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[Alan Stewart]

Buy all the colors and do a calico bike. 

[calamarichris]

Buy all the colors and do a calico bike. 

I believe the operable term is Harlequin bike, and it's not too bad of an idea, come to think of it...




I'm sorry Richard. Glad you got an awesome daughter to ride with. Some of the best times I've had on a motorcycle (or alive for that matter) have been with my Pa on road trips. He was always interested in getting a bike, but his wife finally let him get one when a texting teenaged idiot destroyed his beloved Pontiac Fiero on the 405 freeway.



Keep us abreast, and if you can get some pics of you guys out on a ride, I'd love to see them!

[Richard230]

Keep us abreast, and if you can get some pics of you guys out on a ride, I'd love to see them!

Here is a picture of both of us in my daughter's garage sitting on the the 2014S that I gave her.  It is tough for both of us to go riding at the same time due to my daughter's busy schedule.

[Richard230]

Here is a picture of my daughter and I with our Zeros occupying a single space together in a restaurant parking lot.

[calamarichris]

That's awesome, thanks Richard! She's a peach!

[Richard230]

Yesterday I updated my firmware at home via the Zero app and the process went well, taking about 30 minutes to accomplish.  My BMS firmware went from revision 26 to revision 30 and my MMB firmware changed from revision 19 to revision 23.  Here are the results so far:

The only obvious change that I have noticed so far is that there was a 50 mile jump in the estimated range upon riding off with a full charge and traveling for a few miles at 25 mph. I used to see a projected range of around 160 miles, but now the range estimator said (on my first ride after the update) that I had 224 miles to empty, which dropped to 140 miles once I hit the freeway and started traveling at 65 mph. Upon arriving home, after traveling 38 miles, about 20 miles of which were on the freeway, the projected range was still 100 miles.

The updated BMS firmware seems to have resulted in a slight improvement to the battery power capacity, also. After a full charge, my app is showing a battery capacity of 15.312 kWh, compared with 15.138, previously.  The app continues to show 132 AH capacity and voltage remains at 116 volts. Also when I pulled my charger cord the charging light and display went blank, instead of staying on continuously as it had done before. So that is a real plus for me, if it continues to do so.

On a ride today I noticed another small improvement as the result of the MMB firmware update:  Previously, when in eco mode and braking, the regen power indicator at the lower right hand section of the screen display, would show less than the the full regen braking that I would see when using my custom mode, which I had set at 100% braking regen.  However, with the latest update, I am receiving 100% regen upon braking in eco mode. So that is another minor plus. 

[ZeroPointZero]

Yesterday I updated my firmware at home via the Zero app and the process went well, taking about 30 minutes to accomplish.  My BMW firmware went from revision 26 to revision 30 and my MMB firmware changed from revision 19 to revision 23.  Here are the results so far:

The only obvious change that I have noticed so far is that there was a 50 mile jump in the estimated range upon riding off with a full charge and traveling for a few miles at 25 mph. I used to see a projected range of around 160 miles, but now the range estimator said (on my first ride after the update) that I had 224 miles to empty, which dropped to 140 miles once I hit the freeway and started traveling at 65 mph. Upon arriving home, after traveling 38 miles, about 20 miles of which were on the freeway, the projected range was still 100 miles.

The updated BMS firmware seems to have resulted in a slight improvement to the battery power capacity, also. After a full charge, my app is showing a battery capacity of 15.312 kWh, compared with 15.138, previously.  The app continues to show 132 AH capacity and voltage remains at 116 volts. Also when I pulled my charger cord the charging light and display went blank, instead of staying on continuously as it had done before. So that is a real plus for me, if it continues to do so.

On a ride today I noticed another small improvement as the result of the MMB firmware update:  Previously, when in eco mode and braking, the regen power indicator at the lower right hand section of the screen display, would show less than the the full regen braking that I would see when using my custom mode, which I had set at 100% braking regen.  However, with the latest update, I am receiving 100% regen upon braking in eco mode. So that is another minor plus. 

Congrats on the new bike Richard.  Are you also in the ZMOG facebook group?  I think theres someone on there that has mentioned a 2018S+PT recently. 

Anyway, your particular bike setup is interesting to me, because I have a 2016SR (13Kwh same battery as 2018S) and I was interested in installing the new 3.6Kwh powertank which would be practically identical to the battery chemistry config of your '18S and powertank.  I say I was interested, past tense because Ive recently decided to upgrade to a 2018SR because of the cautionary tales on the FB page regarding mixing 29ah and 32ah battery cells.  My main take away is that it would have been necessary to let the main pack and PT balance after a long ride by either plugging in for at least 5-10 minutes or by leaving the bike powered on for the same amount of time before riding again, there again waiting on balance.  My question to you is, have you experinced any issues where you stopped after a long ride, shut the bike off and upon power on the bike wont go?  Basically, this would potentially be caused by a battery imbalance, that self corrects once the contactor closes, but isnt an instantanious process.

[Richard230]

Hello ZeroPointZero. I don't do Facebook, so you won't find me there.

I have had no issues at all with my 2018 Zero S, other than the charge indicator light and display staying on after the charge power cord is disconnected. I had a 2014 S with PT and also had no issues with that bike, other than after 3.5 years of ownership, the bike would stop charging at an indicated 92%.  Otherwise it is still running fine for my daughter who now rides my old Zero.  Neither of us has had a problem with our bikes not starting at low power levels.  In fact I once ran the 2014 bike down to 0%, when it stopped.  However, I was able to go another 1/8 mile uphill to my home by letting the battery rest for a minute and then it would start up again for another 100 feet before stalling.  I repeated the process until I arrived home.  Once I was there, I checked the cell balance and found them to be something like 150 mV (more or less) out of balance.  But once the battery pack was recharged, cell balance returned to 3-4 mV.   

[togo]

> Hello ZeroPointZero. I don't do Facebook, so you won't find me there...

Friends don't let friends demand friends be on f-book : - )

[BamBam]

Congratulations on your new purchase.  Now as with any new Zero bike, loosen that belt, center it in the sprocket, and apply a little silicone spray to get rid of those annoying new bike moans and groans.

[Richard230]

Congratulations on your new purchase.  Now as with any new Zero bike, loosen that belt, center it in the sprocket, and apply a little silicone spray to get rid of those annoying new bike moans and groans.

The annoying moans and groans went away without doing any of that stuff after a few hundred miles of riding.   

[Richard230]

I thought I would update my 2018 experience and add a couple of comments regarding my 2018 Zero S that I have noticed lately when comparing it with my old 2014 S:


The 2018 no longer has a power pulse (regen automatically turning on and off when braking or in eco mode) when using the regen feature during the first mile of riding when the battery pack is fully charged.  This is likely due to the fully charged voltage of the 2018 model being 116 volts, while the 2014 model showed 117 volts when new. (After four years of usage it is now showing 113 volts when fully charged so that is no longer an issue with that bike.)

The 2018 bike does not drop a percentage point or two in the power level display when turned off and then turned back on during a ride, like the 2014 Zero did.

After about 2,000 miles of riding, the Zero app displayed voltage, when the battery pack is fully charged, has dropped from 116 volts to 115 volts. Cell balance varies between 3 and 5 mV after the on-board charger has turned off. When brand new the balance was shown as between 2 and 3 mV.

Otherwise my new Zero is operating perfectly and running great.  The only issue that I have experienced is picking up a medium-size nail in my rear tire.  I plugged the tire in a few minutes using a Dynaplug tubeless tire repair kit and it worked perfectly.  After a couple of hundred miles of riding I have experienced no loss in air pressure, but then the size of the nail hole was perfectly matched to the Dynaplug repair plug.     (I carry a Dynaplug tubeless tire repair tool and either a small air pump or six compressed air bottles on every motorcycle that I own.)

[Richard230]

Today I bought a spare drive belt for my Zero, just to have one around should something unexpected happen. (Plus I had a 15%-off coupon that was expiring and some loyalty reward points that I wanted to use up.)  I was surprised to see that the shop's parts department had one in stock.  The price was $125 + $10 state sales tax.  Much better than the drive belt for the BMW F800GT, (as an example) which goes for an eye-watering $450, plus around $260 labor to install it by a BMW shop. 

[Richard230]

I just downloaded BMS and MMB firmware Versions 31. It took about 15 minutes to download and at the end of the process the app said that there was an error and to try again.  When I did that, it said that my firmware was up to date.  Now my Zero app provides less information than it used to do, most noticeably it no longer shows the pack kWh capacity.     I hope the MMB firmware does something more useful.   

[Richard230]

Today I displayed my Zero at the local high school "car and motorcycle" show, next to some sort of little V-twin that was about 2 feet high.  Photo attached. During the 6 hours that I was at the show I had three people come by and ask me about my Zero. (Last year I had about 20 people stop by and inquire about my Royal Enfield, which won the show's best motorcycle award.) Only one person said he was interesting in buying one, but was turned off by the Zero dealer that he visited as the salesman that he spoke with didn't seem to know much about the bikes he was selling. Just to keep him interested I gave him one of the extra 2017 Zero brochures that I picked up at my dealer and gave him a recommendation of whom to talk with the next time he visits the shop. 

I think there are people interested in electric motorcycles, but not than many want to actually spend money to buy one. However, there does seem to be a lot more interest in electrically-assisted bicycles.