Not Liking the Sport Mode?

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

I really have no idea. In both modes I was trying to maximize range with no heavy handed riding. I have repeated it over and over, with sport one way, normal the other, and then switching them up. Sport always yields better range.

I will say I ride fast pretty regularly, but range is not an issue for me on 90% of my rides. I do like the acceleration and braking of sport mode much more, so I guess I have nothing to complain about.

[Richard230]

I really have no idea. In both modes I was trying to maximize range with no heavy handed riding. I have repeated it over and over, with sport one way, normal the other, and then switching them up. Sport always yields better range.

I will say I ride fast pretty regularly, but range is not an issue for me on 90% of my rides. I do like the acceleration and braking of sport mode much more, so I guess I have nothing to complain about.

I get pretty much the same result with my Zero S.  It seems to get at least the same, if not better, "mileage" when in "Sport" mode than in its "Eco" mode.  My guess is that, unless you are coasting down a steep hill (which doesn't happen too often), you use less energy traveling along with little regen effect than letting the regen over-retard your speed and then having to throttle-up to regain your speed again.  I see this effect when trying to ride smoothly and extend my range as much as possible. Having a stronger regen might be better in stop-and-go city traffic, though - which is something that I try to avoid whenever possible. 

[Shinysideup]

Richard, your reasoning parallels what I've read when I was building an electric-assist bicycle.

The consensus was that manufacturers included regen pretty much as a sales tool, for the idea of it was "sexy" in the consumer's mind. In reality, bicycles with relatively low mass and relatively low speeds are much better off at maintaining their momentum than trying to recapture energy by braking and then having to expend more to get back up to speed. Every cyclist that routinely runs stops signs knows this.

At the other end of the spectrum, regen makes a lot of sense in electric trolleys with their huge mass.

Motorcycles with heavier mass and faster speeds are a different animal than bicycles, but I suspect that the lower speeds of hypermiling sessions may parallel the dynamics of bicycles. Under these circumstances, then, maintaining momentum trumps frequent regen.

[7racer]

I'm in stop-n-go traffic every day, and I've finally developed the now-automatic habit of tapping the rear brake pedal 3 times quickly every time I back off the throttle into regen in Sport mode.

I had requested that feature be programmed into the software, but it's actually not that hard to learn. (Though I would still love it to be auto-programmed.)

Having been rear-ended twice on motorcycles, I've got lots of incentive!

Gavin, Shiny,

not sure if you like kickstarted, but this might be something that would work
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vololights/vololights-enhanced-motorcycle-visibility?ref=live

[Shinysideup]

Brilliant. Just what I want. Now!

[Shinysideup]

More data on Sport vs. Normal mileage.

I traveled from South San Francisco to San Anselmo today on all back roads except from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Hwy 1 exit. On the freeway portion I kept the speed to the speed limit of 55 mph. Otherwise I tried not to exceed 35 mph and to coast/decelerate as long as I safely could before each stop. Round trip was 58.6 miles and I arrived home with 31% state of charge remaining.


Temps were from 68 to 89. I left before noon and returned around 3: 30 pm. Winds were light.

I used an identical route for both legs: 29.3 miles each way.

Using sport mode for the outbound trip, I achieved 92.2% of a mile per 1% state of charge.

Using normal mode for the return trip, I achieved 78.6% of a mile per 1% state of charge.

This is a big difference. While I don't yet understand why this is so, I'm definitely planning on using sport mode for my trip next week to Ventura California.

I'd love to hear from the rider that BrammoBrian spoke about who has achieved great hypermiling results on what mode he uses. Or from BrammoBrian for an educated guess as to why these results are the way they are.  My own SWAG is that sport mode simply captures more juice in deceleration.

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

For me I was doing little to no regeneration during the ride. Mine was all interstate. I would love to hear what Brammo has to say.

[protomech]

Winds may have been light, but if you were riding into a(n average) 2 mph headwind one way and with a 2 mph tailwind the other that could easily make more difference than the higher regen.

Speculation, but it's also possible that the first 1% SOC represents more available energy than the last 1% SOC.

In real-world riding there will be some amount of random factors you can't control, like the winds. A bit of a pain, but riding the same route 5 times (for example) would let you smooth some of those random factors out. (though if there's a typical prevailing wind direction, then it would only smooth them out to the average prevailing wind).

Perhaps an easier repeat test would simply be to ride Normal on the outbound leg, and Sport on the return leg. This should balance out prevailing wind, higher SOC to start, etc etc.

With all of that said: I'm curious why Sport appears to be more efficient as well.

[Adan]

The roads that Shiny was on, I know them well, in fact he passed within a mile of my house (next time, Bill, stop in for some tea and a bit of charge).  They're mostly winding over hill and dale and through forest, and the prevailing winds such as they are tend to blow west to east, whereas his route ran north and south.  Your point about replicability is still a good one, but in these circumstances the wind was probably not much of a factor.