The Zero Motorcycles SR/F is a wild, full-bore super-naked motorcycle with a difference. Instead of a big 1,000cc superbike engine, it comes with the firm’s most outrageous electric powertrain. Our man Alan Dowds spent a week on one around London and the south-east recently – here’s how he got on with it.
It’s not hard to stir up controversy online, even in the normally-sensible world of two wheels. Post a pic of yourself riding on a hot summer day wearing just a T-shirt and jeans, say. Ask in a forum what the best engine oil is. Say that you actually quite like Marc Marquez or Casey Stoner. All of those will have the keyboard lynch mob out for (metaphorical) blood in no time at all.
But nothing lights the proverbial blue touch paper as fast as battery-powered electric bikes. The ferocity of the arguments, and the completely polar nature of the debate is incredible to see, as the two sides weigh in with their arguments for and against the technology.
I’m always keen to find out for myself though, so when the good folks at Zero Motorcycles asked if I fancied a week or so on their top-end naked superbike, the SR/F, I jumped at the chance. A couple of weeks later, a very nice man drops the beast off at my house, gives me the keys (as usual with a test bike) and the charging lead (not at all as usual). He also gives me a quick run-down on the bike – the tech, and the charging regime…
The first thing I do is plug the Zero in, to get it back up to 100 per cent charge on the dash. We’ve got a plug-in hybrid car in our house, so I’m acquainted with the chunky charge socket under a cover on the SR/F, and have a suitable power outlet outside.
The Zero can use a normal 13A plug supply – though it will charge faster with the optional 6kW charger using a higher-output charging point – and it sits happily in the sun, cooling fan whirring and the dash showing the battery level. The new 2025 bike has a 6.6kW charger as stock, and an optional 12kW fast charging setup, so will get to 100& even faster.
I give the beastie the once-over while it’s parked up: there’s a lot of familiar premium sporty-roadbike chassis tech here, from the Showa upside-down front forks and rear monoshock, all fully-adjustable, to the Pirelli Diablo Rosso III tyres in supersport sizes.
The J.Juan brakes are similar to those used by KTM and other big European brands, with dual 320mm front discs and tasty four-piston radial-mount calipers, while both the steel trellis main frame and cast aluminium rear swingarm look as well-engineered as anything else on the road out there just now.
There’s some weird bits mind: the final drive is by a Kevlar/rubber belt rather than a chain, and of course there’s neither a clutch lever on the left hand bar, nor a gearshift pedal at the left footpeg. No need for an exhaust system either – and where you’d expect a big lump of an engine, there’s a large finned aluminium box, filled with lithium batteries, and a comparatively small Z-Force electric powertrain unit tucked in behind.
The spec sheet on the Zero website has some impressive numbers too: the claimed power is just 113bhp, but the torque is a massive 140 ft lb. As a comparison, a Suzuki GSX1300 R Hayabusa makes ‘just’ 111ft lb of grunt, so the Zero has 50% more grunt than the Busa – mad. The Zero beats the Busa in weight terms too: the electric bike weighs in at ‘just’ 227kg compared with the Suzuki at 264kg , both ready to ride.
That 227kg figure isn’t light though, and shows the handicaps of current battery tech: to get the power and range on a big bike means a lot of weight from a massive battery pack. The other downside is also shown on the Zero website: a price tag of over £20,000 (though the firm’s got a load of discounts on its range at the moment too).
Spec sheets are not road tests, luckily for me, so I’m keen to get out and have a spin on this chonky electric boi, as the kids probably wouldn’t say. The sun’s out and the temperature’s pleasant as I put on a vented jacket and lid and wheeled the Zero out onto the street.
Jumping on, the seat is a decent height for my 30” inside leg, and the wide-set bars give a comfy, commanding position. You are definitely aware of the weight of the battery pack at first: there’s a slightly top-heavy feel when manoeuvring at slow speed or turning round in the road. You can also feel the weight pushing through a bend, and when on the brakes, but as with any bike, you soon adapt and it feels fine after the first half hour or so.
The first job today is to meet John Goodman, my local snapper pal, and we head for a couple of local photo locations. Static shots first, next to some neat graffiti – very urban – and then on to the action shoot on our favourite nearby bends.
Running back and forth round a tight 40-50mph bend is a good little test of a bike: you get a sense of how it pulls away on the gas, you’re repeatedly hard on the brakes so they soon get hot, and of course you get a good idea of how a bike handles, turns and grips.
And the SR/F is doing pretty well. The throttle response is clean and direct, with sharp, instant, silent drive from a standstill and, of course, no interruptions for gearshifts. It’s just twist-and-go, like the devil’s own 115bhp, 150ft-lb Vespa. There’s loads of ground clearance, thanks to the lack of exhaust pipes, gear lever, engine, sump or frame rails.
The bottom of the bike is narrow and high-set, and you can hoon it over a long way with nothing decking out. The Pirelli rubber is working well on the warm, dry Tarmac today, as you’d expect, and the Zero SR/F also has the safety nets of Bosch ABS and traction control, so you can get as saucy with the gas and brakes as you fancy.
Pics done, and I leave John to put some more miles on the Zero. I swing by home for a cuppa, and top off the battery once more – I’ve discovered a mad setting that lets you charge it to 110%, weirdly, which I guess you wouldn’t want to do a lot, but I like to live dangerously. I jump back in the electric hot seat and head out for a bit of a run.
Once you get used to the silence and smoothness of the electric drivetrain, the SR/F is a fairly conventional experience. The large TFT LCD dashboard could be off a current BMW, the switchgear is a little weird but nothing outlandish, and the riding experience on an A-road or motorway is the same as any other big naked bike, pretty much.
What’s not at all conventional is the performance though. I’m out on the A3 dual carriageway, heading south towards Guildford, and there’s plenty of room to stretch the legs, as it were. I’ve selected the maximum performance Sport mode, giving the sharpest throttle response and full power output, and the result is fairly mind-bending.
If you’ve ever been on one of those wild high-performance rollercoasters at Alton Towers or Thorpe Park or the like, then the experience will be familiar. Open the throttle while rolling along at 40-50mph, and you’re hit with a massive, inexorable wave of acceleration like no petrol bike I’ve ridden, short of a 500bhp turbocharged Hayabusa.
It’s addictive stuff, and shows the technical advantage of an electric motor: instant torque, available across the rev range, with no need to change gears or wait for the engine to get into its peak torque rev range. I spend ten miles or so on a quiet A3, slowing down then slamming the throttle hard, giggling inside my lid at the utterly silly acceleration.
Like any addictive experience though, there are downsides – riding like this simply hammers the battery life, and it’s plummeting before my eyes. The firm claims a ‘high-speed’ highway range of 117 miles, but after about 50 miles on the A3, I’ve got just 25 miles showing. That’s extreme use of course, but then what’s the point of a 113bhp/150ft lb motor in a sporty chassis if you don’t use it?
The actual top speed of the SR/F is limited to 124mph – not the end of the world on a naked bike day-to-day in the UK, but that limit and the moderate maximum power output means the acceleration tails off before things get too insane. Owners with regular access to an Autobahn or an Isle of Man TT circuit might be sad at this, but for the rest of us it’s probably a sensible situation.
And after my mad half-hour sampling the SR/F’s darker side, I cruise for a bit, and things really do get quite pleasant all round. The first thing to say is that if you go slower, the battery lasts A LOT longer.
This is true of all electric bikes I’ve ridden too: once you start to ride through town, with speeds around 20-30mph and lots of stopping, the charge level barely drops – unlike with petrol where the engine is constantly burning fuel even at a standstill. Zero says the SR/F will manage 176 miles in town, and I could believe that easily.
There are plenty of amenities available on the Zero as well: there’s heated grips, not needed today but a nice factory accessory, while that great LCD dash links to your phone and shows loads of info including which of the five power modes you’re in. Even the near-silent running of the motor adds to the cruising experience when pootling around the countryside on a sunny day.
Back home with just over 20 miles left on the dash, and I plug the Zero in again for a charge. Three hours later, it’s at 100 per cent once more – not ideal if you were needing to go anywhere else in a hurry, but not a problem if you’re parked up overnight or at your workplace all day.
So – the SR/F is a very quick, capable high-performance super-naked bike, with a few flaws which may or may not rule it out for you. Firstly, if you expect a direct replacement for a petrol bike which you use for regular Lands’ End to John O’Groats record attempts, then this is not the bike for you.
Even 150+ mile daily rideouts or gentle touring will be beyond it, without a lot of workarounds and some very intense charge station planning. On the other hand, if you go in with your eyes open, and have a specific use case, then it will work well. A daily commute of up to 100 miles, with a charging point at work, will be a cinch on the SR/F.
And if you like your sunny Sunday blasts to come in at the sub-100 mile mark, you’ll probably be fine too. Factor in the experience and knowledge about charging regimes that you’ll inevitably gain, and a smart SR/F owner will be able to push the envelope out much further.
In the same way that we adapted from mobile phones with week-long batteries in the early 2000s to smartphones that needed charging after 12 hours, you’ll learn tricks to keep the juice running on your bike.
A quick 15 minute charge on a fast-charge setup will give you an extra 30-odd miles if needed. As an aside, it’s a good-looking bike, with unique style and premium feel, and its rarity means it stands out massively in a sea of lookalike modern naked roadsters. Park your SR/F up at a BSB meet, the Green Wellie or Box Hill and it’s very likely to be the only one.
One major downside is of course the price: £20,200 is the list price for a new SR/F, and is a steep sum, which would get you a BMW M1000 R or Ducati Streetfighter V4 instead. But Zero is regularly offering discounts these days, and was offering the 2022 version with a £5,000 price cut and the 2023 model with £4,200 off.
Is the Zero SR/F any good then? Well, I’m going to avoid too much online controversy at the end, and say that while I really enjoyed my time with it, the SR/F wouldn’t quite work for me, certainly as an only bike. It would be great for riding round my local manor in south-west London and into town, and even the odd jaunt to Heathrow or Gatwick airport (Stansted would be a stretch though).
I do have regular longer journeys for work, and up to Scotland to see family. But if you have access to charging at home and work, can make public fast-charge setups work for you, and are prepared to put in a bit of work, and fancy something a bit different, then the SR/F will give you a unique high-performance two-wheeled experience.
More info on Zero, local dealers and discounts: www.zeromotorcycles.com
SPECS
Price: from £20,200
Powertrain: Z-Force 75-10 air-cooled, interior permanent magnet brushless AC motor, 900 amp, 3-phase AC controller with regenerative deceleration
Battery: Z-Force Li-Ion intelligent integrated battery, 17.3 kW/h max capacity. 6.6kW integrated charger.
Claimed charge time: standard 2.7 hours (100% charged) / 2.2 hours (95% charged), with optional 6kW rapid charger (£2.5k) 1.6 hours (100% charged) / 1.1 hours (95% charged)
Max power (claimed) 113hp
Max torque (claimed) 140ft lb
Transmission: Single speed, belt final drive
Frame: steel tube trellis
Front suspension: Showa 43mm fully adjustable USD Big Piston forks
Rear suspension: Showa fully-adjustable monoshock, 40mm piston, piggyback reservoir
Brakes: twin 320mm discs, four-piston J.Juan calipers (front), 240mm disc, single-piston caliper (rear), Bosch ABS
Wheels/tyres: cast aluminium, 120/70 17 front, 180/55 17 rear
Rake/trail: 24.5°/94mm
Wheelbase: 1,450mm
Kerb weight : 227kg
Seat height: 787mm