Regen – What I’ve Noticed

I’ve wondered what the percentages are for Neutral Regen under both Eco and Sport. I’ve pinged Zero about this but never heard back. This is how I have my Custom mode currently set which is the mode I use in town:

I had ‘heard‘ that running no regen while on the freeway yields the best range. I’m still trying to figure out if that’s true for me. Today I wanted to ride on a gnarly ass road that we used to ride with our sport bikes back in the day.  And one try was enough to convince us to not do it again! Tunitas Creek Road is a twisty technical ribbon of tarmac that was horrible in terms of pavement. With sport bikes it was the pure shits as we would bounce around like toddlers in those air bouncy houses. But the road scenery is gorgeous and winds through the redwoods. So today I thought I’d give it a go with the DSR. I’m very happy to report that using the right tool for the right job proved the point to me once again. The travel and damping of the bike is much more suited to this sort of road versus a sport bike. Having the 19er in the front made hitting pot holes and uneven pavement much more tolerable than my 17ers on the RC51, F4s and VTR. But this is the unexpected surprise I got today! I stopped at the intersection of Hwy 35 (Skyline Blvd.) and Tunitas Creek Road since I wanted to check my charge level. It showed 70% which was fine since I was traveling at a higher speed than what is considered legal.

From my house to this point it’s 19.9 miles. 75% of those miles I traveled between 60-70 MPH. And there’s elevation changes along this route too. I was happy with the mileage and percent of charge used. As I was heading down Tunitas and marveling at how well my suspension was working I looked down and saw that my percentage had gone from 70 to 71%. Huh?! WTF I’m not going fast since it’s so tight and technical and I gained 1% in about a mile or more? I thought my old brain must have not seen the correct percentage when I checked at Skyline and Tunitas. So as I continued down hill I watched with amazement and happiness as my percentage went up and up to 74% when I stopped at the junction of Tunitas and Lobitos Creek Cut Off! That twisty downhill section is only 7.4 miles and I averaged only 28 MPH during that segment. My low speed was a combination of the tight road, terrible pavement and wonderful scenery.

I have never been on a road before with Zeus that went down hill for more than a mile before this jaunt. I was in my Custom Mode the entire time which I’ve set to 100% Neutral and Brake Regen. So on the way home I took Hwy 92. Part of it is uphill from Half Moon Bay and once you get past the 280 freeway it is pretty much a downhill freeway. So I thought I’d switch between Eco/Sport/Custom as I was coasting down the highway. My bike cycles from Custom to Sport to Eco to Custom as I hit the mode button. I discovered that Eco’s Neutral regen does NOT feel as strong as my Custom neutral regen which I’ve set to 100%. And I don’t believe that Sport has no neutral regen. So I may be all wet and of course there will be some who want to argue about what’s really what. Time will tell, but more importantly I hope the Zero engineers can tell me what’s what.

I just added a post “Variable Regen” that sheds some light on the questions I have about my bike’s regen.