Hi
I am happy, very happy on my iPhone3 and 2011S. The 2011 does what she does, and well. I ride her a lot around town etc. Range is very good for what I need - great. I might be selling my ICE as I do not get to ride a couple of days out to the country -- that often. So, simply, rent a Ducati or Harley when I feel like it is a better deal. saves me money to upgrade the Zero every 3 years - to stay just of the expensive "hype curve".
as warranty comes of the Zero I might be truing to get into the programming / main board/controller a bit more and tweak things. so all good.
Great discussion. I keep hearing this: "I own 2 - 10 ICE bikes then bought a Zero. Now I ride the Zero for the < 100 mile round trips and ICE for long trips. That's 90% of the time, so I don't really need all these ICE bikes."
I think what's happening is this. We all got used to the hassle of owning and riding an ICE bike. After discovering the no-maintenance, no warm-up, no shifting, no noise convenience of a Zero, riding an ICE is like going back to using an outhouse in winter after getting used to indoor plumbing. I prefer to jump on and ride away without notifying the wife and neighbors. Seems everyone who buys one comes to the same conclusion.
If I'm a product manager for BMW or other big ICE brand reading this forum I'm thinking, "Holy, crap. In 10 years the ICE industry will be selling very few ICE bikes."
If they aren't already thinking of acquisition of Zero they will be by the end of 2013. I hope Zero sticks it out and goes public and stays independent.
BTW, a future race to Buy vs Build in the e-moto space may save Brammo's bacon. An acquirer will be buying tech and engineering talent not marketing/product marketing/sales/distribution.