#Fxs

Today, U.K. resident Fred Murphy became the first Briton to benefit from his government’s new “Plug-In” subsidy for electric motorcycles. The grant was first introduced in January 2011, but only electric automobiles were eligible at the time. In 2015 the grant was extended to qualifying motorcycles, with details finalized in October 2016. The full requirements can be found here. In the U.S., electric motorcycles may be eligible for incentives and rebates depending on the state.

Remember that time, two years ago in 2014, when we put an electric bike up against an ICE motorcycle… and the electric won? The two protagonists in that matchup were the Zero FX, modified for supermoto use by our friend Harlan Flagg, proprietor of Hollywood Electrics, and the Suzuki DR-Z400SM. At that time Zero had yet to officially have a supermoto version of its FX in the lineup, but other than the obvious change in wheels, brakes, and tires, the FX was otherwise a stock bike.

If you’ve been keeping tabs, we’ve ridden the Zero FX quite a lot. First in 2013 when I rode one to the top of Pikes Peak, during the 91st running of the iconic event. Later that year I was fortunate enough to be drafted onto a team that raced another FX twice around the clock, making history as the first electric motorcycle to do so. In 2014, Zero’s VP of Global Marketing, and off-road racing legend, Scot Harden, invited E-i-C Kevin Duke and myself to his backyard track to get a taste of the FX in its natural (dirt) environment. Following that, Editor Roderick and I took another FX to Adams Motorsports Park to put it head-to-head with a Suzuki DRZ-400SM, for a gas vs. electric supermoto face-off – where it won! And, because I hadn’t had enough of the FX, in early 2015, I had the bright idea to take one to the short track at Del Mar to try my hand at flat track “racing” (in quotes because I had no idea what I was doing). So, with no less than five Zero FX stories in our archives, a natural next question might be: “Another Zero FX review?!”