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[crankypants]

Recently got my 2015 Zero SR. Didn’t hear the sound. Took it to the dealer, got new tires put on. Ever since the ride home, I’ve heard this clicking sound (maybe a coincidence, maybe not). I don’t always hear the sound when I start riding but it always happens at some point in the ride. I’m not sure why or how it happens. At highway speeds, I can feel it vibrate the bike a bit, too. Please have a listen to the video below and let me know what you think. This video is from the dealer. The bike is currently there. We’re waiting to hear what Zero has to say (hopefully on Monday).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FERfVgeM_WZKyDG8krflW61P1XMs8qZS/view?usp=drivesdk

[SHAG]

Not sure what the noise is, but I don't think it's coming from the belt

[ESokoloff]

What is the belt tension?
Does the clicking coincide with the motor or drive sheave rotation?
Put a mark or piece of colored tape on each sheave & watch/listen to narrow down the source.
If you remove the belt, will you still hear a clicking?

[crankypants]

What is the belt tension?
Does the clicking coincide with the motor or drive sheave rotation?
Put a mark or piece of colored tape on each sheave & watch/listen to narrow down the source.
If you remove the belt, will you still hear a clicking?

When I had the bike, I could've sworn the sound was coming from the front but it's now at the dealer and they say it's either from the motor or rear tire. They are waiting to hear back from Zero on how to proceed. I did tell them the same things you asked but they aren't going to mess around with it until then. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[2020_SRS_Commuter]

Just one request. Please report back with the solution. I love puzzles and I watched this several times.

A completely subjective guess - sounds like the belt not fitting over the teeth properly, or else something is touching/rubbing the wheel or tire.

Assuming you made this on a center stand or jack, obviously its not something on the tire surface like a pebble in a sipe.

Looking at the white marks on the belt as they pass and correlating that frequency with the sound, its not one particular position on the sprockets or belt. The noise is too frequent.

Is the belt attempting to ride up on the rear sprocket on one side? Misaligned? I have an SRS, on mine there is a flange on the rear sprocket that if you had the belt far enough over on and pressing on, it would flap around against. There's supposed to be a small gap on the belt between the belt edge and that flange on my bike ( there is ) . Is yours like that?

Also I would examine the belt for missing/frayed bits or stuff embedded in it.

[Moto7575]

Looks like the well know ball bearing problem - these models had low quality bearing that break and make the kind of sound you are mentionned. Search in the old forum messages or the unofficial manual. If this is your issue, cost to repair is  ~100$

[crankypants]

I will keep you guys posted. My local dealer has had my bike since last week, trying to figure out the clicking sound. Since they are new to Zero Motorcycles, they send videos of what's going on directly to Zero and then Zero tells them what to try next. It seems that they don't communicate every day so the process is taking longer than I expected.

[crankypants]

Hey everyone,

So after the dealer and Zero troubleshooted the problem. The clicking sound is coming from INSIDE the motor and they are saying I need the motor replaced which is over $2k for parts and labor. I just got this bike used from a reputable guy on the Zero Owners FB group. Never heard the noise until I drove it back home after the dealer semi-dropped the bike while on the lift and the front fender cracked. Dealer has been nice and doing a lot of work on the bike for free for me but god damn this is getting insane! What should I do?

Should I fork over the money and pay? Can I somehow prove the damage was done there? Ugh......This is not how I wanted to start off my motorcycle riding...

Dealer thinks it's a bearing inside the motor but they don't fix parts inside. Just replace the whole thing. Looking for advice here..

[NEW2elec]

You might want to look at parts of this post.

https://www.electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=10985.msg104584#msg104584

"I" would get a new motor because I can't do what some others have done.

Maybe at least get the dealer who dropped the bike to do the labor for free and go halves on the motor.

Good luck.

[rgutt]

I'm just curious, did you end up replacing the motor? In the video, it didn't seem like the clicking was in sync with the motor speed, but I'm going to trust the people who could actually put their hands on it. If you did remove the old motor, did you open it up?

[crankypants]

I'm just curious, did you end up replacing the motor? In the video, it didn't seem like the clicking was in sync with the motor speed, but I'm going to trust the people who could actually put their hands on it. If you did remove the old motor, did you open it up?

I had the dealer put the bike together because I didn’t want to pay $2500 for a new motor.  The dealer said zero doesn’t open the motor they just replace it and it was his opinion that it sounded like a bad bearing. With that info, I looked into replacing the motor bearings. someone reached out and told me about a specialist that had replaced their motor bearings on their old Zero and was happy with the work. Since the guy quoted me about 30% of the price of a new motor, it made sense to me to ship my motor to him for bearing replacement. He is actually working on it now. He told me he can confirm one bearing was bad and he replaced both of them since he had it open. I’m hoping to get the motor shipped back soon so I can put my bike back together and get riding again.

[Tony]

I'm just curious, did you end up replacing the motor? In the video, it didn't seem like the clicking was in sync with the motor speed, but I'm going to trust the people who could actually put their hands on it. If you did remove the old motor, did you open it up?

I had the dealer put the bike together because I didn’t want to pay $2500 for a new motor.  The dealer said zero doesn’t open the motor they just replace it and it was his opinion that it sounded like a bad bearing. With that info, I looked into replacing the motor bearings. someone reached out and told me about a specialist that had replaced their motor bearings on their old Zero and was happy with the work. Since the guy quoted me about 30% of the price of a new motor, it made sense to me to ship my motor to him for bearing replacement. He is actually working on it now. He told me he can confirm one bearing was bad and he replaced both of them since he had it open. I’m hoping to get the motor shipped back soon so I can put my bike back together and get riding again.

I am sorry to hear about your bad experience, it sucks to have to go through all this after just purchasing a bike.

I got a lot of jokes from the traditional MC guys about adding some noise to the engine though, so they would probably have considered this problem a benefit. 

[crankypants]

I am sorry to hear about your bad experience, it sucks to have to go through all this after just purchasing a bike.

I got a lot of jokes from the traditional MC guys about adding some noise to the engine though, so they would probably have considered this problem a benefit. 

Yes, I thought that, too. I would have never noticed the sound if it was a normal gas powered motorcycle. The loud sounds and vibrations would have masked it.

Going through this and some other dealer drama with my first bike has been a little crazy but everyone on the forums here, Zero Owners Group on Facebook, and even Zero have been incredibly nice and helpful so I still have my head up high. Seems like a great community of EV riders