Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Toom]

What have people been getting for the range on their Zero street bikes?

I have been finding that there is a huge dependence of range on speed. Just a few minutes at 55 mph will really drop the range significantly.

Yesterday, I rode my DS to work (a 7.1 mile trip each way), then over to a restaurant in town at noon to have lunch with a friend. The ride to the restaurant was only 12.1 miles, but a significant portion of that ride (4 miles) was on a 55 mph stretch of freeway. By the time I'd made it to the restaurant, I was down to 3 bars of charge. I was genuinely nervous at that point. After lunch, I decided to head home (which is closer to the restaurant than my place of work) via surface streets to avoid freeway speeds. It is only 5.9 miles from the restaurant to my house, and I was riding as slow as was safe to do, but I was down to zero bars when I managed to roll into the driveway. Total distance on a single charge that day: 25.1 miles.

I'm used to the dependence of gas mileage on speed and riding style with my other motorcycles, but those variations are more like 42 mpg vs. 46 mpg: 10% variations in range. With my new Zero, it is more like 40% variations in range!

Definitely something to think about when planning rides around town...

I'm starting to appreciate the importance of having a charging infrastructure for the successful introduction of electric vehicles in the future. For example, if I had been able to plug my bike in at work and at the restaurant yesterday, range would not have been an issue and I could have rode the bike back to work after lunch, no problem.

[Richard230]

Check out the November issue of Motorcyclist Magazine. They do a full road test of the Zero S and the Brammo Enertia. Also see my recent post about this subject in the Latest Electric Motorcycle News forum. According to the magazine the Zero S has a range of 38 miles ridden at a slow speed, or 19 miles ridden full-throttle. Average range is 26 miles.

[pennjon]

Hi,  I have the Zero X model and I know the fear of the RED Bar  .   It seems once you're in the yellow zone, charge drops off rapidly.
I usually ride for 1.5 hour before I need to return to base.   My trail riding includes up & down sections that save battery life, but I recently
got into the red zone  (2hrs).........and the bike stopped completely.......time to push  .   I ride on top of the mtn above my house  which allows me to coast down  . 
Your DS comes with the charger as part of the bike.......their must be outlets somewhere to borrow a few volts.   My plan B is to use my cell phone and call my wife for a ride.  Depending on her mood,  I could be doing more pushing  .

[picasso]

Did you ever hear the low voltage alarm on your X?

[Spires]

I have a 09 Zero X. Riding around the roads at full throttle I get about 12-15miles.. Running a lower speed gives me almost 3 times that much range. I have two back tires, one for the dirt and one for the street. The street rear rim has the small sprocket on it so I can do just a pinch over 50mph with the Perm motor. But man does it eat the battery. Trail riding uses so much less juice..

[pennjon]

Yes,  The battery was beeping and the bike shutoff all together.
It did beep awhile before shutting down completely. This would be the self presevation mode of operation I'm sure.
I recharged immediately after I returned home to eliminate the battery sitting  discharged for too long a time which I'm told is bad.
Noticed the battery charger gets extremely hot when recharging from
that low level.......battery is back to 100%. I never ran that low before this point.  Seems okay, no harm done

[3025william]

I have had a 2010 S since July and have 750 miles on it.  My typical ride in southern Indiana is relatively hilly at between 35 and 50 mph.  I typically ride 22 miles with about 1/4 in 35mph stop and go traffic and the rest rural hilly roads.  I  usually have 3/11 bars left at the end of the ride.  My ride into town is more downhill and home averages more uphill, so if I recharge at a local coffee shop in town I will ride more aggressively on the way home.  Riding the same route you develop a feel for the range available.  Some of the recent magazine tests have criticized the brakes on the S but they are no worse than a KLR650.  You also have to ride it like a gravity racer or 125 GP bike; if you have to use the brakes you've screwed up.

[zap mc]

mixed riding about 26 miles i agree

[rollandelliott]

I live in York SC and I get around 25 miles in mixed riding about 2/3rds highway and 1/3rd city. The most I have ever gotten is 30 miles and  I pushed it 1/8th of a mile home which wasn't bad.

Becarefull about just plugging it into any outside socket. I did that at a furniture store and the cops arrived within half an hour saying they got a report of a suspicious bike. I guess someone that it was a terrorist car bomb!

[Daveruns]

I regularly get 35 to 40 miles range in my 2011 Zero S at speeds from 35 to 45. However, if I have any 50+ mph in the mix. it drops off to about 30. I find that tire pressure is extremely important and that even a slight drop in tire pressure and the mileage drops significantly. I live in St. Louis where the terrain is relatively hilly.

The range works fine for me as my commute to work is only 10 miles each way. I also find that I can plug in almost anywhere and in fact people love to let you plug in at their business or homes because the get to see the bike. When required I can plug in at work and extend my range quite a bit.

[zap mc]

mostly 26 to 27 miles ( 2010 bikes) mixed riding
for zero to continiously quote "42 miles" just sets an unrealistic expectation for customers

[gasdive]

Most ever was 72 km ridden like a bicycle.   I've never tried to see how little I can get.

=:)