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[manlytom]

Hi all.
had a worrying moment on my 2011S. Have by now done a good 1000kms on it and while accellerating going a slowish 20miles to overtake a IC bike I felt a brief slip and loss of motor power. Luckily it quickly kicked back in again (only about 1 second outage) and saved me the embarresment ... the warning lights did not come on either. So seems nothing electronically. Can the Agni motor with its brushes be a problem ?
It is the third time this happened. the two times before it was not such a noticed slip of motor but rather sudden power loss while accellerating, then power/motor started running again after about 5 seconds. As well no warning lights !?

While receiving great service from Zero considering being so far away I hope to find ways to identify the root cause of this problem through the forum or some troubleshooting -- anyone any ideas ?

T

[Richard230]

Do you have a belt drive?  Could it be that the belt is slipping and needs to be adjusted?  A very loose chain can also jump the teeth on a sprocket. I would check this first.

[manlytom]

hi Richard230,

thx -- for todays problem this indeed might be the case. need to get that gauge and adjust. The other two times was for sure a longer, no power on the motor altogether - work it by elimination. check the belt, adjust if needed. then ride on.

T

[dkw12002]

I worry about heat. If heat were a major problem with the 2011 motor we would already know about it though, but I live in Texas where it gets over 100 F commonly. I know the fan on the 11 kicks in even in cool weather when you ride hard. I always let the motor run after I get to my destination until it stops which can take up to 5 minutes....and this is February. The fact the fan runs so long after you've stopped also means to me the fan has a hard time cooling off the motor. That 2012 with no fan running after you stop must be one tough motor or a very good fan. We should know in about 6 months when the really hot weather arrives. Brammo says their big bike will be water cooled so obviously heat is a concern. So far though, my 2011 S has performed flawlessly.

[Richard230]

For whatever it is worth, which is probably not much, so far when I check the motor on my 2012 Zero S after I get home, it is barely warmer than the ambient temperature.  Of course it never gets anywhere near 100 around here.  I am happy to see 60 or 70 degrees. 

[manlytom]

Hi
The 2011 is the Agni brushed motor and it gets hot quickly. After most rides my fan is running and motor fairly hot - can barly touch it.
The 2012 is a bigger no brushes and fan on the motor - great approach. Can see why it is cooler.
Yet the outages i had were just a couple of mins into th ride! So heat cannot be an issue. I will watch out for it.

Cheers
T

[manlytom]

UPDATE 

happened again today. checked the belt as we said. looks not looser then on my Harley - about half an inch of play - dont have the gauge though.
so what happened. riding at a speed of about 60km/h and wanted to accelarate swiftly to make the big crossing while traffic light is still nicely green. did a quick wrist turn to get most burst and --- no power --- bike starts slowing but is enough to get me savely across the crossing, just worried that on other side is major traffic and no room to stop at all. quickest way to get power back was reset - turn key off and on and had power within a few seconds while crusing still fast enough to not hold up traffic.

by now I suspect that the system does not like quick accellarations when one turns the throttle very quickly full out. Feels really like a software glitch -- Maybe a fix with upgrading something ? Firmware ? My speedo reads r6 when I switch on but I guess the controller and BMS all have their respective versions. does anyone know how to find out on a 2011 and possibly upgrade

cheers
T

[protomech]

Definitely get in touch with Zero directly. And let us know here how it goes, of course : )

When you lose power, does playing with the throttle position help at all? Or is it absolutely zip until you reboot the bike?

[Richard230]

Here is Zero's customer assistance contact email address:  support@zeromotorcycles.com

[dkw12002]

Mine reads R6 too, but if I shut my bike off, then on, it takes about 8 seconds to reboot...way to long to try and do it while riding. Luckily I have had no hesitations, cut offs or slips after about 250 miles. I think you would hear a squealing noise if the drive belt were slipping though like a fan belt slipping. I am worried of course since we have the same model.

Reminds me of a clock I bought at the PX years ago. Took it home and at midnight, the rotary numbers were stuck on 11:59...tried to go to 12, but slipped back. I took it back to the PX and had to laugh when I saw the display model...it was doing the same thing...stuck on 11:59. That's why I'm a little concerned.

[manlytom]

Definitely get in touch with Zero directly. And let us know here how it goes, of course : )

When you lose power, does playing with the throttle position help at all? Or is it absolutely zip until you reboot the bike?

thx. have kept them up to date so far as well. When power is gone no use of playing with the throttle. seems to recover after a short time and run happily normal.

[manlytom]

Mine reads R6 too, but if I shut my bike off, then on, it takes about 8 seconds to reboot...way to long to try and do it while riding. Luckily I have had no hesitations, cut offs or slips after about 250 miles. I think you would hear a squealing noise if the drive belt were slipping though like a fan belt slipping. I am worried of course since we have the same model.

Hi, thx for feedback, no noise at all, just power loss. similar to some of the 2012 on eco mode in the other thread. Reboot, might take some seconds but before display is ready the motor gets power and runs. Luckily I was cruising at decent speed and it started going downhill. Did not even slow down traffic behind me. Next time (hopefully never again) I try the kill switch instead.

[manlytom]

happenend again, motor cut simply out - no warning lights. tried the kill switch to reset bike but to no avail. waited a few secs if bike comes back on - no. Had to turn key to off and on again. easy traffic situation and was still rolling along nicely - so no danger here ..
it seems to happen when I go to full throttle. At full it seems to just cut power to the motor. throttle assembly ? or firmware somewhere ??

will brief Zero.

T

[Richard230]

You may recall that I had two random stalling episodes at long stoplights on my 2012 S model. Since Zero reprogrammed the controller and replaced the throttle assembly, I have ridden about 100 miles and so far no more stalling.

[cirrus pete]

happenend again, motor cut simply out - no warning lights. tried the kill switch to reset bike but to no avail. waited a few secs if bike comes back on - no. Had to turn key to off and on again. easy traffic situation and was still rolling along nicely - so no danger here ..
it seems to happen when I go to full throttle. At full it seems to just cut power to the motor. throttle assembly ? or firmware somewhere ??

will brief Zero.

T

Talk to Zero, I had a similar issue which they took care of. I think in my case I believe it was a controller programming issue where the box was resetting when I backed off from being at full throttle. that action was sending a momentary spike in voltage outside of the contoller parameters forcing a "reboot". I am sure I masacred the technical aspects, but bottom line was Zero ID'd the problem and addressed it quickly.