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[Nitojoe]

Hello EMF community !!,

I purchased my first electric motorcycle (Zero S ZF7.2 with Charge Tank) and love it on so many levels - BUT - the range is starting to drive me nuts.

I live a little off the beaten path of the burbs and to get to the rest of humanity takes a little bit of expressway driving (20-25% battery drain) before I can get to normal city commute speeds and improved ranges.  Having purchased the ZF7.2 battery, I wrongly believed that the highway portion of my commute would be offset by my improved slower local traffic range.

So here is my question. Can I replace the existing ZF7.2 battery with a ZF14.4 battery? I would guess that this would mean that I loose the small storage compartment on the right side of the bike, but since it is really only large enough to store gloves and a change of socks for when it rains, this would not be a big deal.

When I called Zero to ask about purchasing the larger battery, I spoke with Betsy who related that this was not possible. When I politely pressed for details, she told me that moving to the larger battery would have some impact on my breaking When I called back, I got Betsy again...

Physically looking at the situation, it just looks like the 7.2 battery is half the size of the 14.4 battery, so it looks like they added the storage compartment to take up the space. Looking online, they sell the model Zero S in both battery sizes, so I am thinking the information from Zero I received is not "reliable". What does the forum think about my situation and possible solutions?

Thanks in advance for your insights!!
Nitojoe

[KrazyEd]

   ANYTHING can be done if enough money is spent.
I would imagine that you would be far better off selling your 7.2 and buying a 14.4
Dr Bass would probably the best answer for you.

[MVetter]

The battery is 80% of the cost of the bike. You might be better off selling yours and buying another with a 14.4 either new or used.

But yes it's doable.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Beyond the really high cost factor, Zero will strongly resist selling you a monolith separately, and will not support what you want to do.

But, as a thought exercise:
- The "longbrick" (half monolith) variant of the S and DS bikes with the storage area has internal reinforcement bracketing to support that configuration which would present additional difficulties beyond component and labor costs.
- The main cable harness may be built differently enough to present additional troubles.
- You'll have to dispatch the old battery in some way.

I will say when the longbrick variant was hinted at, I strongly suspected that there would be a way to upgrade the bike with a second longbrick. OR alternately, that there would be a way to use the empty space to store all of the cabling and other components more centrally to the bike, even potentially allowing for a low-seat tail configuration.

But, we didn't get any of that, probably because it'd cost too much to support.

[Nitojoe]

Really appreciate the insights.

Was sort of hoping that I was not the first person to dig into this or maybe some other techie had already given this a go. Just seems odd that the 2018 model year Zero S is/was available in either a 7.2 or 14.4 option for only about a $3K difference in price. From a manufacturing point of view, I would think that the base frame/detailing/cabling would all be the same to keep cost of production down and maximize profits. What I am hearing from the theoretical answers is that this is likely not the case.

From the photos I could find for the 7.2 and 14.4 battery packs, they look like a straight physical space swap (loosing the storage compartment on the 7.2 option). However, I could not find any information for the connectors or wiring, so maybe there is a different harness or other unforeseen issue that would rear it's ugly head if pursued. I was hoping someone out there had a link for the electrical diagrams for the two model options, so I could vet this out. Theoretically speaking, the only difference appears to be the cost for the different battery when looking at the two bikes tech specs. The bike characteristics do not appear to be different other than range... so the theoretical possibility continues to gnaw at me without tangible facts to kill it with.

Closest authorized dealer is over 2 hours away from me, but looks like they will be the only people to be able to definitively provide the details I am trying to find.
This techie will leap onward for details!

Thanks again,
Nitojoe

[flattetyre]

Nobody is upgrading their battery pack because the bikes are damn expensive in the first place and people usually either buy what they want, or don't buy.

The batteries are marked up about 100% over what you could build a similar capacity pack for using NEW cells, not counting your labor. Using salvage EV cells, you can do better. But, with a couple exceptions, DIY EVers aren't really into zeros yet so this is very uncommon.

From Zero the extra batteries for that bike will be $7k if you can convince them it won't break the brakes. Not worth it at all unless you're rich...in which case you wouldn't be asking this you would have already bought another bike.

[DonTom]

Hello EMF community !!,

I purchased my first electric motorcycle (Zero S ZF7.2 with Charge Tank) and love it on so many levels - BUT - the range is starting to drive me nuts.

I live a little off the beaten path of the burbs and to get to the rest of humanity takes a little bit of expressway driving (20-25% battery drain) before I can get to normal city commute speeds and improved ranges.  Having purchased the ZF7.2 battery, I wrongly believed that the highway portion of my commute would be offset by my improved slower local traffic range.

When I am on my smaller zero, I try to take the slowest way possible. I try to avoid all fast roads as much as possible. If you must take a freeway, go as slow as you safely can.

Very roughly, every time you double the road speed, you get half the range. You can even beat the specs by quite a bit by going slower.

BTW, I would not go for the double size battery on my 6.5 if it were for free. That would make the bike too heavy for what I want to do, especially for my RV trips where it is carried on the hitch. It would also reduce the storage space.

Adding more battery could be a trade-off. Better to spend the money on a longer range bike, as others here have said.

Hopefully this changes over the years and the batteries become lighter and a lot cheaper to make a battery change a much better deal than it is these days.

BTW, a windscreen could give you around 10% better range while riding fast.  I have the Zero touring screens on my bikes and have noticed an improvement in range at higher speeds.

-Don-  Reno, NV

[NEW2elec]

Yeah man it's nice you want to just add more battery but just like a college kid getting out of their 1995 Honda Civic and getting a Lexus when they get a job.  It sounds like it's time to move the 7.2 down the line and pick up a big battery bike.
Or even better a SRF.    Just saying.

I try to tell people who are looking at the smaller battery options that there will come a time when they will want/need more range and to go with the biggest one they can afford.

DonTom's case being an exception for his certain needs.