Impressions of Zero Motorcycles dirt bike

I attended the Zero Motorcycles 24 hrs of Electricross event over the weekend ..
http://visforvoltage.org/forum/6163-zero-motorcycles-24-hrs-electricross

While there I got to test ride their bike on a dirt track. It was my first time riding fast on dirt/gravel.. I've ridden motorcycles through gravel parking lots but always took it easy. This time it was a fast bike, on a dirt bike track, so the expectation was to take it fast, and I actually felt rather nervous and didn't take the throttle all the way.

Anyway...

It looks like a typical dirt bike with big suspension, knobby tires, etc.

It has a PERM 132 motor, a 2kwh li-mn battery pack, and the whole bike weighs 180 lbs. There is an ignition switch down where the fuel tank usually is, there is a second on/off/kill switch next to the left handlebar (unlike next to the right on gas bikes). The control panel has two rocker switches.. one adjusts the throttle response which is basically how quickly it accelerates to speed, the second controls the total power through the system. There's no speedometer or other gauges other than a battery gauge. It's an Alltrax controller.

So, how'd it ride? After a brief runthrough of the controls (on video) I took it onto the track. They had a little oval track set up rather than put us demo riders on the regular track with the racers. The oval track didn't give us much room to get up to speed before having to slow down to make the turn. Anyway, this thing accelerates very very well, handles extremely well, felt very powerful, etc. And as I said, I did not have the throttle anywhere near full.

First time out it was on the slow throttle and slower power, and it was pretty easy to maneuver around the track. Switching power settings requires stopping the bike, turning it off, changing the switches, then turning it back on. Ah, it probably reprogramms the Alltrax during power up. Anyway when I switched it to higher power and still slow throttle, apparently the common setting for the racers, the power was more than I wanted to deal with so I did only a couple laps.