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[Burton]

Terry come to VA during Jan / Feb and you will wash your bike

We use some nasty stuff in our road salt. It took me an hour to get 90% of it off the bike since I know how corrosive it is.

You clean it off, or off come your fasteners

[Justin Andrews]

In almost 3 years of owning my Zero I've never washed it once.

I have to wash my bike weekly, there is simply way too much salt on the roads during the winter to not to. Even ACF-50 struggles to keep the salt at bay.

[m0t0-ryder]

If you must wash your bike use only a garden hose. NO Pressure washer.
Totally avoid the electrical connector areas. Wipe these down by hand with no direct water pressure aimed at them.
Do not spray water up under the (faux) fuel tank area.
Do not spray water near the battery interface connectors.
Do not spray water under the seat where the Controller resides.

While these are, for the most part, water resistant forced water can get into even the dielectric grease sealed connectors.

[Electric Terry]

In almost 3 years of owning my Zero I've never washed it once.

I have to wash my bike weekly, there is simply way too much salt on the roads during the winter to not to. Even ACF-50 struggles to keep the salt at bay.

Doesn't sound fun at all.  The high price to pay I guess to live somewhere that gets cold in winter and has seasons. 

But I agree with moto ryder, just a garden hose and I wouldn't even use a spray nozzle.  then wipe it off.  Even on gas bikes you aren't supposed to use pressurized water.  It removes grease from the chain and other seals.

[Doug S]

But I agree with moto ryder, just a garden hose and I wouldn't even use a spray nozzle.  then wipe it off.

I hate to disappoint your guys, but that's all I did last Sunday, and it wound up making the bike fail. I do use an attachment on the end of the hose so I can shut it off, but I have it set to "shower" and with the pressure I have at my place, it pretty much dribbles out when it's on. Honestly, if my bike can't survive what I did to it last Sunday, it's never going to survive a good rainstorm. That's unacceptable on any vehicle whether it's battery, gasoline, hydrogen or fusion powered.

[trikester]

This may not apply to the Zero bikes because their flasher units may be better protected but it was a problem on my Zero powered e-trike. Every so often my turn signal flasher unit would die and I would have to replace it. Each time I opened the cover to examine, and it would be fried near an IC. Finally it dawned on me that the trike had been wet, every time, just before I lost the flasher. The last time, before replacing it, I carefully sealed the unit with silicone sealant. I haven't had a problem since.

This has not happened on my FX but the flasher unit Zero uses may already be sealed or just in a better protected location. On my e-trike it was out in the open.

Something to be aware of,

Trikester

[teddillard]

I hate to disappoint your guys, but that's all I did last Sunday, and it wound up making the bike fail. I do use an attachment on the end of the hose so I can shut it off, but I have it set to "shower" and with the pressure I have at my place, it pretty much dribbles out when it's on. Honestly, if my bike can't survive what I did to it last Sunday, it's never going to survive a good rainstorm. That's unacceptable on any vehicle whether it's battery, gasoline, hydrogen or fusion powered.

Then I'd say it again.  If it were my bike, whatever the circumstances, I'd undo every connector, every boot, clean it, dry it and seal it. 

There's no doubt in my mind you have a leak, hole, unseated rubber cover, dirt, or moisture trapped inside of something that moisture is supposed to be on the outside of. 

This isn't particularly unusual.  I've seen time and time again on bikes of every description - connectors that are just a bit unseated or cracked, or dirt is interfering with the seal.  I've seen boots that were never fit properly to the mating surfaces at the factory.  I've seen wires where moisture has migrated 6" down the inside of the insulation, corroding everything as it went.  It's not cause for an existential crisis, just some careful detail work, and as the bike gets older it's going to see more and more of it.  And yes, a 100V (or whatever it is) system with a BMS is going to be a hell of a lot more picky than anything on a gas bike.

Typically after I've gotten done doing this, I've done a better job fixing and sealing than the mfr. did, and it's not a problem again.  In some cases, like the front fender wash onto my coil in a downpour, on my SRX, it's a 50/50 shot as to whether the Gods of Motorcycles are smiling down on me that day.   

[teddillard]

I do want to add - I know everybody is all "electric bikes need no maintenance" and all, but I go through all my connections, especially the HV ones, about once a year.  I clean them, check them, seal them and make sure they're nice and tight and secure.  As you know, being an EE and all, as soon as a connection starts degrading it goes downhill fast, especially if there's arcing involved. 

If memory serves, when Terry first visited the Zero Homeworld they put his bike up on a thermal camera, found a bunch of HV connectors that were making heat, and cleaned them up.  He said it made him go faster, but he says that about everything.   

[Burton]

The first thing I did when I started to "work" on my bike after getting it shipped here from CA is unplug everything and apply a ton of dielectric grease

Now I am looking to make a mostly sealed sheet metal container for all my wires (which sit on top of my battery) and a cover for my controller to keep rain and snow out when I am riding.

I also tend to check electrical connections years like teddillard since I ride year round in all weather conditions on all my bikes. And, any time I take a connector off for any reason I put more dielectric on it before putting it back on

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

I do want to add - I know everybody is all "electric bikes need no maintenance" and all, but I go through all my connections, especially the HV ones, about once a year.  I clean them, check them, seal them and make sure they're nice and tight and secure.  As you know, being an EE and all, as soon as a connection starts degrading it goes downhill fast, especially if there's arcing involved. 

If memory serves, when Terry first visited the Zero Homeworld they put his bike up on a thermal camera, found a bunch of HV connectors that were making heat, and cleaned them up.  He said it made him go faster, but he says that about everything.   

If you were to formalize this advice, what would you recommend? Could you put together a howto video? I have past electronics and power distribution experience as a naval technician, but my experience is really stale by now.

[Justin Andrews]

My Suzuki bandits (all three of the ones I owned) were also a sod for dying in the rain, usually ending up with me crawling home on 2-3 cylinders, or on the back of a flatbed.

[DynoMutt]

When I was cleaning my '13 S last winter, I used a sponge and wiped the whole bike down.
It wasn't thorough enough, apparently, because my fasteners still got salt rash.

That's a real problem for northeast users.

[Justin Andrews]

Just a random thought.

If we cannot get a service manual for X reasons, why don't we, as a collaborate group, create our own manual?

Pipe dream I know, but when we do work on our bikes photo it, and put it up here in a thread (maybe in a new sub-forum called "Zero Maintenance" ) it would be useful as well as other forum members might then know a better way of doing something and as such we would be able to share knowledge much more easily.

[firepower]

Until zero releases one we have to do the best we can. Users here love there zero when there working as advertised, and like wise hate them when they see their investment sitting idle for months due to lack of parts or dealer training.

I think Tesla has chosen the correct model , sale and support direct to customer, No dealers. but they have the scale and will to make it work.

[Richard230]

I have been a member of the Chain Gang forum (that caters to BMW F650 single owners) for the past 16 years.  BMW never really wants people to work on their bikes, just bring it in to the dealer and hand over your credit card. So service and repair information was hard to come by during the early days of those models. As it turned out, Funduro (like me) and F650GS owners were all a bunch of cheapskates and were not about to pay to have our bikes serviced and repaired.  So several members pulled their bikes apart and put them back together again.  Then they documented their work and submitted it to the forum as a maintenance FAQ.  It has accumulated a huge amount of information over the years and everyone seems to be happy with the information.  I have never heard a single complaint that the information provided was incorrect.  So such a system can work, at least for IC motorcycles that most people are familiar working on and that do not require specialized training, skills or equipment to service.

But I would have to agree with Ted that if you don't know what you are doing when it comes to the electrical power systems in electric vehicles, you could do a lot of damage to expensive parts if you misunderstood even the best of instructions. But in the end, more information is better than less information and it is up to the user of this information to take responsibility for the results of their actions.