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Very cool, Adam! Who did you order the case and saddlebags from? I don't see them on the Zero web site.

So far, I've been using a backpack to carry gear with me on my Zero DS, but some attached baggage would be much more convenient.

BTW, I thought Zero was working on some aluminum hard cases for the DS. Did that end up falling through?

Tom

As a recent DS recipient, I have found that there are a lot of unused and ostensibly available free power outlets all over the place  . I found a couple near the local movie theater that will allow me to charge up while taking in a flick. I found a couple more over at a grocery store near my place of work. Then there is the major shopping mall that is about 20 miles away from my house; I found more than half a dozen unused sockets in about 5 minutes of hunting  .

Does anyone out there have tips for how to find "public" outlets to charge their S/DS rides with ? Any trouble in getting permission to charge at such an outlet? Has anyone been "busted" for using outlets without first getting permission  ? Is anyone in the Boulder, Colorado area interested in starting a shared database (Facebook) with locations (GPS coordinates?) of unused publicly accessible outlets in and around town?

Then, there's the moral issue. Is it wrong to use an outlet at a shopping mall without first getting permission from the mall owner? The Zeros use so little electricity (40 cents for a full charge), it hardly seems like a case of grand theft, and finding the owner to ask permission seems like such a big deal over a few pennies worth of electrons. However, there might be those who think the ZEV community needs to keep its nose clean to bring the larger community over to "the cause". On the other hand, given the lack of community infrastructure to support ZEV needs, perhaps this is the best way to facilitate the transition to electric vehicles until the formal infrastructure is developed. Any opinions on this out there?

Do we need to start thinking in terms of an advocacy group now, or should we wait until problems start to arise?

Finally, I think we need to come up with a slang term for socket hunting. Does such a term already exist? Any nominations? Here's mine for hunting for a socket: snicking; using a socket without asking permission first: snucking  . Here's one for using a socket after getting permission: snocking  . (I know, I know: They suck  , but I'm just trying to get folks motivated to come up with ideas.)

Adam,

I'm getting very similar numbers for range. My guess is that I won't be taking the bike on rides much longer than 30 miles without starting to break into a cold sweat. Also, the amount of charge left at the end of my commute depends very strongly on how I ride: If I'm late for a meeting and pushing the envelope on the high end as a result, the bars definitely go down a lot faster than if I'm more relaxed and staying at the speed limit all the way in.

The dependence of the bars on throttle position is annoying, but unavoidable given that they use the measured voltage on the battery as a indicator of remaining charge. The way batteries work (all batteries, I believe), the more current you suck out of them, the lower their output voltage. It's a physics thing. So, my guess is that a more accurate determination of battery charge while under load is possible, but it will require a much more sophisticated algorithm to achieve, and this technology is just too new to expect such things, as of yet. Perhaps the new generation of EV cars (like the Nissan Leaf) will have such algorithms built in. For the time being, however, I think the only way to really know the remaining charge on the Zero is to roll off the throttle and then check the bars while the bike is either coasting or at a standstill.

I was pulled over yesterday by a cop at my place of work for riding without a license plate. (I work at the US Dept. of Commerce, and we have our own federal police force over there.) Christy at Zero told me I can ride the bike without plates as long as I carry that little strip of paper that came in the paperwork that identifies the bike and Zero as the dealer. (Here's the direct quote from the email I received from Christy:"You can legally ride your bike right out of the shipping crate. There is a small slip of white paper (was detached from California DMV forms) that says “New Vehicle Dealer Notice Temporary Identification” that is your temporary registration until you register and receive license plates from your DMV in Colorado.") Turns out, that's a load of cr@p. But the cop was nice and didn't issue a citation. (I think he was somewhat intimidated by the challenge of filling in the section of the citation that has the # of cc's for the bike... He kept asking me, "So, how many cc's is it?", or "Is there an equivalent cc rating for the bike?" or "So, how fast can it go," etc...) So, I'm now working with the good folks at the Boulder DMV on registering the DS. Turns out, they still remember the process required to get your bike processed, so I don't think it will end up being quite the ordeal you had to deal with. They also have the same problem with looking up the VIN in their data base, though, as per your suggestion, I did get the new Certificate of Origin from Zero with CPI listed as the manufacturer, so they will be working with Alma at the DMV in Denver over the phone to take care of the details. (My guess is that CPI actually makes the bike over in Taiwan, under license from Zero.)

In the meanwhile, I've got my temporary plates, and I'm back on the road. But, this time legally.

My D/S arrived Monday afternoon. After uncrating, which took about 30 minutes, I called Zero and talked to John to find out how to turn the thing on. After just a few minutes of fiddling with the battery emergency shut-off switch, it was up and running. I drove it around Boulder yesterday, racking up about 30 miles, and the battery level was down to about 1/4 by the end of the day. When I was done, the bike was making the beep-beep-beep-beep-beeeeeeeep sound to indicate that the charge level was reaching the minimal acceptable level. So, all in all, it seems to be working as expected. I got up to a maximum speed of about 61 mph for a brief stretch of highway on my commute to work. Given that I weigh a hefty 230 lbs., that also seems quite acceptable.

So, now it is off to the Colorado DMV to get the bike registered. However, I was informed by Christy that I should be able to drive the bike right out of the box, using the temporary registration in CA that was provided in the package of paperwork that came in the crate with the bike; thus, my adventures in riding around town yesterday.

Hello, all: I'm just wondering if anyone who is NOT a dealer has taken delivery of a 2010 Zero DS yet? I was told mine (ordered at end of May) wouldn't be ready until the end of July/early August.Well, here we are, though I knew the original delivery date estimate was probably an over-optimistic number; so I'm interested in getting a reality check from anybody outside of Zero. In particular, I'm trying to figure out how the factory output is moving along this year in Santa Cruz. So, if you could let us know when you ordered your 2010 DS, and when it was eventually delivered to you, that would be a great service to myself and probably others out there who are waiting with sadly empty electrical sockets in their garages, waiting to charge their new Zeros...
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Hello, e-bike fans!

I just placed an order for a blue D/S on Friday. The rep at Zero said it would ship late July/early August. I'll keep you posted as to how that goes. Deciding factors: (1) I have a PV system on my house that was installed last summer. It is generating a substantial surplus of electrons at the moment that I might as well take advantage of. (2) The US + Colorado tax credit for the Zero cuts the final cost in half. At that price, I feel the advantages (no gas req'd) outweigh the risks (new company, new technology, rapid rate of obsolescence.) (3) I have a 16 mile daily commute, round trip, and only a brief stretch of the drive is on a 55 mph section of highway. If I include about 4-6 miles of additional riding for errands and such, the 40 mile range should be adequate for most of my daily needs. (4) Watching the video feed from BP of the leak under the Gulf of Mexico... just don't want to be part of the problem anymore.

I've been riding since 2000. I currently have an '01 Triumph Bonneville America (790 cc) and an '06 Triumph Tiger (955 cc). I had a BMW F650 G/S Dakar that I sold two years ago, which I used for a little off-roading in the Boulder/Denver area.

I test rode Zeros in Denver about a week ago at a parking lot near the football stadium. Here were my general impressions: (1) They are small bikes. I'm used to having substantial machines under my seat, so it felt odd initially. I weigh around 225 lbs, so the center-of-gravity is shifted pretty far off the ground when I'm on a 280 lb bike. This made it feel quite top-heavy, and tight corners felt particularly tricky. (It actually felt more like I was riding an electric mountain bike than an electric motorcycle.) However, I'm certain I'll adapt with time. (2) Clutchless riding is weird. I'm very comfortable feathering the clutch on a gas-powered motorcycle to control speed when maneuvering tight corners and such. Not having a clutch made me feel awkward when trying to weave a tight pattern through cones in the parking lot. The sales reps were adamant that this is something one can adapt to, but I'm not yet convinced. I'm able to adjust the torque at the rear wheel with much greater precision by feathering the clutch than by tweaking the throttle. Frankly, I think the inclusion of a simple gear box with only 1st and Neutral would really improve the ability to control the bikes. But maybe I'll change my opinion after riding the D/S for a while. (3) I preferred riding with the cut-down seat. At 6 feet tall, I did not feel that the height of the D/S with the stock seat was a problem. My Tiger is substantially taller. But it was the center-of-gravity thing that made me more comfortable with the cut-down seat. By bringing my own body weight down lower with the cut-down seat, it felt that the bike was that much more steady at slow speeds. (4) I also test rode the S. I'm guessing it had something to do with the shorter rake of the front fork on the S, but I felt less comfortable than with the D/S. The S was more twitchy in corners. (5) The suspension on the D/S was solid. I hit a couple of pot-holes and jumped a couple of curbs in the parking lot, and the bike went through/over them smoothly and without complaint. I consider this an important prerequisite in a bike when riding year-long in the Front Range of Colorado, where some monstrous pot-holes can open up during the spring thaw. (6) Acceleration was good. Not great, but good. Riding in a parking lot did not afford me the chance to really check it out: Accelerating from one end of the lot to the other at full throttle, I could only get it up to about 35 mph before needing to hit the brakes. The lot was about 425 feet long (according to satellite view on Google Maps), so that tells you something, I suppose: If I assume a constant rate of acceleration (constant torque = constant acceleration until air resistance becomes important), and I assume I accelerated about 250 feet before hitting the brakes, then my rate of acceleration (after some simple physics) comes to about 3.6 miles per hour per second. That translates into 20 seconds to reach 72 mph. Not stellar, to say the least! Still, I don't hold the acceleration against the Zero. It will work just fine on my commute. Besides, I'm not buying it to make an impression... I'm buying it to make a difference. Also, I know it could do much better if they tweaked the electronics to allow faster acceleration, but then it would have a much shorter range on a single charge. The usual engineering trade-off... (7) I didn't mind the noiseless travel. But then again, I don't buy motorcycles to make noise. I also don't believe that engine noise from a motorcycle makes them any safer. Cars hit motorcycles because they don't see them, not because they don't hear them. Since most drivers nowadays are rockin' out to their iPods while gabbing on their iPhones while watching directions on a GPS anyways, I just don't see how any amount of exhaust note on a bike is going to cut through that level of distraction. The secret to a long life on a motorcycle is extreme defensive driving: Assume you are invisible and ride accordingly.

That's about it.