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The BMW eRR seemed more like a concept than a production-intent model.

Yeah, they said it was an experiment, Konzept eRR, but at least it's a step closer and shows that they're interested! BMW Press Release

Fair enough, it sounds like the good old days! The old ideal of a country town with a local, friendly cop isn't what it used to be, here, 'cause they send "city" cops out to country towns to earn extra credit!

I'm trying to set the front suspension sag to the specified 45 mm and I have the pre-load all the way backed out and still too stiff.

I have had my 2015 SR for a couple weeks and I am finally getting around to checking the suspension settings.  I looked up in the manual and the spec for sag is 45 mm, which is about 28% of the travel spec (159 mm).    Funny thing is that they said it was 1/3rd.  I followed the procedure, turned the red nut on the top fork all the way counter clockwise and I bounced the bike and put my hands and feet on the controls.  I have done this before and I have had pros to this, so I think the springs are just too stiff.  The sag is probably less than 30 to 35 m.  I even put both rebound and compression all the way soft.

When I'm off the bike and its on its kick stand, it is almost topped out, I even pulled up on the front to verify it was all the way topped out.  There is about 4 mm of movement, but that it.   I have yet to fully suspend the front wheel 

When balance the bike and bounce up and down, its mostly rear suspension movement and the fork does not do much. 

I'm 160-165 and I put my gear on for the test.

The rear suspension pre-load/sag is good enough at the stock setting (second positions form full soft). 

Any ideas?  Anyone adjust there suspension?

Yeah, 1/3 is a general guide for rider sag, that's why the manual says that. They also say that in the manual, "This adjustment is a recommended guideline; personal riding preference may vary from the specifications given."

The manual also says, "The spring preload must be set to match the weight of the rider. The spring is preloaded for an 180 lb (82 kg) rider.". I assume they mean that the spring rate is for a 180lb rider, but my FX came with three turns of preload, so maybe they actually meant the spring rate, plus the three turns of preload. I'm at about 180lb with no gear on, and my FX(I don't know if they've adjusted the spring rates for the different bike weights) only sags about 35mm with the three turns of preload, I haven't tried with no preload.

I actually like the stock heavier spring rate on the Zero, because Jap bike spring rates are usually for 70kg/155lb riders. I also prefer a heavier spring rate, because I hate it when forks bottom out mechanically, and also use the oil height to prevent that.

The manual also says, "Heavier riders require stiffer spring rates.", so they probably also should have said that "lighter riders require lighter spring rates". As spacetiger has mentioned earlier, you could try lowering the oil height, but this might allow the forks to mechanically bottom out harshly if you ever hit something that uses all the suspension travel. I don't know what the recommended oil height is on these Showa forks, but you could start by measuring the stock height, or measure how much oil comes out. Different(fancy) design fork internals also make the procedure different, and more complex too. Fitting some new softer springs could be easier and quicker. Obviously, a suspension shop should be able to get it sorted, if you'd rather have someone else do it. Labor might be around $50-100, though.

Some electric race worthy off road bikes are built in Italy by Tacita.

Check their site:
www.tacita.it/

Yeah, they look nice. I couldn't see any info on seat height, weight, or price, though.  It has nice features like a 5 speed gearbox, liquid cooling, nice forks and shock with HI/LO speed compression and progressive linkage, and 300mm front brake disc. I imagine it would be fairly heavy and pricey!

If you had a chain kit, or a 13 military mmx or your bike set up like thoes/ im sure you wouldnt be scared to offroad it as hard as your other bikes.

Maybe on slow, mild single track, but there's no way I'd hit big, high speed sand whoops or jumps on the FX! Even the KTM E doesn't have a full size chassis like their ICE bikes.

Do you honestly think anyone could race competitively on an FX in a GNCC or Baja race?

I'd love to have a fully race capable (affordable) electric bike, and hopefully they're not too far away from now, but for now, I'm happy with the FX, 'cause it's the only electric bike available to me at the moment, and I can have fun riding straight from my front door without annoying anyone. ZERO didn't intend it to be, nor do I expect it to be a race bike, it's just a fun bike to me.

Quote from: BenS on January 04, 2016, 09:41:15 AM

Quote from: smeghead on January 04, 2016, 06:22:02 AM

Custom mode sounds cool.  Clearly there is way more than enough power to loft the front wheel, but it seems eco and sports have power ramps that prevent it.  Are power ramps one of the params you can diddle with in custom mode?

I really need to ride an FX in single battery config and see how different it feels.  Dumb question - is the pack voltage the same running a single battery - does it have the same zip with just half the life?  or somewhat less zip?

Yeah, unfortunately, the FX doesn't have that power hit at the bottom like the KTM E has, and it's not adjustable in the app. You can definitely feel that using one battery doesn't have the same "go" as two, but the weight saving is very noticeable, too.

How do you know this?





Like I've said before in this thread and no one listened....they have won open classes against bigger dirtbikes.... It all comes down to rider.....
If it can win a open class id co sider it more than capable of keeping up....

We're talking about using just one battery in the FX. Of course the FX has more go than the KTM when it has two batteries. I'm just judging by what I've seen of the KTM, comparing similar battery capacities, and considering that the KTM is geared much lower. I did discover tonight, using one battery in my FX, that it's easier to get the front wheel up from a stand still, and then gets harder to get up the faster it goes. It feels like it has a bit of a hit in power, and then drops off quickly.

The FX is winning pro classes??? I doubt it. I already knew that it's won amateur classes, before I even bought my FX, but it all depends on who you're racing against and the type of race. There's no freakin' way I could race the FX as hard as my other bikes! I know this just from trying to trail ride it.

EDIT: I just did some testing with my bike, and braking regen still works, even with the light circuit not completing(lights switched off), so you won't be able to use your switch for regen.

evtricity has done it, so if you want to do it, check out his thread http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=4357.0 I must warn you though, it's pretty complicated!

No, I haven't tried that, I s'pose it should work if braking regen is activated by the brake switches. Where I tapped in(white with red trace wire) is on the "non-live" side of the front and rear brake switches, so if you tap into the live wire(you can see that the live wire is "blue with black trace" at the connector just above the rear brake switch), and then to the non-live wire(white with red trace), I s'pose your switch should work then.

Oh no, I just thought of something, if braking regen is activated by the completion of the light circuit, that would mean I'm disabling it when I turn the lights off! Hmm, I didn't realize it would do that! In that case, I would need to wire in a switch(preferably a two in one, if that's possible), so that the circuit does complete when the brake switch is activated!