I made it to their race over the weekend. Zero Motorcycles sponsored a private endurance race, 24 hours long of riding their dirt bikes. It was held at a dirt bike track in south San Jose, CA. I attended as "media" giving me access to go anywhere on the track and I have a bunch of great video and pictures. But I haven't processed through it yet.
The format was 10 teams who were regular dirt bike racing teams. They were each supplied with a bike, with 3 battery packs, two chargers, and the goal was the most laps within the 24 hours.
I was so pleased and amazed with it. I've been following EV's for over 10 years. I've been to a NEDRA race and had thought that was cool but this was a whole different ballgame. The NEDRA races are drag races, so the car goes 1/4 mile and that's it. Here it's a track, dirt, gravel, bumpy, lots of chance to make jumps and the race just goes and goes and goes.
Also .. I ran into the owner of ElMoto.net at the race. He'd driven up from San Diego. We had a nice long chat, he's a real nice guy. Those of us who run electric vehicle discussion forums -- We're doing this to help foster more adoption of electric vehicles. That gives means we have a lot of common ideas and interests and goals. But I digress.
I also talked with Zero Motorcycles founder Neal Saiki and have an 11+ minute video interview with him going over the bike. Like I said, as soon as the video is processed I'll make sure it's visible here.
I've come across a couple news articles covering the race:
Zero Motorcycles hosts first-ever 24 Hours of Electricross
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10212100-48.html
Electric Motorcycle Impresses Motocross Crowd
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2009/04/24-hours-of-ele.html
