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[E-Luke]

The Hollywood Electrics guys put a smaller front sprocket (25 tooth from memory??) on my '16 DSR, and it's much punchier up to 60... I'm curious to try a '17, but there are things you can do to anything with the new motor setup; controller, sprockets, etc...

Anyone else know of any other hacks to get performance? And, does anyone have estimates on the 0-60 of '17s?

[MichaelJohn]

I test rode a 2017 SR today and I was prepared to be blown away judging by some of the above comments. Well, I wasn't. First of all, the steering felt  heavier than on my bike-that may just be due to mine having 7000+ miles and loosening up. I did like the brake pedal better, it is more traditional and not a dirt bike style pedal. The sound that the motor makes is a little different and there was the old familiar wounded Wookie noise during acceleration as the bike was brand new and the belt was howling. Speaking of acceleration, there is no way that this bike is going to do 0 to 60 in under three seconds, at least not the one I rode, and it was fully charged. I would be surprised if it is under four seconds. BTW, I am not a heavy rider - I'm about 155 in gear. It did not feel any faster from a standing start than my bike, in fact, mine has a sharper throttle response which I like better. I did some mid range 30 to 70 mph pulls and it felt about the same as my bike there as well, maybe just a little bit quicker. I use the old fashioned counting method (one thusand one, one thousand two... and I am pretty darn accurate) and came up with three seconds give or take 1/10 which is close to my bike. Where I did feel a difference was on the freeway. Accelerating from 70 the new bike did seem to pull harder but the difference was not dramatic. When I got back on my bike after the test ride it felt just fine and it certainly didn't feel much slower. If I had felt a big difference I was ready to trade it in for the '17 because I am an admitted acceleration junkie. The new bike is a little quicker - I would say proportional to the horsepower and torque increase which is not huge. According to my crude timing methods and butt dyno the increase is not enough to justify trading in my '15.

[gyrocyclist]

  According to my crude timing methods and butt dyno the increase is not enough to justify trading in my '15.

Thanks for your report!

Mine is a 2016 SR and I've no intention of upgrading until there are significant improvements.
In my case "improvement" equates to increased range. Of course I'd like more acceleration --
but I think Zero's done a great job in that regard.

I realize that "increased range" is a function of many factors:
  - better aerodynamics
  - faster charging
  - increased battery capacity
 
But I'm really curious: do you know the trade-in value of your '15?

[MichaelJohn]

  According to my crude timing methods and butt dyno the increase is not enough to justify trading in my '15.

Thanks for your report!

But I'm really curious: do you know the trade-in value of your '15?

You're welcome. I don't need much of an excuse to test ride motorcycles, it is becoming a hobby. (BMW S1000XR, KTM Super Duke GT, Honda Africa Twin...the next one on my radar is the new Ducati SuperSport when it gets to the showroom later this month - that one might be a keeper).

We never got to the value of my '15, and frankly I'm almost afraid to find out. I got mine in late 2014 and paid the higher amount before Zero lowered the price so I'm going to take a bath when I do trade it in.

[KrazyEd]

Good Luck with trade in value on ANY alternative fuel vehicle.
Think of it as a $15,000 cell phone. After that, just enjoy the
ride. There are TONS of Electric Cars that are only a few
years old for well under $10,000. How bad does THAT hurt
to lose a major percentage of it's value in a year or two

[MajorMajor]

Why do they lose so much value?

In 5 years I expect my bike to pretty much be the same as it is now, maybe lose 10-20% of the range.

[JohnFind]

Just pulled back on the throttle and was blown away by the acceleration of the new 2017 SR.  I was under 3 seconds.
Commenting on the off-topic post by MichaelJohn. Nonsense. I sold my hybrid for more than I paid for it after 2 years when gas prices went up and the same dynamic hits electrics, especially in the America when gas is cheap. My brother sold his 2015 Zero S after a year for about £3000 less than he paid, about the same % hit he would have taken on any new motorcycle, much less than a colleague who insists on a new Ducati every year, and my bosses 2012 Tesla Roadster has held it's value great.

[nevetsyad]

Why do they lose so much value?

In 5 years I expect my bike to pretty much be the same as it is now, maybe lose 10-20% of the range.

All signs point to little to no range loss.

[MichaelJohn]

Just pulled back on the throttle and was blown away by the acceleration of the new 2017 SR.  I was under 3 seconds.
Commenting on the off-topic post by MichaelJohn. Nonsense.

Sorry, you're going to have to prove that to me with some empirical evidence. If the '17 SR could get to 60 in under 3 seconds Zero would shouting it to the world. The SR just doesn't take off hard enough from a standing start to achieve that kind of time. I tried several full throttle pulls yesterday and by the time I counted to 3 I was just reaching 50mph, not 60. I imagine that mid to high 3's might be achievable but not sub 3, no way. Prove me wrong with some real data and I will believe it.

How was my post off topic? I talked about acceleration, gyrocyclist asked me about the value of my '15 and I responded. If you think it's nonsense that I wil get much less for my '15 SR than I paid for it then you are sadly mistaken.

[Skidz]

Isn't there some sort of app for that? To measure 0-60MPH or 0-100km/h times? Can't imagine there isn't...
For the sake of argument I can use my Garmin Oregon 600 but that only takes a measurement every second... I have a '16 DSR by the way.

[gyrocyclist]

CAUTION: snarkiness follows; do not take (too) seriously ...

> If the '17 SR could get to 60 in under 3 seconds Zero would shouting it to the world
Yeah, I tend to agree. Though they probably would not advertise that the test pilot was a 97 pound jockey. (And yes, I know I'm mixing metaphors)
 
> by the time I counted to 3
Can't get more accurate than that. At Fermilab we time microseconds the same way

As someone wrote, there should be an app for that. Um, um, it shouldn't be too hard to add that timing capability to the Zero app. If the company would open-source, I'm betting several people on this board could do the coding.

[MichaelJohn]

CAUTION: snarkiness follows; do not take (too) seriously ...
 
> by the time I counted to 3
Can't get more accurate than that. At Fermilab we time microseconds the same way

OK, I did admit that my method is crude, but when I time myself counting against a stopwatch I am dead on almost every time. The fastest YouTube video I have seen is 3.8 seconds. I know that YouTube is not the most accurate instrument in the world but…

Here is one with several attempts, nothing under four seconds.



2017 SR under three seconds? I don't think so.

Edit: The above YouTube video is in kph so the 0 to 60 mph time might be 1/10 quicker.

[gt13013]

Yes there are apps to measure acceleration.
I have tried two of them with my Zero FXS 2016 ZF6.5, that is given for 3.8s for 0-100 km/h.

Measure acceleration (by Sergey Vorobyev) can be used freely, but it gave me bad results. I have lost my time trying to make it work, without success.

PerfExpert is not free, but has worked well in my case.
http://www.perfexpert-app.com/
I have made 3 attemps, and I have got  5.43s, 5.48s and 5.36s for the 0-100 km/h: that is nicely reproductible.
But sadly, it is far from the 3.8s announced by Zero...
You can see one of these recordings here. Just look at the first 8 seconds, because after I had to brake down:
https://network.perfexpert-app.com/results/N8DOwQn6BS

Update: Oops: I realize today that the link above is not the good one. Here is a better run with 5.14s for the 0-100 km/h and 137 km/h max in 10.2s:
https://network.perfexpert-app.com/results/iWvWRmUF5z

[Richard230]

My guess is that Zero's 3.8 second 0-60 acceleration claim comes from a dyno run on their in-house dyno and not from actual field test results.

[kashography]

i tested my time filming the display with an actioncam at 60 fps. Then, with the cutting software cut the snippet 0-100 out timed to the frame. Its still not extremely accurate, because the display of the zero isn't refreshing quick enough and the speedo may be not 100% accurate too. I'll do the same technique with a 17' Model when i get the time to. Then i can compare it perfectly.