Colt Wrangler Zero XU – a super clean street tracker

Bruno Gomes

May 1, 2018

Colt Wrangler Zero XU street tracker

If we ask you to name a donor bike for a cool custom project you’ll probably think about one of the classics like a Honda CX500, for example. But electric motorcycles are slowly taking their place in the two-wheels world, and that’s why we are seeing more and more custom built electric motorcycles.

That’s precisely the case of the Zero XU that was lucky enough to land at Colt Wrangler Motorcycles shop, owned by former rodeo rider Colt Lyons.

The bike was delivered to Colt Wrangler Motorcycles by a customer and was left at the shop’s corner gathering dust, according to Colt Lyons, for over a year, until they finally decided to work on this electric bike.

Colt originally thought about transforming the Zero XU into a cafe racer, dressed in full fairings. But at that time, Colt Wrangler Motorcycles lacked the tools and skills to do what they wanted, so they’ve waited until they had everything they needed, and at the recent Handbuilt Motorcycle Show, in Austin, Texas, the final result was revealed to the public with great reactions.

“My plans for it changed over time, because of the extra skills and tools I acquired over that year. At first, I planned on gutting a vintage gas tank to set over the top tube” says Colt. “But once I had the proper shaping tools and a welder—and some instruction from friends—I decided to hand-form everything from aluminium sheet”.

But the stock Zero XU electric motorcycle was already a good base to start with, and to get that street tracker look Colt added a 19-inch rear wheel and changed the stock street tyres for flat-track tyres, installed a chain conversion kit, and replaced many of the electrical components including the lights to fit them according to the new slimmer aluminium bodywork.

In the false tank we find the digital gauge, while the charging cables and adapters are kept under the tank.

The full aluminium body replaces all the plastic parts that Zero Motorcycles uses on the stock bike, and the panels have been hand shaped to get the final design, with Colt Lyons having to learn how to TIG weld aluminium to keep everything together.

Even if the whole package stands out from the usual street tracker projects we’ve seen over the years, and that’s really interesting since the bike has no combustion engine to give it some soul, the stand out points from this electric street tracker are the front assembly with LED stacked lights that came off a pick-up bumper, and also that sexy tail section that according to Colt Lyons is a mixture of a flat-track with a superbike rear end.

After all the work made on this Zero XU by Colt Wranglers Motorcycles, the result is, literally, the cleanest street tracker we’ve ever seen, and the proof that even electric motorcycles have their place in the customizing world.