Cross-Canada by Ebike

[justin_le]

Well I hope he got food at that grocery store and has sated his hunger... I presume the "train food" was somewhere between non-existent, non-edible and non-sanely priced. (ROFL!)

Hee, well the train food was surprisingly OK, but the train showers were quite non-existent.

Anyways, it all arrived in the Vancouver station more or less on time this morning. Zev, Alison, and Mark were there to greet me.

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Look how ordinary my bicycle has become! It's ridiculous, the entire cargo trike was overflowing with all the gear and bike parts that I managed to ride all the way across canada with. The regen braking is well considerably more effective now that I don't have the 170lb of vehicle inertia to stop. But, I'll be refitting the Xtracycle, recumbent seat, and all of the batteries and such this afternoon.

We'll be at the Foundation (2301 Main St) for a late dinner and/or drinks this evening. See I saw my ticket originally said 7:50 arrival time and just assumed that was pm, and they planned accordingly. In any case 8:30 pm it is. Hope to see a few of you there.

Now off to the shower!

Justin

[retread]

Welcome home Justin!

[Lessss]

... and still not a single mention on a national news broadcast that this trip has occurred. The Canadian media should be ashamed of itself! I don't care if Justin refused interviews etc.. They should still have mentioned it.

[newjeff]

... and still not a single mention on a national news broadcast that this trip has occurred. The Canadian media should be ashamed of itself! I don't care if Justin refused interviews etc.. They should still have mentioned it.

..

We don't need no stinkin publicity!

We all know this was an historic event!

Welcome home Justin, well done young fellow!

Wish I lived in Vancouver just to see the unbeatable smile not to mention the incredible stories he has to tell!!!!!

By the way the Toronto sun published a story September 21 page 33 under Canada votes. Title Banana-seat revolution by a political writer.

There was not much on Justin's trip just the writer's views on the parties green positions.

They (the press) seem to think we are an underground movement trying to do away with cars!

here is the article hope it comes through.

[newjeff]

Sorry the article is in jpg format and it looks like it didn't post.

If you e-mail me I can send you a copy?

here is my e-mail address

bwicksted@rogers.com

[Johnbear]

A bunch of the Vancouver gang met up with Justin last night at the Foundation restaurant here in Vancouver, Justin has a lot of stories - We were there till around 11 and got through about 1/4 of the trip across Canada!

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[Zoot Katz]

A bunch of the Vancouver gang met up with Justin last night at the Foundation restaurant here in Vancouver, Justin has a lot of stories - We were there till around 11 and got through about 1/4 of the trip across Canada!

Yeah, we owe Alison a big "Thank You" for arranging and coordinating it. That was a good evening.
Sixteen people showed up. There were nine ebikes parked in front. None of them were stock bikes.
I'm looking forward to a good turn out on Friday's Kilowatt Hour Ride.

[Lessss]

Gas cars yes. There is no reason why an electric car needs a battery ( or a very big one) Just electrify the roads like they do for trollies, there ya go electric cars are 100% feasible. Only people that need gas are out in the boonies people, and they could get by on a slightly larger battery.

[Xase]

So I finally got around to adding the last line in my cross-canada trip stats spreasheet. Truro -> Halifax.

From one coast right to the other, zigzagging at times to catch interesting people and interesting routes (and occasionally due to getting lost), here is how it all adds up:

Total Distance: 7110 km
Total Energy Used: 100.7 kWh
Captured Regen Energy: 2.4 kWh
Net Energy Used: 98.3 kWh
Average Speed: 33.4 km/h
Energy Usage: 13.8 Wh/km
# of awesome people: countless

and of course, total energy bill: $8.57

I was at one point considering just using a flat 10 cents / kWh for the cost calculation since that seemed like about the North American average. If this was the case, and I didn't have regen, I would have gone overbudget, but the regen kept me just under the 100 kWh mark. That was cool.

I wonder just how far a Toyota Prius would make it on a coast-to-coast trip with a $10 fuel/energy budget!

...slow and steady wins the race!

[Pheno]

Hey justin, One last questin. That was one hell of a long ride, did you hook up with any e-bike groupies to make the ride a little less lonely or was that stop with the dancing french girls outside of montreal the closeset thing? Im just courious about the stories outside the technical side of the trip. lol any way good on ya take care

[Joshua Goldberg]

Hey justin, One last questin. That was one hell of a long ride, did you hook up with any e-bike groupies to make the ride a little less lonely or was that stop with the dancing french girls outside of montreal the closeset thing? Im just courious about the stories outside the technical side of the trip. lol any way good on ya take care

Well we did mention to Justin before he began the trip that there were beautiful and regularly naked big bosom ladies in Moncton New Brunswick whose passion and lust go absolutely haywire for young e-bikers and then Justin was off heading for Moncton. Unfortunately due to the Hurricane all the ladies did not appear AHHHHH and poor Justin was left with long conversations about batteries and chargers with YPedal.

[KoolKat]

So......

What next?

I have the feeling the World will be following your adventures again some day.

Brad

[dnmun]

in honor of justin's long trek and his technique of finding available charging spots from which he was able discreetly to recharge and continue his journey, i propose we now call these open sources of recharge current, 'Justin junctions".

when this revolution begins to extend into the social networking fabric and more people continue to take trips over extended distances then there will be a need for a listing of open places to charge such as justin found, for people to be able to use 'discreetly'. no need for anybody in the otherworld to even know except the google bot is also watching us.

therefore someone seeking a local recharge could text a message from a list for the nearest location, maybe even something like a query like JJ?, or conditional, such as where the charging location also has secure locking rail or post adjacent, ranked according to how close to the outlet, or where the outlet is located, in the open or in back by the parking lot, etc.

then the query could ask JJ+7^? then enter into the GPS for a local outlet with locking post and 7 feet from the outlet and behind the building.

then someone can just ask of another person or from a garmin like mindreader integrated into google maps. imagine that people will be asking, " where can i JJ my bike on the way to your place?"

an honor well deserved for service also. Justin junctions

[CoffeeLuke]

I've been making a public google map of the free Vancouver plugs http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=37.0625,-95.677068&spn=48.421237,78.310547&z=4 and type in vancouver plugs in user created

[rodbotic]

coffeluke your link didn't work.

but I think its a great Idea about having them on google maps.
I did a search for it but still couldn't find it.

[Mathurin]

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[CoffeeLuke]

under search options at google maps user-created. vancouver plugs

[dnmun]

CL, i was able to see your google map of the free charging hubs. i would still like for people to label them 'justin junctions' so that the google search doesn't turn up the other stuff.

i also believe that google maps is too much overhead to maintain eventually. it seems as though the best place to organize it is in a list file based on gps coordinates or local zip codes.

the biggest issue i can see for an open network of charging spots is the need to maintain security, by the owner of the electric service and property. they need to know who is on their property, and i would even say they deserve to be reimbursed for the juice. even charging a huge 48V60Ah mega pack from 70% discharged back to 0% discharge, which would take almost 15 hours would consume about 2kWh of power, around 20 cents. a small 500Wh charge would be about 5 cents cost to the owner. you should be capable of explaining this to the property owner in simple terms.

it would help for everyone who follows to show respect for personal property rights, and if confronted i would suggest that the person using the plug immediately offer to pay for the juice and explain how much they consume and how much it costs. just the explanation and offer of a nickle or dime may mollify the situation, and reduce the resentment inherent when there is such a nominal trespass of the owners property. they will not see it as trivial, but it will present that bike owner with the opportunity to evangelize the value of electric assist bikes to society and the inherent need of charging locations to support them.

i would appreciate it though if you go back into your user created file and relabel the 'plugs' with a new designation, "Justin junctions" and enable "JJ" as an identical search object too.

it would help if the query would read something like 97202 JJ? to search for a charging plug here in my neighborhood, using the local zip code. the structure needs to be able to handle what eventually will become a huge file which can be reached through cell phones and blackberry devices too.

there is a guy who did a similar map for EV's in copenhagen. he actually has the info barb in the bubble on the map, i lost the link, but i saw it in my evchargernews.com mailbot. they are much further along this track than anyone here, you should get on their mailbot, even though it is just southern california, a lot of people outside of SoCal who are interested in universal charging hubs have posted up stuff there too.

[mikereidis]

CL, i was able to see your google map of the free charging hubs. i would still like for people to label them 'justin junctions' so that the google search doesn't turn up the other stuff.

Yes, maps of charging locations would be very nice, especially when visiting unfamiliar areas.

I'm imagining an era of "e-bike wanderers" who travel from place to place depending on whims, needs and season.

In theory, we could feel better by leaving 10, 20 or 25 cents in an envelope or something, but the coins would likely disappear, and envelopes become garbage.

As an alternative, I think restricting usage to known friendly, or government locations might be better. We all pay for government, so I'm OK with the idea of using my portion of services 10-20 cents at a time in an eco-friendly manner.

So IMO, libraries, city hall, various provincial and federal funded buildings/institutions are all fair game. I've seen several places where pains have been taken to ensure power cannot be taken, so the open places must be fair game. At least unless and until signs go up saying "Do not plug in".

Some local gov'ts may be friendly to legitimizing plug in bikes; but they may also say no, due to liability concerns.

[dnmun]

i think it best to just be discrete. if someone is upset, i really think they will calm down pretty fast once they realize how little current is being used. and i would expect they would be happy to just get a tour of the technology. so the person charging their bike should be able to explain what a watt hour is and how much a battery takes,and how much it costs. in that context, i would expect anyone to be more amazed than aggravated.
justin has such a smile, he disarms anyone, i don't always have such luck, but i think just learning to be non threatening in such a confrontation is the best course of action. only leave money if it is appropriate, if the owner is present maybe just go up directly and give them a nickle to encourage a quiet conversation. this is gonna be a long time developing. i plan on having a public charging station in my driveway, and hope to have 48V for charging too, not just 120V.
i think the social networking structure behind the charging hub network will be the core of security and ability to properly assess costs of charging in the public domain, using private sources of power at individual residences or locations.

[retread]

Justin... This is to say a big "Thanks!"

Thanks for the education, the motivation, the entertainment, but most of all, for showing-off how our humble bicycles have the potential to radically change the planet! I know that I speak on behalf of everyone here when I say that you truly walk (..ride) the talk, and in the coming decades people will look back to your voyage with the same reverence held for so many of the great pioneers of our world.

On a personal note, I'd like to thank Alison, Zev and Dale for all their hard work in helping organize and execute this little "surprise" for our good friend Justin. They have proven to me just how sneaky they really are!

To all of you who contributed your very hard earned money to buy Justin his new Surly Big Dummy, with more than $500 left over for the parts of his choice, let me tell you: it was well worth it! Justin was blown away - even mentioning that this would be his first new bike.

Please allow me a little time to finalize my tally, and generate a thank you list. In the meantime, I wanted to show you how it all went down.

-Mick

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[beef_wellington]

Surprise!
It's great that the moment was captured for everyone to see. A well-deserved gift for all he has done for this community.

[justin_le]

Wow, so I was not expecting THAT today! You guys are just unbelievable. Apparently a whole slew of ES members have been pitching in and orchestrating this surprise behind the scenes and I had absolutely no idea. And the gift of a Big Dummy is perfect beyond belief. Here I was lamenting that I'd have to take the trans-canadian ebike apart again in order to have my Xtracycle to use for cargo hauling around town. Now it can stay together for history just as I rode it, item number 1 in our eventual ebike museum collection, and I've got a much more gorgeous and sturdy Big Dummy machine to take care of all my around town and beyond biking needs.

As someone who's ridden scrap bike all my life, this really is the first time that I've had a well-made brand new bicycle to own, and I love it.

To everyone who helped make this happen, to the whole friggen ebike community here, I am really touched. Thank you immensely, Justin

[voicecoils]

That's an awesome gift! I was just looking at the big dummy today on surlybikes.com actually

cro-mo is the way to go

Well done on your successful continent crossing Justin, I mentioned your trip as a demonstration of the viability of ebiking in my undergrad engineering Thesis A presentation just a few days ago. My topic considers government policy measures for reducing petroleum consumption.

[edit] just noticed you had your welcome back party at the Foundation. My girlfriend and I ate there a bit less then a year ago as part of a trip exploring the west coast of North America. Our friendly waiter neglected to tell us when we ordered that we'd chosen enough food for 6 people. The portion/price ratio was ridiculous, we made it 1/3 of the way through and nearly died, but we were two very happy stuffed vegos. I certainly regret having not knocked on your shop door now. Hopefully one day

[philf]

As I think I mentioned in an earlier post (and had PM'd to Justin) - the first time I saw a bike built around that frame was the very day after Justin left here. It was at a place called "Boomer Bicycles" in Oakville. I just had to smile when I saw it.

On a different connective note, though, there just seems to be something ironic about a guy with Justin's brain running about town on something with "Big Dummy" emblazoned on the side of it. Now THAT's just funny...