ok, well, here's a version that does all $N. The one caveat is it doesn't necessarily return the first match, the main problem with the (or at least my) regexp approach being that when you have a bunch of '|' alternatives and more than one matches, you can't control which one gets used.

Anyway, here's the code: 

use strict;
use warnings;
no warnings 'redefine';

# $cc[$n]->[$k] is a character class matching a byte with
# a run of zero bits of length at least $k and starting
# exactly $n bits from the end

our @cc = map {
   my $n = $_;
   [ ($n==0 ? () : $n==8 ? ('') : (undef)),
     map {
      # $m = first bit after the start of the run
      #  that does not have to be zero
      my $m = $_+8-$n; 
      local $" = '';
      qr{[@{[map { 
                quotemeta(chr(0x80>>$n|$_<<$m)) . 
                ($n<7 ? '-' . quotemeta(chr(0xFF>>$n|$_<<$m)) : '')
             } 0..(0xFF>>$m)]}]}
     } ($n==0 ? 0 : 1)..$n ]
} 0..8;
$cc[0]->[0] = qr{^|$cc[0]->[0]"};


sub zero_bit_regexp {
  my $N = shift;
  my $p = join '|',
      map { $N<=$_ ? "$cc[$_]->[$N]()" :
                     "$cc[$_]->[$_](\\0{@{[($N-$_)>>3]}}$cc[8]->[($N-$
+_)&0x7])" }
          0..7;
  return qr{$p};
}

sub match_0s_w {
    my $N    = shift;       # number of consecutive '0' bits to be mat
+ched
    local $_ = shift || $_; # string to match against
    return ($_ !~ zero_bit_regexp($N)) ? -1 : $-[$#-]*8 - $#- + 1
}

[download]
which gives 
1:  0
2:  5
3:  5
4:  14
5:  14
6:  20
7:  27
8:  35
9:  44
10:  54
11:  65
12:  77
13:  90
14:  119
15:  119
16:  135
17:  -1

[download]
where the results for 2, 4, and 14 are technically correct but unexpected

In reply to Re^9: Locating a specified number of contiguous 0 bits within a large bitstring efficiently. by wrog
in thread Locating a specified number of contiguous 0 bits within a large bitstring efficiently. by BrowserUk

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