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[NoiseBoy]

I had wondered how well the Zero would crash and put it to the test last night.  First off in over 3 years and i was literally just thinking beforehand how attached i have become to the bike and how gutted i would be if i wrote it off.  Luckily it wasn't that serious.

We've had weeks of near continuous rain but yesterday evening was dry and I was enjoying the ride to my local amateur radio club meeting.  The building is down a tree lined fairly treacherous private driveway.  Its tarmac/asphalt but old permanently wet with the tree cover so i always take it fairly easy.  But after the spirited ride there i was travelling at supermoto speeds on the Zero, went round a slight bend and there was a patch of silty mud in the shadows that i didnt see.  As soon as the front wheel touched it it was like ice and slid out pretty violently.   I was only doing about 20mph or so but i have never felt a bike hit the ground that hard before.  It went so fast it actually threw me clear of the bike onto the other side of the road.   I wasn't hurt, just a bruised wrist and ankle (wear the gear guys) so jumped up to check the bike.  It fell on the right hand side which is probably the worst.  Put the kick stand stand and levered it up right onto the stand, which promptly folded, i slipped in the mud trying to catch it and the bike fell over into the muddy verge on the other side!   ARRRGGGHHH.  I think that is one of the only times in my life i have screamed.   I had to get a couple of the guys to help me pick it up.

So the verdict is, the Zero crashes very well.  20mph may not be highway speed but it is significant.  The only real damage was the brake lever was quite badly bent back against the grip, but i managed to bend it back into shape to be rideable. Ruined my limited edition Zero handgrip. The footpeg and rear brake are scuffed but mechanically unharmed and the mirror folded back and sustained some scuffing to the mirror housing itself and the stem.   It is worth making sure your mirror mount's arent much more than hand tight so that they fold when dropped, which is what happened in my case and saved serious damage.    The only parts that touch the ground are the front tyre, handlebar/brake and footpeg/brake.   There is no damage to any chassis parts or panels.



The flash reflecting makes it look worse than it is.



Rode the bike home no problem and went straight online to buy a new mastercylinder.  i thought by the time i have a new lever why not just upgrade.  But nobody sells an aftermarket master cylinder with a small enough bore for the caliper.  They don't go lower than 16mm and we probably need 11mm or less.   So i just hope the MY13 Nissin caliper will fit the '12 forks.  Will probably order some new tyres for better winter grip but all i can find in the right size is the Michelin Pilot Activ.  Any better suggestions?

[lolachampcar]

please keep us posted on the MY13 Nissan caliper fit.  That is an upgrade I would love.

[wainair]

Glad to hear you are okay. It always sucks to scratch up your bike. It's been years since I've dumped, knock wood.

[Richard230]

Hi Noiseboy.  I am sorry to hear about your Zero dump, but I am happy to hear that you were not injured. 

I had the same thing happen 15 years ago while riding my 1991 BMW K100RS.  I was just leaving Skylonda, heading toward Woodside and was traveling around the first downhill hairpin curve at about 10 mph, when I hit an oil slick and I and my bike flopped down on our left sides. I landed on my shoulder (I was wearing a heavy leather jacket which had no armor), which I fractured and required a trip to the hospital.  (That was my first and only accident in 50 years of riding.)  However, my BMW sustained $4700 in damage, including a broken fairing, valve cover (lots of oil flowing down the street), exhaust system and muffler and other stuff.  So it would appear that crashing on an electric motorcycle might also save you money, compared with doing the same thing happening to most IC motorcycles - in addition to the money you save in periodic maintenance costs.  I was very fortunate that the crash occurred during the only time that I had collision insurance on one of my motorcycles so most of the tab was picked up by Progressive.

Regarding your braking needs.  You might check out the bolt spacing and layout of the Zero's caliper and master cylinder and go to a salvage yard to see if some other motorcycle model has similar mounting provisions.  If you find one that would fit, you could buy the entire caliper, hose and master cylinder assembly and fit it to your bike.  I wouldn't wait for the 2013 Zero equipment to be available as they are short on parts now just to make the new models and who knows how long it will be before they have extra brake components to sell to after-market customers.  However, they might have extra Hayes brake parts in their parts warehouse right now.   

[dahlheim]

i have the DS model (and three other dual sports and dual-sported dirt bikes) in the garage and i thought it might be worth mentioning that i'm sure cutting the ball off of the brake/clutch handle ends has saved me more than a few broken and unusable handles out in the middle of nowhere.  i let a friend try my zero and she promptly dumped it after about ten feet, landing on the brake handle side.  if you don't cut the ball of the end of the handle, a direct hit will often break it in a more problematic place.  some permanent marker or paint will hide the "modification" well.

[NoiseBoy]

Well with an aftermarket MC i could have a shorty lever or a folding lever which has to be even better.   I think i will look into a proper bar-end instead of of the MX style grips it comes with.  Either that or i can try the big alloy brushguards from my KTM.  They would have saved the lever and also prevented the bars from bending.

Probably a good idea for people like Trikester that ride off road as the tapered aluminium bars don't seem very strong at all.  I was also shocked at how easy it was to bend the brake lever back.  I think alot of the flex you feel when squeezing the brake hard is the lever itself and not just the lines and seals etc.

[manlytom]

Hi

I dropped my S while coming to stop. My jeans caught in the rear brake cover so my foot never made it to the ground. Posted this in here at one stage.
found that all the lightweight parts bend rather easily. As well the brake levers. Getting them back straight turned out tricky - heat them with a torch or so I should have done... Ended up with a "shorty"front brake lever for a while. 
As the bike fell needed to used the kill switch as the rear wheel started going for it - no resistance and throttle caught.

Anyway the Zero is fine in a crash and usual repairs needed. One can protect the bike a bit as mentioned above good idea. As the bike is lightweight and no hot parts the risk of injury is reduced. So all good!

[oobflyer]

I did the same thing on my Vectrix a couple of years ago. I leaned into a leaf-filled puddle in the shade, i.e. slippery as ice. Glad you're OK, thanks for sharing the experience.

[trikester]

I did a slow drop of my 2012 DS a while back. I was riding up a narrow canyon wash and was on a sandy side slope. The front wheel just cut out and slid down the slope, which laid me and the bike down on the up-slope side. Because it was slow and I fell up-slope on a soft surface, it didn't hurt me or the bike. However, I immediately thought, as my legs were under the bike, how great it was that there were no hot places on the bike to worry about burning me.    Just another advantage of electric propulsion.

Trikester