Zero DSR/X Adventure Bikes Win Maudes Trophy For Cross-Britain Endurance Ride

[advrider]

Electric motorcycle manufacturer Zero has sent a pair of DSR/X adventure bikes on an award-winning endurance run through the UK that shows the capabilities of their machines—but also the drawbacks.

Through the last days of November, a team of riders took Zero’s bikes on an 1,100-mile run that started in Land’s End and ended in Liverpool, with stops in Lowestoft, Edinburgh and Holyhead along the way. The goal was to demonstrate the bikes’ capabilities, particularly in cold weather, while challenging for a Maudes Trophy. The Maudes Trophy is a prize (a silver trophy) handed out to a motorcycle manufacturer or group of riders who achieve a “meritorious” riding accomplishment observed by the Auto Cycle Union. Its history goes back to the 1920s.

Traditionally, the teams winning this event were factory squads from companies like Ariel, Triumph or BSA. Some of the rides were average-speed runs at home in the UK; others were international efforts. You can read more about Maudes Trophy history here.

To win the Maudes Trophy, Zero had seven riders take the two bikes through this trans-Britannic route over three days and two nights. Here’s the Auto Cycle Union’s description of their run:

Despite temperatures plummeting to -6°C and snow and ice throwing barriers in their way the team from Zero Motorcycles completed its challenge for the Auto Cycle Union’s Maudes Trophy, riding over 1100 miles, between four points of the UK, in just over 60 hours.

Setting off from Lands End last Wednesday morning, the team of seven riders took turns to ride a pair of all-electric Zero DSR/X motorcycles in relay on a challenge set out to test and prove the viability of electric motorcycles, as well as the public charging infrastructure in the UK. The team had a trouble free first day, checking into Lowestoft, the easternmost point of the British Isles, but the ride north to Edinburgh proved treacherous as temperatures plummeted and heavy snow fell. Despite conditions deteriorating, the team carried on, albeit at reduced speeds – arriving in the icy Scottish capital in the early hours of Friday morning.

The challenge was completed on Friday, when the team rode through Cumbria and into North Wales, arriving at the final checkpoint in Holyhead mid-afternoon. From Holyhead, the bikes were ridden for a final 100 miles to Liverpool, where the team were awarded the ACU’s prestigious Maudes Trophy ahead of the FIM Awards ceremony, held at the city’s convention centre.

It was the first time an electric motorcycle manufacturer won the Maudes Trophy, and the first time it’s been handed out since 1994.

Given the weather conditions, it certainly doesn’t sound like much fun, so good for Zero’s team for pulling this off. And yet, it is worth stopping to look at the numbers. Eleven hundred miles in 60 hours in hard conditions might not be easy, but it also wouldn’t win a Maudes Trophy or any other award if you were on a gas bike. It wouldn’t even be good enough for an IBA certificate. The main reason this is noteworthy is because the riders had to work around existing EV infrastructure and technology. And good for them—they did so. I don’t fancy riding Scotland in the snow, and completing this ride would have been very difficult.

But consider how this feat shows that existing electric motorcycle technology still lags behind even the most budget-friendly ICE bikes, despite well over a decade of serious development. A Honda CBR250 could handle 1,100 miles in 60 hours with no difficulty. The rider would be uncomfortable, but it would be no great feat otherwise, and the bike would cost far less than these Zeros. If the OEMs really want us to go electric, it’s time for them to sort out the problems of battery range, recharge times and bike cost. Otherwise, the upcoming electrification deadlines (when no more gasoline-powered bikes can be sold) will leave us with machines that step seriously backwards in their capabilities.

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