ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2013+ => Topic started by: kensiko on April 21, 2014, 07:32:19 PM
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Hello,
I'm 130 km from my father's home and I would really like to visit him to have him get a test drive on the bike. Yesterday I had a first run looking on how much battery I would drain while using the route toward my father's home. I ended up turning back at 43 km and with 69% left. I live in a hilly region and you can see in the attachment the elevation profile of the route taken.
I came back with 36% left. I tried to maintain a speed lower than 85 km/h. There was no wind. I didn't check the tire pressure since I bought the bike yet. It was 10 deg C outside.
I wanted to estimate the range when it will be 20-25 degrees, with tire pressure checked and with the possibility of some wind.
Do you know how much range you loose for every degree from 25 to 0 Celcius?
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You should not loose alot of range. What make the difference for the range with lower temp is that the battery voltage have more sag wich make it to cut sooner, BUT if you decrease speed ( or POWER draw) you should be able to preserve most of the original range.
The motor and controller are not really affected for the range at low temp. in fact the motor colder winding should even help a bit due to the lower resistance.
Doc
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86 km / 0.64 = 134 km .. so your maximum indicated range is pretty close. Zero claims 137 km range @ 88 km/h.
I would guess a 2013 battery pack at 10C has around 90% of the range at 25C.
Drop speed a little and inflate tires to the maximum you're comfortable with and I think you'd be fine.
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I don't mind the comfort for a few hours. At what pressure should I put the tires?
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I meant more what level of reduced grip you were comfortable with.
Try the max psi printed on the sidewalls - probably ~50 psi. It should give you another couple percent of range.
Do you have a windscreen on the bike?
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No I would sure like one, the dealer told me it may increase range by 10%. But the price is high.
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No I would sure like one, the dealer told me it may increase range by 10%. But the price is high.
Most small after-market handlebar-mounted windshields will fit the Zero and can be found on-line for a price of between $80 and $150, depending upon the brand and the design. My recommendation would be to buy the Slipstreamer Spitfire (sold by Zero as a 2012 accessory) or (my favorite) the National Cycle Deflector Screen DX. I have used both of these windshields on my 2012 S and they fit and work very well. Plus, they are both easily removable in seconds should you wish to ride without a windshield (although the DX is the easiest one to remove and reinstall).
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I'd also like to say the slip stream spitfire as well have on my 13 ds and I love it. Takes a bit to get it where u want it use a little loctite and it was about 80$ on Amazon worth every penny
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There's a pic.
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Thanks for the info, I'll consider it.
Another question, about the app. Is the "Range left" automatically calculated based on the history of the bike or it's just a conversion of % battery left to range left?
If automatic, I assume we need to keep the app ON while driving?
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Nobody knows?
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The owner's manual says:
"Range - Displays remaining battery power based on learned riding style and usage"
I don't have my bike yet so I can't tell you for certain, but I imagine it would be a combination of the two.
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OK but which one record the usage? The bike or the app? If it's the app, that means it must always be running while driving the bike.
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I'm pretty sure the app just gets its data from the bike, hence why it has to be connected via Bluetooth to update anything. The app doesn't do any calculating itself - it just displays information that is processed by the bike's controller/sensors. This means that if you lose your phone, this information will still all exist on a small hard drive (probably small SSD or Flash) so you can sync up your new phone without losing any data.
I can't be sure without checking, but this is how I would expect it to work, since this information can also be displayed on the dash of the bike.
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I can't be sure without checking, but this is how I would expect it to work, since this information can also be displayed on the dash of the bike.
True for 2014, but the 2013 doesn't show that on the dash.
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Ah, very good point. My bad!
I think it would still be stored within the bike. If you're not afraid of potentially losing your data, you can try deleting the app and resyncing with your bike to see what happens. Alternatively, you can try using someone else's device to download the app and sync with your bike to see what shows.
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All right I should be able to find someone and test on his phone.
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I finally did it! The timing was good, the weather was absolutely beautiful and I had someone following me for the first part, it was reassuring. I didn't do the 130 km at once. The longest I did was 100 km when returning home, and I ended with 26% left, the last part (10 km) done at 90 km/h without lowering my head.
I went at the same speed than my first 80 km trip:
- Around 80 km/h and slower when wind comes into play or hills.
- Lowering my head when acceptable. I don't find it acceptable when many cars are around me, I'm not driving a slow 50cc scooter!
- Tires at almost max pressure.
- Eco mode with 3% max torque.
- Outside temperature over 20 deg C.
I know the speed on the bike is around 4-5% higher than real speed, so I probably rode at a maximum speed of about 76 km/h. It's not very fast, I know, but with this speed, I feel more secure because I could possibly do 140 km with the single charge. I try to have 12 km per SoC bar. I had one with 8 km only and the wind caused it.
The other 30 km part was done with a full charge and full speed. Overall I'm really satisfied with the range. I don't think I would try the 130 km at once. I'd rather try to go at a higher speed and charge at the 100 km stop.
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I did a 2200km trip during my vacation last week in the north of Quebec. This was with my new added 6kWh to my 2012 ZF9 for a total of ZF15 ( 13.4kWh usable) and I was able to manage 200km per charge on the road at about 90km/h.
At that speed I am at about 70-80Wh per km depending on the wind.
My trick is to maintain the Wh per km stable at the calculated value so in this way I am sure I get the desired range.
(on the 2012 there is no Wh per km indication so I'm using the cycle analyst that I added a year ago)
Ex I know that I have 200Ah total at 66.6V with my two added ZF3 modules. This give me about 13400 Wh energy usable.
If I need to do let say 180km trip to reach the next charge station I calculate 13400wh/180km = 74.4Wh per km witch correspond to the target consumption I have to maintain while I'm riding my Zero. I have a graph where I previously measured the Wh/km at every speed and I know that at 74.4Wh per km this correspond at a speed close to 85km/h.
I don't count the regen in this calculation since it is nearly unexisting on the road.
The ZF11.4 is a 10kWh real usable energy. in that case to do 130km you need to go not faster than a speed corresponding to 10000/130 = 76.9Wh per km wich correspond to about 88km/h speed in my case.
Doc
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200 km at 90 km/h that's a damn good range for an electric bike! And I assume you didn't bother to lower you head?
The 2012 is definitely more efficient.
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200 km at 90 km/h that's a damn good range for an electric bike! And I assume you didn't bother to lower you head?
The 2012 is definitely more efficient.
Not at high speeds, it isn't. My 2014 S is noticeably more efficient above 50 mph than was my 2012 S, ridden over the same roads at the same speeds. But I do believe that the 2012 model is more efficient at speeds below 40 mph.
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200 km at 90 km/h that's a damn good range for an electric bike! And I assume you didn't bother to lower you head?
The 2012 is definitely more efficient.
Not at high speeds, it isn't. My 2014 S is noticeably more efficient above 50 mph than was my 2012 S, ridden over the same roads at the same speeds. But I do believe that the 2012 model is more efficient at speeds below 40 mph.
You are totally right! The lower voltage the 2012 operate at require the controller to go in Field Weakening mode sooner to keep great speed and have the motor spin fast enough. Field weakening pass a certain point is less efficient. Actually on my 2012 S and the 75-7 motor efficiency is pretty "linear" from 0 to 95kmh.. then above that it beging to raise alot!
I might change the 28T for a 30T to give me like 6 or 7 more km/h to get a great 100-105km/h cruise speed instead of 92-97kmh...
Or maybe go with the 98T/28T combo and replace the belt and get higher speed to avoid the need of having the field weakening feature of the controller to enable at cruise speed...
When field weakening activate i think it'S when you can feel more intense vibration from the motor suddenly at a given speed. it'S when you feel it vibrate like a 60Hz AC motor .
Actually mine begin to vibrate more at 95 kmh when battery is full.
Doc