ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2012 and older => Topic started by: benswing on June 11, 2014, 05:23:54 AM
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I'm leaving for a month long road trip on June 16th and hope to meet some of you! Here is the general plan right now:
June 16 - Ride from NYC to Centreville, VA (near Washington, DC)
June 17 - Appear for showing of Kick Gas in Richmond, VA
June 18 - Go to Electric Vehicle Owners of DC meeting in Silver Spring, MD
June 19 - Ride from Centreville, VA down Skyline Drive to Blacksburg, VA
June 20 - Ride from Blacksburg, VA to Asheville, NC
June 21 - Stay in Asheville, ride around the mountains
June 22 - Ride to Robbinsville, NC
June 24 - Stay in Robbinsville, NC to ride the Tail of the Dragon & other amazing roads.
June 25 - Ride from Robbinsville, NC to Nashville, TN
June 26 - Stay in Nashville, TN
June 27 - Ride to St. Louis
June 28 - Attend wedding in St. Louis
June 29 - Fly to NYC
Swing Dance performance at Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing
July 7 - Return to St. Louis
July 8 - Ride from St. Louis to Chicago
July 9 - stay in Chicago
July 10 - Ride from Chicago to South Bend, IN
July 11 - Ride from South Bend, IN to Cleveland
July 12 - Stay in Cleveland
July 13 - Stay in Cleveland
July 14 - Stay in Cleveland
July 15 - Ride from Cleveland to Rochester, NY
July 16 - Ride from Rochester, NY to Colgate University
July 17 - Ride from Colgate to Montreal
July 18 - Ride from Montreal to Quebec, City
July 19 - Ride from Quebec City to Montreal
July 20 - Ride from Montreal to Wolfeboro, NH
July 21 - Stay in Wolfeboro, NH
July 22 - Ride from Wolfeboro, NH to Boston
July 23 - Ride from Boston to Providence, RI
July 24 - Ride from Providence, RI to NYC
That is the basic plan! Most of the first half is pretty well set, but the second half is still subject to change. If you live somewhere near any of these places, let me know and let's ride together!
I'm also looking for a place to stay in St. Louis, and will need to leave my motorcycle there for the week when I fly back to NYC. Let me know if you would like to meet up or if you know of any events or Zero dealerships along the route.
I have far less time to plan than anticipated, and I hope to see as many electric motorcycles as possible. I'm already planning to ride the Tail of the Dragon with ultrarnr in NC, and would like to see more of you along the way.
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How do you plan to ride that many kilometers a day? Do you have chademo ?
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Lucky! I would offer you a place to stay and charge, but I don't see California on your itinerary ;-)
Will you be blogging? Have a great trip!
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I wish California was on the itinerary! Can't wait to hit the roads in VA and NC on Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway!
I have 2 Elcon 2500W chargers, so I can do between 200-300 miles per day. I have done 250 miles in a day going from NYC to DC.
The key piece of equipment that allows me to get to the fun roads (like Skyline Drive & the Blue Ridge Parkway) is a cord with a NEMA 14-50 on one end and J1772 on the other end. I can charge up at any RV campground.
Will look into blogging. I want to post updates regularly, but don't have a place to put them up yet.
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If you haven't made other arrangements, I can offer you an air mattress in Nashville and a 120V socket.
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i happen to have a place to stay in Nashville, but we definitely need to go for a ride together!
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Would like to see your bike when you come through Nashville!
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July 17 - Ride from Montreal to Quebec, City
July 18 - Ride from Quebec City to Montreal
Great!
I have a Level II J1772 charging station at home for my Volt and my Zero and alot of various power supply to fast charge any battery up to 125VDC and a 240V 40A plug ;) and a place for sleeping if you need!
It will be a pleasure to meet you in Quebec and maybe take a ride with you on our Zero and make a visit of Quebec city with you.
Doc
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It's almost time!!! I can't wait to ride some of the great roads of the Appalachian mountains like Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Please let me know if you are near any of my stopping points and I hope to meet up with you along the way. I'm already planning to meet with people in NC, TN, and Quebec. I won't have time or internet connection to figure out where everyone lives, but hopefully we can ride together somewhere along the way.
If you are on facebook, my profile name is Benswing Rich. I will probably update facebook most (so my mom knows I'm okay) ;)
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Have a safe ride! ;D
Wishing you clear skies and a following wind.
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Thanks guys! So many stories to tell, but need to sleep now!
Latest odometer reading...
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Looking forward to your Nashville visit.
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Arrived in Nashville last night, looking forward to meeting a couple of forum members in the next couple of days!
1,861 miles on this trip
250-300 miles each travel day
Met up with evdjerome in Blacksburg and ultrarnr at Deal's Gap. ultrarnr and I rode the Dragon (in NC) 3 times and spoke with dozens of bikers about electric motorcycles! They were very interested in our Zeros and the Harley announcement.
Roads included:
Skyline Drive in VA
Blue Ridge Parkway in VA & NC
in NC (basically the top 5 roads on http://www.motorcycleroads.com/best/?c=109 (http://www.motorcycleroads.com/best/?c=109))
The Dragon
Cherohala Skyway
Hellbender 28
Mount Mitchell
Looking forward to riding around TN for a bit before heading to St. Louis!
Charged at Ford or Nissan Dealerships, RV Parks, Chargepoint stations & Blink stations.
Here is my first ride of the Dragon (it gets pretty good around 3:19, but I am not a racer nor do I pretend to be.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGyKESzKSvw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGyKESzKSvw)
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How Cool is that - LOL
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Longest ride so far: 372.3 miles. Began riding at 6:45am, arrived at destination at 10:30pm. Now sleep.
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You were picked up by Yahoo Autos, nice work, and great article!
https://autos.yahoo.com/news/electric-motorcycle-road-trip-learned-know-124405854.html
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I agree! A great article that includes very useful suggestions when traveling on an electric motorcycle. :)
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Ben, I saw you on Bing News today, too!
http://www.bing.com/news/search?q=Electric+Motorcycle&bu=http%3a%2f%2fwww.greencarreports.com%2fnews%2f1093161_electric-motorcycle-road-trip-what-i-learned-what-you-need-to-know&FORM=HPPANW (http://www.bing.com/news/search?q=Electric+Motorcycle&bu=http%3a%2f%2fwww.greencarreports.com%2fnews%2f1093161_electric-motorcycle-road-trip-what-i-learned-what-you-need-to-know&FORM=HPPANW)
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Ben
I'll keep your advices for my 2000km trip on my Zero S 2012 !
These will be usefull i'm sure!
I will cary my DIY compact 6.6kW charger and will add 2 ZF3 battery on it as side case. This will give me about 200 real km at 90km/h. and 13 real usable kWh energy.
The cycle analyst is also a very usefull tool to install on a 2012 or a 2012 as it does many calculations that the 2013 apps does.
The best way to get the desired range is to know how many Wh per km you need to use and to adjust your speed to keep that Wh/km number. this is the best way i have found with te use of the cycle analyst.
Doc
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Here is a summary of the charging challenges on my trip:
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1093161_electric-motorcycle-road-trip-what-i-learned-what-you-need-to-know (http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1093161_electric-motorcycle-road-trip-what-i-learned-what-you-need-to-know)
So far I rode 4,362 miles this summer and I have one more leg to go. Will ride up to New Hampshire on Tuesday, July 22nd, then ride up Mt. Washington on July 23rd. Really looking forward to this particular trip!
Here are a few stats you might be interested in:
-Miles: 4,362
-Real cost to charge: $21.50
-Times riding the tail of the Dragon: 6
-Average distance per travel day: 280.2mi
-Average travel time: 13.5 hours
-Typical travel speed: 55mi/hr (frequent 45mi/hr)
(I stayed off highways much of the time, the main local roads were FAR more interesting and enjoyable!)
-Charging stops per travel day: 4-5
-Time spent charging was usually slightly more than time riding. (So for 6.25hrs riding, approx 7.25hrs charging.)
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I think 55 mph is a knee in the efficiency curve for our 2012 bikes. The smaller rear sprocket might help efficiency at 70 mph, although it would also significantly reduce low-speed acceleration (and improve highway acceleration and top speed).
How did this trip compare to the one last summer?
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That's a great question.
Even though I have had to make all my plans for where to stay, charging, visiting friends, visiting electric motorcycle riders, etc. this trip has been far less stressful. The Ride the Future Tour was tough, in part because only 2 of us had Verizon as our cell phone carrier. I'm not paid by them, but those maps of coverage of the US are real! Almost nobody could communicate with their cell phone, which led to lots of confusion each day.
Also, I'm able to travel much farther each day. Basically I have covered the same distance in 12 or 13 days that we covered in 44 days. I knew my Zero had the capability to do this, but it is nice to prove it.
I definitely miss the camaraderie, though. Having 10 people on a trip together all going through similar trials and tribulations was truly a bonding experience. I'll never forget the times we had together on the Ride the Future Tour. I was roommates with Ben Hopkins, the bicycle rider, for most of the tour and he's such a great guy. It was fun being his roommate and we had such different experiences.
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Frodus, MichealJ & Richard230 thanks for the feedback on the news articles. I didn't see them until now. The original article on GreenCarReports.com has about 5,000 views, so the word is getting out!
Also, I can't even count how many people I spoke to about electric vehicles in person on this trip. Every single time I stopped to charge there were at least 5 folks who asked about the bike. Then on the rides (especially at the Tail of the Dragon) I spoke with people every single time I stopped. Literally hundreds of people have now seen an electric motorcycle in person as a result of this trip.
That also means I have met some really fascinating people. Almost everyone I meet has now heard of electric motorcycles, so the conversation begins in a different place than a couple of years ago when nobody had heard of them.
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That's it! Done with the summer road trip in three acts! What an incredible adventure! Now it's time to rest and recouperate...
Here is some interesting info from the journey:
States visited:
16 - NJ, DE, MD, VA, NC, TN, IL, MO, IN, OH, PA, NY, CT, MA, VT, NH
5465.2 - Total miles
3 - rear bearings crushed
300+ - bikers who have seen my Zero (many at the Tail of the Dragon)
550kWh - Total electricity usage
112.68 - kWh from Chargepoint stations (wish it were more...)
$32.89 - Total real cost for me to charge ($17.89 at Chargepoints, $6 at Blink, $9 at 3 RV parks)
$0.0598 - cost per kWh (about half the national avg)
$0.0060 - cost per mile (ICE vehicles are approx $0.10/mile)
6 - Times riding the tail of the dragon
2 - Times riding up Mt. Washington in NH
Let me know if there is any other info you're interested in.
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Impressive ! 3 bearings crushed ??? What do you mean ?
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3 - rear bearings crushed
How did you deal with this? Is this something you anticipated? Should we bring extra bearings with us on long road trips?!
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Not a common issue, not something you can plan for. I think it may be a result of 20,000 miles with extra weight over the back wheel (chargers & luggage) and stiffening the shocks to the maximum. Terry said he has had a similar issue after about 20,000 miles but he also has a LOT of extra weight on his bike.
Happened to be close to Phibbs Motorsports in Albany (a Zero dealer) and they fixed me up in 16 hours. Put some Yamaha bearings in and I was ready to go.
Here's what happened:
Felt wobbling of rear wheel.
Pulled over, called Terry & Zero. Saw bearings hanging out the side of the axle.
Called AAA, they brought my bike to Phibbs Motorsports.
Stayed at a friend's house as planned.
Phibbs called the next day and said they fixed it!
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So you didn't come in Quebec after all?
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Unfortunately, no I didn't make it to Canada. I was really looking forward to getting up there, but I got an opportunity for a 3-day swing dance performance gig so I just couldn't fit it in. I now know exactly what it takes to travel farther, and really want to get up there but it won't happen this summer.
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Impressive!!! As a guy who mostly rides dirt and each ride ends back at my starting point (truck, desert cabin, motel, etc.) kudos to you for doing this. 8)
As for conversations with strangers about e-bikes I think that HD's entry, with all the media buzz that they generated, has greatly increased interest. This will help the industry as a whole and the beauty of it is that they won't actually be a producing competitor until sometime later, maybe two or three years or more.
Trikester
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Put some Yamaha bearings in and I was ready to go.
Wow - that was lucky you were near a Zero dealership - good to know that Yamaha bearings are compatible.
3 - rear bearings crushed
But it happened two more times on the same trip? Maybe the Yamaha bearings aren't exactly the same size? Did you change the bearings yourself after the first time?
I'm curious because I have the same bike and I would like to be prepared for this when I get a chance to do a longer road trip.
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The issue with the bearings happened only once. Don't think twice about it unless you are approaching 20,000 miles with considerable added weight on your bike.
The mixup is that there are 3 bearings for the rear wheel and they were all messed up at the same time. There is a right, center and left bearing.
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There is a right, center and left bearing
Ah - I see.
considerable added weight
How much extra weight were you carrying?
I have three of the Delta-Q Quic chargers that I'll be stuffing into my saddle-bags for the long rides (an extra 30 lbs or so). I weigh 160 lbs for a total of just under 200 lbs.