I'm a Zero owner and maintain
https://www.zeromanual.com just to get my bias out of the way.
- I put 26,000 miles on a 2013 Zero DS until I upgraded to the 2016 Zero DSR and then logged 41,000 miles on that (and then I crashed and am recovering).
- The SR/F is Zero's latest bike and it's not for me but the technology and usability of the bike are excellent.
- Energica makes a very fine track bike and their latest batteries are huge, and the bikes charge very quickly if you use CCS (which does cost a bit). I find them too complicated and closed-off, but that's my preference.
- HD makes the Livewire which looks great, but is just overpriced to most.
- Other vendors are out there if you have the money to throw around and can put up with slightly more boutique production. This year has seen a lot of new manufacturers make noise, but if you don't want to deal with risk, skip them and focus on Zero or Energica.
All of them have a very nice amount of power, and are superb commuters. I love commuting on electric daily, saving my gas bike for weekends and trips, which keeps the garage cleaner and lowers my maintenance overhead.
I'm really not sure that there's any real transition from gas to electric.
- You get used to not using a clutch lever or shifting pedal.
- You become more aware of your surroundings, because the bike is less of a distraction. It's better for defensive riding.
- You learn to do slightly different and generally much less maintenance on your bike; mostly plugging it in regularly.
- You're going to maintain a belt or a chain no matter what.
- Energica has more systems onboard (sump, oil, coolant) and fewer dealers, which is possibly a hassle for some. But even Zero owners have dealer issues.
All of the obstacle is in the up-front premium in the price, which is almost entirely about the cost of the batteries.
