A Single-Track Hero Made For Kids, But Plenty Fun For Adults: 2026 Zero XE Review
Stealing your kid's dirt bike just got a whole lot more fun.
At this point, I do more riding in my own backyard than anything else. That sounds pejorative, but it really isn't, as I've built myself an off-road, single-track, jump-laden, hill-climb test ground where I can literally step out of my garage and test any and all new dirt bikes, adventure motorcycles, or EV hoons to my heart's content.
It's my paradise.
There's silty, slippery Utah dirt, tight tree-lined trails, rutted-up hard-pack, loose bark, semi-large gravel traps, far larger stone scree sections, and when it rains, all the mud you could ever ask for. A paradise for someone like myself who yearns for dirt in my teeth, and when I don't hurt myself too badly, to tip over when I'm trying to really push a machine to its limits, which I may have done during this particular test—my apologies to the rear fender.
The latter of the types of machines, i.e., the EV dirt bikes, however, have been the most fun, as I can ride until well past sundown without my neighbors calling the HOA board and complaining I'm still out shredding when they're trying to sleep. You just hop on after charging overnight and send it until you get tired, you run out of battery, or you run out of skill. So what all that means is that over the last two months, after building a new 2026 Zero Motorcycles XE EV dirt bike in my garage, I've done a few laps around the compound, and I feel like I know what I'm talking about.
And what I've come to understand is that SurRon, Talaria, Niu, Dust Moto, Bonnell, and Stark Futures should be worried, as this more youth-oriented dirt bike is one that will likely see parents stealing it from their kids. I have very few issues, and that's coming from someone who looks like an absolute gorilla on the back of this medium-sized all-electric dirt bike.
Braap
Centered around a 4.3kWh swappable lithium battery, and paired with Zero's 15.5kW permanent magnet motor, the XE has all the right specs for trail riding, track carnage, getting into the mountains to go chase some animals or fun, or just backyard hoonage. That battery is good enough for about 65 miles per charge, but that's strictly setting the cruise control at about 30 mph and on flat ground. If you're popping wheelies, goosing the throttle, or otherwise using the dirt bike as intended, cut about 15-to-20-ish miles off that figure in my experience.
Still, more than enough for your average rider to have some fun.
If you read my first piece on building the XE in my garage, you'll also know that Zero sent over the Sirris suspension upgrade for both the front and rear, which gave me more adjustability, better dampening, and an overall more solid platform to work off of—also read: better dampening for my larger 190-pound adult frame. Yet, while Zero was fairly straight-up with the XE and its smaller XB sibling's designated rider demographics—The Youths—the specs and riding characteristics felt comfortable for me as a full-sized adult. And like the Stark that's also in my garage, I found myself wondering why anyone, including the major manufacturers, would even put any money into internal combustion for dirt bikes at this point.
On single track, the XE's light footprint—223 pounds—and overengineered Sirris suspension seem to give you telepathic steering. Just let your eyes wander through tight turns and the dirt bike beneath you goes the circuitous trail they've devised. Obstacles are avoided, hazards are merely there to look at, and you'll find yourself not putting a foot down as much as you likely would have had you been on a heavier internal combustion-powered machine.
There's one particular section of single track that's only about 10 inches wide, with sagebrush and cacti lining both sides, with the cacti intermixed beneath the sage. It's quite tight, if I'm honest, and it curves like a rattlesnake, ready to bite you if you get it wrong. Yet, on the XE, it almost feels like a cheat code, as you enter the section and...then you're out having not a care in the world. The same goes for some of the steeper hillclimbs I've built, as the torque underneath your right hand is more than enough to conquer anything.
I will say, as a bigger person, the diminutive wheelbase can give you a bit of pause in certain areas, though, with hillclimbs being one of them. You're more top-heavy, and the feeling I get when going up the steep inclines is one where I feel like I'm sliding backward, or rather, I'm pulling the front end of the dirt bike up, and am going to tip backward before I reach the hill's summit. That wasn't the case, but I did encounter my own size limitations when attempting to do a standing wheelie.
Yeah, if you're over six feet, don't. RIP rear fender. Luckily, just as building the bike was easy, so is repairing it or removing the broken fender to get it out of the way.
The UX and display are also super intuitive, requiring very little of anything to switch modes, adjust settings, or otherwise interact with the bike to get it to your perfect settings. Mine was Standard with traction control off. Oh yes, traction control is a thing on this inexpensive machine, and trust me when I tell you, it works. However, I prefer my right hand controlling the traction versus a computer.
The only other issue I encountered in my time with the XE was an error code that popped on literally the day before I went to drop it back off. The issue, which I researched before writing this, is one that a handful of Zero XE and XB's have been experiencing, and it requires the control unit to be sent into Zero to be reprogrammed. The dirt bike still works; just the display is malfunctioning, so you won't get stranded with a bricked dirt bike. Zero has been replacing it under warranty. But these errors have been few and far between in my research, with my own experience echoed by a lot of XE owners loving the little dirt bike.
So what's the verdict?
Zero wants $6,295 for the XE. That's without the Sirris kit, so add another $3,000 for that. At $6,000 and change, however, shit, the XE is a lot of dirt bike for most folks, and a perfect entry into larger dirt bikes for the hotter-than-hot youth demographic. Additionally, you're reducing your overhead by forgoing oil changes, gas fill-ups—have you seen the price of regular these days?—and maintenance.
Hell, just on the gas savings alone, you could likely afford the Sirris suspension upgrade. But it's absolutely not necessary to enjoy this dirt bike.
If I had older kids, this would be a serious contender to get them to that next step in their motorcycling journeys. At least, after they outgrew the smaller XB. But it's a seriously good platform even for adults, too, especially those who just want to shred and have fun in their backyards, or take this out on some shorter trails or into the woods to chase notoriously skittish animals that don't like sounds.
Seriously, folks, if y'all aren't on these EV dirt bikes, you're missing out. And if you're still talking out your ass about them, try one. I promise you'll leave grinning like an idiot and asking where you send your check.
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