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[Bnzelener]

Hi folks!

I just got a pretty screaming deal on a 2011 Zero S (if it lives without issues).  The owner bought the bike from Zero and it sat in her garage until now because of an injury.  It has 350 miles on it.

I've been riding the bike around for the past couple days and it's incredible.  Rides smooth, and the battery pack seems OK.  However, occasionally when I'm riding I get 2 short flashes of the warning sign, a pause, and 3 more short flashes.  The owners' manual says this is a Controller Area Network (CAN) problem, and suggests contacting Zero.

Has anyone else had the CAN issue?

Thanks!
Brennan

[Bnzelener]

UPDATE --

Spent today riding around and put about 35 miles on.  The bike died on me while moving several times.  A couple times I was able to throttle down and back up and it worked.  Then another time I used the kill switch and turned it back on while rolling, and that worked.

When I ended my ride, the battery was at 50%.  I just went out to run an errand and the battery was flashing at zero. :-(  Rode it for 3 miles anyways and it performed fine but the zero battery was flashing the whole time.

B

[protomech]

The 2011 Zeros introduced a more accurate SOC meter. So it's probably not just the battery voltage drawing down rapidly.

It's possible that one or more cells may have reached the knee in their voltage curve such that they began approaching their low voltage cutoff. They might "recover" if you allow the bike to charge fully and top balance after a deep discharge.

35 miles of 35-45 mph riding is probably all a 2011 S would do, even new. Were you riding at those speeds, or closer to 20-25 mph?

[Bnzelener]

Thanks for the insight, protomech!

Yesterday I took the bike out for a crazy ride.  I was doing 45-65mph for most of it.  I think I put on 20-25 miles and the bike was reading as fully dead by the end.  It also got upset when I rocketed up some hills, but that's understandable.

On today's ride I was cruising at 35-45 all day.  It's just strange that the pack read so well (50%) afterwards, but then read zero when I came back to the bike after it sat turned off for an hour or two.  On my first day riding the bike the battery meter operated just as I expected, but now it's going wacky.

Any insight on the cut-outs or the Controller Area Network issue?

B

[Richard230]

I recall a period motorcycle magazine test of the 2011 S (I think it was published by Cycle World) and the reviewers commented that the bike would only travel about 20 miles when ridden briskly near its top speed.  So I think your battery pack seems to be in pretty good condition.

[Bnzelener]

Thanks Richard230.  You guys are making me feel much better about the battery performance.  I still wish there weren't cut-outs, but those seem to be rare.  Based on the tone around repairs in this forum, I think I'm best off taking the 'fix it when it doesn't move' approach.

Still would love some thoughts on the Controller Area Network issue if anyone has had experience.

[Bnzelener]

Hey guys, wanted to give an update.

Now at ~540 miles my Zero is experiencing multiple 'BMS' issues (2 flashes, pause, 4 flashes) per ride in which the throttle cuts out entirely and I have to restart the bike while moving to get it to work again.  If I pull over and restart the bike, it won't boot up.  But if I'm moving above 5mph when I do the restart, it will at least boot up.  This tends to happen in the first 10 minutes of a ride.  After that the cut-outs are much less frequent.

Has anyone experienced these BMS issues with their bike?  If so, what was the problem?

I'm going to take my bike into a Zero dealer next week to have them diagnose.  Hoping this is something that can be solved, and maybe under warranty or recall...

In better news, here's a shiny picture!