Do our Vargs actually, "regen"?

[FYR]

I rode the other day for a quick hour long ride on a route I have taken many times (aggressive trail riding). At the very start I decided to set my "regen" to zero instead of my normal 50%. What I found was that I had much more control over the deceleration (and transition to acceleration) of the bike AND that I felt my battery drain was weirdly less than usual. Shouldn't "regenerative braking" put more charge into the battery? Do our bikes actually have, "regenerative" braking? Or is it just programmed drag on the drivetrain?

 

[markhamr]

I'm not sure about the repowering the battery bit (i doubt much if any)
Letting the bike roll will save power too like riding more smoothly
I run 25 % regain for the transition / more upsets the bike while braking cornering
I have been having trouble with jumps and whoops so might do some testing with it turned right down
see if that helps(sudden hard impacts feels like there is some cogging going on)
On the engineering side I can see this would happen with electric motors.
Hoping to get some testing in before easter. The weathers not co operating though.

 

[Erwin P]

It does recharge. But with you slowing down more due to engine braking you also need to do more accelerating, wich actually concumes more power.

 

[Philip]

Deviating from the topic, sorry. But I just had an epiphany...

I run 25 % regain for the transition / more upsets the bike while braking cornering

You are absolutely right! I used to run 50% regen and I thought it was really good at Glen Helen when the track was wet and tacky. Then I switched to 40% and I thought it was better. Yesterday, at my local dry/hardpack/gravel track, I caught myself struggling to do two-wheel slides into a small berm consistently. I just realized that I was having a difficulty balancing between a slight braking and a slight acceleration while cornering. Stark has improved the partial-throttle acceleration recently, thank you very much for this. Perhaps I could decrease the regen now to bring the deceleration closer to coasting to make the throttle off/on transitions smoother, more seamless.

I can always add more decel with a LHRB. But reducing the decel by adding throttle is just not smooth enough.

What electric bikes are missing is the "disengage the engine braking with the clutch" option. Unless you set the regen to zero and add the engine braking with the LHRB when needed.

I am going to experiment with reducing my regen setting. Too bad my local AZ track is going to close for the summer soon.

 

[AL_V]

Too bad my local AZ track is going to close for the summer soon.

Do they close for the summer because it’s too hot?
Captain Obvious?

 

[FYR]

"What electric bikes are missing is the "disengage the engine braking with the clutch" option. Unless you set the regen to zero and add the engine braking with the LHRB when needed. "

TRUE THAT!

 

[FYR]

It does recharge. But with you slowing down more due to engine braking you also need to do more accelerating, wich actually concumes more power.

Have you tested and confirmed this? I played with mine on a long downhill, and never saw a rise in battery percentage. Okay, what I did wasn't a very scientific test, but if you have more hardcore data, please share.

 

[Erwin P]

Have you tested and confirmed this? I played with mine on a long downhill, and never saw a rise in battery percentage. Okay, what I did wasn't a very scientific test, but if you have more hardcore data, please share.

My test is about as good as yours, but i saw a rise in percentage.

 

[Beagle]

My test is about as good as yours, but i saw a rise in percentage.

Was it at least 2%? If it's rising by 1% it could just be oscillating (for instance display says 30%, then 29% and back to 30% when in fact it's oscillating around 29.5%).
Can't really think of a more practical test than long downhill but not sure how much you could supposedly regen.

 

[Erwin P]

It was a very long pull and saw 3%. We don't actually have downhills where i live.
But was very much a test whether it was possible anyway, not something practical.

However in the Balkans i did ride some routes with very very very long street downhills. If i were to extrapolate this i could regen over 10% a riding day there without any compromise to the riding.

 

[happyinmotion]

I have had 3% rise on long steady downhills, like 2 km and 300 metres vertical.

So yes, the bike definitely does regen.

 

[Aleksandar13]

I have had 3% rise on long steady downhills, like 2 km and 300 metres vertical.

So yes, the bike definitely does regen.

That’s fairly good I always wondered if you’d get up a mountain and had 20 percent left , then adjusted to two maps :
1 map with 30 hp and no regen !! For not so steep hills I would use the momentum of the bike and use as minimal throttle as you can .
2 map with 30 hp but 80 regen , so on steep down hills you can use this to regen some of the battery!

I will try this but would love to hear some feedback

 

[SethML]

It definitely does regen - if it didn't the bike would overhead on descents because the energy has to go somewhere! If it didn't go into the battery, it would turn into heat in the power train.

I was part of the team that raced the electric Mission R superbike at Laguna Seca with Steve Rapp riding - he's an AMA Pro racer. One thing I found is that regen actually reduced our race time slightly. It would put a bit more charge into the battery, but he'd have to ride slower because weight shift on braking meant he had almost no traction on the rear wheel, which did the regen. He ended up racing with zero regen, and we won the 8-lap race by 40 seconds.

Dirt is a little different probably, but I'd guess you'd want zero or close to zero regen in a MX race. For Enduro, you might want to turn it on for descents if you're battery limited. For trail riding, it's great for descents.

 

[Beagle]

It definitely does regen - if it didn't the bike would overhead on descents because the energy has to go somewhere! If it didn't go into the battery, it would turn into heat in the power train.

I was part of the team that raced the electric Mission R superbike at Laguna Seca with Steve Rapp riding - he's an AMA Pro racer. One thing I found is that regen actually reduced our race time slightly. It would put a bit more charge into the battery, but he'd have to ride slower because weight shift on braking meant he had almost no traction on the rear wheel, which did the regen. He ended up racing with zero regen, and we won the 8-lap race by 40 seconds.

Dirt is a little different probably, but I'd guess you'd want zero or close to zero regen in a MX race. For Enduro, you might want to turn it on for descents if you're battery limited. For trail riding, it's great for descents.

That bike was a piece of art

 

[SethML]

That bike was a piece of art

It still is! I really need to write another update, but I still own it and ride it occasionally:

Impossibilia: Resurrecting the Mission R Electric Superbike

Back in 2008, I suffered a premature mid-life crisis and left my cushy job at Google working on Maps to join Hum Cycles, a 10-person…

medium.com

 

[Beagle]

It still is! I really need to write another update, but I still own it and ride it occasionally:

Impossibilia: Resurrecting the Mission R Electric Superbike

Back in 2008, I suffered a premature mid-life crisis and left my cushy job at Google working on Maps to join Hum Cycles, a 10-person…

medium.com

That's a crazy story, kudos to you
So you own the bike, you can ride it, and you own the rights?

I'm just a guy with an internet connection but I was so bummed when I saw Mission going down and couldn't believe that nothing would come out of this incredible motorcycle, that bike was so much ahead of its competition it was crazy. Plus it sure got the looks which is so needed when you're a startup in need of recognition.

Do you know if any of the team are still involved with electric vehicles?

 

[DaveAusNor]

It still is! I really need to write another update, but I still own it and ride it occasionally:

Impossibilia: Resurrecting the Mission R Electric Superbike

Back in 2008, I suffered a premature mid-life crisis and left my cushy job at Google working on Maps to join Hum Cycles, a 10-person…

medium.com

Awesome, yes please give us an update on the current status of the bike.

And what happened to Vayongroup. the link from the article is dead now.