Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/118161
California K I C K- S TA R T Instant torque, zero emissions no gas bill: Pinch me emissions, me, I'm California dreamin' by Masa Takei P H OTO G RA P H Y BY M A R K D O H E RT Y W e're going from Zero to Zero in 10 days. That is, we're starting at Zero Motorcycles, makers of cutting-edge electric bikes just outside Santa Cruz, California, and ending with visits to vintage custom bike builders in L.A. such as Shinya Kimura, originator of "Zero-style." We'll see what the future of motorcycling looks like while paying homage to revisions of its past. We'll also take a 2,000-kilometre core sample of California in between, arcing inland to the desert and down the east side of the Sierra Nevada. Motorcycling, after all, is the way to see California, and not just because it's still 30°C in mid-October, but because it's part of the lore that feeds California's magic – its myths, its movies. I've just picked up Mark, photographer WINDING THROUGH THE ALABAMA Hills, location for dozens of TV shows and films, from the Lone Ranger and Gunga Din to Gladiator and Tremors (top); (l-r) Fifth-generation Bishopite Matt Schober rides past Owen's Valley basalt columns. Best eats: fish tacos with mango chutney at Tioga Gas Mart & Whoa Nellie Deli. and good friend, in San Francisco. Now our 500 kilograms of man, machine and personal effects are thrumming along the 101 heading south, dodging traffic. We're new to this bike – learning on the job and, in our hurry, trying not to meet the Sausage Creature, as Hunter S. Thompson put it in his 1995 review of the blinding-fast Ducati 900ss/sp. Our burly BMW R1200 GS Adventure is wasp-like, aggressive looking and as solid as a tank. It also has a robotic manga/animelike quality to it. When we pull into Zero's lot and park in the shade, I half-expect it to unfold like a Transformer and clomp away. Inside, Zero's offices feel like a combination Silicon Valley startup and aerospace factory. Upstairs is a hive of cubicles and men in chinos, desks littered with aluminum motorcycle chasses and design mockups. Downstairs, tattooed forearms turn wrenches, but there's a noticeable lack of oil spills and no blat of engines being tuned in the belly of what has become the darling of North America's burgeoning electric motorbike industry. The Governator himself pulled a photo-op on one of Zero's 270-pound dynamos – the other end of the spectrum from the 1990 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy Schwarzenegger WESTWORLD p36-41_Calif.Cycle.indd 37 >> FA L L 2 0 1 1 37 8/17/11 12:22:18 PM