ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2013+ => Topic started by: 2020_SRS_Commuter on August 22, 2025, 07:53:41 AM
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Haven't posted here in a long time but a while back I related various charging problems, ineligible disconnects, and errors in the logs, to which many people offered some ideas. To make a long story short, the battery would disconnect at the exit ramp sometimes briefly after being on the highway, and couldn't sustain 90mph without the battery overheating and slowing the bike down. This is for a 2020 SRS bought new that I've put 65k miles on.
The 5 year warranty was about up, so I took it in.
Zero replaced the 14.4 pack with a new 14.4 pack. The old one said ZF 14.4 on the side with a yellow plate, the new one says LI 14.4 with a silver plate. They also replaced one of my chargers for free, which was two years out of warranty. Very nice. And I'm told they replaced the cell module for free. I didn't see that in the receipts but its working now and didn't before. Still don't get notifications though, a little disappointing.
The thing they did that I personally paid for was add a Power Tank.
The new range is outstanding. I used to have to charge to go to work, and charge there to go home. Now not only can I make the round trip on only a home charge, but I have to limit it to 85-90 SOC to make sure its not too high of a SOC to sit in the parking lot while I'm at work.
The other thing was with the old battery when I tried to go fast, it would haul up to 105 mph easily, but then slow and barely make it to 115. Now it pulls hard all the way up to the 124mph. I forgot about that... how it used to do that when new. Now its fast again.
So anyway, that was the root problem with my bike for all those posts I was making: the battery pack. Gotta give Zero some props here for throwing their money at my bike to keep it running. Thanks!
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Zero have been great at warranty sorting. Hopefully they're learning something along the way :)
The next thing they need to get good at is listening to customers about things they'd like improved on future models. Eg. the belt issues, headlight, corrosion, handlebar controls.
Cas :)
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My 2017 6.5 KWH DS battery crapped out during the warranty and was replaced with a 7.2KWH battery at EuroCycles in Reno at no cost to me.
I started to get less than one-third the range when I took it in. Now it still has more range than when the bike was new.
-Don- Auburn, CA
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I also wasn't getting the expected range on my 4 year old SR/F. Zero replaced the 14.4 battery with a new 15.6 without any argument.
It's easy to complain when companies don't perform as we'd hope. It's always good to remember to say when they do well too.
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Does your 15.6 say that on the side? I wonder why I got the lower capacity. Maybe its because I chose the power tank option?
I heard that the newer battery type and the power tank may not work well together. So far what I've seen with my 14.4 and PT is I start at 90% to go to work then when I'm nearly returned home, if its gets down to about 17% to 20%, a banner comes up saying "Power Pack Depleted". My digital pal ChatGPT says that's normal, that the small pack has a slight difference in discharge curve so it runs out first and when a voltage sag is detected it disconnects, while continuing on using the main pack only. I'm not complaining, just observing. Hopefully that is normal. When this happens and I get back to the house, I notice that only one relay clicks when I turn it off before recharging, so I assume it disconnected the power tank.
I saw a thing on the receipts where you can ask to have your old parts back if you want; not a Zero thing but something on the dealership's forms. I contacted them to see if I could get the charger they removed if they hadn't binned it already and they said it goes back to Zero as a core. They swapped it for free so again no complaints.
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As far as I know, everyone gets the 15,6 but software restricted to 14,4. My new SR/S battery doesn't have any plate at all. You won't be able to unlock to the full 15,6 due to registration issues (the bike originally has been homologated with the 14,4 battery so upgrading means new homologation. At least here in Europe).
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The new batteries say 14.4 on them but they are the same as the higher rated ones, just limited by software but my 2020 SR/S with the original battery actually limited the usable capacity to about 11.8 kwh. The new batteries give you an honest 12.6 kwh usable so I get more range, full regen at 100%, and no serious cutback of power right down to 0%. There is also about 5% actually left at 0% SOC.
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"... full regen at 100%, and no serious cutback of power right down to 0% ..."
Same here, I really enjoy being able to use the full 100% range of the new battery's capacity.
My last two batteries were from the previous generation and were partially defective. Each ended up losing about 30% of their original capacities, which was enough to trigger Zero's warranty. I actually had the third one on order from Zero (under warranty) when I did my multi-country tour in the summer of 2023 in Europe with the defective second battery. I just had to make do with about 150 km of range.
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The new battery seems vastly improved in every way. Except that it has broken my charge tank - max charge rate is now just 6kW whereas I got 11.6kW before. Taking it to Two70 in Swindon in a few weeks to get them to take a look at it - have opened a case with Zero. I'm not the only one so if they figure out what's wrong (narrator's voice: It was a firmware issue) then we'll all get the benefit.
Cas :)
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I tested my new LI14.4 + PT combo today. Charging from 08% to 100% drew 14.23KWH on a connected wattmeter.
That includes losses from the two 3k onboard chargers.
My digital friend Chatsworth G tells me nominal capacity should be 12.6 + 3.2 for a total nominal capacity of at most 15.8
So, my experiment seems about right in line with that.
I think the new main pack I received is a 14.4 as it originally was.
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In case anyone is curious, I learned today that the newer packs have a two part BMS cover, and the old ones have a one piece cover.
I also read they have fans inside for cooling an air channel inside the battery. An AI summary told me if those ever go bad the pack must be partially disassembled to get to them.
Sure hope they used some good fans.
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An AI summary told me
god i hate today
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An AI summary told me
god i hate today
:D Now, now.
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Good news a second AI summary told me there are NO fans inside it so that's the truth now.
Also turns out we have always been at war with Eastasia. I thought so!
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Good news a second AI summary told me there are NO fans inside it so that's the truth now.
Also turns out we have always been at war with Eastasia. I thought so!
;D
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Remain calm everyone, the king of AI answers will arrive shortly and let you know what the real truth is. Then you can rest peacefully knowing the truth, until tomorrow's truth comes out.
Kind of like the weatherman telling you 50 percent chance of rain, you can't lose! Wish i only had to be correct 50 percent of the time in my job and when i was, id be right 100 percent of the time !!
Aaron