Zero to hero
The XP Zero electric motorcycle is a cyberpunk dream made real
Untitled Motorcycles’ latest creation is a custom build using Zero SR/F components.
It seems like not a week goes by without a new eye-catching, wallet-worrying, daydream-inspiring electric motorcycle capturing our attention and our hearts. Last week it was the Verge TS that had our jaws cleaning the carpets and our pulses racing. This week it’s a custom build from Untitled Motorcycles called the XP Zero that’s based on another of our dream bikes: the Zero SR/F.
Untitled Motorcycles has workshops in London and San Francisco and specializes in custom builds, of which it’s done over 100 to date for private clients and big-name brands alike. The XP Zero — or UMC-063 XP Zero to use its full name — started when Zero invited Untitled to see what it could do with the Zero SR/F’s platform. The results, as you can see here, are the stuff of childhood- and adult-dreams alike.
What if gas never existed? — Being fully electric, the XP Zero has no need for a fuel tank, inlet or outlet manifolds, or many of the other trappings of combustion-engined two-wheelers. That means co-founder and design director Hugo Eccles and his team could have free rein with the body, beyond ensuring it was actually rideable. Eccle’s says it’s an imagining of what a motorcycle might look like if combustion ones had never existed.
Most of the exterior consists of custom CNC machined panels and there’s illumination aplenty. A pair of potent LED headlights are discreetly tucked beneath painted aluminum winglets. Those winglets have translucent leading edges with strips of amber LEDs inside that serve as indicators. Similar LED strips appear in the fork covers, heel guards, and under the seat / tail above the rear shock absorber. The tail’s LED strips serve as regular rear lights, brake lights, and indicators.
A five-way joystick next to the left handlebar grip operates the XP Zero’s digital display, which is an essential piece of kit. Though it’s possible to eke out around 160 miles to a charge around town, were you to barrel down the highway at the top speed of 124 MPH (a speed the XP Zero can reach from a standstill in approximately 7 seconds) you’d need to top up the batteries again after 80 miles. But don’t do that. That would be very reckless indeed.
Unmistakably electric — The XP Zero has no clutch, because it doesn’t need one of course, and the transparent top surface serves the dual purpose of housing the information display and letting the rider see the electric powertrain beneath. “From the outset, I knew that I didn’t want to hide the powertrain behind a fairing,” Eccles says. “I wanted to unapologetically celebrate the electric character of this motorcycle.”
But the XP Zero isn’t just an exercise in futurism and head-turning design for the sake of impressing electric motorcycle fans or converting fans of the more conventional. While it's never going to be mass-produced, if you want one, Untitled will build an XP Zero for you, so it's no gimmick. “This isn’t about novelty for novelty’s sake, or some nostalgic idea of the future,” Eccles explains. “The goal is to celebrate this unique riding experience through an entirely new function-led aesthetic. If the XP looks futuristic, it’s because electric motorcycles are the future.”
We can’t argue with that.
