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Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2013+ => Topic started by: Spartacus on October 20, 2015, 08:10:36 PM
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I'm seriously considering doing what I can to get my hands on an FXS. I'm being held back by the fact that I'd like to do the occasional trail riding. Forest roads, etc. Nothing particularly aggressive. With a supermoto handle that kind of task? If not, how expensive would it be to have an extra set of rims/nobbys to swap out for that kind of riding - and how big of a job is that kind of swap? Is it something that can be done in an hour or two?
Thanks in advance,
J
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If you get a zero knobby tire spoked front wheel with the larger disk it will fit, of the top of my head you would be after the ds wheels
Personally I dont know if the 16 fxs are the ds, s or fx shocks on the front, if they are the ds or fx your good to go soon as you get the other set of wheels. I wouldn't put knobbies on the s forks and ride it off road, you could but don't get the front wheel of the ground to much, coming down hard or aggressive riding will, put a whooping on the older 14 fast ace stuff..... I'm sure showa will hold up better even put out of their realm
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If you get a zero knobby tire spoked front wheel with the larger disk it will fit, of the top of my head you would be after the ds wheels
So, would the idea be that I'd only need to swap out the front rim and tire to trail ride?
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The front fork on the FSX has been lowered by 1.6 inches. The stock 21 inch front FX wheel may not work with the FSX fork. You should be able to run a 19 inch front wheel. I would contact Zero to confirm before purchasing your new ride. Swapping out the rear wheel with the belt drive might be more of a hassle than it's worth.
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You can get quite effective off road tyres for 17" rims. I had friends that raced supermoto and they always ran cut slicks even on tracks with dirt sections.
I used to run my KTM with an intermediate rear and wet front on the road and it worked great on light trail.
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Hi
Go for the FX, it handles excellent on road, better then my previous KTM duke 690. And you will love electric riding in the forest as, because of the silence, you will be welcome by hikers.
So you will go more often than anticipated. I go now 2-3 times a week, while with my Yamaha WR I stopped since years...
Here a video of mine to show what I mean
https://youtu.be/3mxyN3hSj9A
A+ Marcel
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Cool vid mguw it is amazingly quiet on the trails. I really enjoyed your Goblin 380 video. Maybe I should ride my Zero to France so you can fix my T-rex! ;)
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I have 2 buddies that do trail riding on their DRZ400SM, one swaps wheels, the other just rides trails with street tires and does just fine. If you're sticking to forest roads and not doing any gnarly single track, the FXS might be the way to go.
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Check this guy out, on full slicks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht3Zyx-NN2A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht3Zyx-NN2A)
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Gaawwd. That guy is at one with his bike.
I ride rode tires on Forest Service roads with my 2012 DS. But I ride 'em like a grandpa. I used to have knobbies but my 90 mile round trip asphalt commute was eating them up. The main difference I've noticed riding the road tires on dirt is that I'm much less secure when I'm in mud. So now I just avoid going out right after it rains. I still do all the same rides I did when I had knobbies.
Check this guy out, on full slicks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht3Zyx-NN2A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht3Zyx-NN2A)
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So you want a more offroadable version of the FXS? First, trade the street tires for dual sport tires (personally I suggest Pirelli MT90s), and loose those cast wheels for wire rims. While you're at it, how about adding 2 inches of suspension travel to the forks. If only Zero offered a package like that, I'd get one in a heart beat. It's like an FXS but without the S.
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So you want a more offroadable version of the FXS? First, trade the street tires for dual sport tires (personally I suggest Pirelli MT90s), and loose those cast wheels for wire rims. While you're at it, how about adding 2 inches of suspension travel to the forks. If only Zero offered a package like that, I'd get one in a heart beat. It's like an FXS but without the S.
Thats true but the question is will the new FXS IPM motor be worth the extra effort in changing the FXS back into the FX...
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So you want a more offroadable version of the FXS? First, trade the street tires for dual sport tires (personally I suggest Pirelli MT90s), and loose those cast wheels for wire rims. While you're at it, how about adding 2 inches of suspension travel to the forks. If only Zero offered a package like that, I'd get one in a heart beat. It's like an FXS but without the S.
Thats true but the question is will the new FXS IPM motor be worth the extra effort in changing the FXS back into the FX...
I have never experienced overheating on my FX, even on the freeway, so I doubt it. It's not like the FX became any less road worthy. The question should be: are there nearby trails that I want to ride on? If yes, FX. If no, FXS.
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Are you listening Zero?? People want the FX model with the IPM motor. It seams that it would be easier for you guys in manufacturing to deal with one platform. Just change wheels and the front fork for the FSX.
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So you want a more offroadable version of the FXS? First, trade the street tires for dual sport tires (personally I suggest Pirelli MT90s), and loose those cast wheels for wire rims. While you're at it, how about adding 2 inches of suspension travel to the forks. If only Zero offered a package like that, I'd get one in a heart beat. It's like an FXS but without the S.
Thanks, but that's not exactly what I'm after. Since I'll be on the street 85-90% of the time, I'm after a bike setup for the street but which I might be able to quickly convert to more dirt capable (and back again) from time to time for planned trail excursions. My understanding is that the FXS has both tires and suspension that are geared toward street riding. That's a plus for me in most scenarios. I'm also short, so I kind of like the lower ride height even though I understand it sacrifices off-road ability. For me though, thats not a big deal since I'm not going to be hitting triples or anything.
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Spartacus,
I have owned a Zero DS, a Zero FX, and a variety of ICE motorcycles. I currently ride a Yamaha WR250R but I am looking at the new 2016 Zero DS 13 and am tempted to jump back into electrics.... Zero bikes are always tempting!
I have ridden a lot of miles on dirt from easy gravel roads to singletrack trails and I have done this on a Zero FX and on bigger ICE bikes with 17" rims and Dual Sport rubber as well.
From my experiences, and what you have stated for your intended purposes, I would humbly suggest the FXS would be fine for your use case. Get some good 50/50 rubber on it and it will do fine in mild off road situations. If you ride hard on the street and want more performance in the dirt get another set of stock 17" Zero rims and put more dirt oriented rubber on those for trail riding.
The main advantage for any motorcycle in the dirt is lightweight and the FXS is really light. The smaller rims will wash out easier in sand and loose dirt and you will feel the bumps more but if your speeds are conservative you will do fine.
Personally, I like motorcycles with 18" rims in the back and a 21" rim in front for maximum dirt happiness but it is a compromise on the street side of the equation. For any Dual Sport bike you have to make these choices but since you started by saying that you were 85% street and did not want to ride hard off road I would suggest you go FXS and try finding a DS tire that fits your riding style and use case first and another set of same size wheels second. Swapping bigger hoops messes with more of the overall bike and is generally not worth the effort in the end.
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Clearly my comment about the rotor size being different had no value to this conversation.......
One rotor is huge one is tiny. They arnt interchangeable..... That 21" front from the fx isn't going to fit the fxs.... The fxs has street wheels and their fire the BIGGER rotor if you put the original fx wheel on it I doubt the rotor will even reach the caliper.....
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Why not just get dual sport tires on the FXS at purchase time, if you don't ride that hard on dirt? If it's dry most tires work just fine, just avoid muddy riding.
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Lots of people (including myself) ride Supermoto setup bikes offroad. Checkout youtube if you want to see examples of what riders do with supermoto bikes off-road.
If you are doing 90% street and 10% off-road (and those off-road trails are not really loose or super steep terrain that pretty much requires the use of knobby tires), you can just air-down your tires and go, but be somewhat careful to not run hard into edges of big rocks as that might break the seal on the tubeless tires.
As Cortezdtv pointed out, the front brake rotors on the FX and FXS are different, so you can't just swap wheels. The caliper and caliper mount is different too.
I think you would be best to buy an FX and add the parts to make it an FXS if you want to switch between full dirt and full street, because the FX comes with the smaller front caliper and caliper mount on the forkleg. you can build a brake adapter to make the FX fork/caliper fit the S wheel, and buy an S wheel/tire/sprocket/brake-rotor set, and you should be able to switch between full street, and full dirt pretty quickly. If you started with an FXS, you would have a tough time making that fork / caliper work on an FX wheel.
The one down side of that approach is that the ABS system will not work properly. When you put the larger brake and smaller tires on the FX, the ABS may still work, but likely not as well, and possibly not that predictably. And when you set it up for dirt, you don't want ABS anyways. If you started with an FXS, and figured out how to get full dirt tires onto it, then the ABS would work as expected on the road, since that is its stock configuration.
Maybe you could get an FXS more dirty by putting a DS front wheel with dirt tire on rather than trying to to fit an FX front. you cold get an FX wire wheel for the rear.
-ryan
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For the sake of simplicity I would buy a set of Avon distanzia tires, they make a supermoto sized tire that is good for 90% road 10% dirt , they were on my drz when I got it and I liked them
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For the sake of simplicity I would buy a set of Avon distanzia tires, they make a supermoto sized tire that is good for 90% road 10% dirt , they were on my drz when I got it and I liked them
I second that, just as I said earlier. This is the easiest way to go.
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Thanks for all the feedback. I didn't realize a SM could be competent in dirt with DS tires. Sounds simple enough. Now to figure out how long i have to wait to buy a FXS.
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Spartacus, If it were me in your situation, I'd just get the FXS, and ride it as is on dirt.
For casual trail riding and fire roads, it'll be a bit loose, but otherwise should be fine. I'd just be a bit worried about denting and/or cracking the rims on square edges(like rocks), but they should be ok if you're careful. I'd run a fairly high pressure(at least 18, although not ideal for grip) in the tyres to prevent bottoming on the rim. I've been riding my FX on dirt with the stock tyres and pressures, 'cause it has to do road aswell. I don't push my FX too hard off road, I mainly use it for some adventurous casual riding by myself, because I can go nearly anywhere on it, due to it's queitness. I've even ridden sand/hard-pack on road tyres before, on a KLX250 I used to have; it's not ideal, but possible, and ok for non competitive fun. If you are riding with mates on knobbies, they will definitely have the advantage over you, though.
Edit: oops, a lot of what I said has been said already, 'cause I replied to the first page, and didn't see the second page!
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Hello I'm new here, Recent tested a FX & a DS-P (overyear new 14 stock former Police bikes)
I liked the FX more. The DS-P had lousy suspension & brakes, I'm used better on my RC8.
But becuz I'm only planning 99% roaduse, I guess the FXS will be my choice.
It's ment mainly for commuting. It has to charged every day.
Asked the Zero dealer overhere to check if it can be delivered before end of this year.
Nowadays the highways overhere have a trajection control system. Planning my commuting trips away from those & have some silent blasts on shortcuts & bypasses. The FXS will be great for that.
During winter maybe an extra pair of wheels with some sticky rain tyres will also fix the roadgrip.
Only problem they use a lot of roadsalt overhere during winter, not sure if the Zero will survive this?
Also the battery protection is worrying me. Bike is parked for 8h on a public space, I can imagine with the succes of electric bikes battey thievery could become a bit of a problem somewhere in time, considering the price of a new set of batteries.
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Hello I'm new here, Recent tested a FX & a DS-P (overyear new 14 stock former Police bikes)
I liked the FX more. The DS-P had lousy suspension & brakes, I'm used better on my RC8.
It is worth noting that 15/16 DS models have much better suspension and brakes.
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Hello I'm new here, Recent tested a FX & a DS-P (overyear new 14 stock former Police bikes)
I liked the FX more. The DS-P had lousy suspension & brakes, I'm used better on my RC8.
It is worth noting that 15/16 DS models have much better suspension and brakes.
Yep that was what the dealer also told me.
At first i tought it will be great, but those 14's need a rebuild. It was a rather good deal 9000€ + lets say 'bout 1000€ for the updated suspension including new full rear shock & 150€ for a new brake pump.
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What also need a change, is the headlights of the FXS (FX) with some much better HiD H4's?
I found really good replacements already, first gonna test them upon my RC8 race fairing.
Sounds stupid, but I do a lot of night rides