Kriega US-Drypack

I've been using Kriega US-Drypack soft bags on my Zero SR/S, instead of the Shad hard bags that can be bought with the bike. I can't claim thousands of miles of experience using them yet, but so far the quality of the Kriega bags seems right up there, justifying their high price.

I'm using a combination of US-10 and US-20 Drypacks, with my charging cable, lock and waterproofs stored in the US-10, while my clothes and travel stuff is in the US-20. I've chosen to use two bags so I don't have to worry about getting my stuff wet or dirty after charging in the rain. I could wipe down and clean my cable after charging, or have another inner bag in which to put the wet charging cable, but in both cases I'd be opening the bag with my clothes in the rain to stow the cable.

The Kriega US-Drypack system is modular so that bags can be attached to each other. I'm not entirely sure why the US-20 has loops on its top, as the top bag should be secured to the loops on the bottom of the bottom bag.

The other small benefit of two bags is that I can leave the US-10 packed and ready to go, and if I'm heading out for a day ride I just strap that on by itself.

The downside to using these bags is that the Zero top rack is not the best for installing the web loops, as you can see below. The rack is just about large enough to support a US-20, but because of the position and orientation of the lashing slots I've ended up with this concoction for the web loops with the bags half on the rack and half on the rear seat. It must be possible to do a better job than this.

Charging socket cap

As I discovered the first time I washed the SR/S, the charging socket has very poor rain/water protection. Not only that, as an upward facing male socket (it has pins in recesses) it is naturally going to collect water, rather than let that water drain away. I can't think of another EV that doesn't have some sort of cover or cap for the charging socket.

I've been on the lookout for a suitable socket cap for a while, without success. There's plenty of plug caps for charging cables, but nothing I could find for sockets. I know Energicas have a socket cap so I decided to phone an Energica dealer, and see if I could buy one from them as a spare part. I spoke to Ivan Donn at Spark Motos, who had just the thing. It turns out that there's a cap fitted as shipping protection to an upgrade kit for a Zero, that they'd recently installed.

It even comes with a lanyard with a push stud on the end. Ivan wouldn't take my money, and posted it out to me free of charge. Absolute star!

I need to work out how to secure the lanyard, but it's perfect for the job. So much so, I wonder why Zero never fitted one in the first place.