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[trikester]

I picked up my 2012 DS on the 18th and I love this bike.  I thought my 2010 DS couldn't be beat but ZERO has managed to do it! Not only range but handling is even better and I don't notice the 20 extra pounds (I got the lighter of the two models because I ride soft dirt a lot). I always thought there should be more rake and they did that on this bike.

[Richard230]

Hi trikester, I have a 9 kWh "S" on order and am looking forward to the day when it arrives at my dealer.

Does your DS have the belt-drive?  If it does, how do you think that is going to hold up while riding off-road? I have heard that belts don't like dirt too much.  BMW claims that is why they switched from the belt-drive on their F800S/ST models to chain drive on their F650GS/F800GS dual-sport models.  (Or that could have been an excuse, as a chain drive is probably cheaper to manufacture.)

[skadamo]

Congrats and thanks for the report!

[RickSteeb]

Picked up my DS on the 21st and have 154 miles on the odometer now...  (Don't know if that includes the 3 1/2 mile push home after the power ran out 32 miles into the 35.5 mile trip home from the dealer)  What a unique sensation to zoom around so quietly!  My commute to work is now a joy ride!  Rather than waiting 10 minutes in the line for the on-ramp in my car, I get to whoosh through the HOV ramp and spend much of the 12-mile trip up highway 101 going 70 MPH [top speed] in the diamond lane.  Half the time it takes going [solo] by car!

Per the Kill-A-Watt meter, it takes about 2.3 kWh to recharge after each 13.5 mile commute run.  That equates to about 6 miles per kWh or 10 minutes of charging [about 2 cents to PG&E] per mile traveled at highway speed.  I expect about 50% better range in town. 

Can't wait to try some dirt riding.  Aside from the uncanny silence and lack of gears to shift, it feels like something between my venerable old Hodaka Ace 100 and the Yamaha DT1E that I had so much fun on some 40 years ago!?

[skadamo]

Congrats on the DS! Thanks for the write up! Sounds like you will be doing some good high speed testing.

[RickSteeb]

Just got back from some low-speed testing-- 27.1 miles on the trip odo, and 6 bars showing on the "fuel" gage.  Half winding country road, and half pedestrian-bike trail [paved]... Avg speed probably about 45 on the outward path and 25mph coming up the trail, saying "Good morning!" to the startled folks as I stealthily passed them...

btw Applied for the California $900 rebate a few days ago.  Woo-hoo!

[zap mc]

HI Rick

"the power ran out 32 miles into the 35.5 mile trip home from the dealer"

was it fully charged at the dealer? and what sort of riding did you do on the way home?


Thanks

[RickSteeb]

I'm assuming it was fully charged when I picked it up; my mistake was attempting to go the entire way on the freeways rather than the available alternate routes... trying to keep up with traffic in even the right lane [on a Saturday morning] was keeping the throttle at the stop.  Tried the "full tuck" a few times, but my neck got sore!  I have also heard it said that it takes a number of charge cycles for the BMS to fully optimize the cell balance or something to that effect...  I was reassured the following day by my 38 mile low-speed trek with about 40% battery remaining, even with the climb to 4000 feet involved.

[Richard230]

I think it may take a few cycles of battery usage before they will accept their fully rated charge.  That could explain the short ride when the bike was brand new.  My guess it that the range will be getting better with additional rides.

[zap mc]

just because it shows 40% on the gauge does not mean that you have 40% left unless they have changed the basis of their readout
on earlier models it simply read voltage which would fluctuate wildly as the bike was ridden. You could easily show no charge left by riding it hard or go into the red on the Zero x range just by riding it hard and it just made the charge meter irrelevant. Hope they have fixed this now and made it more intelligent.

As this is a new model with bold claims in respect of its mileage we are all interested to see what mileage it does in the real world under varying conditions...

[Richard230]

I might mention that when my 72-V, 50 Ah, sepex motor GPR-S was working as designed, its Cycle Analyst that measured Ah used was very useful and accurate. I once drove the bike down to 40 Ah to check its limits and at exactly 40 Ah (80%) used the bike went on "I can just barely get up the hill to your home" mode.  I also noted that the voltage would bounce around all over the place while riding.  If you ask me, voltage is a poor indicator of battery capacity left (especially for lithium batteries) and keeping track of Ah used appears to be a much more accurate method of estimating electrical energy used or remaining in the pack.  I wonder why that method is not used?  Cost?

[trikester]

I just checked back for the first time after posting my initial ride report.

To answer the question about the belt in dirt - that's a no go. Unless you are only riding"clean" dirt roads the possibilty of haveing a rock land on the belt and destroy it is always present. When I'm in the boonies I always have chain repair materials with me. Can't do that with a belt! I bought the sprockets to change over to chain drive at the same time I bought the bike.

I'm going to modify the rear wheel to 17" (to use the Kenda K270 series tires, front and rear, for better dirt performance) just like I did on my 2010 DS and I'll change to chain drive in that complicated swing arm modification process. 

The battery capacity readout no longer is affected by the motor load. Acceleration does not pull the bars down as it does on my 2010 DS. I'm guessing they use a sampling method between drive pulses, but just a guess.

BTW- I'll be selling my 2010 DS, asking $6K. It's got less than 600 miles on it.

Trikester

[Richard230]

You might want to wait until this summer to try to sell your 2010 bike.  Not only will the weather be better (better weather makes for better motorcycle sales), but I hear that gas prices should be way up this summer.  High gas prices tend to encourage drivers commuting in gas-hog vehicles to think motorcycles and especially electric.   

[trikester]

Good advice, thanks.