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[clee]

Hey, everybody!

I've mostly documented this on Reddit, but I flew out to California back in July and test-drove the EVA and Ego. I fell in love with the EVA pretty much immediately; the Ego's more aggressive riding position didn't work so well for me. So I put down a deposit at CalMoto and after a lot of long waits between my banks, the wonderful complexities of different state legal requirements for paperwork, and a surprisingly quick and affordable interstate delivery, I finally got my EVA on Monday morning. I didn't get a chance to do much riding on it Monday, though.

I took it to a DC fast-charging station Tuesday, and in the ~12 minutes or so I was there, four people stopped to ask me about the bike. Two of them were Nissan Leaf owners hogging the L3 chargers when I first arrived, but the great thing about L3 charging is that the spots don't need to stay occupied very long. I charged from 55% to 85% while I was there, because I wasn't really there for the charge but more to just familiarize myself with how the L3 chargers work.

So, about the bike. Here are some of my impressions so far:

• It sounds like a screaming jet engine; actually, it kind of reminds me of the TIE fighter sound from Star Wars, which is a surprising departure from the Zero SR I bought back in June.
• I find I already trust it more than the SR, because sometimes when I've taken turns on the SR at speed (the on-ramp to a freeway at 40-45mph, for example) I've suffered that heart-stopping moment where the rear wheel skips just a little bit and I feel like I'm about to lose control. I suspect the significantly-wider rear tire on the EVA is mostly to thank for this, because I've gone down to at least a 45 degree angle and felt nothing but contact the whole way through.
• The EVA in both Sport and Urban mode accelerates even faster than the SR in Sport mode, and the SR already made my Ducati Monsters feel really sluggish by comparison.
• It's shocking to know that it weighs over 600 pounds (621.7 according to the owner's manual), because when you're riding, it feels unbelievably nimble and responsive. I nearly dropped it today in my garage, though, because I thought I had fully extended the kickstand and I was mistaken. I absolutely felt the difference when the bike was trying to fight me to lay down and take a nap.
• The range is honestly a little disappointing, just in an absolute sense, because the SR gets around 110-120 miles per charge the way I ride it and the EVA estimates that I'll get roughly 60-70 miles on a full charge (and so far, seems to be roughly accurate). I think a few years from now—2020, maybe 2021—once the electric motorcycle market has gotten a bit more filled out, battery improvements will get me an EVA or maybe even an actual Ducati electric with at least 100-mile range and the same kind of jaw-dropping performance.

Range and my own stupidity nearly dropping it aside, this bike is like something out of a dream. I can't wait to see what Ducati does with an electric powertrain, because they were my first love on two wheels and I'll always be fond of them. Like, I seriously couldn't wait, because the last article I read said they're targeting 2020 for the launch of their first electric and here I am with two already. I'm also getting super curious about the LS-218 now…

I definitely need to get a 240V J1772 charger installed in my garage. Anybody have recommendations for a specific charger that would work well with both the SR (it has the Charge Tank) and the EVA?

[Richard230]

Congratulations, Clee.  I have been buying BMW motorcycles from CalMoto for over 30 years and have found them to be one of the better motorcycle shops in the SF Bay Area.  Attached are photos of the Energica area of their showroom. Arlie is currently their most knowledgeable and enthusiastic salesman.

[Shadow]

...I definitely need to get a 240V J1772 charger installed in my garage. Anybody have recommendations for a specific charger that would work well with both the SR (it has the Charge Tank) and the EVA?

There's not too much to these EVSE devices, it is a contactor (i.e. RK2A60D50P) with some logic and wires and connectors to comply with the relevant standards. Maybe $80-$150 in parts depending on economies of scale? The Tesla Wall Connector is very attractive and benefits from economies of scale, and with an adapter or simply replace the Tesla UMC plug to be a J1772 end. Likewise the Tesla mobile connector kit is something you could pack with the bike. "In the wild" what I tend to do is not use any EVSE and just wire up the power conductors, using a breaker at the RV park or to make/break the connection at a cheaper more replaceable NEMA or twistlock connector.

If you're wanting to support something more DIY based there's also the OpenEVSE platform to look into, which removes the mystery of the thing and you get the repairability of full schematics and software code.

[clee]

Congratulations, Clee.  I have been buying BMW motorcycles from CalMoto for over 30 years and have found them to be one of the better motorcycle shops in the SF Bay Area.  Attached are photos of the Energica area of their showroom. Arlie is currently their most knowledgeable and enthusiastic salesman.

Haha, Arlie Ray knows me pretty well by now since he helped with the Kafkaesque nightmare of paperwork between the bank and Energica. (Among other things, my credit union apparently has different rules about what exactly is required documentation for an auto loan than California banks, and required a Manufacturer Certificate of Origin from Energica before they would cut the check for the loan.)

I have to say I was really happy with Zach as my salesman. He was super responsive, checked in almost every single day even when there wasn't always anything new on either side to report yet, and was generally awesome to work with. I think next time I'd have to make sure I have all of my financing lined up better beforehand if I were ever to deal with buying from an out-of-state dealership again.

Which...  I'm ecstatic with the EVA and also still very happy with the SR I bought back in June, but after giving my bank account a few years to recover—assuming Lightning is still around—I could very easily see myself upgrading one of these to an LS-218 with the biggest battery they offer. I would LOVE to have more range than an ICE bike and also better performance in pretty much every way. And I have a feeling it would be another out-of-state sale.

[MostlyBonkers]

Congrats on the purchase Clee!.:-)

Thanks also for sharing your experience so far. I found your comment about the grip particularly interesting.  Yet another example of why Zero really must implement traction control.  I'm enjoying having traction control back with the CBR1000R I bought a couple of weeks ago.  I haven't ridden the bike anywhere near it's limits yet, but traction control will help me explore them. When I get competent enough I can turn it off, if I wish, but in the meantime it's a godsend!

So please do continue posting here. I was very, very tempted by an Eva myself but in the end it was the range, cost and weight that killed it for me. However, I would love to hear that you are enjoying the bike.  I'm hoping I've bought my last petrol bike. After owning a Zero for over two years, it felt like I was buying a steam engine! Still, it's bloody good fun so I'm not complaining. :-)

[ultrarnr]

Clee,  Congratulations on getting the Eva and welcome to the Eva club! I have a little over 5K miles on mine and your initial observations are spot on. I also have an SR and agree with your comparisons. The Eva really does pull a lot harder than the SR. Heck it also pulls harder than my KTM 1290 SA. Over 4th of July I rode my Eva out to western NC and rode Tail of the Dragon and many other roads out there. While it is easy to understand how folks would be concerned about the weight of the Eva it really does a lot better in tight twisties than you would think it would.

Have you played with the regen settings yet? I started out on medium and then tried the high setting. It was really easy to modulate the regen so it comes on really smooth and love the adjustability and you find yourself rarely using the brakes to slow down. The regen on the Eva is really what most people with Zero's are hoping for. The brake lights and ABS are tied into the regen and if you rapidly cut the throttle when you are doing 70 MPH or so you will quickly understand why this is important. Energica really got regen right.

[clee]

Congrats on the purchase Clee!.:-)

Thanks also for sharing your experience so far. I found your comment about the grip particularly interesting.  Yet another example of why Zero really must implement traction control.  I'm enjoying having traction control back with the CBR1000R I bought a couple of weeks ago.  I haven't ridden the bike anywhere near it's limits yet, but traction control will help me explore them. When I get competent enough I can turn it off, if I wish, but in the meantime it's a godsend!

So please do continue posting here. I was very, very tempted by an Eva myself but in the end it was the range, cost and weight that killed it for me. However, I would love to hear that you are enjoying the bike.  I'm hoping I've bought my last petrol bike. After owning a Zero for over two years, it felt like I was buying a steam engine! Still, it's bloody good fun so I'm not complaining. :-)

Heh. Well, it took the better part of a month, but that kafkaesque nightmare had only just begun, it turns out!

I took the EVA out for a ride as soon as it arrived, even though I didn't have plates yet, and then I had to go check out the local fast charger and get a feel for my new bike. I also swung by my local motorcycle mechanic's shop because I love those guys and I figured they'd get a kick out of seeing the first Energica in the state. But after getting home, I realized I should probably get the temporary plate and tags so that I could ride it without getting arrested.

And that's when the nightmare resumed in full. Apparently, because I was the first person in Colorado to buy an Energica, they didn't exist in the state DMV database. And temporary tags are generated from a form on the computer that has dropdowns for make and model, and they can't generate temporary tags without them. Long story short, it took almost a full month of waiting after initially trying to get my tags before the DMV called me to let me know that the database had finally been updated and they were ready. For the steep price of $7.00, I got my tags just in time for it to start snowing here. (Thankfully, there have been a few warm-enough days since, and I've put almost 200 miles on the bike in the past week or so.)

I totally empathize with being scared away by the range/cost/weight. They're all not nearly as great as they would be in a perfect world. I have to say though, the weight is really only an issue at slow speeds/stops for me; in motion, the EVA feels feather-light and more responsive than seems physically possible. I'm also really hoping that sometime in the near-ish future, someone will figure out a massive breakthrough in battery tech and I'll be able to upgrade to a (say) lithium-metal replacement pack that, say, triples or quadruples the range. Or I'll just save up for that LS-218...

I didn't realize it at the time, but I'm fairly confident that the Ducatis I bought a few years ago were the last ICE-powered vehicles I'll ever buy. Unless I eventually get my pilot's license and buy a plane, and some of those are even starting to go electric...

Clee,  Congratulations on getting the Eva and welcome to the Eva club! I have a little over 5K miles on mine and your initial observations are spot on. I also have an SR and agree with your comparisons. The Eva really does pull a lot harder than the SR. Heck it also pulls harder than my KTM 1290 SA. Over 4th of July I rode my Eva out to western NC and rode Tail of the Dragon and many other roads out there. While it is easy to understand how folks would be concerned about the weight of the Eva it really does a lot better in tight twisties than you would think it would.

Thanks! I find myself torn between wanting to let EVERYONE ride it because it's so incredible and being terrified that someone will instantly destroy my expensive, not-yet-paid-off-in-full, new favorite toy.

Have you played with the regen settings yet? I started out on medium and then tried the high setting. It was really easy to modulate the regen so it comes on really smooth and love the adjustability and you find yourself rarely using the brakes to slow down. The regen on the Eva is really what most people with Zero's are hoping for. The brake lights and ABS are tied into the regen and if you rapidly cut the throttle when you are doing 70 MPH or so you will quickly understand why this is important. Energica really got regen right.

I've definitely been playing with the regen settings, and I find that I'm flicking through those settings WAY more often than I thought I would while riding. At this point, I've already memorized that screen, so I can navigate it entirely by feel without having to look down at the LCD. Around town, I stick to Urban (or even Eco mode sometimes, like in parking lots) and max regen, but when I'm on the freeway, I tend to kick it into Sport mode and disable regen entirely. I'm actually getting 70-80 miles per charge, which is still disappointing, but slightly less so.

I also just started a new job at Panasonic, and the office is a good 30 miles away, which is juuuust far enough that I'd probably have some range anxiety leaving with a full charge in the morning... except there are at least 8 J1772 chargers in the work parking lot, apparently they're all powered by the solar panels on the roof, and best of all: they're 100% free. So the EVA is working out great as a commuter bike, when the weather is warm enough.

[SBK74]

I also just started a new job at Panasonic, and the office is a good 30 miles away, which is juuuust far enough that I'd probably have some range anxiety leaving with a full charge in the morning... except there are at least 8 J1772 chargers in the work parking lot, apparently they're all powered by the solar panels on the roof, and best of all: they're 100% free. So the EVA is working out great as a commuter bike, when the weather is warm enough.

A 30 mile commute and 8 chargers in the parking lot? Thats sounds prefectly manageable, even when you would not be able to charge at work, driving to home slower (or encounter a traffic jam ) would get you there. My commute is 38 miles, mainly highway. I catch myself looking at range less and less. I have a charging cable at work so I mainly travel with no saddle bags. I must admit that I have the luxury of 3 fast chargers on route. Anyway, lots of fun with your Eva!

[clee]

I found your comment about the grip particularly interesting.  Yet another example of why Zero really must implement traction control.

This literally bit me on the ass the other day.

I've been riding the EVA almost exclusively, when it's been warm enough to ride (not much the past two weeks). But I decided to ride the Zero the other day, and as I was pulling off my street making a left-hand turn, I leaned just a little too far—not sure if it was because of the cold pavement, cold tires, or just me leaning too far because of getting used to the EVA's handling, but I slid out of control and the SR went down with me on it at ~10mph.

Luckily, nothing broke except the little bumper on the left end of the handlebar. I didn't get any road rash or hurt anything in the slide, although I was sore for days afterwards from lifting the bike and getting back on and riding to work after inspecting the bike carefully. It's made me much more paranoid and distrustful towards the Zero, though. The EVA continues to handle like a dream when I actually get to ride it.