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Parts, Mods And Hacks / FX or FXS? How About both? FX - FXS conversion
« on: July 26, 2019, 07:10:41 AM »
Both the Zero FX and FXS are about the most fun you can get on 2 wheels. Lots of people have trouble deciding which one to get. I personally ride 90% street and 10% off road, so a FXS was probably the best fit for me. However, the only X chassis anywhere near me was a 2018 FX at a deep year end demo discount last year.. so I had to get it. I have been spoiled with a DRZ400S with Warp 9 wheels that take about 30 minutes to swap from an off road warrior to a street carving machine, and wanted the same for my FX, it really makes it a well rounded bike you can use for a lot of things.
There are 3 ways to accomplish this:
1. Order FXS parts and make your FX a FXS with a front caliper relocation bracket (the cheapest & easiest)
2. Order FXS parts including the forks and caliper (about $1200 more expensive than above)
3. Order DRZ400 / KTM spec Warp9 wheels and machine spacers, rear pulley.. etc (this could get really expensive in a hurry)
I went with the first option and manufactured my own bracket. Below is a complete BOM of the parts needed to make your FX an asphalt carving FXS. You'll order these from your favorite Zero dealer:
Name Part Number Price QTY Total Price
Front Wheel 23-08065-4 300 1 $300
Rear Wheel 23-08056-4 300 1 $300
320mm front rotor 25-07702 55 1 $55
Front rotor screw 90-07833 2.35 5 $11.75
Front Tire Pirelli Diablo Rosso II 110/70-R17 100 1 $100
Rear Tire Pirelli Diablo Rosso II 140/70-R17 110 1 $110
Side Kickstand 26-08099 90 1 $90
ABS ring 25-08080 40 2 $80
Total $1046.75
You don't need the ABS ring if you are okay living without ABS (also more on this later). I also spent about $100 having a bracket machined.
You'll probably want new pads to keep with each set of wheels / brake rotors. This isn't required, but if you do - part number 25-08027 - $60
Also there is a 1.5mm washer / spacer between the pulley and the motor on the FX that should be removed when running the FXS wheels. I really didn't want to take out the motor and bother swapping this, and things have been fine after 1300 miles riding with the washer in place.
The install is pretty straight forward and simple:
1. Remove the FX front wheel and install the FXS front wheel, relocation bracket and caliper. I found laying the bike on it's side was the easiest way to get access to the front wheel. I had to place a couple of 2x4's under the center to get the bike high enough.
2. Remove the rear wheel. I swapped rear rotors - USE A TORCH TO HEAT UP THE REAR ROTOR HEX BOLTS. Zero used loctite and you will round off the head if you dont apply heat around the bolt shaft area. Also use a torch on the sprocket bolts as well.
3. Install FXS rear wheel with FX sprocket and FX brake rotor. This is kinda tricky to get in place, I had to remove the rear caliper to fit the wheel in there.
4. Install the FXS kickstand. This can be tricky with how strong the spring tension is.
A couple of observations and notes:
- The FX front shock tubes are longer than the FXS shock tubes by about 1 1/2 inches.
- The FXS front shock tubes are actually DS shocks.
- ABS kinda works.. and I mostly mean it doesn't work. Initially on your ride, ABS will kick in if you need it to, however it doeskin take long for the ABS light to light up and disable ABS.
- Sometimes before the ABS light kicks on, you'll get a rear brake lock-out situation where the bike's abs pump will prevent you from engaging the rear brake. This is short lived. You can pull the ABS fuse to fix this, but the larger front rotor stops so well I haven't felt I needed to do this yet.
- The lower seat height is a nice bonus, I'm 5'8" and can comfortably touch on both feet.
- I find with the FXS wheels I am much more comfortable and aggressive with pushing the bike on pavement. Corners are much more fun.
- With the stock FX brakes, they felt underwhelming and on a couple of occasions, I felt I squeezed all I could out of them coming to a quick stop. With the FXS rotor, I haven't come anywhere close to that and feel I could lift the rear tire with ease if I needed.
- The speedometer is off about 6%. At 53mph, my GPS says 50mph. This was acceptable for me to leave alone.
I love this setup. This allows me to have some cool D606's on the FX rims for much better off road fun and still be great on the street with the FXS wheels.
There are 3 ways to accomplish this:
1. Order FXS parts and make your FX a FXS with a front caliper relocation bracket (the cheapest & easiest)
2. Order FXS parts including the forks and caliper (about $1200 more expensive than above)
3. Order DRZ400 / KTM spec Warp9 wheels and machine spacers, rear pulley.. etc (this could get really expensive in a hurry)
I went with the first option and manufactured my own bracket. Below is a complete BOM of the parts needed to make your FX an asphalt carving FXS. You'll order these from your favorite Zero dealer:
Name Part Number Price QTY Total Price
Front Wheel 23-08065-4 300 1 $300
Rear Wheel 23-08056-4 300 1 $300
320mm front rotor 25-07702 55 1 $55
Front rotor screw 90-07833 2.35 5 $11.75
Front Tire Pirelli Diablo Rosso II 110/70-R17 100 1 $100
Rear Tire Pirelli Diablo Rosso II 140/70-R17 110 1 $110
Side Kickstand 26-08099 90 1 $90
ABS ring 25-08080 40 2 $80
Total $1046.75
You don't need the ABS ring if you are okay living without ABS (also more on this later). I also spent about $100 having a bracket machined.
You'll probably want new pads to keep with each set of wheels / brake rotors. This isn't required, but if you do - part number 25-08027 - $60
Also there is a 1.5mm washer / spacer between the pulley and the motor on the FX that should be removed when running the FXS wheels. I really didn't want to take out the motor and bother swapping this, and things have been fine after 1300 miles riding with the washer in place.
The install is pretty straight forward and simple:
1. Remove the FX front wheel and install the FXS front wheel, relocation bracket and caliper. I found laying the bike on it's side was the easiest way to get access to the front wheel. I had to place a couple of 2x4's under the center to get the bike high enough.
2. Remove the rear wheel. I swapped rear rotors - USE A TORCH TO HEAT UP THE REAR ROTOR HEX BOLTS. Zero used loctite and you will round off the head if you dont apply heat around the bolt shaft area. Also use a torch on the sprocket bolts as well.
3. Install FXS rear wheel with FX sprocket and FX brake rotor. This is kinda tricky to get in place, I had to remove the rear caliper to fit the wheel in there.
4. Install the FXS kickstand. This can be tricky with how strong the spring tension is.
A couple of observations and notes:
- The FX front shock tubes are longer than the FXS shock tubes by about 1 1/2 inches.
- The FXS front shock tubes are actually DS shocks.
- ABS kinda works.. and I mostly mean it doesn't work. Initially on your ride, ABS will kick in if you need it to, however it doeskin take long for the ABS light to light up and disable ABS.
- Sometimes before the ABS light kicks on, you'll get a rear brake lock-out situation where the bike's abs pump will prevent you from engaging the rear brake. This is short lived. You can pull the ABS fuse to fix this, but the larger front rotor stops so well I haven't felt I needed to do this yet.
- The lower seat height is a nice bonus, I'm 5'8" and can comfortably touch on both feet.
- I find with the FXS wheels I am much more comfortable and aggressive with pushing the bike on pavement. Corners are much more fun.
- With the stock FX brakes, they felt underwhelming and on a couple of occasions, I felt I squeezed all I could out of them coming to a quick stop. With the FXS rotor, I haven't come anywhere close to that and feel I could lift the rear tire with ease if I needed.
- The speedometer is off about 6%. At 53mph, my GPS says 50mph. This was acceptable for me to leave alone.
I love this setup. This allows me to have some cool D606's on the FX rims for much better off road fun and still be great on the street with the FXS wheels.