2011 Zero x dirtbike battery rebuild

[Maverick0568]

Hello,

I'm looking for resources and direction on building a battery and a possible motor upgrade for this bike. I've heard (and see youtube videos) on telsa cells being used, leaf modules, and prismatic samsung cells. Also heard the 5kw golden motor is a good upgrade.

Do you know of any tutorials/threads/resources that could help me with getting this bike going and possible upgrades that would really make it shine (if any). Thank you.
FYI I have all the parts, old dead battery (still together), metal zero box it slides inside, 48v charger.

 

[PaPaSteve]

This might help

Gen1 Zero XU, what to do?

Long story short, I bought this last week for the whooping sum of $50. It was used/ridden as a shop bike in the same complex I work on. At some point...

www.advrider.com

 

[amberwolf]

THere are also a few pages on the web about battery rebuilds for that generation, some of which are listed here

2011 Zero x dirtbike battery rebuild - Google Search

I couldn't find a really good tutorial on it but there are a few of those pages that have useful info; this is probably the best one, though it's for a 2010 the info may still help

Restoring a 2010 Zero S (Electric) Motorcycle Battery

Note: Don’t try this at home unless you know what you are doing. There is always a chance of serious injury or death when working with…

medium.com

I dont' recall which cells your model uses; some around that time used packs of 18650s stacked together, and some used EIG pouch cells. If yours happens to have used the EIG cells, I'd be interested in some of the parts in there to use with the EIG cells I have for my SB Cruiser trike, once you don't need them after your rebuild.

 

[skeetab5780]

I cannot believe that guy bought the Zero complete for only $50...its funny every time I see one of these bikes they are in CA a mere 3000 miles from where I live

Good luck on your battery build post pics!

I wouldn't upgrade the motor or controller unless you are having issues with the stock system. I would not consider the GM 5000W motor an upgrade in any way shape or form, those motors are very inefficient and have trouble shedding heat which turns into more wasted energy. If you have tons of money and want to throw it at a new motor system I would try a QS motor with a comparable brushless controller

 

[Maverick0568]

Thanks PaPaSteve!

And thank you amberwolf and skeetab5780!

Does look like the cells are something like: Molicel IMR-26700A 2900mAh 3.8V 11Wh 26.4 x 70mm

https://evmc2.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/imr26700.pdf

Similar pack: Inside the 2010 Zero X Battery Pack (Molicel)

14s12p

I have in mind to use cells similar enough to wire up the same way (maybe 21700A cells) but I have yet to learn how to bypass the bms as that seems to be the issue why the packs die so quickly. (pulls charge from the pack?) Any ideas or direction to read up on?

Or just recover the cells to build a half battery pack as Russ mentions is possible in this one:

Lots to learn here, any tutorials you'd recommend?

Also came across ev jedi using tesla cells for a pack build with a orion bms:

Maybe recovering half my pack and seeing how to recharge and test them correctly and building a small pack out of them would be the easiest next step. What do you guys think?
Any advice or sources on how to do this and where to start?
(I have reconditioned and rebuilt a gen2 prius battery, otherwise new to this)