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[firepower]

I and many other in these forums think it is very poor on Zero part not too have a repair / service manual for their motorcycles.
Many forum post are complaining about the lack of a manual and asking other owners how to do repairs or mods because they have no service manual to refer too.
Some are forced to research OEM technical data and service manual if available (eg Fastace shock disassemble).

aaronzeromoto as Director of Customer Experience
what is Zero reason for not providing Service Manual for purchase or download?
All other Motorcycle Manufactures have them available for purchase or free downolad.
I have download many manual when I have been  interested about a model of motorcycle just to see how they are made and what tech they are using just for educational and curiosity
reasons.

There would be many happy and thankful zero owners and maybe new owners if a reapair / service manual was available.
Electric Cars have them why not Electric Motorcycles?

(added Poll)

[CrashCash]

Yeah, for example, when I put in my power tank, it referenced a tool, then said "use as described in the service manual"

Which is probably why my bike is now in the shop with all sorts of errors. Whatever.

[Christian Frankl]

I agree with firepower.

[trikester]

I totally agree. We should have all available technical repair and service information for the motorcycles we purchase. Every time I buy a new car or pickup truck I also purchase (at highly inflated prices) the shop manual for that new vehicle.

Trikester

[Richard230]

Who would not want to have a service manual?  Especially for all of the chassis maintenance and repair procedures and at least the 12V electric system.  I can understand why Zero would not want to publish a battery and power train service manual and make it available to the general public, but a complete chassis service manual would be really helpful for customers who do not have easy access to their retail dealer.

[CrashCash]

I can understand why Zero would not want to publish a battery and power train service manual and make it available to the general public

I can't... there's times when you're stuck in the middle of bumfuck, Florida (like I was most of my life) and there's no dealer closer than 4 hours away, and it doesn't matter anyway because he's a complete dipshit that'll break your machine worse than it already is. That's when a complete manual saves your butt.

Except for Zero being so small and just starting out, there's *no* excuse for a $20K motorcycle w/o a service manual available.

Personally, I'm still waiting to find out about my "open contactor" error... I don't even have enough info to talk sensibly to the service manager.

Where is it? Is it hard to replace? How much is it? Is it actually the contactor and not something upstream? How do you tell? What is actually upstream... just a few things, or a whole string? What's the recommended troubleshooting and how long does it take?

Those are all "battery and power train" questions.

[Justin Andrews]

I can't...

Possibly liability issues?
They make the service manual open. Someone opens the battery and fries themselves, and then their next of Kin sues Zero?

[Richard230]

I can't...

Possibly liability issues?
They make the service manual open. Someone opens the battery and fries themselves, and then their next of Kin sues Zero?

That was my thought, too. 

[firepower]

As it is now people will try and fix with no info or warnings. doing it blind.
If they had the manual i sure there would be plenty of warnings and DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE CAN KILL etc.

All high voltage wiring is shrouded in orange by law, this is to alert emergency rescue and service technicians not to cut them or short them out.
http://www.delfingen.com/protection-cablages/brochures/brochure-hev-250612-bassedef.pdf

Its a lot safer when you know what your working on and what to avoid.

[Cortezdtv]

I always just cut wires and ask questions after 

[Justin Andrews]

As it is now people will try and fix with no info or warnings. doing it blind.
If they had the manual i sure there would be plenty of warnings and DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE CAN KILL etc.

All high voltage wiring is shrouded in orange by law, this is to alert emergency rescue and service technicians not to cut them or short them out.
http://www.delfingen.com/protection-cablages/brochures/brochure-hev-250612-bassedef.pdf

Its a lot safer when you know what your working on and what to avoid.

I'd love it to be that way too.
However if Zero says : Do not touch what inside the black box, properly trained mechanics only (which is their current stance) then they are not liable for what happens to you if you DO open it and mess with it (which you ARE within your rights to do regardless) I suspect that making the service manual publicly available would reduce their defense in law.

Of course I would love a copy of the service manual myself, but I don't believe I have any right to it.

[CrashCash]

Of course I would love a copy of the service manual myself, but I don't believe I have any right to it.

You don't think so? After paying $20K for a bike?

I'm thinking buying a bike w/o a service manual was a big mistake. I was kind of blinded by the actual joy of test-riding the thing, and forgot that taking care of it is a whole 'nother kettle of fish.

I've only bought one other bike w/o a service manual, and that was in 1985, and at least I got a Clymer's.

[CrashCash]

I tell the people that I run into that are interested in electric bikes: "you want to hold off, it's a nice bike but it's not ready yet, like the company doesn't make a service manual available and stuff"

[Justin Andrews]

Well I paid £8000 for mine

I've NEVER been able to get hold of a service manual legitimately, not for any Kawasaki, Honda or Suzuki I've owned, on the few occasions I've asked the manufactorer (or dealer) I been polietly told to **** off, dealers have that sort of thing wrapped up.

As I say having a service manual would be nice, but finding a leaked copy would be very difficult I suspect, its not like I can simply go onto pirate bay and torrent one like I would normally have to do.

I have however owned a lot of Haynes manuals.

[CrashCash]

Possibly liability issues?
They make the service manual open. Someone opens the battery and fries themselves, and then their next of Kin sues Zero?

But then they opened the battery against either "don't open the battery" or "don't short these contacts" warnings in the manual, and Zero can say "we told you so. you ignored our warnings.". I'd think that exonerates Zero more than anything.

Just like with my ICE bikes. I've read the service manual for my FJR & SV and know which areas of the ABS are "strictly do not f**k with" and I know how to safely change the fluid, test the HU, or replace the brake lines w/o compromising my anti-lock system.

I've NEVER been able to get hold of a service manual legitimately, not for any Kawasaki, Honda or Suzuki I've owned, on the few occasions I've asked the manufactorer (or dealer) I been polietly told to **** off, dealers have that sort of thing wrapped up.

Yeah, I used to have the same problem, but now I simply insist on buying the manual and don't take any shit about it. I buy all my stuff online nowadays from ronayers.com and other places because the local parts-monkeys are morons.

I've never owned a Kawasaki, but I've got factory manuals for my Yamahas, Suzukis, and Hondas. They're expensive though, usually about $150 or so.

Hell, Ron Ayers even sold me the Suzuki dealer diagnostic system (a USB box for the bike and some Windows software) which I needed to test the ABS pump and sync the throttle bodies. On 2008 and later Suzukis, they have an air equalizing valve between the throttle bodies, and you need a laptop to disable it so you can sync them. That was $700.

On my FJR, I insert a jumper, do a dance with the kill switch & starter button, and I can test the ABS. No laptop necessary.