Hi,
Haven't posted an update here in a while because I was riding...
I determined that by parking in the heatable (shop) side of my garage at home, and near some A/C units that are IN the parking garage at work, the bike stays warm enough that I can either turn the bike on and enjoy working 12V, or have working 12V after 10-60 seconds of flickering.
With that in mind, and some "Long Way Home" rides home, I managed to get to "approximately 600 miles" by Friday of last week, and put it in the truck Saturday morning and drove it 175 miles west, back out to Austin for its 600 mile check up and to get the 12V system fixed.
Had a brief chat with Brent, demonstrated the problem, and explained that if he kept it warm he may not be able to duplicate the problem. I hope to hear tomorrow that they've identified the problem and ordered whatever parts are needed. I'm betting the gas money to drive to Austin that it's a DC/DC converter... Oh, wait, that money's been spent. Damn.
Well, hopefully it's sorted in time for me to pick it up this weekend, but if not, probably the week after.
Otherwise... I've been commuting to work on it, obviously. It's about 25 miles each way, mostly highway, and since I take the HOV lane (car pool lane), it moves pretty fast most days.
I have the PT, for a total of 15.3kwh, or whatever it is (something like that), and I have been making it into work with about 65% remaining. Generally, I get home with somewhere around 30% remaining. There's a bit of power available where I work, but not exactly where I like to park (and certainly not near those AC units that enable me to make it home with 12v working!) I'm OK with that - that's why I bought the Power Tank.
My ride is about 19-20 miles highway (out of 25, each way), with average speeds ranging from 65-75 mph, with brief bits down to 55 or up to 80/85. Mostly in the high 60's, low 70's. All speeds are indicated. I haven't compared with a GPS to see if the Zero suffers the wild optimism that all my other bikes have suffered. Anyway, I'm going with the flow, not crouching, not streamlined, with no windscreen, and I can make it back and forth to my workplace on a single charge and no real reason for range anxiety (other than an efficiency OCD). Oh, and the temperature has been cool. Cold even, depending on your definition. I'd say some days were in the 40's in the mornings, and only one day was warm enough in the afternoon that I would have been comfortable without my Aerostich. I'm looking forward to what warmer weather does for my range, and confident I could make it even on really cold days (I don't ride in freezing weather if I think precipitation is a real possibilty... This is Texas, not Montana!)
On my Long Way Home days, I got to about 75-80 miles of mostly highway, with speeds tapering off toward the tail end to make sure I made it home. I've made it home on those days with 4-7% SOC remaining.
In this temperature, without crouching, I'd say the 94 miles at 70mph is not possible, but I'd be willing to believe that in warmer weather, crouched, it may be doable. (Keep in mind, about ten of those 75-80 miles were at 'city' speeds, not 70 mph)
All in all, really enjoying the bike, and looking forward to what comes of the recent chatter about Vetter making a fairing for the Zero SR. My goal (probably not too useful) would be to fair it in a way that preserves classic motorcycle looks - and hoonability* - as much as possible, while boosting range as much as those constraints allow. I've been looking at pictures of cafe-racer-style fairings, and trying to imagine them applied to a Zero, with concessions for comfort (i.e. no race crouch).
*hoonability - maybe not a word, but I like the feel of this small, light-ish, naked bike. I like how agile it is at low speeds, and how much easier it is to work in downtown traffic than my sport-tourer BMW R1150RS. I'm not really hooning it, but it feels like it when compared to the Beemer and the Super Hawk I also had until recently.
Jason
Author
Topic: Got my new SR! But it's a little sick :( (Read 3142 times)