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[stevenh]

Anyone else ended up on the pavement with a wet tire/surface?  Wow that happened fast.  Rode through a puddle in my driveway and hit the throttle not thinking about it (past the puddle).  I was down so fast I did not even know what happened.  I guess Eco when on wet pavement is a good idea (or better throttle management).  Good news is, even though the bike hit the driveway pretty hard, nothing touched other than the bars and the kickstand (came down on the left side of my DSR).  Not even a scratch other than the end of the bar, and even that does not seem to be badly enough to notice.  It took the bike out for a short shake down after a careful inspection and it seems OK.

Oh well, off to the Dr. to have my shoulder look at...

Oh, and looking at the side of my helmet and shield, glad I was wearing it (I always do)...

Steve

[Kocho]

Glad you and the bike are OK! Things like that can happen in a flash. The other day I was riding through local quiet neighborhood streets. Speed was probably 10 mph, making a turn on an intersection. I did not see some sand on the pavement - my front tire skid sideways and I almost fell. Terrible feeling, as I was in shorts an t-shirt, no gloves (helmet on, of course) . Did not fall this time, but the experience tells me a fall at some point is virtually guaranteed...

[mrwilsn]

Don't feel bad. @Domingo3 just recently posted that he went down while leaving the dealer parking lot and I think it happens more than you might think but people don't post about it.  I've had some close calls myself and I have gone down but under situations I was doing stuff I shouldn't be doing in the first place (like deliberately trying to scrape the pegs at low speed with low tire temps). It could be worse...if the bike had gone down on the other side you would be replacing a brake lever and if you had gone down at higher speed....well...it's good that you are mostly OK.  You really need to respect the throttle on turns... especially when it's wet but even road paint or a man hole cover or some sand or gravel can cause you to have a bad day.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[Fred]

Do you thing any of it was due to the power delivery of an electric motor, or was it just down to the grip of cold wet tyres?

[benswing]

Also people on test rides have fallen because they are used to twisting the throttle early in a corner on a gas bike, but it's better to wait a bit longer since electric power is delivered immediately.  Hope your shoulder heals quickly.


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[guppie70]

Hope you did not hurt yourself too much...
Would it be so hard for Zero to add traction control?
One would think this is easier on an electric motorcycle than on a classic ICE bike (ride-by-wire is "enabled" by default and all the ABS wheel speed hardware is already installed as well).

[grmarks]

Would it be so hard for Zero to add traction control?
One would think this is easier on an electric motorcycle than on a classic ICE bike (ride-by-wire is "enabled" by default and all the ABS wheel speed hardware is already installed as well).

So how does the "bike" know the wheel has lost traction, and not just going fast?
You can compare the speed of the front wheel to the back wheel and make the back wheel match the front + a bit, This will work on an S/SR/DS/DSR that can't wheelie, but no good on an FX. But it gets more complicated, what if you put a new tire on the back only, or on the front only, this would through out the calculation.
ABS seems to be set to pre determined setting that work in the wet but apply too little braking in the dry.
If you set traction control this way you get ECO mode. Who wants to be stuck in ECO mode in the dry?
It's not an easy thing to achieve.  You can add some sort of water sensor, gyros, GPS etc but now its getting a lot more complicated.

All you need to do (if you can't control your right hand) is use your right thumb and put it in ECO mode when wet. It's a lot simpler. 

[Kocho]

I hear a lot of excuses for not having traction control, where the reality is that it will be a standard and desirable feature soon. Just like it is on all modern cars. It works. Cheaper bikes have it. Just Zero hasn't gotten to doing it because of many constraints, not that it won't be useful or save folks from falling ...

[mrwilsn]

For Zero to implement traction control I think they would need to use a different motor controller.  I don't think the SEVCON gen4's support it.  I think the gen5's support it but those are still really new...not sure if you can actually get them yet.  As far as how...the bike doesn't use wheel RPM for speed it uses motor RPM.  I think ABS compares a sensor on the disc to the speed reported by the motor.  Traction control basically needs to work in reverse but not until you can send the info from ABS to controller.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[Zen]

Sorry to heat that Steve glad you are alright. I will make a note of this in the future.

[MrDude_1]

So how does the "bike" know the wheel has lost traction, and not just going fast?

Modern ones work via a multi axis acceleration sensor module... fancy way of saying it knows how its moving in 3d space.
Add in two, and you know not just the angle of the whole bike, but how its "twisting"... so in theory you could have the bike balance itself on one wheel. or do boring stuff like keeping you from spinning out in a corner.

[stevenh]

Sorry to heat that Steve glad you are alright. I will make a note of this in the future.

I'm good.  Just a shoulder sprain and some road rash on my right arm and left leg.  I still can't believe there is little to no trim/frame scuffing or visible damage on the bike, even the Givi Top Box only got one small scratch.

Probably no riding for a couple of weeks to let the shoulder heal.

Steve

[dukecola]

Glad you and the bike came out ok. 35 years ago I pulled into my driveway and was coming to a slow stop and the front tire hit a big banana leaf just as I locked the brake. Bike spilled over. Burnt my leg thru my Jeans and scratched up arm thru my jacket. I was lucky, I was in the military at the time and they made us wear full gear head to toe. To this day I stillwear full gear. I can't imagine if I was going fast what the damage would be.

[Semper Why]

I have no wisdom to share. I'm just glad that you're okay and that it wasn't worse. Get well soon.

[grmarks]

So how does the "bike" know the wheel has lost traction, and not just going fast?

Modern ones work via a multi axis acceleration sensor module... fancy way of saying it knows how its moving in 3d space.
Add in two, and you know not just the angle of the whole bike, but how its "twisting"... so in theory you could have the bike balance itself on one wheel. or do boring stuff like keeping you from spinning out in a corner.

Exactly, extra sensors that are not on the bike now and need a program to interpret input to send output to controller. Its additional expense when everyone complains the bikes are too expensive now!
ABS seems to work on a set maximum (wet or dry). I have had ABS cut in when emergency breaking in the dry, and it makes the bike take longer to stop (almost causing an accident). When I could have pulled the bike up quicker, myself. The ABS system seems quite basic.
When batteries become cheap, we will get our bells and whistles.