Colder Weather Riding

Colder Weather Riding

September mornings here are cooler, so about 4-5*C. The effect of the cooler temperature is  decreased range, noticeable on a KM per bar level, and my hands are cold.

It seems like the KM per bar used to be above 5 KM during the 20-30*C weather, this morning it was about 4.7 KM per bar. The return commute was at about 15*C, so the KM per bar was back up to near-normal levels.

For the hands I'll have to use heavier riding gloves. Zero has two accessories for heated grips (had them on my last bike and would like them on the XU), a 12V DC outlet and a set of heated grips, but up here it'll cost close to $250 for them in total...

On another note the replacement Cheng Shin rear tube is holding air much better than the OEM tube; after a week of commuting the tire pressure no longer drops.

Ouch... Flat Tire

Ouch... Flat Tire

The return leg of Tuesday's commute resulted in a flat tire. Riding along, then I hear a rapid succession of "tap-tap-tap-tap" noises. One nice thing about electric motorcycles is there is no noise from the engine/exhaust to drown out background noises. Pulled over when it was safe to, put the sidestand down and looked at the rear tire, it was pretty deflated.

Saw one of these:

only all mangled up.

I left it in, with limited hopes that it would hold enough air to try a gas station to gas station commute home. Pushed the bike while actuating the throttle slightly to the closest gas station, in the time it took to inflate the rear tire, remove the air dispenser and return it to its holder the tire had deflated. No such luck.

I resigned myself to being flat bedded home, so I pushed the bike to my wife's workplace (it was nearby the scene of the crime), asked her to put my hot sweaty riding gear in the car, broke out the Yellow Pages and called a towing operator that advertised motorcycle towing. Over $100 later and we're home.

I removed the rear wheel from the XU, and demounted the tire. The tire is a 110/90-16 Shinko "front" tire used on the back, I wasn't sure what the tube size would be. Some sites list "front" 110/90 as requiring a different sized tube than a "rear" 110/90. The replacement tube size you want is a 4.0/4.6-16.

The local dealer didn't have any tubes of that size in stock, they never offered to order one either; just a "we don't have any" and then they ignored me like the proverbial plague. I gave up on local dealerships and decided to try online. Some of the dealerships with an online presence now have their e-stores up and running with searchable catalogs, one can order anything. I ordered two replacement tubes from http://www.gpbikes.com/ and they should arrive next week.

Now that I think about it I probably should have ordered two front tubes too...

17-Jul-2012 Update

17-Jul-2012 Update

• Received the quick charge cable/harness on 10-Jul-2012
• Commuting when I want, i.e. when it's not raining
• The front and rear tire pressures dropped quite a bit, not sure if it's cheap tubes or something else (didn't observe any foreign object punctures) so will keep an eye on it. Round-trip distance for my commute was off by about .6 to .8 KM

First Commute

Posted this on www.brammoforum.com

Yet another update: I did not receive the quick charge harness with the quick charge option to allow two inputs into the battery pack from two chargers, so I've been putting off riding the XU to work. My plan was to quick charge at an intermediate location on the return portion of my commute. Zero is working out where it is and getting it shipped to me. Today I decided to do it anyways, and I was resigned to the fact that I might have to "slow charge" at the intermediate point.

When I arrived at work there was 5 bars showing on the "fuel gauge", and I thought "maybe I'll make it home" . The ride in was at about 13*C.

When I turned on the bike in the afternoon, temperature now 28*C, there were 6 bars showing on the gauge. I managed about 1.7 KM before the gauge dropped back down to 5 bars. Then I managed to make it home, the last 1 KM or so with the two bars flashing warning. The commute home was slower, traffic congestion is a bit higher, so I'm guessing that's a good thing

Google Maps shows the round-trip as 46.6 KM, the XU odometer shows it as 48.6 KM, either way I got home Hopefully the battery pack is okay with the two bars flashing. I also have to verify with a GPS about the distance, and see about reconfiguring the wheel diameter setting on the instrument cluster to try to get the odometer a bit more accurate (protomech, a user active on most of the e-moto forums, posted the cluster manual, thanks!).

2012 Zero XU Ride Log Energy Usage Fuel Economy

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ap63JU985rHkdHF6T3dXaGxjSF9Tc2hFWlFZWmVFaXc

2012 Zero XU Fasteners & Quick Charge Option

We're allowed to park at work from 1-May to 31-Oct. Electric vehicles are not permitted to recharge though, no available plug-ins and work isn't setup to allow for it. I also cannot bring in the removable power-pack and charge with the standalone charger. So, I worked out a deal with my in-laws to charge the XU at their place on the homebound portion of my daily commute.

Yesterday I looked in the XU Owner's Manual to find out how to quick-charge the power-pack:
Remove the quick charge connector protective
cover. This is located under the seat on the
right side of the motorcycle.

Seemed simple enough. I then looked in the manual to see how to remove the seat, no instructions found. I thought to myself, if it's like my WR then there's mount bolts at the back, and a post with a channel at the front. I looked at the rear and under the fender, there's what looks like an Allen key bolt and a Nyloc locking nut. I got out my Metric tools, the Allen key socket set fit but due to the space constraints under the read fender my metric socket would not fit. I used a 1/2" socket and breaker bar (none of my ratchets are small enough to fit in the space under the rear fender) to remove the lock nut, then the appropriate sized Allen key socket to remove the bolt.

Next up, I lifted the seat, to discover no quick-charge harness! Took a look in the standalone charger box, no harness there either. Took a closer look at the papers that came with the charger, and noticed the following:

ALGID 123

E-MOLI IMR26700 22S12P (34,8AH) LI-ION W/Q72

I thought 2012's were supposed to have EIG lithium ion pouch cells, not the cylindrical E-Moli cells of the previous year's models!?!? I went online, checked endless-sphere.com and confirmed the EIG vs E-Moli for 2012's. I emailed a contact at Zero asking for verification of the quick charge harness and the charger/algorithm, then remembered that one of the battery engineers at Zero is active on a couple of the electric motorcycle forums. I PM'd him and he replied quickly. It seems that the algorithm on the charger is fine (the standalone and bike-mounted chargers have the same part number and description decals) and that the algorithm spec sheet was printed with incorrect information.

Now all I have to do is wait for the quick charge harness to show up, and install that...

Zero XU Tire Choices

2012 Zero XU Tire Choices

OEM sizing is
Front: Shinko F250 MJ90-19 which equates to 90/90-19
Rear: Shinko SR735 110/90-16

Odd sizes limit the number of available replacements. The rear tire is very close to the drive belt, I don't think a 120/90-16 would be a wise choice due to the increased width. I think when the original tires go I'll try out Avon RoadRider AM26's, they have two fronts in the OEM sizes. Another option would be Pirelli Sport Demon, but the front tire would have to be 100/90-19 and might not fit, I'll have to see how much clearance there is with the front fender... there is plenty of clearance for the front fender with the OEM tire. I can't find detailed specs on the SR735 though, so I'll have to break out the caliper and measuring tape...

FRONT

F250 MJ90-19
Diameter - 650mm
Width - 89mm
AM26 90/90-19
Diameter - 647mm
Width - 99mm
Sport Demon 100/90-19
Diameter - 668mm
Width - 100mm
Bridgestone BT-45 100/90-19
Diameter - 663mm
Width - 99mm
Kenda K671 Cruiser 100/90-19
Diameter - 666mm
Width - 99mm
Kenda K761 Dual Sport 100/90-19
Diameter - 663mm
Width - 98mm

REAR

SR735 110/90-16
Diameter - ??? mm
Width - ??? mm
AM26 110/90-16
Diameter - 603mm
Width - 117mm
Sport Demon 110/90-16
Diameter - 604mm
Width - 115mm
Bridgestone BT-45 100/90-16
Diameter - 587mm
Width - 99mm
Bridgestone BT-45 110/90-16
Diameter - 605mm
Width - 112mm
Kenda K671 Cruiser 100/90-16
Diameter - 587mm
Width - 99mm
Kenda K761 Dual Sport 100/90-16
Diameter - 585mm
Width - 100mm

Front Tube

???

Rear tube

4.0/4.6 16

Update on Registration Problems

Update on registration - 25-Apr-2012

I was notified by my local ServiceOntario branch office that I could come in to get my XU registered. The clerk was quick & efficient, got the paperwork and license plate and went home.

The XU doesn't have any pre-drilled holes in the rear fender for mounting the plate, so I grabbed my electric drill, held the plate up against the fender, marked the 4 holes and drilled away using a bit smaller than the 4 stainless screws I had on-hand. Mounted the plate using 4 stainless bolts, they self-threaded nicely into the thick plastic of the fender.

Went for my first ride, here are my impressions that I posted on www.brammoforum.com


Initial impressions:

As already reported, ECO vs SPORT (or on my XU I vs II) provides quite the difference in riding experience, both in acceleration and regen braking. In ECO the regen feels a lot like engine braking on a small displacement 4T; it's barely noticeable in SPORT mode. In ECO mode if one times it correctly one can use minimal brakes to come to a stop (applying a little bit of pressure to at least get the brake light activated). The only issue is in ECO mode you really have to pay attention (more so than normal on a motorcycle) to traffic patterns and almost anticipating traffic light changes.

It gets up to 60 & 80KPH quickly enough that commuting shouldn't be a problem. The XU is light and flickable, the front brake seemed spongy/squishy at the beginning but it seems to be getting better. Rear brake takes a while to bite, I like using it for low-speed parking lot speeds so I'll have to see if I can adjust that. The seat height is about 5.5" shorter than my WRR, so that took some time for adjustment. I only reached for the non-existant clutch and gear shifter once, while coming to a stop

Update on registration problems

20-Apr-2012 Update on registration problems

I contacted another Service Ontario office and explained the issues with registering the XU. They took my name and the VIN and told me they would call back with some information. About 20 minutes later the clerk called back and informed me that the VIN checks out okay, so she called the "hotline" and gave them the VIN, then she was told that they already knew about the situation and were verifying the NVIS and status of the bike with respect to Transport Canada and MOT standards etc. The clerk at the 2nd Service Ontario office told me I could expect a response in 5-10 business days.

Zero XU Registration Problem

18-Apr-2012 Zero XU Registration Problem
First setback. Tried to register the XU at my local Service Ontario office. The clerk did not know how to process it. They contacted some Service Ontario/MTO "hotline" who then informed the clerk that "no electric motorcycle can be registered for road use in Ontario". The clerk faxed the NVIS to the person at the MTO "hotline" and then informed me she would call me with more information when available.

Upon returning home I contacted the Electric Vehicle Council of Ottawa (EVCO) http://evco.ca/ who advised me that bike should be legal for road use and offered to help out with the process. I declined the offer for now. I investigated a couple of other avenues but no luck so far.

2012 Zero XU Delivery

18-Apr-2012 - Motosport Newman delivered the XU.

Here are some pictures

Buying a Zero XU

5-Mar-2012 I initiated the purchase process with Zero Canada.

There is no Zero-affiliated dealership in my city so I emailed Zero Motorcycles Canada directly. I ordered a 2012 Zero XU with the optional quick-charger.

26-Mar-2012 Purchase Update

Zero informed me that the bike will be delivered by Motosport Newman Pierrfonds, the closest Zero-affiliated dealership.