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[Lipo423]

I was lucky enough to be invited to a dealer presentation and being able to drive the new S 2013, and the 2013 FX.

You may summarize this is one word:

AMAZING!

The bikes are all knew, silent, nicer, more powerful, practical, and far more efficient. Our friends have done a great job in the motor development -have not seen anything like this in the industry so far.

Undoubtedly Zero is becoming the worldwide choice in the electric bikes industry

I'm seriously thinking in purchasing the new FX, what it makes me worried is that the std. onboard charger is too small (around 600-700W), and it takes almost 7.5 hours to charge the 5.7Kw model . I believe it should get minimum 1KW, ideally the ones on the S line 1,3Kw...
Thoughts?

[protomech]

Bet it would be a popular upgrade.

So, hypothetical question.. assuming same cost, weight, packaging.. which would you rather have?

* 5.0 kWh, 650W (70 miles city, 7.5h 95% charge, 9 mph charge)
* 4.5 kWh, 1.3 kW (63 miles city, 3.3h 95% charge, 18 mph charge)
* 4.0 kWh, 2.6 kW (56 miles city, 1.5h 95% charge, 36 mph charge)

(2.6 kW req either 2 110v circuits or J1772)

[Lipo423]

If not the 5,7Kw, the 4,5Kw configuration you mentioned

I would like to get a 1Kw onboard charger on the 5.7Kw package or more- but I understand getting the 1,3Kw one on the FX might not be achievable without major re-design...and might not make the bike that nice.

I believe it is important to take into account where we are today on the charging infrastructure + autonomy with a 5Kw battery pack. If they want to make the FX a big sell (which they could), make an "all-around" bike where you can have fun in the trail, and go to work being able to charge in a std. plug there...and then be able to come back home.

Today 1 CHAdeMO available Station in BCN and 2-3 more in Spain...

They also did a great job on the battery packs, you can replace them in 1-2 min (they are all made in a nice-finishing ALU enclosure and weight 18Kg each (2.8Kw)

Surprisingly I was told they are made of LiPo cells???

[emotofreak]

If you purchase the auxillary 1kw off-board charger (deltaq), you increase your charge power to 1.6kw and drop your charge times to about 3 hours. In essence there "is" a high powered charge option, it's just not integrated into the bike, because there is no extra room, and not everyone wants it. Buy one and leave it at work and your bike is fully charged by lunch and again by the time you wanna go home. Take it home on the weekends and you can have multiple street, hooligan, or trail sessions every day

[Lipo423]

Thanks emotofreak,

Yes, I know the drill (I actually own a 2nd charger for my Zero S 2012)...the thing is that from getting a 600W charger to 1Kw should not be a real space problem for Zero, but it does make a difference to not have to play around with 20 chargers to get a fast charge...unless they do this to sell more chargers, which quite frankly would not be very customer-friendly.
With the FX you can do anything, trust me, it flies like a rocket  the riding it feels like a 450-500 Enduro type Gas bike.

[trikester]

Does the FX actually use two separate battery packs? Like could you rig a rack to carry a spare 2.8 pack and swap out one pack when out of "juice"? To do this there would also have to be the ablity to leave the other "dead" pack unplugged. I assume each pack would have its own plug-able connection. Is that the case?

Trikester

[NoiseBoy]

Would you really want 18kg of dead weight swinging around on the back of a lightweight hooligan bike?

[Lipo423]

yes, it has two 2.85Kw independent -replaceable- battery packs in the bike chassis, and noiseboy is right 18Kg is too much weight...

http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/2013/

[protomech]

For the FX 5.7 you would need to replace both battery modules at once. You could (in theory) bring a single extra module and use it in a 'limp home' mode, where power is limited to 20kW as the FX 2.8 (and the current 2012 S / DS, for that matter).

[trikester]

Would you really want 18kg of dead weight swinging around on the back of a lightweight hooligan bike?

Of course I wouldn't want the extra weight - unless it meant not being able to do a ride I really wanted to do, but wouldn't have the range with just 5.7.

I know a guy who built an electric mountain bike and did a long, two day, desert ride towing a trailer with his lead acid batteries on it.

Trikester

[Doctorbass]

I dont remember exactly what is the new 2013 zero voltage, but  i would suggest a great FAST and lightweight and compact way to cahrge your zero!

Meanwell power supply copany are making 1000 , 1500 and 2000W power supply that are very efficient!.. these power supply are constant voltage and constant power/current so they charge any lithium battery perfectly!

I am using some for my 1.7kWh battery on my electric Giant Dh bike.

The model i'm talking about are the RSP-1000, RSP1500 and RSP2000. they can be found on emay for about 250 to 400$ each. Their max voltage they are offered is 48V but you can adjust up to 56V. and they are ISOLATED so you can connect many in serie if you connect a protection diode in parallel to each power supply.

just to give you an idea i can fit a 2000W model right under the seat of my 2011 DS !! and still have room for other stuff !

their 2000W modes is one of the most compact one!

http://www.trcelectronics.com/Meanwell/rsp-2000-48.shtml




I know they also must have the wire that trigger it ON or OFF  that is controlled by the MMB but this can be done easy with a realy... or it will work anyway if you charge to a voltage just a little bit under the max full cahrge, just before cells can go out of balance.

[Lipo423]

Thanks Protomech. The 2013 model's voltage is 102V (as I mentioned earlier I could see and ride the FX & the new S a few days ago).

Good information (sometimes I wonder why you do not work at Zero  )

Hopefully one of their NPD engineers are watching this thread (CHAdeMO is the future guys, but the present/practicality is 110/220 std. 10/16A outlets...)