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Wednesday
Jun252025

2011 Zero XU Complete Upgrade 20KW Brushless Conversion - Ready to Ride

If you have been following along with me in my quest to upgrade my 2011 Zero XU Electric Motorcycle with pretty much a complete new electronics system, well the wait is over and it is now ready to ride. There are still a couple of small things I want to address but it is at least 95% done now! As a recap I installed a new QS165 50H Motor with a Fardriver 72890 Controller and this all came with a new speedometer, a complete wiring harness, and the left and right controls including the throttle.

There where a few challenges along the way, but I was expecting that to happen, and if anything things actually went better than I was expecting them to. Some of my concerns where making sure I got all the wiring correct, as I did need to integrate some of the old system in with the new, but not a lot. The only real electrical issue I came across was one wire that went to my speedometer needed to be swapped out to a different wire, this was to get my actual speed to register and also what gear I was in (Gears on an Electric Motorcycle are just power levels).

Mounting the motor went really well and I thought that was my biggest challenge, but I was able to mount the rear motor mounts using my foot peg holes with some spacers and so I only needed to fabricate the front mounts using some aluminium flat bar. I would say my the hardest part of this build was the gearing and chain, I did end up having to revert back to the original 61 tooth 420 sprocket and 420 chain as the new 428 sprocket and chain where just geared too high, which made made the acceleration weak, kind of like staring out in 4th gear. Now back to the original gear setup, I have good torque off the line and a nice top speed of around 120km/h.

I was expecting to get more amps to my controller and motor as my battery is rated at 200 amps nominal and 400 amps peak, but it seems anything over 250 amps shuts the battery BMS system down, resulting in having to restart the bike to get it going again (Turn it on and off). At 250 amps with the 72 volt battery that gives me 18kw of power, but when my battery is fully charged, it is actually sitting at 84 volts which gives me right around 25kw of power. That's 33.5 horsepower with a even more torque. So she rips along pretty nicely now with the upgrades.

So here is what we achieved with this full electronics upgrade:

  • We went from the stock 4.8kw (6.4 horsepower) to 25kw (33.5 horsepower).
  • We went from a top speed of 82 km/h (51 mph) to 120 km/h (75 mph).
  • The battery was also upgraded before I got it from the 1.7kWh pack to a 7.2kWh pack, more than quadrupling the range. From around 40 to 161 kms (25 to 100 miles).
  • With the electronics being all new, it will be super reliable.

All in all I am super happy, the upgraded 2011 Zero XU is a lot of fun to ride with lots of power at any speed and it handles like a dream. Now it's time to get my wife out on it so the two of us can go riding, her on the 2011 Zero XU and me on my 1993 Ducati 750SS.

Thursday
Jun192025

Ultrahuman Ring Air Fitness and Body Health Tracker Final Thoughts Review

First off, the timing of this video is really good as Ultrahuman Ring Air is celebrating their 2 year Anniversary with 15% off from June 16-30th so make sure to take advantage of this by using my Promo Code and/or Link below:

15% Off Discount Code “GFO10”

http://ultrahuman.com/getfitover40

For the most part in this Final Thoughts Review I will be comparing the Ultrahuman Ring Air to my Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Classic, as it is my baseline fitness tracking device that I have been using for a while now, so I know what to expect in terms of calories burned, steps, heart rate and so on...

In this Final Thoughts Review I do not go into every detail of the Ultrahuman Ring Air in terms of features, hardware and software. I mainly cover aspects that apply to how I use it personally.

Here are some of the key points I go into:

  • Is the Heart Rate monitoring of the Ultrahuman Ring Air accurate?
  • Is the Step Counting of the Ultrahuman Ring Air accurate?
  • Are the Calories being tracked by the Ultrahuman Ring Air accurate?
  • Is the Ultrahuman Ring Air useful for tracking other aspects of health and fitness like Sleep, Blood Oxygen Levels, HRV, Stress?
  • Is the Ultrahuman Ring Air durable, what about scratches and wear? How can I protect my Ultrahuman Ring Air?
  • Does the battery last as advertised?
  • Can the Ultrahuman Ring Air be your only stand alone Fitness Tracking Device? Starting and stopping workouts, real time workout data, workout data accuracy?
  • Will I continue to use my Ultrahuman Ring Air?
  • Would I use my own money to purchase an Ultrahuman Ring Air if it was not provided for me for review?

Even though my Ultrahuman Ring Air was provided to me for free by Ultrahuman, I was not subsidised for my reviews and I was not instructed in any any way what to say, so my viewpoints on it are mine alone and honest.

Wednesday
Jun182025

Road to the Vancouver Open Regionals - 4 Weeks Out Posing

We are getting ever closer to the Vancouver Open Regionals where I plan to compete in both Men's Physique and Classic Physique. At just 4 weeks out I am feeling good and I feel I am right on track. I am happy to be holding my weight at right around 190 pounds which has not changed for a while now. For some they may see this as not making any progress in terms of cutting weight? My plan has been all along to keep my weight but convert fat into muscle and since fat has about 3 times the potential stored energy compared to muscle tissue, I am able to keep my weight even when in a caloric deficit. Once I get closer to the show at about 2 weeks out, I will start to really push the cutting and caloric deficit and losing actual pounds on the scale will happen for sure. My goal will be to drop down to about 185 pounds but carb up for the show and fill in closer to 190 or even 195 pounds if I do it right.

You can see in this video I am leaning out and to me it looks like I am putting on additional muscle, but I will let you be the judge as I show off a few poses for the camera.

Friday
Jun132025

2011 Zero XU Complete Upgrade 20KW Brushless Conversion - Parts Finally Arrived

It took about three weeks to finally arrive but I now have hopefully everything I need to complete my 2011 Zero XU Complete Upgrade with a new Brushless motor and controller setup. The complete kit I purchased comes with the QS165 50H motor which has a nominal rating of 10kW and can put out as much as 40kW if you have a battery and controller with enough power. The Controller that came with my kit is the Fardriver ND72890 capable of 450 battery amps and 890 Phase Amps to the motor. This should get me around 35kW or even more... The Kit I bought also came with the SCJ5066-1 Speedometer, a full wiring harness and left and right controls along with a throttle.

I have most of everything else I need to in terms of nuts, bolts, spacers, washers, connectors, wires, metal bits for fabricating mounts but I am sure there will be something I missed but that is part of the process. So far I have figured out mostly how the motor will be mounted by using the foot peg holes for the rear mounts, some fabrication will be need for the front mounts. I am pretty sure I have the wiring harness figured out now, it was a bit more complicated than I originally thought as there are many of the same connectors so I needed to really dive into the wiring diagram to make sure I use the right connections.

Hopefully I can get the 2011 Zero XU all setup over the next week or so baring anythign I may have overlooked.

Friday
Jun062025

2011 Zero XU Complete Upgrade 20KW Brushless Conversion - Ready for New Parts

It's been a couple of weeks since I made my first video on the 2011 Zero XU Complete Upgrade 20kw Brushless Conversion Project I started. I am in the process of upgrading my 2011 Zero XU from a brushed motor system to a brushless motor system, and so far I have stripped the bike down to its bare essentials removing all the electronics and wiring other than lights and the ignition switch. The new complete kit system comes with the motor, controller, throttle, left and right controls, wiring harness and the main speedo screen. All of this is pre-wired and ready to be installed. It is taking a bit longer to arrive but I should have it this Monday so installation can begin on Tuesday hopefully.

I also had the dual sport tires installed and balanced and they are now back on the bike, along with a 428 rear sprocket to match up with the 428 front sprocket that comes on the new brushless motor. This new setup is going to be a major upgrade from the 5kw brushed motor that had a 200 amp controller, the new setup comes with a 450 amp controller and a 10kw nominal motor that can run as high as 30kw peak, that's around 40 horsepower. Here is a link to the new motor and controller kit I bought from Aliexpress:

QSMOTOR QS165 10000W 72V 50H Kit Hall and Encoder PMSM Mid drive Motor Fardriver ND72890