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[MostlyBonkers]

On my first ever test ride of a Zero, a 2013 S, we went on a route that included some dual carriageway at high speed. The little red light came on almost immediately and I experienced the power being reduced to protect the motor.  Even in my gadget fever riddled state of mind, it's something that gave me concern.

Overheating has been mentioned in the 2016 announcement thread so I'm wondering if it's still an issue on 2015 models, including the SR.

*IF* I take the plunge, would I be able to sustain 90mph for the 10-15 minutes I spend on the motorway during my commute? That seems to be the new unofficial speed limit here in the UK at the moment. I was doing 95 in the middle lane a few weeks ago and got overtaken by a builders van!

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

How the hell is the UK ever hot enough for that? Or how are the roads capable of 95 mph? I'm in the SF bay area and have only had a heat warning light once. But the bike is not a sustained 90 mph machine. I don't know anyone who can commute that fast.

[mguw]

Before buying my fx I test drove a SR at the dealer and in 10min it reduced power due to overheating, just because of a lot of accelerations.

My 2015 FX overheats also quite quickly when I am playing hard with it





A+ Marcel

[MostlyBonkers]

Granted, it was a hot day, approx. 26 degrees Celsius.

Since I've now started commuting on my VFR my cruising speed in quiet conditions is pushing 100mph on the motorway. I  keep my relative speed low so I'm only overtaking cars at around 10mph more than what they're doing.

Don't forget Germany's autobahns. I'm sure people with fast bikes and cars regularly cruise at 120mph or so. That's probably why the Germans limit their cars to 155mph. Beyond that fuel economy and tyre wear must make it unsustainable.

Providing you are on a reliable bike and drive safely I don't see why speed is a problem. Just in the same way that we're all happy to sit in tin cans travelling at 600mph, when we take the plane. It's when you hit something that the fun stops. I also wouldn't like a fast puncture over 100mph. I've had a couple at 70-80mph and they were fine. You soon know when a tyre starts deflating and once you're off the throttle your speed drops quickly.  I've never had a blowout and trust that if I keep the pressures in range I won't.

[benswing]

I regularly ride in the upper 70s and low 80s and have had no problems with overheating. I live in New Jersey next to New York City.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ctrlburn]

My 2013 S went prematurely into limp mode due to a bad motor thermistor.   (I know broken record...)
Test drives at the dealer never pushed it and my delivery was February.

So it took a while before full realization.

Checking Bluetooth APP against known ambient temperatures at startup showed the motor was 12 degrees F above room temperature.
Confirmation from a IR thermometer once "limping" showed nothing higher than 125 F degrees.

So "going into limp mode" to me merited further research and at least confirmation.

I can get to warning light, but have not achieved limp mode, but generally avoid holding 80mph into a headwind in the "buffet" of a semi.

[Manzanita]

I have taken my Zero S to the track and it was 95-100 degrees. Yes, I was hitting thermal limiting at times, but it kicks in smoothly and is not really 'overheating', just thermal protection--twisting the throttle more does not give more power, but I was able to sustain my speed, or it did sometimes slow down slightly. Pretty extreme conditions and I was not holding back--basically I was riding it at my pace without regard to it possibly overheating... As far as range, I do have the power tank and still can only do about 60 miles at freeway speed (~70 mph).   

[Lecram]

When I was in France, this summer I had very often an overheated engine. OK, the temps were around 30C, but this have never happened to my ICE bikes. It reduced my fun of rinding a bit. I didnt need a long range during these rides, so I opened the accelerator as far as possible. But thats what I did with my former KTM too.

I have had an overheated engine back in Holland as well at outside temps around 22C. That is disappointing for a 19k euros bike.

[oregonrider89]

Never seen this. Neither on ICE bikes nor electric.

I have often ridden my 2015 SR in 100 degree F temps for long rides (80+ miles) but they were mostly at highway speeds. No issues for me and I am 185lbs. I had read about overheating and thought it might happen but, nope.

I wonder if overheating is related to repeated hard acceleration from a stop, or slow speeds, commonly found in city riding. Passive ventilation would not provide much cooling under those circumstances. If that

[Cortezdtv]

I have found that most heat is created in the motor when maintaining closest to 100% throttle.... Acceleration stoplight to stoplight, would be basically impossible to over heat the motor.


The overheating comes from spinning 6000 rpms or over 5250 for extended periods of time when the controllers is dumping that extra ~200 amps

[CScalpeL]

I don't get it, I have no problem getting my 2015 SR to overheat, just 3 - 4 consecutive stoplights at WOT is all it takes... Heck I got more overheating anxiety than range anxiety 
I have one of the motors that read 15c above ambient before I even start moving the bike. Do those of you with no overheating issues not have this anomaly? (BTW - Zero's stance on this is that the reading is off only at lower temperatures, at higher temperatures supposedly the reading is more accurate though that is a difficult thing to verify)

[NoiseBoy]

I repeatedly WOT up the longest hill I could find and it only went up to 72C. Although ambient is only 13C.

[Erasmo]

I don't get it, I have no problem getting my 2015 SR to overheat, just 3 - 4 consecutive stoplights at WOT is all it takes... Heck I got more overheating anxiety than range anxiety 
I have one of the motors that read 15c above ambient before I even start moving the bike. Do those of you with no overheating issues not have this anomaly? (BTW - Zero's stance on this is that the reading is off only at lower temperatures, at higher temperatures supposedly the reading is more accurate though that is a difficult thing to verify)

Ride fast and far to heat the motor up, pull over and use one of those fancy IR thermometers.

[MostlyBonkers]

Nice idea Erasmo but I fear that won't get you the internal reading if that's where the sensor sits.  There will be a temperature gradient between the internal components and the case. I don't know where the sensor lives though. If it's just attached to the outside of the case then a reading via an IR gauge should work.

I also suspect that the temperature of the motor will have dropped significantly by the time you've come off the throttle, pulled to a stop and pointed a thermometer in the right direction.

If my bike's overheat light was never coming on I'd be a bit concerned that the sensor wasn't working. For those that get regular overheating it may be that some recalibration is required.

The excuse that it reads inaccurately at room temperature is lame IMHO. It must be another super cheap component from China. I also wouldn't be surprised if the logic isn't there to detect a faulty sensor, limit performance and throw an error message.

[MostlyBonkers]

Just rereading others' posts here and it seems ctrlburn has the answer. I think he must have got the thermistor replaced in the end?

Judging by the responses so far it does seem that the entire range is prone to overheating when pushed hard. That's useful knowledge for someone like myself who would likely suffer from limp mode twice a day when I would least want it to kick in - on the motorway. Just the same experience I had in 2013.

Let's hope there has been some work done on cooling for the 2016 models.

Thank you all, that was very helpful.