Print

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

[dkw12002]

Thanks, af1. Everything is working fine and the Zero is my favorite bike ever. 3400 miles on it now and I've been riding it every day including some interstate time in 90+ sunny weather and have only triggered the hot motor icon warning once very briefly going 85 mph or so. Another time I got a very rapid flashing display but not while riding or charging but after riding in hot weather, then before the bike was fully charged, I unplugged to go for another ride and got this rapid red flashing warning sign. The bike ran fine and I went to dinner. After that I rebooted and the warning light was gone. That was different then the riding too fast and hot warning or this last battery too-hot-to-charge warning, but I think it was probably warm battery related.  Looks like an all 3 cases, the fix is to let the bike just cool off. These warnings are not a problem because the fix is easy, just let it cool a little and there is nothing wrong....just protective mechanisms unlike the 2011 motor failure. Zero has advanced a quantum leap with this model over the 2011 S.

[Shoe2013]

Not sure whether I should have added this, or started a new subject. Last Wednesday, my bike was sitting in the parking area at work, and the temperature was 72. It was around 1pm. When I turned on the bike to go home, the temperature symbol started blinking. How the hell could that be when I had just turned it on? I slowly cruised out onto the highway. I got about a 1/2 mile down the road, and the bike stopped generating power. I pulled over. After several minutes, I noticed that the warning had stopped blinking. I got back on the bike and rode away at about 50 mph. I went several miles and it started to blink again. I got off the road, again, and pulled into a parking lot. I just sat there for a few minutes watching the panel, and the light stopped blinking. I took off again, and rode the back roads home at about 35 mph. The light never came back on. When I got home, I continued to ride around the area for about another 15 minutes. No problem. The next day I rode the bike to the dealer. No problem on the ride to the dealer. He told me the they would analyze it, and the guy in California would look at the results. I emailed the service people in California, and their service guy replied that one of the possibilities would be a bad thermistor.

[dkw12002]

The part where your bike stopped generating power is the bad part. Mine never stopped operating smoothly. There is a minor change in how it begins to charge now though since the system indicated the battery was too hot to charge. Before, when I hooked up the charger there would be a slight delay, followed by  green light, then 3 quickly flashing dim red lights, then back to the blinking green light indicating charging. Now it does the same thing except, there are 3 extra red warning flashes that are longer and brighter just before the stems clicks and the green light begins flashing. Kind of weird, but everything works fine.

[dkw12002]

The first cool front of the season (low of 65F this morning) moved through last night and today I decided to just hook up my Zero S after a ride rather than put a fan on the battery and wait an hour to cool it down. Worked like a charm. When I plugged in, I got the initial green light, followed by a delay with no light followed by a flashing green light and ONE flashing red light which must be the sensors reading battery temp, followed by the clicking sound as the charger starts its cycle. Up until today, there would be 4 or even 6 flashing red lights as the system wasn't too sure it even wanted to charge the battery. I think it is safe to say the Zero S prefers cooler weather.

[manlytom]

your 2011S motor did not fail from excessive heat.

that old motor design had brushes, and the brush holders would randomly fail on them destroying the motor.  We've fixed two other 2011s for the same failure.

UNless you are getting over temp warnings, I would not worry about it

know this belongs into another thread... but how do we cool the 2011 best ? Some heatsinks like picoamps sells a kit at quite a price ? how hard is it to do that and what improvements are achievable ?

[BSDThw]

Hi Tom,

I met the guy from Picoamps this year who has developed the heatpipe stuff. I think you need a lot of mechanic knowledge and tools to make one.

[TargeT]

I parked next to an AC unit on a 90* day (that's where the electrical outlets are!), I'm pretty sure the AC heat exhaust plus the hot day overheated the bike as I came out to a fast blinking green light & temp light and a bike that wouldn't move, I moved it into the shade and then came out an hour later to ride it home for lunch.

 the bike worked fine for about a mile, then I couldn't go past 40 mph, then 30 mph, and right as I turned onto my street it cut power all together (luckily it's mostly down hill to my house from there)

I costed it home, parked it under a tree and took my truck to work; tried it out later that night after I got home and it worked fine for a quick ride & I rode it to work this AM with no issues...

She just don't like heat!

[dkw12002]

Right. My experience is when the battery sensors detect a hot battery, it takes an hour or longer with a fan to get the temp down to where it will charge, which is a different issue but that's another indication the bike does not like hot weather. Sensitive and possibly over-sensitive battery sensors, but on the other hand if it saves battery damage, it's worth it. Maybe you just need a longer extension cord, but I suspect just the hot sun alone might be hot enough to cause the same thing.  I notice also CHANGES in temp can affect sensors too. For 3 mornings this week we had cool mornings...62F or so (as opposed to 75+ temps, but it is much warmer than that in my garage when I start out. I go a mile to the gym to work out and an hour later, when I start to leave, everything seems to boot up properly except for a couple more than usual red blinking lights during the boot up, but the bike just won't go. I reboot and the second time, it goes. Yesterday the morning was warmer and it went on the first boot.

[Killroy]

can anyone tell me why Zero decided to run the cooling fins along the length of the motor body, instead of radially,

You normally do an "extruded profile" this will not allow to have a shape in an other direction as the extruding line!

On the other side the motor is behind the battery box... not really in the air, so maybe the air swirl will do a good job.

They can always design a cross cut like this it would just be another manufacturing step.

[dukecola]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but do electric motors really need cooling. My machines at work have electric motors, they run nearly 8 hrs straight, every day. A couple of my machines are 17yrs old and orig motors still purr. Lust a little warm to the touch. The motors are encased in a housing and get no air at all.  So, where is the friction heat coming from and what exactly would need to be cooled, the bearings?

[Burton]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but do electric motors really need cooling. My machines at work have electric motors, they run nearly 8 hrs straight, every day. A couple of my machines are 17yrs old and orig motors still purr. Lust a little warm to the touch. The motors are encased in a housing and get no air at all.  So, where is the friction heat coming from and what exactly would need to be cooled, the bearings?

ALL electronics are slightly inefficient in transferring energy ... this is "resistance" and this is ultimately why electronics, including motors, get hot.

If you were to take your motor at work and spin it up from 0 to max amps then force it to push energy into a batter (regen) then do it over and over the heat values will go up because the wasted energy also goes up. Do this enough and the heat itself might negatively affect the resistance of the motor and eventually you will need cooling of some sort

[Lenny]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but do electric motors really need cooling. My machines at work have electric motors, they run nearly 8 hrs straight, every day. A couple of my machines are 17yrs old and orig motors still purr. Lust a little warm to the touch. The motors are encased in a housing and get no air at all.  So, where is the friction heat coming from and what exactly would need to be cooled, the bearings?

The difference is that your machine motors don't get overstrained, as there are running permanently within their design power. Zero (and also Tesla i.e.) are overstraining their motors for fast acceleration, so they get warmer than usual. For example, the continuous power of a SR is about 20 kW, whereas the peak power is 52 kW. If its running with 20 kW, heat generation and dissipation are equal at a certain temperature, so it doesn't get warmer. Above 20 kW you get more heat generation than can dissipate, so the motor heats up.

[Killroy]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but do electric motors really need cooling. My machines at work have electric motors, they run nearly 8 hrs straight, every day. A couple of my machines are 17yrs old and orig motors still purr. Lust a little warm to the touch. The motors are encased in a housing and get no air at all.  So, where is the friction heat coming from and what exactly would need to be cooled, the bearings?

YES, the Zero Motor needs cooling because the heat negatively effects the impeded magnets. 

Since I am going to do my first Zero track day at Refuel Laguna Seca, I am looking to the way that racers cool there Zeros.

[Brammofan]

Just to revisit a comment someone made earlier, Cedric Lynch, the inventor of the Lynch electric motor and (some would say) star of the movie, Charge, did often cool his battery with a misting sprayer.  He said this in an interview back in 2010. 

[MrDude_1]

Thing is, I have one fan and two sides to the bike, so I assume I am cooling off one side of the battery but not the other so much, at least not evenly, so the only thing I know for sure is that the fan does cool off the motor pretty fast. Anyway, I don't mind and if it does help, it is no trouble. I couldn't be hurting anything with the fan, right? It's still 95F in my garage the hottest part of the day after my evening ride so I am just blowing hot air....so to speak.

No you're not hurting anything, and just because the fan is on one side, doesnt mean its not cooling the whole bike. The aluminum structure conducts heat well, so cooling one side is still effective.