ElectricMotorcycleForum.com

So the forum has been down here for the last few days and now is back up.

6 years ago it was here and elmoto.net that people talked about Zero's but elmoto.net lost a lot of peoples trust when in 2009 or 2010 the entire site and all its posts and content were wiped out and lost.  So in 2010 I only started posting here.  By 2015 the facebook group "Zero Motorcycles Owners Group" began growing, while for years it held under 100 members.  The past year it is growing at about 100 Zero owners a month or over 3 per day.  It is about to cross 3000 Zero owners today.

If you don't use facebook and have noticed the posts here seem less and less frequent that is why.  Because of facebooks notification system it makes replying to comments very easy and timely as well.

I think the only 2 people I haven't seen post there are Richard230 and DougS, but perhaps there are others.  Make sure you at least join the group so you have somewhere to go should there be another extended outage here, but also I think you will perhaps prefer it. 

If you don't have a facebook account yet it takes less than a minute to create one so please don't let that be an excuse.  Starting an account doesn't mean the government is going to track everything you do.  Ahhh there's a 3rd person I haven't seen there.  Shadow, I think you aren't on facebook either and I seem to remember some conspiracy theory about why.  But I know, they want you to think that's what it is.   It's ok, I understand.

For the rest of you, see you there. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/zmcowners/

So for those on the Facebook Zero Motorcycle Owners Group you know this hashtag is popular recently.  It refers to the plug and play Diginow Superchargers that are half the size and weight of the Elcon chargers we all used to use.  And even at half the weight and size they put out 50% more power and run cooler.  And they are waterproof.

But because they are so small, tiny, lightweight and powerful, many people have been able to carry more chargers easily than a single J plug can deliver. So with all these Zero owners now charging with 2 J plugs with their superchargers, the term #DubJay was born.

A year ago I was encouraged by all the DIY Charger projects going on, but with this new tiny, powerful, weather resistant charging unit, messing around with meanwells or Eltek flatpacks at this point is kind of silly as there is a better option.  A year ago my friend Luke and I both built Eltek flatpacks off instructions from endless sphere. 2 of the units died from moisture and it was always a pain to pull them out of a waterproof enclosure to use them and then pray it doesn't rain while you are charging and grab a bite to eat.  But then it was the lightest, cheapest most powerful option if you couldn't find places to mount the Hollywood Electrics Elcon 2500's which were waterproof. 

Hollywood Electrics is now selling the Diginow 3300 watt superchargers instead.  If you need cheap charging for home, and are good with building your own electronics, the Eltek flatpacks make a fair solution. But since they are still costly and break if they get any moisture, it's still kind of silly not to get the superchargers, especially because of you ever want to take them with you on the bike or mount them they won't break if they get wet.  I've had plenty of chargers break from water and corrosion which is why years ago I had mounted 9 2500 watt Elcons to my bike where meanwell power supplies would have been lighter. I learned my lesson and so I'm sharing with you.   If you want to charge fast at home, a open charger or power supply is fine, but if you are going to take it with you for remote charging, it needs to be IP67 or greater.  Perhaps if you live in the desert you can guarantee it won't rain in the summer, although this is an El Niño year and is still raining unexpectedly here in California.  Also sand isn't good to get sucked into air drawn open chargers either. Best just to travel with sealed units and use the open units at home in an enclosed garage.

Ok I felt it was necessary to say that as I see a lot of DIY threads and I don't want anyone new to get burned and spend money on something just to have it get damp, corrode and short. If you think you even might be tempted to take your charger with you on the bike, don't do it unless you are 100% certain it won't rain and the humidity is low.  Like I said there is a better option now so that you don't have to have these conflicts anymore.

Anyway this thread was to ask all those who are now #DubJay charging with the new superchargers to post pics of your charging setup at a charging station and talk about how much you like #DubJay charging.

To kick it off I'm posting a pic of my buddy Luke "Liveforphysics" on endless sphere and a previous Eltek Flatpack user on his Zero but now also converted to 6 of the new DigiNow superchargers and is now #TripJay charging at 19.8 and no longer has to carry flatpacks chargers in a ziplock plastic bag in his backpack because all 6 are permanently mounted to his bike!  3 in the tank and 3 under the battery in place of the onboard charger in the skidpan.

Luke's bike of course is special and he has special hardware and firmware to let him charge at 19.8 kW with 6 Diginow Superchargers and 3 J plugs, but the rest of us should be able to use either 3 or 4 chargers and 2 J plugs.

Tell us your #DubJay supercharger story!

So I have a question I'd like to see how people respond.

If the bike could hold extra batteries, who would like that feature?

I recently started carrying my supercharger on my left crashbar, which is exactly the size of a module and it fits perfect.  Which means modules could fit there too.

So, what if you could carry up to 4 extra modules for road trips, who would be interested in something like that?

The modules are 42 pounds each, 4 would weigh about 168 pounds, or about the weight of a passenger with full gear.  So if you are familiar with riding with the weight of a passenger, this would be similar.  But it would add the energy of up to an entire monolith.  Or a good 200 miles highway range between necessary charge stops.  Although you might still wish to stop sooner, but now you could choose to take a longer stretch, or stop for a break somewhere you want where there isn't fast charging for a break and not worry about it.

Batteries are still expensive, although costs should come down one day soon we hope.  But for now, I was thinking you could rent batteries from your dealer for that special trip on your bike.  Although I would expect some serious touring people who are retired would perhaps buy 2 all the time as panniers, and maybe that would be enough.  They could pop in and out like on the FX so you would only put them in for longer trips and for spirited city riding or on the twisties, you could remove the extra weight.

I have found lots of weight doesn't really change highway range at all.  And also extra weight increases the bikes stability on the freeway in relation to bumps (the ratio of sprung to unsprung weight improves), and also decreases the tendency to get affected by wind gusts or passing trucks.  So this is totally in mind of someone taking a long 3-5 day roadtrip and for $250 or so could rent batteries, wake up in the morning and be able to ride 100 miles before lunch and only be at  50% when they stop to charge.  Perhaps now with elcons and the supercharger, extra charging could be rented too, so you could charge 200 miles range in an hour.

Just imagine someone like Ben Rich having 200 miles range and being able to charge in an hour, and being able to travel anywhere?  Think about those 18 hour 500 mile riding days back to back that Ben did this summer becoming easy 600 mile days that are only 12 hours (10 hours riding at 60 mph and 2 hours to charge back 400 miles for the day), or if needed be able to do 1000 miles in a day with four 1 hour charge stops.

Anyway looking to see what others think

Watch in 1080p in full screen to read the dash

38 wh/mile avg (kind of hard to see with the glare)

! No longer available

It looks amazing!!!

http://corbin.com/zero/zero13.shtml

And less than $400!!!

Corbins custom seats are usually in the $800 and up range so this is a real treat!!

Hit 75,000 all electric miles on my Zero yesterday!  I've loved every day I've had it!

If you're waiting to get one for some reason, every day you wait will be a day you can never get back, just remember that.

more pictures here: https://www.facebook.com/ElectricTerry  including one at 75,000 exactly, lol but it was taken at 70 mph so....

I just posted this on the 2012 Zero thread page, and wanted to post it here too for any Zero owners out there who do the facebook thing.

Looks like about 270 Zero owners in the group right now.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/zmcowners/