Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[PitPilotRacing]

Hello from Texas! I recently acquired what appears to be a very low mileage 2012 XU with apparent battery death. I grabbed the bike for my son knowing NOTHING about electric motorcycles, but being a pretty skilled motorcycle mechanic. Guess what.. 40+ years of wrenching on every bike known to man mean NOTHING when it comes to this thing! So, when I bought the bike I was told the battery was "shot", I've come to learn that could mean many things on this forum and others. All that said, the boy is about to be commuting short trips for work and school and we would really like to take a shot at powering this thing up and hitting the streets. Our main question is obviously the battery, where do we start? How to diagnose? How to build a new one? I did contact Zero, they quoted me the standard $1900 plus shipping to attempt to rebuild the battery. OUCH, is that the only option? Here is a youtube link showing the indicator lights on the charger when it is first plugged in, nothing changed after 24 hours. Any and all info or troubleshooting help greatly appreciated!

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

$1900 sounds like a reasonable price for a battery pack rebuild, honestly.

You should definitely get those cells off your hands before they become a hazard in hot weather.

The unofficial manual is a resource but it is not at the level you need, and 2012 coverage is minimal. At least I can point you to the cell reference section:
https://zeromanual.com/index.php/Unofficial_Service_Manual#Cells

You should find a battery professional locally if you can to get a quote to compare. AF1 Racing in Austin sells Zeros and seems technical enough that they can at least help you with a referral.

Good luck!

[xtrmbkr]

So I just bought the same 2012 Model X with a dead battery, and was wondering if you were able to get your battery working.

[PitPilotRacing]

Hey xtrmbkr, so far no real leads. I was directed via IM to a member here that has extensive knowledge of this particular battery, I did reach out to him but he has not replied yet. I have been in contact with parts and service at Zero, they've been very friendly and act eager to help but as of now they have just told me they will have a tech get back with me but nothing, no call or email. In their defense I've been told they have a main battery tech out with a new baby. So, at this point all I know is that I can ship the battery to them and for $1900 they will rebuild it if it is in good enough condition to do so. I was hoping for some troubleshooting advice before I just sent it to them, to make sure it's worth it. I don't really know but I assume the market value of the bike isn't much more than the cost of the battery. All that said, I'll give it a little more time to play out and then will probably just buy the boy a gas burner. At least in our area 2k will buy a nice little ride, might even build him a SUMO out of my WR. We were very excited at the thought of the Zero, it fit perfectly with his needs. But that excitement has definitely faded since learning there is no real support or affordable battery for a bike that's 6 years old. Seems crazy, but I guess that's the electric motorcycle market. As I mentioned before, I should have done my homework I just never dreamed a 2012 bike would have s little available in the way of affordable parts and support. Well, lesson learned...

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

All Zeros before 2013 were made in small batches and iterated too much year over year to be supportable by Zero or by the community / unofficial manual.

[PitPilotRacing]

Well.. still no call or email back from Zero and the boy's birthday is next week so looks like I'm throwing in the towel, at least for now. Guess it's not time for our conversion to electric and I'll have to buy him a gas burner. I'll sit on the bike for a while but if anyone needs a clean 2012 Zero XU with a bad battery, by all means holler. Bike is in the Dallas, Texas area.

[Alan. Yes THAT Alan]

I might be interested. I sent you a private message, with my phone number in it.

[2x0]

What voltage is the battery sitting at?
 
did you read this?   http://electricmotorcycleforum.com/boards/index.php?topic=6277

[PitPilotRacing]

Good Morning, thank you for the reply. As far as I can tell the battery is showing no life whatsoever, unless I am not testing it correctly. I did read the post you referred to earlier but I was told the 2012 battery is completely different than the one that is the subject of the post. I had located someone at Baylor University that was actually willing to look into it as a "project" and see if they could help but said they would need battery specs and the schematic for the battery. I was told in no uncertain terms by ZERO that they do not and will not provide any info on the battery other than it should be at 57v. So, still searching around a bit but at a $1900 cost to rebuild the battery, plus shipping which I understand is going to be expensive, I just don't know if the little bike has that kind of value. Hate to abandon the project as it would have been a perfect solution to my son's needs but man did I learn a lesson. The electric motorcycle community, at least the dealer and aftermarket support realms, are definitely not the same as conventional motorcycles.

[Richard230]

Good Morning, thank you for the reply. As far as I can tell the battery is showing no life whatsoever, unless I am not testing it correctly. I did read the post you referred to earlier but I was told the 2012 battery is completely different than the one that is the subject of the post. I had located someone at Baylor University that was actually willing to look into it as a "project" and see if they could help but said they would need battery specs and the schematic for the battery. I was told in no uncertain terms by ZERO that they do not and will not provide any info on the battery other than it should be at 57v. So, still searching around a bit but at a $1900 cost to rebuild the battery, plus shipping which I understand is going to be expensive, I just don't know if the little bike has that kind of value. Hate to abandon the project as it would have been a perfect solution to my son's needs but man did I learn a lesson. The electric motorcycle community, at least the dealer and aftermarket support realms, are definitely not the same as conventional motorcycles.

The 2012 batteries were manufactured by EIG.  Perhaps they are still around and you can find out something about their batteries by researching the web. 

[2x0]

You should be able to measure pack voltage at the charging port.

if you read the manual link shown above you will see that the 2012 battery is  18 cells in series.  The post I linked  was to rebuild a 14S battery.  The concepts are the same for you but you need to build an 18S battery instead.

The people that know most about these older zeroes have probably moved on to bigger and better things but the info is still here in the archives for us latecomers to unearth.  I bought two dead Zeros and after lots of reading I was able to fix them both and am having fun in the process. 

If you want to look into freight shipping charges, I could rebuild yours for a fee.  Otherwise, start by taking yours out and apart to see how much room you have to work with as far as finding appropriate replacement cells. 

[PitPilotRacing]

I am getting a faint reading, 0.28 at the charging port using the lowest setting on my Fluke. I'm impressed at the ingenuity to get not 1, but 2 of the older electric's rolling. Bravo.. I would love to take a chance at rebuilding the battery and be happy to pay you to do it since you have some prior experience. I'll send you a PM with contact info if you would like. Our race season is about to kick off again and keeping the bikes ready will take most of my time, I'm very interested in getting the battery in someone's hands and see if this bike is still an option for my son.

[xtrmbkr]

Well good news here, we got the battery rebuilt and the bike is working great.  Please let me know if you need any help with yours.

[PitPilotRacing]

Xtrmbkr,  You were able to build or rebuild the battery for the 2012? Did you do-it-yourself or did you send it to ZERO?

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

Wow, that is the most uninformative conclusion I could imagine.

I would like some information to be shared so that we can learn something or at least know why to trust what you say.