Here’s the Curtiss Zeus

Photos: Curtiss

Picture a post-apocalyptic world, a land where the only motorcycles left are rat bikes. Now, picture a wasteland warlord with more money (or slaves, or water, or whatever) than anyone else, enough money to build whatever bike he wants out of the pieces left from society’s collapse. What is his motorcycle going to look like?

In that Mad Max future, we’d guess the elite would be riding something that looks like the Curtiss Zeus.

(Curtiss, of course, is the company formerly known as Confederate, wearing a new name that’s more politically correct).

The Curtiss Warhawk was the first machine the new company unveiled, but it wasn’t much of a departure from previous Confederate designs. The Zeus, on the other hand, was supposedly designed from the ground up to be an all-electric bike, disregarding the styling cues made necessary on motorcycles with internal combustion engines.

Here are the important details: the Zeus is powered by twin electric motors, sourced from Zero and producing 170 hp and 290 lb-ft of torque. The motors draw on Curtiss’s 14.4 kWh T-Block battery pack, a new proprietary design.

Race Tech provided the shocks for the front end’s double wishbone suspension as well as the rear suspension (cantilever monoshock), which shares a pivot point with the driveshaft. Although this gets rid of some suspension design issues, it introduces other complexities.

The chassis itself is machined billet aluminum, and its components are bolted together, not welded together. The wheels are made of carbon-fibre. While the styling is post-apocalyptic, the materials used certainly aren’t!

The Zeus was unveiled at the Quail Motorcycle Gathering, one of the most prestigious custom shows in the US. A production version is supposed to be ready by 2020.

GALLERY

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