffic, turning at intersections and breaking behind cars I realized that the Brammo handles really well. It starts to turn without having to be wrestled down and the suspension and braking were both top notch. Driving over pot holes and crossing railway tracks was a joy (well maybe not "joy" but I'm sure you get what I mean) and the stopping power was always there and felt well dimensioned for a day a the track. It almost felt like an overkill after riding the Zero SR* for a while. Especially when comparing the rear brakes.
*Foot note: Don't get me wrong. The brakes on the Zero SR are fine for daily driving but I'd keep an eye on them after an hour on a track.

We were now getting pretty comfortable with the bikes and decided that it was time for a drag race. We switched back to our own bikes and found a good long straight away with no traffic, no intersections and a good safe view to both sides.
We did several tries. From a rolling start, from a stand still and in different modes.
The most interesting result was from a stand still. With both bikes in sport mode. Turns out that even though the Zero SR should have a lot more torque, the Brammo still has gearing on its side when starting from a stand still. Another factor is that Brammo is far less limiting in the software when in sport mode.
Anyway, what happened was this:
Starting from 0mph, we counted down from 3 we leaned forward and hit the throttles hard. Both bikes accelerated hard but were still in parallel up to around 20-30mph (about a second or so into the race). After that the Zero SR came alive and just flew away from the Brammo Empulse R.
The results when accelerating from a rolling start (about 5-10mph) were very similar. They were neck to neck until about 20-30mph and then the Zero picked up speed much faster than the Brammo, even when it was left in first gear.

After an hour or so of playing with the bikes we both had places to go and bikes to charge. Speaking of which. The Zero SR started out with 100% charge and at this time it had 90% left. The Brammo, having been parked without behing plugged in, started at 36% and had at this time only 20% left. It's not really a fair comparison but I found it interesting.

Conclusions:
I've tried to compare gas bikes before and have never come to a point where I'd say this bike is better than that, because it's never a comparison of apples and apples. The same is true this time. The Zero SR and The Brammo Empulse R are both awesome bikes! They both have a very unique feel, sound, handling and everything else that makes a bike so much fun to ride. I only wish that more dealerships would take the risk and could afford to carry demo versions of both these bikes. They would undoubtedly sell a lot more of them if they did. I know I didn't make the decision to buy one until I've had a go on one.

One thing that my friend and I realized both Brammo and Zero has in common is that it's really hard to get any kind of support from local dealerships. I expressed how unhappy I was with the experience I've had with my dealership and he told me that I was lucky to even have someone in the state who wanted to touch it. He has to ship/ride his out of state to get to the closest (but still incompetent) licensed dealership.

Specs:
2014 Zero SR
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/zero-s/specs.php

2013 Brammo Empulse R
http://www.brammo.com/empulse_specifications/


 

[Richard230]

I can hardly wait.   

[Richard230]

Thanks for the report, GNU.   

[bigd]

Great review, but I have to admit, I like the picture the best 

[frodus]

Nice report! Seemed a fair report to me, but the test seemed inaccurate..... Is it possible you could do again with both bikes fully charged? The SOC difference between the two bikes WILL effect the accelerations.

If you had 2 identical Zero SR, one with 30% and one with 100%, guess who wins?

[protomech]

The one with 30% will win, because it's got less fuel to haul. That is a good point though.

The Zero SR probably wouldn't see any significant performance difference from low SOC until it got higher in the RPM range, perhaps at 50+ mph. GNU, does this match your experience?

Since the Empulse can shift gears into the higher RPM range more readily, it will see a slowdown earlier.

[Richard230]

Motorbiker.org didn't waste any time picking up this story.  And I found it on my BMW motorcycle forum.   

http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/mini-review-brammo-vs-zero-electric-motorcycles.htm

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.   

[flar]

A note on the transmission slack - it's actually the dog gear that has slack between pushing and pulling.  This is a standard part of any motorcycle transmission, but ICE bikes have so much noise going on and a slow clutch engagement that you never feel it or hear it until you are working with the quieter and much more instantaneous clutch-less torque of an electric motor.

When you come to a stop, it was typically either actively pulling against the travel (regen/engine braking) or idly resting against it (if you pulled in the clutch, which should only be happening in the ICE case).  In either case, it will need to rotate forward to engage for pushing when you start off again.  The total travel between the two is minimal so the simple act of starting to let out the clutch on an ICE bike will toggle it forward with the small amount of torque that builds as the clutch plates come together.  For the electric motor, if you simply rock the bike backwards by only about 2 inches at a stop light then there will be no slack when you go to pull away and you will get instantaneous full torque from the standstill.  You could also twist the throttle slightly to take up the slack, but rocking backwards does it easily enough with a natural motion and no clunk so most owners get in the habit of doing that instead.

Using the clutch to smooth the transmission slack is unnecessary and just robs you of launch power.  Many of the Brammo press demo bikes now have "no clutch from stop" stickers on the tach for this purpose.  Additionally, many owners (like me) don't even use it to shift - once the transmission is broken in, it snicks into the next gear so smoothly with a standard power-shift technique (apply upward pressure to the shift lever and ease off the throttle) that the clutch becomes almost vestigial.

Also, the bike wants to be run towards the top of its RPM band (more efficient there as well), so I usually never even shift in the city (1st gear is good to well over 50MPH), and the only time I'm running the gears is on an on-ramp to a highway (which involves maybe 3 taps from my left foot and no clutch to do highway speeds in 4th, only shifting to 5th if I settle in at a faster speed and want to drop it closer to 5K RPM).  I don't think I've ever used 6th on the street.

Once you break the habit of using the clutch from stop and learn how to rock back 2 inches to remove the slack, starting up in 1st gear is completely 100% comfortable and much more exhilarating.

[GNU]

The Zero SR probably wouldn't see any significant performance difference from low SOC until it got higher in the RPM range, perhaps at 50+ mph. GNU, does this match your experience?

It's hard to say, I rarely go below 50% SOC but even when I have I haven't noticed any difference in performance (at least at low speeds). That said I agree that it makes sense that it should go down as the voltage drops. My theory is that the bike has a pretty limiting software at low speeds so it might not be noticeable until higher speeds, just like you said.

We'll just have to redo the test some other day with an equal charge. I'll make sure to post more findings as soon as I find out.

Flar, thanks for the info about the dog gear slack. I didn't find it being a negative aspect of the bike. It was merely part of the personality difference between the bikes. The Brammo, like I said, feels more masculine to me. I think the carbon fiber fairings, the chain drive and the transmission all adds to that impression.

[flar]

Flar, thanks for the info about the dog gear slack. I didn't find it being a negative aspect of the bike. It was merely part of the personality difference between the bikes. The Brammo, like I said, feels more masculine to me. I think the carbon fiber fairings, the chain drive and the transmission all adds to that impression.

No problem, but half of my comment was about "comfort" (with no clunk) and half was about how much more exciting it feels when there is no slack and you touch the throttle and it jumps with no hesitation.  Masculine + prescient...