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OK I have a 2017 FXS with the standard chain kit. I almost entirely use the bike for commuting and city riding but lately decided to try riding it on the highway. And of course, my chain is adjusted within spec and lubed frequently with maxima chain wax.

With the reduction on the chain kit, the bike tops out at 71 mph on GPS. What I found is that the highway range is absolutely TERRIBLE, around 25 miles for full charge, which is a little confusing since I understand the bike normally goes around 40 miles at 70 mph.

Last night I did a test run and got 28 miles. 3 of those were riding slow to get to / from the highway. I rode topped out on the way out, turned around at 50%, rode about 65 on the way back and finished with 0% charge and 1 mile range remaining. So, the extrapolated range for riding the entire pack at 70 mph is about 25 miles.

The bike is a little unusual in that Zero replaced one of my battery packs (not both) about a year ago. The new battery is the 32 Ah version used in the 7.2 packs, old one is from the 6.5 packs. When the bike is ridden hard or on the highway the new battery gets a lot hotter. Temperature was about 75*F outside, so batteries are not suffering reduced range from cold weather.

Anyway I am trying to figure out if my highway range at 70 mph with chain kit is reasonable or if my older battery needs to be warrantied.

Power:
Replace motor and controller
Stock batteries (~50hp to the wheels)

Weight:
Ditch charger, headlamp, bars & accessories, rear "fender" assy, shitty useless ABS unit and extraneous hoses, MBB, a ton of unnecessary wiring, the shitty stock brakes and heavy stock wheels, and some other stuff. How much does this save? Who knows.

Aero:
Clip ons, off the shelf race fairing

USA only for simplicity. Bikes sold to the military and police departments don't count.

Based on the number of dealers and demo bikes available around the country, and the used market, Zero's USA volume looks pretty small. Like a few hundred new bikes a year small, comprising all the models.

Is this reasonable? I would say maybe it's even in the lower hundreds a year based on social media presence compared to other low production bikes (youtube, forums, facebook).

I understand that the overall production volume is well above this, so global and authoritarian markets must be a pretty big proportion of their overall sales. Or is that incorrect?

Anyone else do some thinking on this subject?

Long story short I bought a brand new 2017 FXS that had 1/2 modules dead. The repair has been very slow going so they gave me a FX loaner which I switched out today for a 2016 DSP.

Here are my thoughts on that bike, since many Zero enthusiasts may have seen but not ridden one.

First, the bike says "Police" and has blue running lights on the plate. So those had to be dealt with before I wanted to take it on the road, since I'm not police. We covered everything up with tape.

Second, the bike has a extremely loud siren. It's way better than the stock horn and comes with a warning sticker not to use it around people without hearing protection (lol). There is also a PA with microphone. Loud pipes ruin rides and don't save lives, but maybe a selectively enabled alert noise might. Or, it will just scare the crap out of the person next to you at a light. Conclusion: all street motorcycles should come with a extremely loud siren, and optionally a PA. This is the best part of the bike by far and now I want a siren and PA on my FXS.

Third, the bike has flashing red and blue lights, either front and rear or just rear. They're very bright just like police lights on the road. Since these are illegal for me to use on the street, I haven't. The main problem with the lights is the front side lights hit my knees when I'm up on the tank. So clearly this bike either wasn't ridden hard during development (really?) or it was made by / for people with short femurs. Either way, it's extremely annoying.

Fourth, the bike has crash bars, which I don't mind since it's very heavy and not really good for riding motard style, leg out. The bars actually keep you from sticking your leg out and forward motard style, so that's a moot point. Previously I had been interested in these bars for my FXS, but now I definitely do not want them since supermotos are best ridden motard style.

Fifth, the bike has a switch to cut out all lights so you can go stealth. Good if you have night vision.

Sixth, the bike is a little slow for pursuits but since most American motor police already use Hardly Ableson and don't wear gear this is probably not a big point.

I think that's about it. Lesson learned: quiet motorcycles that can play really loud artificial noises are awesome.

Have you ridden a DSP? Especially interested to hear from actual police riding this thing.

Hi, my background with ebikes is building hotrodded bicycles both mid and hub drive. I have a QS205, QS273 and a few others running high power on ASI BAC4000/8000 controllers. So I'm used to fast high torque wheelie machines.

I rode a 2017 FXS 6.5 the other day and was disappointed by the power. It sure didn't feel like 47 hp and I couldn't get the bike to power wheelie. Yes it was in Sport mode. I'm 140 lbs, 6', sitting up and leaning back while grabbing the throttle. Full charge, warm weather, both packs inserted. Not one inch of wheelie. On the plus side the bike is very easy to break loose and slide around, but half the reason I want this bike is to do stealth wheelies all the time!

I'm aware of the various performance limitations including the motor which I got up to 200* in a few miles. That is all OK for the riding I'll do, but I was expecting this bike to wheelie easily. So yeah, how would you describe the bike's ability to wheelie and is something wrong with the model I rode?