Darryl Mocek

We had an event today at Sun's Santa Clara Campus. Zuum Craft came by with a couple of Zuumer's so we could give them a try. What is a Zuumer? It's a three-wheeled (one in front, two in back) electric scooter. You ride it just like you'd ride a two-wheeled scooter except that it's much more stable from the two wheels in back, instead of two. Learning to ride the Zuumer is almost natural as it mimics the movement of other activities, like riding a skateboard or scooter, surfing, skiing, and snowboarding. The Zuumer stands by itself when not ridden.

One of the more interesting things about the Zuumer is how the rear wheels work. They're mounted on a two-part pivot system where one of the pivots pivots the wheels horizontally and the other pivot pivots the wheels vertically. No matter how far I leaned the Zuumer, the rear wheels never came off the ground. This gave the Zuumer a very planted feel and in fact, you could turn the Zuumer extremely fast as long as you were willing to lean far enough over (which the Zuumer CEO demonstrated). When you apply the brakes, the throttle is cut off, so panic stops should be no problem.

The Zuumer houses two batteries in the platform which slide in and out of place on a guide mounted to the top of the platform. The batteries can be locked for security.

The Zuumer will do about 15 MPH and it's range runs about 20 miles. You can recharge the batteries to 85% capacity in about 2 hours, a full change takes about 4 hours.

I really enjoyed riding the Zuumer. It didn't feel like it was a vehicle I'd ride only to be green, but I'd ride just for fun. I could see using it as a commute vehicle as my commute is only about 16 miles each way and I have the option of several street routes.

They're supposed to be available pretty soon, possibly by the beginning of the year. I'll let you know if I pick one up.

I recently found out about the Enertia Electric Motorcycle from Brammo. The Enertia, like many electric vehicles coming onto the market, is targeting the majority of people who commute, on average, about 30 miles or less a day. The reasoning goes if the majority of commuters can use an electric vehicle, with zero emissions (plus the emissions from generating the electricity), we'll all be generating at lot less pollution. Sure, there will be days when you have extra errands to run where a vehicle like this might not do...or maybe you just need to make sure you can charge it fully before you run your errands.

The Enertia has the look of the "street fighter" style motorcycles (it's not too bad looking...actually, it's one of the better looking electric bikes I've seen), gets about 45 miles per charge, can fully charge in about 3 hours, charges from a standard outlet, has a top speed of 50 M.P.H., and only weighs about 275 pounds. Part of the reason it weighs so little (and costs so much) is that it uses a carbon fiber moncoque frame (carbon fiber is still pretty expensive) and it utilizes Lithium Phosphate batteries (also expensive). However, the reduction in weight makes the bike more manageable and provides for a longer range.

I'd love to be able to swap out my internal combustion motorcycle for one of these.