Zero MX Beats Quantya And 450cc Bikes In France


Zero MX Wins At Gironville In France

Zero MX Wins At Gironville In France

Unlike the upcoming Eco Enduro in Denmark where Zero and Quantya will run in different classes, the two rival electric dirtbike companies went head to head last weekend in France. After Zero’s defeat of Zero X mounted riders by Quantya at Mini Moto SX last year Zero introduced the Zero MX to help it perform better at the track. Though this was not an actual motorcross track, it looks like they accomplished their goal.

The Fédération Française de Motocyclisme (French Motorcycling Federation / FFM) held the first official French electric offroad motorcycle race at Gironville with 250 riders in attendance. Thomas Aubry won the electric class aboard a bone stock Zero MX.

GOES, the Zero Motorcycles importer for France heard about the race 2 weeks before it was held and worked with MX Land to assemble a team and had little time to prep the bike. Antonie Valla, a representative of GOES was happy to report they did not have any mechanical issues with the MX but did have trouble topping off the battery with 15 minutes between motos. Much like the Shocking Barack duo, they learned a lot about the challenges of racing an electric motorcycle in a world built for internal combustion engine (ICE) bikes.

Most of the information I found is in French which I translated with Google/translate. If you know French please let me know if I misinterpreted any of the facts.

From what I can gather, five electric motorcycles, 4 Quantya Tracks and 1 Zero MX, ran in the electric class along side 250 and 450cc ICE bikes of all flavors. Based on the pictures the track appears to be a hare scramble setup in a grassy field. I am not exactly sure how the race is organized but Aubry beat 450cc bikes to take first place in one of the finals. It sounds like it was a few steps below the highest and fastest class of racers but still impressive to the 1000’s of race fans on hand.

The light weight and torque of the Zero MX allowed Aubry to pass heavier, more powerful ICE mounted competitors in technical sections of the track. Based on the pictures it looks like he pulled some pretty decent launches. I am curious if the race had a dead engine start where the bike has to be started after the gate drops. I image the electric would have an advantage if that was the case.

Final results for the Electric Class:
1) Thomas Aubry (Zero Motorcycles)
2) Julien Breant (Quantya)
3) Adrian Goguet (Quantya)
4) Vincent Cossard (Quantya)
5) David Maze (Quantya)

Sources: emoto, MX2K, Facebook