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2010 Zero DS Review Photo Gallery

The DS handles the road well enough and feels a comparable to small dual-sport on the street – capable but not fully comfortable on the pavement.

Batteries, motors, extension cords... Electric motorcycles aren't coming folks, they're already here. Check out how the 2010 Zero DS did in our 2010 Electric Motorcycle Comparison.

Zero offers a great deal of suspension travel with nine inches fore and eight inches aft.

2010 Zero DS

Lithium-ion batteries, the limiting factor for range and performance, but the promise of better things to come.

Bringing the Zero to a speedy halt was at times problematic - the front brake offering little bite and too much lever play. The DS’s Gator brake rotor looks nice enough, but a beefier caliper/master cylinder is required.

Zero is less refined from a design standpoint. As far as styling goes, the Zero fared worse than the Brammo. It looks like a bike wrapped around a square battery.

At 278 pounds the Zero weighed in 57 pounds lighter than our Enertia test bike.

2010 Zero DS

The Zero and Brammo's range depends on a number of factors, not the least of which being rider weight and the operators aggressiveness with the throttle.

2010 Zero DS

The charging cord is tucked away in the cylindrical holes in the frame. Yet the Zero designers did hit the mark with the frame and swingarm.

The Zero DS sources a brushed permanent magnet DC motor from Agni. Zero engineers claim 40 lb-ft torque and 20 horsepower at the shaft, with the Agni powerplant spinning up to a 3400 rpm limit.

2010 Zero DS

Zero uses Fast Ace components with a surprisingly amount of adjustability, rebound and compression on the fork, preload and rebound on the shock.

Turn the key, flip the side stand, thumb the throttle switch and the Zero is ready to roll.

The Zero’s ideal 50-mile range sounds like crazy talk to us, but it nets more than the Enertia without question.

The Zero goes further thanks to its 4 kWh capacity. Instrumentation sourced from a conventional dash, DS riders are presented with a fuel bar than can swing wildly depending on the riding conditions.

Saiki designed the Zero’s Z-Force battery pack in-house. A single large square pack, the 58-Volt lithium-ion system houses 336 cells.

The Zero’s charging process is simple and quick: Turn off the key and plug into the wall.

The Zero delivers a more powerful motor and larger capacity battery, as well as more versatility with its dual-sporting capabilities. As an overall package, however, it’s a rougher around the edges with disappointing brakes and so-so chassis giving it room for improvement.

2010 Electric Motorcycle Comparison Review

When it comes time to zip around a corner it feels a touch vague, with the DS’s knobbie tires, from Duro, not helping in this regard (nor in the braking department where the rear in particularly would break traction with little input).