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[Nihil]

Hi everybody!
I'v considered purchasing an FX for my supermoto track-days and daily commute for a while now.
Had the opportunity to ride one at the track this past weekend... and it blew my mind!
I have to tell you, this bike is amazing. from the first lap I was faster then on my sumo XR650L, even though the FX had knobby tires!
Was really impressed by the bikes geometry. felt stable, good cornering speed and more then enough power to compete with the 450's on the go-cart track.
Also, the battery life exceeded my expectations, as we rode the bike all day long, to and at the track (40 km commute to the track), and it still had 30% charge left at the end of the day!
very impressive!

However, I was wondering what are my options regarding spare batteries and charging:
I need to ride it to and from the track- 40 km in each direction, plus  half a day of 20 minute sessions with 20 minutes between them.
What I had in mind was charging one of the batteries of the 5.7 FX with a quickcharger during these 20 minute breaks.
Or maybe get a third battery that will charge for 40 minutes (session+break) and "juggle" 3 batteries.
Question is:
Is it possible/recommended to charge only one battery?
Will the bike lose power as it does when riding with only one battery?

If anyone has "real-world" experience track-day riding an FX I'd love to hear your take on this.
thank you!
 

[BSDThw]

I will use my FX in the same way (if I get my butt in gear) but I think it will only work if I use my car to carry the bike to the track.
All my addition charger equipment and tools can't be carried with the bike - also a breakdown and no possibility to return is not what I will risk!

I think only one battery works for offroad but not for Supermoto. The power will be limited and you have not enough power at high speed.
If you have the money you can buy the adapter and charger to charge the batteries off board.

I will use the 20min "Kart-Break" to recharge the batteries "in side" the bike. Nice every place has grid access for the tire heaters

The biggest problem I see is the FX will get in motor overheating to soon. I will do some motor modification to try fixing it, but this will be a bigger task! Maybe winter break.

BTW we didn't get a real summer this year and this will additionally slow down my itch to build all I would need!

[Nihil]

Actually the bike did overheat while I tested it. it wasn't that bad, just a bit of "lag" in accelerating in very low speeds (hairpin).
I think I'll wait with the motor upgrade.

I don't intend to ride it with one battery, I want to charge a third battery outside the bike while I use the other two in the bike for 40 minutes (rest+break).
I'm just not sure using a charged battery with an empty one is recommended and will yield the same power.

Maybe I'll have to buy two quickchargers and charge them both outside the bike for 20 minutes?

[BSDThw]

When charging out side you need additionally the Adapter 140$/150€per battery! or you can buy a Y-cable ~250$/270€ to use 2 Chargers (let confirm it from your dealer if it works at a FX I never asked for this but think it will be OK)

You are in Europa too?

It will not work like you think.

If the bike is turned on it will check the batteries if the voltage difference is to big (I think it is ~3V!) it will only use the fuller till the difference is fine to parallel the batteries

BTW I don't plan to ride the offroad part much (health problem) - How was your experience to use it in the offroad part?

Do you go for a 2013 or 2014?

[Nihil]

ah, so I guess I must charge both batteries... which means I need two quickchargers..

I'm from Israel. Electric bikes are actually cheaper then ICE bikes since there is no tax on them here! 

The offroad part was ok-
We have a short dirt section with two turns (with walls), two ski-jumps (small bumps) and one table.
The bike had no problem with the small bumps, it just felt weird at landing when it suddenly accelerated forward and almost "ran away" from under me
The big table jump was not so bad either. just felt a little "heavy" when landing. almost bottomed out the suspension (I landed on the flat part of the table).
Overall- not a problem in my opinion.

[BSDThw]

I see your summer is much better than ours. What I know from the News you will have much more problems with other circumstances than weather. Hope it will be save where you stay.

Will be very nice to see how the FX works for you, so maybe we can share some experience. Unfortunately fall starts now and I don't know if I will be able to have some turns on your race-track before it close.

[cec]

   I have just started running my 2011 X in SuperMoto.  Of course I don't have the speed or capacity of your FX's.  Same concept though.  Right now I am running it with one battery.  In the mornings when it is cool it works great.  I have had issues with the motor shutting down in the heat of the afternoon.  I have to work on a way to keep the motor cool.  My long term goal is to get two batteries and swap them out and quick charge the one not being used.  Who knows what the future holds for battery technology.  Keep us posted on your FX supermoto.  Since mine is an older model I can keep up with the 100's and below.  The 250's and 450's though are too much on the straightaways. 

C

[chdfarl]

That's great that you guys are going out and racing your bikes! Electrics are so well suited for supermoto. You should all post pictures and video. The build Im trying is a vintage supermoto / scrambler conversion and I plan to race it too.

[LiveandLetDrive]

I've only done one Supermoto day so far on mine but in short it was awesome.  Inexpensive, lots of track time, relaxed, and everybody from little kids to pros.  No other Zeros there that day but several of them have been making regular appearances around here in NorCal.

Re: One battery.  Tried it, no good.  The power is fine at first but since you get to a much lower SOC by the end of the session, the power tapers off much more quickly that when you have both.  It also overheated faster which I think means the battery itself may have thermally limited.  I've only ever had the motor temp limit in all other cases.  Didn't have the app connected so I don't know for sure.  One battery is only good for short dirt loops in my experience.

I guess you have a car coming along with you to support?  Otherwise I don't know how you're planning to bring all this gear.  You certainly shouldn't strap a battery and chargers on the tail!

My setup:  two Honda EU2000i generators, two Delta-Q chargers (sounds like there are better options but I was wrapping it all up in a loan so I went with what Zero had), and the necessary adapters.  I charged both batteries while I was on track which was plenty to get them full.  I drained about half the charge in the 20min session, riding hard.

Motor temp limit was reached each session in the last few minutes.  My going easier on the throttle I was able to keep it from going completely flaccid.  I've heard some have filled (partially or totally??) their motor with ATF which helps the heat get out to the finned exterior, and reportedly completely cured motor overheating.  I'm very interested in trying that but I'd really like to hear what others have done to avoid causing problems.  At my Supermoto event I had two computer case fans I'd rigged up to run off my 12V accessory port and just laid them on the motor between sessions.  I really want to solve the motor overheating for highway (overheats after ~8mi) and extended dirt hill climbs (thousands of feet continuous climbing does it.)

I've got the upgraded rear shock and the Lindemann Engineering-rebuilt front forks which feel significantly better on the street but the real test will be taking them off-road for the first time this Saturday!

Enjoy!  I will try to track down some Supermoto photos...

[LiveandLetDrive]

Only found one, but here's me lining up a torquey double-pass into turn 1.   

[Yon]

ATF ? what is ATF ?

[BSDThw]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_transmission_fluid

[LiveandLetDrive]

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.  Also, what BSDThw said.

It's light viscosity and  reasonably temp tolerant.  Not sure if there may be something else that would be good.  230F+ is a little on the high end for standard ATF.  Synthetic might be a good idea.

[chdfarl]

It seems to me that the Zeros have overheating issues often and its to be expected since that motor is AIR-COOLED yet behind a Big square battery that blocks air flow and heats up with use. So ATF or not that heat should be shed and tough the ATF is a great idea it only transfers heat within the motor. Here's the issue that I see with oil cooling. Oil is twice as thermally conductive as air but still closer to an insulator in terms of heat transfer ( its like 60x less conductive than aluminum ). Now back to the motor case, if the heat is shed from the windings to the oil to the aluminum case that's great, but unless there is something to snatch the heat off that case and fast it'll be saturated. What to do now! Since your not riding in the rain and showering the bike with oil is a bad idea your left with that lovely free air flow that's smashing into the brick of batteries (s, sr, and ds models) or the Fx controller and whatever they wedged behind it. Long story short without ducting or a water jacket and radiator (mounted at the front of the bike) then that motor is stuck in a sauna.

[Patrick Truchon]

I wonder if a liquid cooling kit like this one could be adapted...

http://store.evtv.me/proddetail.php?prod=AN8SINGLECIRCUIT