There is one thing that cannot be avoided disconnect between a concept motorcycle and its final production version. By the time you’ve added everything you need to make a bike path legal and practical enough, your original design will probably be off. Unless you are motorcycle noOf course.
A few years ago, the California electric motorcycle manufacturer commissioned the San Fransisco-based company giant design to make a supercar concept for them. It was a huge success and the design went into production as the Zero FXE. And while some changes have been made, the FXE is as close to Huge’s original design as a production motorcycle can be.
Now the two companies are there again. This time, Zero delivered their all-electric sports car, the Zero SR/S, to Huge Design and told them to do their best. The results were astonishing.
Dubbed the ‘Zero SR-X’, the concept features Huge Design’s signature prominently throughout. It follows the same design language as ‘company’MONO RACR‘—a futuristic concept originally created for the Honda CBR1000RR, and the design first caught the eye of Huge on Zero. And even though it’s done on a completely different platform here, it still works great.
The founder of Huge Design said: “The SR-X concept car strives to achieve the right design position for the near future of electric motorcycles, by combining clean lines and thoughtful design. Law-detail with the aggressive looks and raw performance found in modern liter bikes. Webb Invoice.
“This bike is an attempt to define a new sub-category for high-performance electric vehicles, something between a street bike and a track bike. We want true sports riders to appreciate a refined and balanced design approach—modern, futuristic and clean, without sacrificing the raw performance look and obvious mechanical appeal. of high-performance motorcycles.”
In its original form, the Zero SR/S delivers 110 hp and 190 Nm of torque from the company’s proprietary ZF750-10 electric motor. It also comes with fully adjustable Showa suspension and J.Juan brakes.
With that in mind, Bill et al. chose to leave most of the base bike behind. Surname do Swap the footpegs and lower the clamp utility. But for the rest, the SR-X will ‘feel’ a lot like the SR/S — even if it looks a lot wilder.
The original SR/S bodywork is the norm for a sports car, but Huge’s design sacrifices convention in favor of heavy front-end styling with a radical sci-fi feel. In equal parts organic and mechanical, the modular bodywork begins with a muscular front fender, before flowing through the car’s ‘fuel tank’ cap and tapering towards the wasp’s tail.
This forward leaning style has become popular in the custom scene. But if you’ve been reading Bike EXIF for a while, you know that’s the style that Bill pioneered. However, on this particular build, this approach serves more than one purpose.
Bill has been quoted previously as saying that “the biggest challenge with electric powertrains is the lack of visual enjoyment.” He’s not wrong — we can rave about which gas-powered bike has the nicest engine, but most electric motors are weak in nature.
The way Huge has implemented the bodywork here, it hides most of the powertrain, while emphasizing the more aesthetically pleasing mechanical elements towards the rear of the bike.
Despite its progressive design, the surface finish of the SR-X is minimal. Here, it’s all about the details; The elegant red border that surrounds the front of the bike, the LED headlights and taillights are perfectly matched to the design, and even the small front bumper of the dashboard slats. Several aluminum components help visually connect the new parts to the donor frame.
We shudder to think how many hours of CAD software and 3D prototyping have been spent to achieve this. But one thing is for sure: Huge Design really got it right. The Zero SR-X looks spectacular and proves once again the versatility of electric motorcycles as a vehicle for customization.
Does Zero plan to put the SR-X into production? We do not know. But we DO know that the company is not afraid to take risks—and we know that there is smoke in the fire.
We’ll leave you with this fittingly cryptic quote from Brian Wismann, Zero’s VP of Product Development; “The results exceeded expectations and indicated the way forward for our in-house design teams.”
