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[trikester]

I just joined this ZERO forum. After a wait of two years & one week I finally got delivery of my DS in late August. I love the bike and had an opportunity, while in Death Valley, to ride until it shut down. I also have 14 antique motorcycles and was there for our annual antique club rides. We had a trouble trailer along for the antiques so I just rode my DS until I had to load it on the trailer. The last part of the ride was a steep hill climb of a little over one mile (Artists Drive) and it shut down at a total distance of 26.1 miles. I might have made close to 30 miles if not for that last steep one mile climb.

I've already made some mods to my DS (like xenon headlight) and I will post those in the forum section dedicated for that. 

Trikester

[drivin98]

26 miles seems a little short. Was that driving at a relatively high rate of speed? Look forward to seeing pics and hearing about range in other situations.

[Rewski]

That does seem a bit low on range. I just completed a 32 mile commute last week with mixed city street use ranging from 25-45 mph and arrived back at home with 3 bars remaining at rest. With acceleration the bars would dip below 3 and start flashing, but there was no change in acceleration or throttle response. To confirm how many kwh I used on the ride, I charged it plugged into a kill-a-watt meter, and it only put in about 3.1 kwh until fully charged again. Given that the manual states about 3.7 kwh of usable energy, I probably could have gone another 6-8 miles. I now feel totally comfortable going 15 miles out now without worry of running out of charge on the way back...as long as I avoid the highways!

[trikester]

You may have missed the part about the last step hill climb. I thought it did quite well making it about a mile up on that climb, near the end of its available power. Without the hill climb I figured that I would have made it about 30 miles instead of 26.

On the ride from Furnace Creek to Bad Water I held a steady 35mph. The road constantly rises and falls consisting of long but shallow climbs and drops. Each one of about 1 to 2 miles long or so. As soon as I turned onto the steep climb of Artist Drive I lowered my speed to 20mph and held it steady at that. I got very close to the top of the climb when it quit. Had I gone over the top I would have made it another two or three miles, taking advantage of the downhill.

I probably cost myself the top because as I rode past the other riders, who were parked by the road and cheering me on, I went full throttle there, accelerating up the hill past them, just to show it was me holding 20mph and not a power limitation of the DS. I knew, of course, when I did that, it would blow a lot of available distance.

The last mile climb is steep enough that when the motor cut off, the DS started to roll backward and I had to grab the brake before I lost it.

All in all it exceeded my expectations, considering the nature of that ride. If the DS had a freewheel, like a bicycle, I could have taken better advantage of the downhills. The rolling drag of spinning the motor takes a lot of energy out of the bike. A free rolling system would add available distance to stop and go city or up and down country riding.

I'll be taking it to my desert cabin tomorrow (Anza-Borrego), for a week, and start doing longer dirt rides than I've done on the bike since I got it. They will be "jeep" trails with a lot of sandy areas. It is going to be interesting to see how much distance I get on that type of riding.

[manlytom]

Hi
can you point me to your Xenon conversion ? havent found it yet in the forum. thx