[dkw12002]

I'm glad I got a little experience riding the Hill Topper before I bought a 2011 Zero S a couple days ago. Battery usage works pretty much the same. If you want to eat up your battery, accelerate all the way up a steep hill, which the Zero does, or go 68 mph, then you won't get 43 miles out of it. Ride it like an e-bike...downthrottle when going down hills, don't slam on the brakes and do jackrabbit starts, and keep the speed down and you can go 50 miles on a charge. Thing is though, if you have ever ridden a Zero, you simply cannot lay of that throttle. Interesting phenomenon. If you have ridden gas motorcycles or scooters. The Zero accelerates like mad up to 68 mph, then is programmed to go no faster. If a gas motorcycle accelerated that fast to 68, you could keep going to 90. Also with hills, a 250 cc motorcycle that goes say 68, will slow down to perhaps 55 on the hill. Not the Zero. It accelerates all the say up the hill...to 68. Try one if you get a chance, but you will be hooked.

What I do with my steep hill using the Hill Topper is walk it up the hill even though I could pedal. Why? Walking is exercise too and that's why I have the e-bike, yet why strain the motor and drain the battery if you aren't in a hurry? Mostly it is my 200 lb. carcass that is the problem. My daughter pedals all the way up steep hills on her e-bike even when she is riding the Hill Topper, then she turns around, comes back down to check on me and heads back up again pedaling with ease. Of couse she is 15 and weighs about 110 lbs.