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[Richard230]

I thought it would be a good idea to put all of the problems that we have experienced, our mileage, riding style and how the problem was addressed by Zero, in one location for easy reference.

I am an easy rider, rarely go far on the freeway, never ride in the rain and have never run the battery pack down past 2 bars. Here is my experience:

At 300 miles my bike had stalled twice when stopped at a traffic light. Zero heard about my problem on this forum, picked up my bike, took it to their factory, replaced the throttle assembly and reprogrammed the computer. I have had no running issues since.

At 1500 miles my turn signal flasher unit failed and was replaced (after waiting a month) by my dealer's service department with one from a showroom bike.  The flasher works fine now.

At 1800 miles I had the front brake switch replaced and the BMS board waterproofed (or replaced - I am not sure what was done?)  I did not have any issues with my brake light or my BMS board prior to them being repaired by my retail dealer under the recall.  The work took 4 hours, including replacing the flasher unit.

My bike has never been out of service and continues to run great. So far I am a happy camper.  

I now have just under 2000 miles on my 2012 ZF9 Zero S. Build date January 2012, VIN ends in 51.

[protomech]

Copying your format.

I do most of my riding at 40-50 mph. I often avoid the interstate even if I have plenty of battery to spare. Sometimes ride over rough roads. I ride regardless of rain, like today. Probably 2/3 of my rides are < 30 miles between full charges, but I not infrequently take the bike down to 2-4 bars and have on 3 occasions taken the bike to 0-1 bars remaining. I've never discharged the battery to the lower cutoff voltage (when the BMS shuts the bike down), despite trying.

At approximately 1700 miles, after heavy rainfall a temperature sensor on the bike caused a fault and immobilized the bike until it dried. Zero sent me a replacement BMS board which I successfully swapped in, and have not had problems as of 4500 miles.

I have experienced a couple of "throttle cut-outs", where the motor stopped responding to the accelerator grip until the bike is turned off and back on. Once at 1500 miles, the bike refused to move from a stop until power-cycled. Once at 3700 miles, the bike refused to move from a stop until power-cycled twice. At around 4000 miles, these throttle cut-outs have become more frequent and have occasionally happened at higher speeds - including one failure while traveling @ 70 mph on the interstate and a few failures at 15-30 mph with the throttle closed. The failures seem to mostly occur 4-5 miles into a ride, and are often preceded by an intermittent roughness in the motor's power delivery. I have contacted Zero and I am sending the bike back to them for analysis.

Similar discussion in an earlier thread, though not limited to the 2012 bikes.

[Electric Terry]

I ride mixed, but sometimes it is 4 trips/day on the east west expressway connecting west and east orlando.  about 25 miles at 80-85 mph each trip.  It's hard to go slower than 75-80 because the rest of traffic will have to try to get around you causing a dangerous situation.  The cut outs on the expressway are most challenging as you have to quickly flash your brake light to avoid being run over while trying to cycle the key.

First time it wouldn't go was around 2200 miles after riding through a rainstorm on the freeway on the way to Miami.  I pulled off to wait the rain out.  When I tried to go again, there was nothing for a while.  Waited a while, tried it again and it worked.

Second time was at about 3500 miles in Chatanooga Tennessee.  Again, rode through a bad rainstorm that come out of nowhere, pulled off to wait it out, but when I was ready to go again...nothing.  Had an allen wrench and screwdriver with me so I took the BMS board out and dried it in a McDonalds bathroom hand dryer.  Rerouted the anderson connectors that were holding water put it back together and it worked.

Close to 5000 miles and it starts cutting out on acceleration every few days or so.  Tried replacing the BMS board but it didn't help.  Took it to the Dealer in sarasota for a motor timing adjustment.  The low speed cut outs stopped but the cut outs while riding on the freeway began.

I'm a little over 6600 miles now and it cuts out now at low speed, high speed, and sometimes won't even energize to turn on.  I've spent over a hour the past week just cycling the key.  Somehow it hasn't left me stranded yet, if I keep turning it off and on enough times, it always goes.

Out of sequence but at about 6000 miles I had a drive belt snap.   Zero sent a replacement and I installed the new one.

I also had a charger go bad about two weeks ago.  Zero also sent a replacement.

Love the bike, would like a little more low speed acceleration, like perhaps the size 6 gen 4 controller.  Top end even with the 25 tooth is fine for me.  yeah somewhere in there I replaced the 28 tooth with a 25 tooth and it definitely acelerates better now.  But still want a little more.  Not quite as fast as my R1 used to be,

Everything else is fine.  the bike is great, and even with the cut outs, don't want to do without it even for a day to have someone else repair it.  I'd much rather perform the work myself and not go without it.

[ColoPaul]

I ride part interstate, part back roads.  I ride in the rain, but only 3-4 good soakings in 1800 miles.  I usually only use 3-4 bars, but on every two weeks I take it down to 1-2 bars remaining.  I almost always have it in ECO mode.  I usually go WOT from every stop.

I went 1800 miles in 3 months; not one issue.  Really a fun bike to ride!

At 1800 miles, I got the clunk-die-key-on/off "glitch" twice in one day.  It got worse fast!  By 1850 miles (4 days) it was so bad I couldn't ride the bike.  It started out glitching with WOT from a stop.  Then it started glitching anywhere 0-10 mph when accelerating.  By the 4th day it would glitch all the time, accel/decel, <20 mph -- to get the bike moving, I had to push it along, while very, very lightly applying the throttle.

So now it's been at dealer for 2 weeks;  Zero said it needs a new BMS board.  Waiting, wondering.  I have high hopes that protomech will get real info/feedback since he's shipping his bike to the factory.

[BSDThw]

I nearly commute daily with my Zero DS 2012  VIN. #88. I never was on the “Autobahn” Highway we have no speed limit => average speed is 80MPH and some guys are over 120MPH therefore it wouldn't be fun.
I use back roads there you are allowed to go with 62MPH so I will have sometimes 68-75MPH(on the speedo) .
Several passing throw small villages 32MPH.

I normally stay in SPORT mode. I like to accelerate.

I have had a lot of rain trips not really heavy rain but you will see the water is covering all parts at the bike.

My daily distance is (2 * 11) miles so I have used 3 bares, than it will be charged.

Some times I do fun trips but I never run the battery to empty. I will do this some day with a friend on his bike so he will return me home to my car+trailer.

I am close to 1300 miles on the bike.

Issues:
At my first trip the Mirror-glass fall off while I passed over the railroad crossing at my daily trip.
Got it replaced by my dealer.

At 430 miles I had a power loss at a fun trip http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=2210.msg7891#msg7891. But my DS was still caring me home.

It was a defect throttle, which was fast replaced by my dealer.

I have still the old BMS Board because I haven't had time for the changing. The brake light switch was no issue at my bike.

I really like this bike, the mirror (right) and the throttle give my the impression the bike got a hit on the right side once. I am a bit worry because the bike fall to the right side not long a go when I massed up to have a sit, I was on the left and the bike fall to the right so I was too “light” to pull it back. Hope my throttle didn't suffer, have had a discussion with a quantya dealer next by, they have different throttles. If possible I would like to go for a hall effect instead of a poti.

At the moment I install 2 charger in my GIVI side bags so I will gather soon more experience with “3 * charging”. In Germany I can pull 3680W out of a standard outlet so it is easy to do.

The charger is 1200W but it will never do this. It is limited to 12A and 100V but we have a 65.7V max 74.7V =>  74.7V *12A = 896,4W  plus charger loss of worse 15% => 1030W . This theory is also what I do read on my meters (980-1000W).

In my opinion Zero did a really good job. The low speed acceleration (sucks) but I see the idea of not stressing the bike to much (even with this less acceleration my rear wheel is nearly gone at 1300 miles) .
I hope business will go on. And having a look around there is no competitor with balls who sells (  I don't like to see bikes for years and you can't buy them ).

[trikester]

If you get your bike re-programmed to eliminate the acceleration control in ECO mode you can have the best of both worlds. Mine now accelerates the same, whether in SPORT or ECO, ever since Harlan re-programmed it.

[BSDThw]

trikester I agree with you, but Harlan is out of reach  for me, and my dealer tells me since I got the bike he will get a programmer but I am not sure when this will happen. 

[trikester]

Here's hoping your dealer will get set up soon. Even though I bitch about having to fight SoCal traffic going from Newport Beach to West Hollywood, I am lucky to have a dealer that is knowledgeable about the electronic works and willing to help in my out of the ordinary modifications.

Since I am a retired electronic circuit and system designer it is also nice (but not necessary) to be able to speak the language with him. Geeze, I used to even design motor controllers but that was in the "cave man" days. Now I just ride

[ColoPaul]

Interesting problem I haven't heard yet talked about on this forum:

I'm getting a brand new motor on my 2012SZF6 installed Thursday.  The current motor has 2700 miles.
The issue is a grinding clunk noise that happens once per motor revolution, maybe like a bad bearing.  But if you had earplugs, you'd never be able to notice any performance difference.  And the motor shaft seems tight.
The noise only happens when the motor is not under load - so when accelerating or regen-braking, it's fine.  Coasting, or with power off and pushing the bike, it's pretty loud.

Since it makes the noise with the power off I assume it can't be related to a bad sincos cal or issue with the Sevcon.

The current motor has 2700 miles.  I noticed it first between 500 and 700 miles.  Went away and returned worse than ever about 2200 miles.  Rode it another 300 miles, then took it to the dealer who called Zero - they sent out a new motor which took about 2 weeks - during which I put on another 200 miles.

One more thing I noticed, don't know if it's relevant, is that the internal motor fan appears to be loose.  You can poke a screwdriver in and wiggle it maybe 1/2" up or down (I tried the same thing on a new bike and on the new bike the fan is rock solid-fixed to the motor drive shaft)

[Harlan]

That clunking noise is the loose fan on the shaft. Nothing to be too concerned about.