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[steven_first]

My plan is to get an FX in a few months.  I love what I have seen from the bikes and it seems to be a good fit for the type of riding I would do.  I plan to trail ride the bike a few times a year and also commute to work (25 mi round trip) every week day.  I am a fair weather rider so rain and cold weather would not be an issue.  I like the modular design of the batteries and the fact that it has 70 foot pounds of torque at ~ 300lbs is just ridiculous (in a good way).   

I have heard a mixed bag of issues with the larger (not FX) bikes but what do people think of the FX as far as reliability?  Myself being an electronics tech I am not too worried about the electronics once the bike is not warrantied but while it is I really don't want to have my bike sitting for 2-3 months waiting on parts to come in to my nearest dealer that is 2 hours away. 

What is the motor controller in the 2015 FX?  Can I play with the secret settings using a usb to Canbus adapter?  if so...well Zero know if I do?  Are there non-obvious things that I should do to the bike once I get it?  If I drop it on a trail (fall over not a "crash") will it break off foot pegs and dent the frame? Is the suspension really more than a spring on the new models?  Is the suspension properly tunable?  Have they done anything to the FX they did not do to the other bikes as far as electronics for offroad suitability?  If a tree fall in the woods and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?

I think you get the idea of my questions!  I have a test ride of an FX and an S coming up next weekend (only ones in stock) and I just want to make sure I know what I am getting into before I drop my money on one of these things!  I am going to rail the guys at the dealership about their ability to work on EV's before I commit to anything.  I have a nice large dealership local to me and I may see if they would consider being a dealer that way I could get a bike from them...  I bought a few cheap parts from them 2-3 years ago and then stopped in a month or so ago and they knew me by name the moment I waled in the door...  These are the guys I want to buy from!

[Cortezdtv]

If you get a 15 the suspension is much better and the guage cluster is badass

As far as durability.  The swingarm to the frame is the weak point, if the rear of the bike were to get bound in a rut or a rock I would suspect you could early tweak the frame to a un rideable state. The tolerance I between the swingarm and the bike is small, and a hard jerk one side or the other you can make the swingarm rub on the frame....

Let me repeat to make it very clear this is NOT ever going to happen if you drop the bike or crash under 25 mph in which case the bike is my least worry crashing over 25 mph I'd be more worried about myself being ok
I have dropped the bike probably 10 times in a single trail riding experience well most here would consider it more bush wacking....




As far as the bike itself
There has been huge discussion about washing your bikes here; I have not commented strictly on the fact that some member bashed others.
More so with the s and sr.  But the fx is the most popular bike, and despite the "demographic thread"  zero has sold more fx's than all other models combined




I'll just leave this here.



I have rode these bike if the pooring rain; they can work fine if you remove the batteries and dry them off

When I wash them I remove batteries hang them up and pressure wash them

I avoid the octopus "where the battery's lay in the frame" and the controller below, you can spray the fins of the controller from underneath but svoid getting tons of water ontop, if you do soak the whole bike dry it off with some compressed air or even a leaf blower will help to get the larger droplets out of the odd areas


Now some bikes from the factory got more or less dielectric grease; if your battery connections look like they need some add some




The whole maintenance free is nice; but let's all be real individuals. We don't live in a dream world where nothing ever needs maintenance. Yes they need less than a gas bike, but that doesn't mean they are free of it. IMO if I did not know zero from the beginning almost 10 years ago now getting parts and help would be a whole different issue like I see on here a lot. If you buy a 15 brand new you are going to get a nice warrantee that should more than cover the bike and any issues that it may have; of I were buying a 15fx I wouldn't be worried about having issues with it. Most people have issues with the S bikes and the problem is they have battery issues and that can be a huge hindrance because to remove the batter you must lift the bike over the battery, basically removing a motor from a car


Ok onto your next questions; hot rodding or playing with the electronics. If your going to buy a new fx; see if they will sell you a mmx; it is the fx but with the street motor.  Much better bike won't run into the "lag" that the smaller motor has
With the bigger motor you cannot overheat the fx then; with stock motor at 80mph plus the motor will throw the thermal light and you will have to slow to 70 ish to maintain speed and the motor will cool to safe operating range

Having ridden a fx and mmx back to back for a long time, the best comparison  is the pure acceleration over the stock fx; yes before I explain how much faster let it be known that the bigger motor uses more power all the time so technically range should go down, but I hve yet to be able to tell a difference in the real world.
So back to the acceleration and settings you can't exaclty just add more power through the settings, you can change the "sensitivity" of the throttle and it can give to "more" quicker.

The fx will wheelie from 32-50 before you notice a little less power
The mmx will wheelie from 20-70.
The fx won't really power wheelie at 50. The mmx can

[rayivers]

I really like both my '14 FXs.  The first I got new last March, the 2nd I bought used in August.  #1 has had no problems at all, #2 had pre-existing issues that Zero resolved very much to my satisfaction.

I assume the 2015 FX uses the same Sevcon size 4 controller as the '14.  My training/experience situation seems quite similar to yours, and like you I have no plans to start digging into controller programming until the warranty runs out, although I've read the Sevcon Gen4 application manual and am always looking for on-point reading material/manuals/etc. so I'll be at least somewhat prepared when the day comes.

#1 is used only on the street, #2 mainly for WOT trail riding.  For both applications I find the FastAce forks quite usable, and the shock clunky and harsh regarless of setting.  I've just installed the optional Fox shock on #2, when the snow melts I'll try it out.  The 2015 FX uses Showa components front and rear, I imagine these must be improvements over the FastAce units but have no first-hand experience.  I see no evidence of frame weaknesses or substandard strength in the footpegs etc., but I haven't put the Zeros through anything like I've done with my ICE bikes (yet).

It would be great if you could convince your local dealer to go Zero - I probably should try to do the same with mine.  If a dealership does a good job servicing conventional motorcycles, I think it's likely they'll do their best to maintain the same level of service with any new make, electric or otherwise.

Ray

[Cortezdtv]

Your not going to break pegs etc they are pretty tough

Let's see if I can find a pic of my crashed one, so show you the little damage that happened at 40+

[steven_first]

This is all great info guys; thanks so much!  I LOVE the idea of the FX and indeed am just drooling over owning one for this riding season.  I keep looking that the S, DS, SR and just can't convince myself of buying one of those for any other reason than range.  I had a old used sports bike once and one of the first things I did with it was take it trail riding and muddn' so yeah...it has to be an off road bike for me to be happy.

I will email Zero about the "bigger motor" but my guess is that they are not going to be interested in selling it like that.  I don't know why I think that but I just got a feeling.  I would love the hear more about the "lag" that was mentioned though.  This is the first I have heard about anything to do with "slow" or "lacking" on these bikes and frankly the idea of lag on a bike with 70 F-lb of torque is a bit...confusing I guess.  I have been trying to learn as much about these bikes as I can but youtube isn't very helpful in that I find videos such as "first impressions" and it is just a metric crap-ton of wind noise and a guy yelling "oh shit...oh SHIT" while accelerating from 10 to 30mph.  On top of that a lot of reviews are just the specs of the bikes relisted word for word from some other website or they tell you everything good but won't say a single bad thing about the bike because it is a payed review...

I am sure I well learn a lot next weekend and I well share my experience here but I am not buying this visit.  I need to really look into a local dealer first before I do a lot of paperwork and buy an out of state bike.  Any more information I would love to hear especially from FX owners!

And cortezdtv, please post more pictures if you have them...I think it is great to see people really living with and working with the bikes!  My guess is I am not the only one who is going to have these questions so it would be nice to have the good the bad and the ugly all in one post for all to see.

[Cortezdtv]

I refer to "lag" because going up VERY steep hills (that I have never made it up on a gas bikes) the fx will "spool" up. I'm referring to spooling because you have hit the gas/ twisted the accelerator farther than the bike is instantaneously able to provide. The amount of time the fx takes to overcome that going up something very steep is much greater than the mmx; the bigger motor gives it just enough more IMO

Pound for pound on the street I doublt you could really see a difference between the 2 below 45mph; where above 45mph the mmx might have a little more mid to topend

So we have to keep in mind I rode a smaller faster bike daily until I broke my ankle in December, so to me the fx and mmx are "laggier" off the line.  ONLY compared to that!!!!   I have never had a gas bike give me the same feel in acceleration, they are not even close!!
The bike I rode daily had the "sr power plant" with a custom tune, I could get 2-3 bike lengths on a fx or mmx from 0-60mph


So please don't take the "lag" part to seriously they are extremely fast bikes a stock fx to me was much faster than my neighbors huskey 510

In some situations it can be too much power     On leaves in the dirt is the best spot I can think of

[steven_first]

It is good to hear the the "lag" won't be a concern.  I can imagine that the experience you have with he 2 models would make you privy to subtle differences in power.  I won't be too sad if Zero says no on the bigger motor.  I have seen several videos of hard launches on the FX and I can't say that I would need much more than that!  0-60 times are just crazy for a bike that is an offroad machine and the torque I am sure I well not understand until I actually ride the bike.  The thing that is going to be hard for me is that these bikes are a complete nerdfest and I don't know how I am going to keep from tweaking and modding everything while it is under warranty!  On a side note about "Mods" another reason I like the FX is you can remove the batteries for simple safe electronics work without wrench vaporization; that is going to be gold for me right there....

[Crash]

I purchased the first 2015 FX that came off the line in November and I can't get enough of it! I want to ride it constantly!

Here are a few of my observations in random order:
* It accelerates! It's fun to leave other motorcycles behind when you silently zip away from them at a stop light. Launching is so simple... just twist the throttle all the way and watch things get smaller in your mirrors.
* It can pull wheelies up to 50mph with a little tug on the bars, but it doesn't quite have the instantaneous snap of a 2-stroke ICE MX bike like my CR250, and it's heavier with more front end weight so I still haven't got to where I can ride a wheelie at a constant speed. It either feels likes it's going over backwards so I let off or it's dropping the front wheel so I keep accelerating. I would describe the pull as more of a wave of power than an instant snap so I've found wheelie control to be challenging so far.
* The suspension feels really good. I've ridden off road a half dozen times with it and the suspension feels great. It's not like the bouncy springy suspension people complained about on the earlier models. It felt like it was bottoming out landing some jumps but I figured out it was due to the belt drive and rpm differences when landing. If the rear wheel speed doesn't match the ground speed then it gives a harsh landing and a clank/chatter sound (belt skipping cogs). I would like to know if this issue goes away with a chain drive.
* Don't think I like the ABS brakes. Especially with the original tires on dirt. I blew through a berm on a turn after passing another bike because I hit the brakes and nothing happened (ABS kicked in). Granted I was going to fast with the 70% street/30 % dirt tires. It's really easy to enter a turn too fast because it's so quiet you don't think you're going as fast as you really are. The ABS can be turned off but it has to be done every time you turn on the bike.
* The bike looks awesome. I get compliments all the time.
* A windscreen made it much nicer for commuting my 20 mi trek to work. Also, hand guards do a lot toward keeping your fingers from getting cold.
* 1300 miles problem free so far...
* Zero's range estimates are right on. I can go 60 miles at an average pace of 25 mph, but that drops to 25-35 miles at 60-75 mph. Also, be careful when the battery percentage gets below 25%. It will go to zero and shut down in just a mile if you ride it hard and fast, or it will go 10+ miles if you take it real easy. The bottom 50% of the battery charge is not as robust as the top 50%. Also, the top speed of 85 mph and mid/high end torque starts dropping when the charge gets below 50%.
* The bike handles really well! Awesome on the street. Great on the dirt over rocky/rutted surfaces. Gets very squirrelly if you throw it sideways and roll on the throttle due to the high torque, slight top heavyness, and enduro tires. I expect huge improvements after I get the Michellin MT21 tires mounted that just arrived at my door. I also bought an an extra set of wheels, brake disks, and rear belt pulley so I can quickly swap street and dirt wheel setups. I had planned to use a chain drive on the dirt and belt on the street, but the conversion appears more involved than I would like for quick conversions. Apparently the motor needs to be unbolted to swap the front pulley with a sprocket.
* The rear brake lever is adjusted too high so I have to lift my foot onto it rather than just lifting my toes to use it. It looks easy to adjust so I plan to do that.
* No issues with brake squeal like so many complained about with earlier FX models.
* Brake like blocks the view of the turn signal indicators.
* Head lights are pretty good, but I'm considering some additional aftermarket lighting for those occasional dark late night commutes home from work.

Bottom line: Buy it! You won't be able to stay off of it.

[Cortezdtv]

I thought the fx wasn't a very stable wheelie ing bike, the mmx is much better, my little hack, I don't think there is a better wheelieig bike, 0-70 wheelie every time, first time I lauched from a dig poped the wheel up about 3 feet  let of the throttle and it started to slam down as I accelerated; I tried to grab the throttle so the front tire wouldn't hit the ground; sure as shit pulled me right back up all the way till I hit my 5000 rpm limit at 70mph grinning ear to ear