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2013 Zero FX5.7 located in Portland, Oregon.   Only 1,029 miles.   Bike has always been stored inside and it has not been ridden near enough.   This FX has Zero Accessory Cycra Handguards and Heated Grips installed by the dealer.  Bike has never been down and is in mint condition.  Latest Firmware is active and it has run flawlessly with no errors, no startup issues, no charging issues, no problems of any kind.   Always left on the plug when not in use as recommended by Zero Motorcycles.   Zero Motorcycles 2 year warranty starts on Key insertion and this bike has more than 1 year of Zero Factory warranty left.

This is a great bike for riding trails, urban riding, or carving the twisties.  Truly a great motorcycle experience with a great power to weight ratio that lends itself to rapid acceleration and light weight handling.  Set the power delivery to your liking with the Zero Motorcycles App and your smartphone.

Get a like new 2013 FX5.7 which is 90% of the current 2015 Zero FX for 75% of the cost.  The 2015 Zero FX uses the same battery packs, motor, and controller. 

$9,500 OBO.   PM me if interested.

Some pics of the bike:

Has anyone here built a JuiceBox charger for a Zero or Brammo Electric Motorcycle?

This looks like an ideal solution for a portable or garage mount FastCharger:

http://www.emotorwerks.com/products/online-store/product/show/44-customizable-juicebox-an-open-source-level-2-15kw-ev-charging-station

Doc, please chime in.......   

The snow is melting here in the frozen NorthWest and I am starting to sneak a few rides in on my new 2013 FX 5.7 now.

I came from a '12 DS ZF9 so I anticipated lower range on the FX but I have been disappointed with how far I can go on it and wanted to compare notes with other riders who have FX 5.7s in the wild.

When I rode it to the dealer for the recall I went an indicated 31.7 miles and arrived on the last flashing bar.   To dissect that route the first 2.5 miles are downhill 1,000 feet at 10-20 MPH so they are pretty much free miles.   Then 18 miles of 2 lane highway at 45-65 MPH with a 1,000 hill climb and descent.  Top it all off with 11.5 miles of cross town 35-40 MPH stop and go traffic.   It was 36 degrees F, so cold and the bike only has 160 miles on it now, so it might still be breaking in.   It has sat for 3 months now pretty much steady on the charger so that batteries have not been cycling at all.   I made this ride in ECO mode and I was very smooth and steady with throttle input.  No power wheelies or rapid acceleration the whole route.   The 65 MPH top speed was downhill.

On the Zero Site the FX 5.7 claims 54 miles of range for "combined" riding range which is how I would classify this ride.   If I subtract 20% for cold weather I should still be able to roll 43 miles so I am wondering if something is amiss with the bike.

If anyone could compare range numbers for their FX please reply.   Thanks.

So it is cold here in Idaho this week and I am thinking about next summer's camp outings and would like to take my Zero FX along and ride it from remote camping locations.   When I started thinking about this I wanted to engineer a solar powered recharge station to keep the FX juiced up so I can go on some longer loop rides from a base camp.

Goals:

-   As simple and reliable as possible
-   As low cost as possible
-   Support a 150 mile riding day  (assume 80 - 100 Watt/Hour/Mile for trail riding, not highway riding)
        NOTE:  This mileage requires looping back to camp and recharging or battery swapping
-   As light weight as possible
-   Make it re taskable to charge the FX at home if possible

I have engineered solar systems and used solar power for many years in remote telecom sites.   

Here is a pic of one of our Solar sites on a remote mountain top:



Another Solar Site:



I have also been a part of engineering and installing a 25 KW solar roof on an office building so I have some background and experience in solar.

I have a small foldout tent trailer that I pull with a Jeep Cherokee... it is not a huge camp trailer and everything is lightweight but I iike it for it's lightweight nature and it is easy to get into back country camping locations.   Most of the places that I like to camp at do not have power to the site and that is why I want a solar possibility.   Here are some pics of my camp setup both packed for transport and folded out at the the site so you can get an idea of how and where I like to camp.

This site actually has power:



No power here:



Jeep, trailer, mountain bikes:



Transport mode:



I want to use these solar panels for their compact and flexible nature.   These would pack super tight and they could easily be portable mounted as they have 4 grommets (in each corner) that can be strapped to anything handy:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Semi-Flexible-120-Watt-Solar-Panel-High-Efficiency-Sunpower-Marine-Rated-/141123047913?pt=CPUs&hash=item20db96d1e9

Cost looks to be about $2/ Watt so I could setup a portable 300 - 500 watt system for around $600 - $1000 which is within reach.  I could also mount these on my shed when not in use camping and generate electricity to charge the FX at home.   Ride by sun power.  :  )

I already have a 1500W 12V - 120VAC inverter that could be used in this project to turn the solar into AC power and just plug the FX's onboard charger into it, or I could get another Charger from Zero and ride the FX on one battery while the other is charging at camp and then ride back and swap.

The solar systems that I have used and engineered are low power (15W to 50W of steady 24/7 load) where the solar power just recharges the battery bank (200 - 600AH of Deep Cycle batteries) so the battery and load is completely different in this scenario.   I am sure that Deep Cycle batteries are not ideal for this scenario, but would they still work OK?   I was thinking that I could buy 1 100 AH Deep Cycle and mate it with around 400W of solar power generation and this would work pretty well.   

A 100AH 12V battery would have enough stored power (about 1.2KWh) to about 1/2 charge one FX3 battery module.   That battery + about 500W of steady solar power should easily top up one battery and maybe both of them.   Adding another battery to my campsite setup would give about 2.4KW of stored energy.

I realize that there are losses in going from Solar 12V to battery storage and then through the inverter to AC power and through the FX's onboard charger to finally put the energy in the bike's batteries but it seems to the me the lowest cost and simplest approach, especially since I already own the inverter?   It would also be possible to inject the power directly into the FX battery as DC voltage with a 12V to 130V ?  (not sure what voltage to go to for direct DC charging?  with a DC/DC Power supply and this would be faster and more efficient.   Does anyone have any ideas what DC/DC converter to use and how to connect it to the bike in this scenario?   Faster charging would be better.

I would like to buy another ZF3 battery module but they are really spendy.   It seems to me that I would get more bang for the buck with investments in cheaper battery storage at the campsite and maybe another charger or a quick charge direct to bike solution?

Any input would be appreciated.   I will putting together this system in the spring/summer of 2014 and will post up the results.   I know that Trikester also needs a system like this.   I don't want to spoil the beauty and peace of a remote campsite with a gas generator so that will not be considered.

Looking forward to hearing what the people on this forum think would be the best solution.

Hey Zero Riders,

I sold my 12DS to a forum member here a few weeks ago and just picked up a new 13 FX 5.7.   I wanted the 14 FX as the new improvements are interesting but Zero and the local dealer put some really good incentives on the last 13 they had in stock so I took it home.

I ride a lot of dirt so my first impressions are very positive about the trade.   The FX has those wonderful big wheels and longer travel suspension for dirt riding and the lighter weight makes it extremely easy to handle.   I have already taken it on some single track trail that I have only ridden mountain bikes on in the past (not the DS) and it is perfect on trails.   I would have to say it is the most fun trail bike that I have ever ridden.  Period.

And the POWER !!!  GREAT SCOTT!!!   The 12 DS had modest off the line performance and decent rollon acceleration but this FX is amazing.  It claws the earth looking for traction and the front wheel keeps pointing to the sky.   The motor has an angry sound as it spins up.   I feel like it is BatMan's dirt bike... just needs a few weapons.   Even in Eco mode the acceleration is thrilling.   I love the new motor.   Great work Zero!

Still adjusting to my new found range limits imposed by going from 9.7KW to 5.7KW of battery.... that is going to take a while to calibrate to.   Especially given that it is so much fun to release the voltage into the motor and shoot away.

The DS ZF9 was a better commuter just for the range factor but this FX has a larger fun factor and the new motor, bigger wheels and tires, and lighter weight just make it a joy on trails or in any rough road situation.

Now, if Zero would only come out with the ZF15 power pack that would slide into the same slot as the current battery packs I would have the perfect motorcycle.   Get busy Zero!   I need more range.   

I was happy to see that Zero used that same battery pack as the "Power Tank" in the new models.   That means that in the future Zero could come out with a more powerful battery pack and it could retro fit any Power Tank compatible model, as well as any FX, MX, or XU that is already on the road.   

Here are a few pics of the new ride.



Great OEM tires and I like how the motor and shock are protected from flying mud:





Narrow profile and high seat height... just what I like:



I am sure that the 2014 model is even better but this bike is amazing and incredibly fun to ride.   My cheeks are sore from grinning into the cheek pads of my helmet after a ride on this beast.

In the 2012 Zero DS owners manual Zero suggests that the motorcycle should be plugged in immediately after riding and the batteries should not be left in a discharged state.

Where I live my power company offers lower cost power after 9 PM at night.   If I get home anywhere from 6-8 PM and do not immediately plug in the bike to start the charging process are there any negative effects to the battery pack long or short term?

I started a long term review thread for my 2012 Zero DS over on the Adventure Rider Forum.

If any of you EV riders here are interested and would like to share your EV owning experiences over there please pop into the thread and post.

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=869280

The ADV forum gets a lot of readership so there are some interesting comments already there.