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[DonTom]

For me, it is all about range.  I can't recall a time when I saw a public charging station during my rides.

In your area, they are everywhere, when you get closer to the bay. Have you checked Plugshare?

But unless you have a J1772 connector and and some external chargers (or all day to wait) they will do you very little good.

-Don-  Auburn, CA

[Richard230]

For me, it is all about range.  I can't recall a time when I saw a public charging station during my rides.

In your area, they are everywhere, when you get closer to the bay. Have you checked Plugshare?

But unless you have a J1772 connector and and some external chargers (or all day to wait) they will do you very little good.

-Don-  Auburn, CA

They may be everywhere near commercial and residential areas but I don't ride there unless I am doing a chore. Otherwise I ride in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where I go hiking at County and State parks and in open space districts.  The State parks, like Big Basin, do not even have public 120 volt outlets, much less a dedicated EV charging station. The OP areas just have gravel parking lots and pit toilets and some County parks do have L1 outlets in their group picnic shelters, but the rangers get upset if they catch you using them unless you are renting the facility. 

I can't even charge at Alice's Restaurant as they had an issue with a group of Zero motorcycles charging up at their gas station's 240 volt outlet a few years ago, which blew up their old 100 amp service and put the station out of business for the day. Not happy campers and now they will not let anyone charge up their EV motorcycle at their restaurant like I used to do in 2012.

[Jarrett]

The lack of range and inconsistent performance are sending me back to ICE bikes already.

[DonTom]

They may be everywhere near commercial and residential areas but I don't ride there unless I am doing a chore. Otherwise I ride in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where I go hiking at County and State parks and in open space districts.  The State parks, like Big Basin, do not even have public 120 volt outlets, much less a dedicated EV charging station. The OP areas just have gravel parking lots and pit toilets and some County parks do have L1 outlets in their group picnic shelters, but the rangers get upset if they catch you using them unless you are renting the facility. 

I can't even charge at Alice's Restaurant as they had an issue with a group of Zero motorcycles charging up at their gas station's 240 volt outlet a few years ago, which blew up their old 100 amp service and put the station out of business for the day. Not happy campers and now they will not let anyone charge up their EV motorcycle at their restaurant like I used to do in 2012.

That's a bummer.  Sounds more like ICE vehicle territory for those type of places out in the boonies.

FWIW, I have hiked all over that area myself. Even in San Padro Park there in Pacifia. Also Butano, Hendry Cowell and even the Forest of Nisene Marks (Aptos) several times. Also, Big Basin, but it has been many years since I have been in BB.

I assume you have been to Butano a few times.

I will plan a backpacking trip later this month to the Island Lake area. But first, I need to get my Energica back from Redwood City. There is only satellite communications where I am going or else I would go now. I just will not know when to be back here or else I would already be out in the boonies for about a week or so.

The issue with my SS9 is when the bike was new, there was only one key. The master key and spare  is lost. The fix is to change the immobilizer and give me a new set of three keys. They picked up the bike and will bring it back. Not only that, they will do my 600 mile service. All of this  at no cost to me. But I did tell them there is no hurry as I do have nine other bikes to ride.

-Don-  Auburn, CA

[DonTom]

The lack of range and consistent performance are sending me back to ICE bikes already.

Have both. Electric motorcycles are only good for around 90% of our rides. Most people drive less than 40 miles per day and even my Zero 6.5 can do better than that.

But for now, we also need ICE. But range is not the issue, the big issue is the charge station locations. But that is quickly improving.

I have put more miles on my two Zeros in the last two years than I have on my other seven ICE bikes combined.  I enjoy the electrics the most of all, but they are not always the best choice.

-Don-  Auburn, CA

[Jarrett]

Have both. Electric motorcycles are only good for around 90% of our rides. Most people drive less than 40 miles per day and even my Zero 6.5 can do better than that.

But for now, we also need ICE. But range is not the issue...   I enjoy the electrics the most of all, but they are not always the best choice.

Range most definitely is the issue.  I'm tired of having to cut rides short and ride the way the bike wants me to versus the way I want to.  That's the sneaky downside of Zero's, they force you to ride to the limitations of the bike instead of riding the way you want to.  I went out on the FX and rode the way I wanted to last weekend and it was in thermal protection mode in about 3 miles into the trip and it ran out of power at 32 miles.  Luckily, I coasted back into the driveway, got on my ICE bike and went and rode the way I wanted to the rest of the day. 

I guess I'm just over the hype of these bikes and don't want to keep a bike around that forces me to ride to its limitations, especially as expensive as they are.  One day I hope they'll get it all worked out where you can ride Zero's like an ICE bike without the limitations.  Until then, back to ICE for me.

[Jarrett]

Here's a fun fact I learned the other day. 

Despite the massive hp and torque differences between a Zero FX (46hp/78t/289lbs) and a Honda CRF250L (25hp/17t/317lbs), the CRF250L will win a 5 mile race down a straight road at wide open throttle. 

How is that possible?  The weak CRF250L will hold 75-80 mph for miles and miles without any issue.  Once you push the FX over 70 mph, the motor starts heating up.  Once it gets too hot, which happens in about 2 minutes at WOT, it will slow you down to 45 mph or so.  Even if you are holding it WOT, it chooses the speed it will go until it cools off, then it will slowly allow you to creep back up to 70 mph or so where it holds that speed.  Meanwhile the cheap CRF250L is long gone at near 80 mph the whole time. 

Do that for 30 miles and the FX is out of power and needs a 10 hour recharge before it can run again, where the CRF250L has another 70+ miles in it before it needs to stop for a 5 minute refill at the gas station.

[stevenh]

Have both. Electric motorcycles are only good for around 90% of our rides. Most people drive less than 40 miles per day and even my Zero 6.5 can do better than that.

But for now, we also need ICE. But range is not the issue...   I enjoy the electrics the most of all, but they are not always the best choice.

Range most definitely is the issue.  I'm tired of having to cut rides short and ride the way the bike wants me to versus the way I want to.  That's the sneaky downside of Zero's, they force you to ride to the limitations of the bike instead of riding the way you want to.  I went out on the FX and rode the way I wanted to last weekend and it was in thermal protection mode in about 3 miles into the trip and it ran out of power at 32 miles.  Luckily, I coasted back into the driveway, got on my ICE bike and went and rode the way I wanted to the rest of the day. 

I guess I'm just over the hype of these bikes and don't want to keep a bike around that forces me to ride to its limitations, especially as expensive as they are.  One day I hope they'll get it all worked out where you can ride Zero's like an ICE bike without the limitations.  Until then, back to ICE for me.

I guess I am the odd ball, the SR/F (and previous DSR) fit me perfect.  No need to adjust my riding at all.  I had a Honda Magna (750) for years, and rarely went more than 100 miles at a pop (commute, short weekend trips).  Same pattern on the SR/F, 50 miles to work, charge (level 2 at work, tops the bike off in a little over an hour), 50 miles home (level 2 in the garage, same deal, little over an hour and back to 90% (my software limit)) and ready to go again.  Most weekends I can go the weekend on one charge (couple of trips to the store, nice ride along coastal 1A in New Hampshire).  But, I realize I am a light weight, but based on the statistics, there are a bunch of us!  Oh, and I have yet to overheat the SR/F (at sustained highway speeds in 90 degree heat).

Steve

[GaryArt1]

Here's a fun fact I learned the other day. 

Despite the massive hp and torque differences between a Zero FX (46hp/78t/289lbs) and a Honda CRF250L (25hp/17t/317lbs), the CRF250L will win a 5 mile race down a straight road at wide open throttle. 

How is that possible?  The weak CRF250L will hold 75-80 mph for miles and miles without any issue.  Once you push the FX over 70 mph, the motor starts heating up.  Once it gets too hot, which happens in about 2 minutes at WOT, it will slow you down to 45 mph or so.  Even if you are holding it WOT, it chooses the speed it will go until it cools off, then it will slowly allow you to creep back up to 70 mph or so where it holds that speed.  Meanwhile the cheap CRF250L is long gone at near 80 mph the whole time. 

Do that for 30 miles and the FX is out of power and needs a 10 hour recharge before it can run again, where the CRF250L has another 70+ miles in it before it needs to stop for a 5 minute refill at the gas station.

I guess that is one of the benefits of the SRF.  I have not had an overheating issue yet and have driven it pretty hard while it was 90+.  Only time I had any significant power reduction is when I pushed the range and I arrived at home riding the last couple miles at 0% SOC.  TBH, I never saw the FX as a bike you would be doing 70+ mph on a highway.  It always seemed to me like a off-road bike that you can also tool around on the streets with.  I guess all bikes have their limitations.  I wouldn’t expect my SRF to perform nearly as well off road as the FX.  I probably would not even consider taking it off-road other than a short ride on fire road.

[Calidave]

Yeah, I got an FX and put knobbies on it for cruising Tassajara, Hollister Hills and the forestry roads up in the Sierras; which means two things: (a) range is a key factor bc there's no mid-trail charging options, and (b) I'll very likely never encounter thermal issues. I'll update on whether the 7.2 battery gets me far enough for daily exploration rides. So far, bike is great.

[MrBlc]

This tells me Jarrett rides like an asshole, as having driven the DSR for 3 weeks now, i've never seen thermal throttling, never had a range issue and never felt the bike to be underpowered..

Starting to be glad i don't drive the same streets as him.. WOT driving assholes tend to provoke me to report them..

Also.. the streets i usually ride is filled with cars driving like assholes so it's not like i'm imitating Driving Miss Daisy either..

[Jarrett]

Yes, if all you do is run to the grocery store/work (as long as its not too far away) and back at an easy pace, Zero's are fantastic bikes.

But at this point, there's always a considerably less expensive ICE bike that can do it with more performance, of course. 

Hopefully with advances in technology, that will change in time.  Would be neat if one day Zero's were the most practical and ICE bikes were a novelty item.

[Jarrett]

MrBic, I understand why you feel the need to lash out, the truth hurts sometimes.

Hopefully you can get over your butthurt soon.

[MrBlc]

It's more a question of "WTH are you doing with EV based MC's if you're only going to complain about them?"
You may have noticed that apart from you and another person of negativity, the rest of us seem to be generally satisfied with the product.

And by generally i mean there are little things that for sure could be better, but they don't hold us back from spending money on this and actually get enjoyment from it all..

Guess i just get fed up with some trolls always spewing negativity around them..

[Jarrett]

It's more a question of "WTH are you doing with EV based MC's if you're only going to complain about them?"
You may have noticed that apart from you and another person of negativity, the rest of us seem to be generally satisfied with the product.

Guess i just get fed up with some trolls always spewing negativity around them..

What you call trolling and negativity, I call a needed infusion of reality.  If this forum was called "The Zero Positivity Only" forum, I wouldn't post here, but its not, its an open discussion forum for all opinions related to Zero motorcycles.  And as an owner of two of them, I have some opinions about them.  Based on more than 3 weeks of ownership, by the way.

It's fun to get together with other people that have made the same decision you've made and pat each other on the back for being in agreement, but that can also lead to some misconceptions being thrown out.  The bottom line is Zero's only really work for a specific subset of the motorcycle community.

While the Zero models fair well with the easy-riding commuter crowd, there are simply some riders that ask for more performance out of a motorcycle than most of the Zero's can deliver.  Despite the marketing on their website, the pre-SRF models aren't really high performance bikes.  A $3000 used SV650 could out perform the lot of them and that's considered a starter bike in many circles.  That's a tough pill to swallow when looking at a $20k bike that's marketed as a high performance machine, but this is info that potential buyers need to know.

For example, there is a new FX owner on the FB group asked why his FX goes into thermal protection mode when he runs it wide open throttle.  10+ people came along and said stuff like, "mine doesn't do that," "you're doing something wrong," "there's something wrong with your bike," etc.  But the reality is, if you hold a FX wide open for about 2 minutes, it cuts performance WAY back to save itself.  For someone coming from ICE bikes, it feels like something is wrong with the bike.  No ICE bike would shut itself down after 2 minutes of wide open throttle.  But none of that is out there on the Zero website.  They down play those kinds of facts about the bikes.  And it is info that needs to be out there.