Gas vs Electric ADV! KLR650 vs. Zero DSR/X

While the Zero has good features, those sort of range/charge times are utterly, completely unacceptable.

2035 EV KLR

The "apples and oranges" comment is superfluous, they compete realistically in different consumer markets. How?, As you said, "the DSR is three times the price of the KLR".

Zero's don't have DC fast charging. Their battery pack voltage is too low. They use "quick charging" which is just two 120 VAC chargers in parallel to get the charge times down a bit compared to a single charger, but it's nowhere fast enough to compare to DC fast charging.

Electric motorcycles and cars are for people that have to say look at me I'm saving the planet while helping enslave people in China making the batteries and kids in Africa mining nthe rare earth materials, but hey your saving the planet

Glad you mentioned range and charge time. No mention of price comparison?

Marketing BS not withstanding, there is no such thing as an electric ADV bike. Battery powered bikes are great for commuting around town but are worthless as adventure bikes.

Baldy you should be ashamed of your far left moderators.

you can buy 3 KLRs for the price of one DSR/X.

Really wasn't much comparison here, just apples and oranges. Maybe comparison to a big BMW ADV bike would have been more in keeping with the Zero's price point, weight and power output?

Trying to push a square peg in a round hole doesn't help the cause of electric motorcycles. It just makes you look like the nutters gluing themselves everywhere. If it's a slow day or if you really care about EVs, you should be showcasing use cases where it makes more sense to use EVs over ICEs. Hint, this, adv/touring, isn't it.
🤲🤦🤦‍♂🤦‍♀

I'm an adopter of electric 2-wheelers (e-enduro and eMTB) but also have my old fossil fuel vehicles. Each has their strengths and I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket.

I see each as having its place. E-bikes are unbeatable as urban commuters and dirt bikes - this is where they sell in their millions. You can charge them at home/work in the case of the urban commuter or ride around your local trails for an hour or two. That's what I do on my Surron (Storm Bee). Thus, electric Urban and dirt bikes are selling like hotcakes. Their price is similar to petrol equivalents. Probably less than US$5k. Running costs are a pittance. Maintenance costs too.

Adventure bikes, when used for their actual stated purpose of adventuring, are entirely unsuited to electric at this point, if not ever. Do NOT try to adventure on an e-bike! You'll get stuck in some desert and be found years later as a pile of bleached bones baking in the hot sun.

KLR is the clear winner. On EVERY point.

I test rode the DSR/X recently. I was impressed by the power, silence, and the engine braking provided with the "canyon" ride mode. If I was commuting to work with a trip of less than 45 miles and the DSR/X fit my budget, I'd have one. But as an Adv bike, I'd be out of range about the time I got to any interesting fire roads. Range needs to go up and price needs to come down before these bikes will gain any traction with the serious riders out there.

Lost me at offroad capable sport tourer, what a ridiculous comparison of bikes...

WOW, the Zero is seriously ugly!!, did HD design it?

Are you serious? The KLR is a proven tool, the Zero is a toy.

Æsj....

Please lose the crappy background music

Didn't watch it. Anything electric is a non-starter for a DS or ADV bike. Keep it in the city, fine but what a disaster to take an electric bike on an actual trip.

As a long-time Zero rider who built a website for owners documenting their bikes and has reverse engineered Zero models for some time, the new adventure electric bikes like the DSR/X and Experia strike me as “all hat and no cattle”.

I mean that the feature set is quite full, but the fundamentals of how the bike can be operated in the field are deeply lacking. They’re right that low speed range is reasonably high, but cold weather, winds, and other factors can reduce range in addition to highway speed drag. An electric adventure rider could make a solid travel plan and still get stranded.

Furthermore, both vendors keep technical documentation under lock and key, ensuring that roadside diagnosis and repair are effectively impossible, and third party servicing is limited to basic mechanical work.

For these reasons, I cannot endorse these vehicles for their marketed purpose. They’re basically cosplay for commuting.

I'll put my 40 year old Honda XL600R against both them turds and win in every way.

Btw, ADV not for profit.

I love riding the Zero bikes. They really are fun and, in fact, more fun than many conventional bikes. But here in Florida, the roads are straight, fast and long. Unfortunately, the battery powered bikes are not well suited for long-ish high speed rides. On one ride, we got just 53 high speed highway miles range till completely dead, and that was with the 14.4KWh (by memory) battery.

Without even looking at this video, I know one thing. If you want a reliable everlasting bike buy the Kawasaki. The Japanese bikes are without peer in terms of quality.
Electric, bah humbug.

Does anyone else find the growing repertoire of stories shilling EVs on ADVrider a bit suspicious? Is there government funding exchanging hands for favorable reporting if EVs?

The answer to the question nobody asked

Conociendo el mundo con Noraly,gracias a su canal itchy booths, vídeos espectaculares,Dios la bendiga,Juan Mejía desde Manizales Colombia

Very good compare betwin an electric shite that cannot go anyware and an embarrassment of a bike that was not performant in it's first itteration [3 and a half decades ago]. The good part of the comparison, is that is highlighting of how long back in time, one must go in order to have something somewhat comparable to the electric junk.

I'd like someone to explain the meaning of "battery-powered efficiency."

100 mile range yet can be fitted w touring equipment …. That is nuts.

I concur with a couple of points: the comparison is DOA. The bikes, while nominally 'designed' to be in the same space, clearly cannot compete in the real-world we all live and ride in as "ADV" riders: the range just is not there (never mind the support when you roll into a small town in WY with a 'problem.' That said the second point is tied to first: if you even take at face-value the 'it's every-bit-as-capable' argument as true: each will require juice, at some point, whether carbon-based and direct (petrol) or carbon-based and indirect (charging at an outlet). I've siphoned gas from a farmer's tractor before (thank you) with a simple desperate ask, but getting to a point where I'd be comfortable asking the same farmer to allow me to 'hang out' at their farm for an hour or two tapping their electrical grid connection is a whole 'nutha ask. This movement is in its infancy and I'm glad some dauntless companies are venturing there, but the nascent-industry of competent, fit-for-purpose, ADV EV bikes is just that; a step above experimental and not fit for the intended purpose that we all have. It's also worth noting that as much as I love doing ADV rides on my Dakar 650, or my 1200GS, they are often-times (and I expect for most of us) with laden-bikes... full of gear and bits for extended trips... this little 'comparison' was not only with relatively light machines, but also a very unrealistic load. My bikes have relatively little deltas whether full of gear or with another passenger or in the cold or even all three in terms of MPG; the drain on an EV goes WAY up when weight is added or environmental conditions (read it gets cold) come into play. Their time will come, but it is not now, for, "us." YMMV

add on missing: in 5 years you can sell your KLR while the ZERO is literally Zero has it will be at the scrap yard since you would not be able to repair it elow the cost of the bike itself. A complete waste of money and time....nice review

Note to self- don't lend these guys your bikes they will ride them through saltwater.

My 87 KLR has in excess of 60,000 miles and still is a very viable machine that costs little to maintain and I can repair it with a hammer !

i am still a believer that I can walk for a gallon of gas but cant for a gallon of electric, when batteries get better than I would consider.

Is there any doubt that batteries will evolve steadily and eventually provide the kind of range ADV riders need? Not in my mind. EV's, using renewable technology, are the sustainable way forward, politics be damned.

3 times the price to I am certain.

200 miles aka 300km is actually very very good for an electric bike, I'm sure you can charge it from the wall too just slower too bad Zero is a shit company that gives a shit reputation to all electric bikes now.