By Spencer Wright
Spencer Wright chose an electric motorcycle for his commuter vehicle and quickly racked up 9,000km.
In 2015, I bought my 2013 Zero S as a stepping stone into the EV world. There were no fully electric cars on the market that both fit my range needs, and were within my budget at the time. I had a 110km round trip commute from Peterborough to Cobourg, so this bike fit the bill perfectly for me. Not requiring any special charging station to charge it was also an important factor, as I was renting at the time.
In my first summer of owning the bike, I did about 9,000km of riding – both commuting and day trips around the region. When I heard of the E-Mazing race, I knew this was something I wanted to try, even though it was putting me a bit outside of my comfort zone. The E-Mazing Race was a month long event, where you were to drive around the Province in your EV, and “tag” charging stations by taking a photo of yourself and your EV in front of them. You received points for every charger you tagged, and at the end of the month the highest scoring contestants were awarded!
I rode from Peterborough, through Oshawa, past Toronto, all the way over to Goderich, and back again over the course of 4 days. This was a total of just over 1,000km, for a total electricity cost of about $8. I took the scenic route whenever possible, as I wanted to avoid the 401 at all costs and preferred to take back roads. Only once did I get caught in the pouring rain, but the bike continued to perform flawlessly.
After completing the event, I learned that I was the only person who had ever attempted the race on a motorcycle, and ended up placing in the top 10 for all of Canada!
