The wife and I recently returned from an extended visit to Southern, CA where the temperature ranged from the 60s, cold by the locals' reckoning, to more seasonal 80s.
Trip included a stop at Hollywood Electric where I took a rocketized 2012 ZF9 on a warm albeit drizzly test ride.
Pulling in the driveway with the wife this evening, she read the outside temp off the display: "Twenty four degrees! I need a sauna at the gym!"
I retorted in unintentional rhyme, "I need to take the Zero for a spin."
After pulling on layers of long underwear, flannel lined jeans, and everything else I could fit under my gear, I stuffed foot warmers into my boots, donned my warmest ski gloves and took off into the night.
The bike was stored in an unheated garage. The battery was no doubt at 24 degrees, too, when I took off. I had not ridden my 2012 ZF9 for nearly a month due to travel. I was hopefully optimistic about reliability but made a contingency plan just in case: call my wife to get her to pick me up on the way back from the gym.
Long story short, the bike operated exactly as on a warm summer day. The only difference is the range was cut approximately in two; a bar fell at 6 miles, another at 11, and another at 16 just before I rode back into my garage. On a warm day I regularly take a 32 mile trip on three bars.
But aside from the expected cut in range from the slower chemical reaction rates in the box below me -- aren't batteries supposed to keep longer in the freezer? -- I could not tell the difference.
Well, except for a woman at a red light who looked at me, riding up next to her out of the frigid night swathed in black gear and glowing LED white, like she'd discovered her own, personal space alien.
Needless to say, there were no other motorcycles on the road, electric or otherwise.
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Topic: Who's taken the coldest Zero ride? (Read 9828 times)