Zero S

[Nny]

I know I don’t post much but I figure I would share the news. She traded the 250 in for a Zero S 11.4.

The short story is that the only miles being put on the 250 were from me and it wasn’t as often as it needed. In a casual conversation I mentioned one of the dealers near me became a Zero Motorcycle dealer (thinking she wouldn’t care but I was going to tell someone and she was going to get the earful because she is obligated to).

I mentioned electric bike that does not require the typical maintenance from a combustion engine. I mean really for the most part it is tires and brakes. What really got her though was when I mentioned that there is no clutch. I saw it as a negative but she was really excited to see it at that point. The rest of my spiel (all positive) wasn’t necessary after that.

I told her the dealer had a demo model on the floor and I wanted to head over on the weekend to test it out. It was a DS model but aside from the ride height it was similar to the S model that she liked. The short version of this is that the ride was good enough where I could overlook the fact I didn’t need to shift.

The S and DS model have a toggle mode between “economy” and “sport”. The economy mode has a very similar power band of the Ninja 250 but smoother. The sport mode has a similar power band to the Ninja 650 I had. A cool feature about this though is that power band is adjustable by an app you can put on your smart phone.

Anyway, a few weeks later of tracking down a 2013 model, she traded in the Ninja 250. We went for a ride around the neighborhood so she could get used to it and the following day I followed her to work. Her confidence is through the roof on this bike. She loves it. I suspect next year (after winter) that we are going to be putting a lot of miles on it.

So on with the pics, right? Here is a picture of my garage and another of them in the driveway prepped for our first ride together with the new bike. Also, I left a lot out so that no one was staring at a wall of text, but if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.



On a side note, I went back to the dealer after the trade was done and saw the Ninja 250 sitting there.... It was my forth bike but it was also my first sport bike. Kind of heartbreaking to see it there.

[xdnxp]

Thanks for posting that. My wife has been trying to get into riding but the shifting makes her panic. I'd love to go on rides with her. This seems like a solution. Thank you.

[Nny]

That's exactly where we were. She did well enough when we went around the block with the Ninja 250 but learning to be on two wheels AND learning shifting left her frustrated. She knew that if there was a bike that didn't require shifting she would enjoy it a lot more.

Just to be thorough, I showed her an Aprilia Mana I found on craigslist (auto transmission). Even with the price difference the Zero won out in her eyes. I think she made a good choice. With the lack of maintenance and gas the Zero S will eventually win out on the cost factor.

[allanoue]

wall of text please?

[dfox]

nice! I'd love to pick up one of those, or the Empulse R... just no room for a loan on a bike, and I'd rather keep the cash for a down payment on a home within the next year...

hope she enjoys it. They look like they're fun to ride.

[Nny]

Originally Posted by allanoue

wall of text please?

LOL! You got it!

Acceleration (economy mode): honestly, I didn’t spend a whole lot of time in this mode. I was having a lot of fun in sport. …BUT, what I did was in traffic (40MPH) under normal circumstances. It struck me as being very similar to the Ninja 250 but this was smoother. Not that the 250 wasn’t.

Acceleration (sport mode): I found this to have a similar low end torque as my old Ninja 650. I think the S has more grunt up top though. The power delivery is quite a bit more than economy mode but it still manages to be smooth. They say top speed is about 95MPH but I can’t confirm that. I can say that I got on the highway and looked at the speedometer and realized that ummmm… that I needed to slow down.

These two modes can be switched at any time and both are adjustable by a slider bar through the phone app along with top speed.

Handling: flickable. Just as flickable as the 250 I’d say. I think there is an extra 10LBS on the S than the Ninja 250 but you would never notice. It went over the imperfections of the road very well and I think with some adjustment it could handle a track day without an issue. My other half was mentioning how forgiving it seemed.

Seat height/riding position: It is an upright position much like the 250. The seat height is .5 an inch taller but with the flexibility of the suspension, supposedly it can get lower (going off of what one of their sales reps for this area told me). The foot pegs seem a bit lower than the 250. Not by much but enough for me to notice. The seat felt scooped out. I wouldn't change the shape but it is a bit stiff.

Veiw: The long stem mirrors give you plenty of visibility and no shaking - so no funky chicken dance trying to see behind you with the mirrors. The dash is very easy to read and grouped together well. My only complaint is there is no clock.

Maintenance: There are no oils that need to be changed as far as the engine goes. There is of course the brake fluid and fork fluid though. No filters to change out and it is belt drive so no lubing and cleaning there either. Just plug it in every night. A full charge will cost $1.20 and that gives you 67 highway miles at 70mph or 137 in the city. Slow speeds and regenerative braking give you the better mileage from what I understand. There is a CHAdeMO charger that will do a full charge in one hour and there is a surprising amount of them in my area. Other than that, replace the brake pads and tires when needed. Tires are the same tire sizes as the Ninja 250 by the way.

The hardest part to swallow is the initial sticker price. MSRP is $14k for the 8.5 battery and $16k for the larger battery. You get a %10 rebate during tax season. I am just going to say that the sales guy at my local dealer is awesome.

Noise level: There really isn’t much. There is a “whir” as you accelerate but it gets hushed by the wind noise. When at a stop, there is no noise. Nothing is running, just the lit up display from the dash. I know that some may look at this as a bad thing but IMHO, as long as you are riding defensively – I don’t see it as an issue. Also… when riding, there is a certain ambiance that just can’t be described here. Ultimately, I REALLY want one of my own.

[allanoue]

I want one

[Nny]

P.S. I forgot to mention. Where the "gas tank" is - there is actually a storage compartment there.

[allanoue]

what is the chemistry, volts and AH of the battery? Do you know who makes it?

[Nny]

Originally Posted by allanoue

what is the chemistry, volts and AH of the battery? Do you know who makes it?

Z-Force Li-Ion battery
Max volt: 116.2 V
Nominal volt: 102.2
Nominal Capacity: 98 Ah
Nominal energy Capacity: 10 kWh
Max energy capacity: 11.4 kWh

Standard 110 V charger or 220 V if equipped. CHAdeMO is also available.

Info taken from this link:
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/power...les-sheets.pdf

[allanoue]

I wish it were a Lithium phosphate but if I had the $14k I would not hesitate.

[Singh2jz]

Thats pretty sikk! I might get one in the future. Do you know the lifespan of the batteries?

[Nny]

Originally Posted by Singh2jz

Thats pretty sikk! I might get one in the future. Do you know the lifespan of the batteries?

They are advertising the battery life goes to 309,000 miles for the 11.4 and 232,000 miles fort the 8.5. What they consider end of life for the battery is an 80% charge. So the battery is still good, it just isn't getting the charge it once did.

[lgk]

how powerful is the engine braking?

[Nny]

Originally Posted by lgk

how powerful is the engine braking?

There is quite a bit. Maybe not quite as much as my R6 but there is still enough where typical street light to street light traffic you really will only be tapping on the brakes to let the people behind you know that you are in fact slowing down.

[Singh2jz]

Originally Posted by Nny

They are advertising the battery life goes to 309,000 miles for the 11.4 and 232,000 miles fort the 8.5. What they consider end of life for the battery is an 80% charge. So the battery is still good, it just isn't getting the charge it once did.

oh nice..thats a lot more than I was expecting. Congrats!

[caps]

Interesting...

[iplante]

That bike looks pretty good (except for the fender, lol).

Is there a nice community like Ninjette for Zero S bikes?

[choneofakind]

Dunno, but post more here! I like those bikes, they're pretty cool.

[iplante]

I actually saw one of the older models in person at the MN State Fair once, but at that time they were ugly as hell. I like this new style.

[Nny]

Well, it is mid-July and I would figure I would give you guys something since I promised I would. She has put on about 1000 miles and continues to not let me ride it. She has just been using it for commuting with the occasional weekend ride with me.

I think the longest ride we went on with a single charge has been about 80ish miles and when we got back to the house she had about 2 bars (out of 11) of battery life left. This was mostly 55 zones with a lot of elevation changes. We went through a couple towns but lights and traffic was pretty light. I know that trip was taken while it was set to economy mode. In fact, I don’t think she has put it in sport mode yet but I will say there were a couple times where I got on the throttle (nothing that would get me pulled over mind you) and did a quick check in my mirror to see that she was still right behind me.

There are some options with the Zero Motorcycles App that allow her to change the engine braking, battery regen, top speed and torque (I may be forgetting one more setting) but we haven’t messed with that yet…even though I have been dying to. I think if we adjusted some things we could get some better mileage out of it.

One cool thing that kind of opens up some doors for us though is that one of our trips was to go tubing with my family. We called ahead and asked if we could plug in somewhere while we went down the river and they let us free of charge.

There is a scheduled maintenance chart. There is a first check up at 600 miles and then it is every 4k miles. It is really easy to do and may only take about 30 minutes at most on my own. We were going to avoid taking it to the dealer but I had noticed that the front forks needed to be looked at. As it turns out one of the seals needs to be replaced but it is under warranty and will not cost her a thing for them to fix. One of her mirrors started getting loose. The bolts were easy to get to though and it took me longer to find my allen key than it did to tighten it up.

Over all she loves this bike. The more she rides it the less she likes being a passenger on one of mine. Her schedule at work is changing soon where we can spend more riding time together the rest of the summer. I’ll be sure to give another update when we toy around with the power/regen Zero app and have a better idea on what kind of mileage we can get out of it.

[NevadaWolf]

Is the charge rate still around an hour?

I really really want an electric bike, but that charge time is what is holding me off getting one.

Hadn't thought of doing trackdays on one.. oh, that would be sick!

[choneofakind]

I like the idea of the regenerative braking. I wonder how much you would need to turn that up to get a good imitation of engine braking, and how much that would affect your mileage.

As always, very cool! Keep posting more as you ride it more.

[Nny]

Originally Posted by NevadaWolf

Is the charge rate still around an hour?

I really really want an electric bike, but that charge time is what is holding me off getting one.

Hadn't thought of doing trackdays on one.. oh, that would be sick!

Recharge time using a standard 120v outlet is about 8 hours from a full drain. Using the CHAdeMO charging system is 1 hour from a full drain. The problem we have with the CHAdeMo charger and why she hasn't installed it yet is availability and compatibility. I have some time off coming up and I plan to look at the charging stations in my area to see if they are the type that Zero installs and supports. Besides, it's a $2000 install.

The track I have been going to doesn't have electricity available to riders yet. I'd imagine it should be available next year. When it does, I'll have that conversation about track days with her.

Originally Posted by choneofakind

I like the idea of the regenerative braking. I wonder how much you would need to turn that up to get a good imitation of engine braking, and how much that would affect your mileage.

As always, very cool! Keep posting more as you ride it more.

I did sync up the Zero app to the bike and if what I was looking at is accurate, the regen and engine braking were both set somewhere around 60%. I would imagine if we turn both those up that the engine braking would be exactly the same if not more than what I experience on my R6. Should boost her mileage too.

[allanoue]

Need an update please?

Range? Tire life? Chain life? Etc?

[Nny]

LOL! I had a feeling I may see this post getting bumped soon. No problem! While we are just getting back into riding season after what seemed like an incredibly long winter; I may not have much to say about her experience with the bike but I have done a bit of research over the winter.

Charging method (update)
What started this was over the winter, it started to settle in exactly how she felt about the bike and how much she missed it. She expressed interest in going on the kind of rides I typically do - Which is definitely outside of the range on a single charge. So I started looking. Zero apparently dropped support on ChaDeMo charging system. To us it isn’t a big deal as the stations around here are all J1772. I found that out by going to this website called www.chargepoint.com. There is an interactive map in there and as you swipe your card to use at the station, it will be listed as ‘in use’ on the site. Not only that but there is a mobile app for it as well. Zero supports the J1772. They also have a quick charge that can get the charge done from “empty” to full in about 4 hours. However, there is a company that produces a charger that is compatible to the Zero (called Elcon chargers) that can get the charge done in an hour. I also found out there is another company in California that will sell you the complete setup. Apparently, some guy traveled from California to New York using this exact setup.

While this is the ‘go to’ product for anyone looking for a quick charger for their Zero, Zero WILL void the warranty if an issue comes up that can be directly tied to this charger. Honestly it makes sense. Any company will do the same thing. I guess the good news is that I haven’t seen anyone say they’ve had an issue with it yet. I explained all this to my other half and it sounds like she still wants that charger installed. So maybe during this summer I will give an update on that.

Tire life?
She still has the stock tires with only about 2500 miles on them. Her commute is only 12 miles round trip and we have only done a couple day trips that are within range of a single charge. The tires still look good but I can see what kind of rider she is shaping up to be and I would bet she will want to change out the tires to something stickier before they are worn out. That’s just a guess though. I mean, I have asked her to go to a track day with me and …well she isn’t saying no.

Chain life?
Well the Zero is belt and I would expect to see similar results of that on my Harley – near 50k miles on the stock belt while never needing adjustment or any kind of maintenance.

Etc?
In one of my previous post, I mentioned that we had to do some warranty work on the fork seals. Well, we did have something else that will need to be covered by that warranty. There is the housing that the electric cord gets plugged into the bike. Where it screws into the bike broke. Should be a really easy fix and doesn’t hinder operation in anyway. It’s just one of those moments where you scratch your head and go “really?!” Wouldn’t you know it that when it happened, I was trying to be nice and plug it in for her after we finished up a ride. I still hear crap about me “breaking her bike”... Tongue in cheek of course.

There is another dealer that started selling Zeros about 2 hours south of me and I called them about a week or two ago. One of my questions was if they had a FX as a demo and they said “yes”. Maybe in another month or two, I will head down there to test it out. I kinda already know how I will feel about it though. To me this is the perfect hooligan bike and I know what will come with it. My only saving grace is that after paying off my car and buying a dedicated track bike, I am pretty well broke right now and couldn't afford it anyway.

[allanoue]

Link to original page on YouTube.

http://www.motorcycle.com/features/t...in-silent.html

[Proteus]

I keep going back and forth on these, but the range and the pace of development for them is what keeps me holding back still. If you look at the range of the 2009 (or so, I don't remember exactly) it was around 50 miles and now they're up to 120-150, and the price has actually gone down. It's hard to know when is the right time to buy that you won't be kicking yourself a few years later when the same model has a 300 mile range for the same price.

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by Proteus

I keep going back and forth on these, but the range and the pace of development for them is what keeps me holding back still. If you look at the range of the 2009 (or so, I don't remember exactly) it was around 50 miles and now they're up to 120-150, and the price has actually gone down. It's hard to know when is the right time to buy that you won't be kicking yourself a few years later when the same model has a 300 mile range for the same price.

In 3 years when my car is payed off but I will keep the ninja y

[Proteus]

The thing is, the range is there already for 90% of my riding but it's that last 10% that keeps me holding off. We don't do much touring but I like to do 200 mile day trips.

[allanoue]

Link to original page on YouTube.