I figured this would be a good place to talk about the range of a FX 7.2. It seems to be a frequent question around here.
I bought a 2019 FX 7.2 in February 2019. I'm over 6 foot and around 265 lbs. I'm a total data nerd, so I started tracking rides and performance immediately with the bike to find out what reality was.
Here are the ride stats from my last 15 rides to give you an idea of the range of the FX:
If you are substantially lighter, you might go a little farther than this. There is a guy that weighs 155 lbs on the Facebook Zero Motorcycles Owners Group that says his FX gets better mileage than what I get on mine. Most everyone else I talk to says my numbers match theirs and some even say they don't get as much as I'm showing above.
Basically, if you want to make 60 miles, you keep your average speed under 30 mph. If you want to go 80 miles, keep it under 25 mph. If you want to go 100 miles, keep it under 20 mph average. Going over 30 mph average will make it drop fast. Also, keep in mind cold temps reduce these numbers and higher temps increase them a bit.
I did another ride this week where I knew it was going to be a short ride, so I hammered it all the way:
Total Distance: 42.10 mi
Moving Time: 1:06:16
Average Speed: 38.1 mph
Elevation Gain: 1,798 ft
Max speed: 88.1 mph
Avg Air Temp: 81.5F
100% of the charge used.
This is what the speeds of this ride looked like to average out to 38 mph:
You can see at the end of the graph where I was holding it wide open throttle and the bike was just continually slowing down as the charge faded away.
On this last ride, I just went out to have fun and run off the full charge of the battery. At one point you can see on the graph, I ran the bike wide open throttle for a couple of miles (@88 mph) and ran it into thermal protection mode doing so and had to slow down for a while. That ran the charge down a fair bit.
After that, I went into town to run some errands and that's the slower mid section of the ride. But even, after getting the charge in the 30% range, it still had enough to hit ~70 mph on the way home. Once I got sub 10%, I could no longer hit 70 mph. It was 65 mph, then it keeps dropping fast from there. At say 6%, it won't hit 50 mph anymore. By the time I got to my street, I was at 0% and it wouldn't go over 30 mph.
That's a weird thing to get used to with electric bikes. Unlike gas bikes where the performance is consistent to the last drop of gas, the performance of an electric bike deteriorates as the charge goes down. At 100% charge, the front wheel flies up on its own almost as it races up to 80mph. Around 30%, 70 mph becomes the max speed. At 7% charge, I can barely hit 40 mph and limp home. All stuff I wish I would have known prior to buying a Zero and things to factor in on a ride.
It takes 10-11 hours to recharge from 0%. Also, something else to consider, the bike goes into thermal protection mode if you hold it at or above 70 mph for over 2 miles or so. Going into thermal protection mode is NOT fun on the highway as it cuts power drastically. If you can get by holding 65 mph for your longest highway stretch, the FX should be fine. It's got plenty of power to be on the highway, passing power and such, but it just doesn't like holding those higher speeds for very long.
The FX was not designed for and really doesn't like going highway speeds for any length of time. It's a great stop sign to stop sign bike, but its not cut out for long highway miles. The DS/DSR fits that function better, I hear.
I've found the range estimator to be pretty accurate towards the end of the charge.
Multiple times now, I've gotten to 0% on a ride and then I start watching the range meter like a hawk.
I've rolled into the driveway after 2-3 miles on 0% and the range meter was at .4 miles remaining.
I watch it much more closely than state of charge for estimating miles. So far, it has not led me astray.
Granted I better be on a 30 mph road once it gets under 9% as that's about as fast as its going to go the rest of the way home.
I recently did a test. I got on the highway and put it in eco mode and held it wide open at 70 miles an hour for several miles. And it didn't overheat. Then I turned around to go back and realize that I had an 18-20 mile-an-hour Tailwind. As soon as I turned around and did the same thing going the other direction, it overheated in about two to three miles.
I dropped it down to 60 miles an hour and let it cool off. The whole trip was 17 miles and I burned 47% of the charge in that time. I wonder if it could actually make 30 miles at 70 miles an hour or not.
On the way home, I thought I'd test it going 70 mph again but across the wind so it wouldn't be a head wind or tail wind. I started at 50% and found a road and took off. It took longer this time, but it over heated again. But instead of slowing down, I just held it knowing that if it moved from the first stage of thermal protection to the second stage, it would slow me down anyway, but it never did.
So, I just kept running 70 mph until I hit 28% and then it started slowing me down. 69, 68, 67 mph. At that point, I turned off to go home. Then it got really fun. The charge started dropping really fast. I got down to 0% really quickly, then the bike died while the range meter still showed 1.6 miles left. And the check engine light came on.
I turned it off and let it sit for a couple of minutes, then started it back up again. To my surprise, it moved. So I limped it home at 20 something mph as that is all it would go. Engine light was on all the way home. Rolled into the driveway with 0.3 miles left on range meter and turned it off. Temp on the dash had cooled down to 172F.
I went to plug it in and it would not charge.
Here are the ride stats:
Distance: 34.31 mi (died at 33 miles initially)
Time: 47:48
Avg Speed: 43.1 mph
Avg Air Temp: 87.8 °F
Max Speed: 71.0 mph
Battery Used: 97% (started with 97%)
