Ebike Touring Adventures

[grindz145]

I thought it would be cool to start a thread to share some of the adventures I have, while touring around on my ebike. Long range ebike trips are nothing like any other form of bike travel.


2013 Electrathon / Green Grand Prix Part 1
I was able to take last friday off as a volunteer day, in order to officiate for the Electrathon Event, held at the Green Grand Prix at the famous Watkins Glen Racetrack.

Watkins Glen is about 70 miles from my house, and that's just about the range I have so I figured I would ride down on Thursday night, charge overnight, and head back on Friday after the event. What transpired was slightly different...



Headed out on Thursday night at about 6:30. It was nice and warm about 73 degrees F, but windy, really windy. I loaded up with sleeping bag and tent and headed off.

Quick photo shoot over the Erie canal:

The wind was just brutal, 20-30mph consistently, and I was heading right into it. It felt like I was going 50 at 20. This wasn't in the plan.

After 16 miles I knew I was in trouble. I have ~2kw of usable capacity and a 150w Icharger. I just haven't bothered to build a bigger one yet. Afterall, 20 hours of charging is cool right....

I should have at this point, done the math, and realized there was no hope of success and turned around and went home, but of course, I did not....

I use google walking directions when doing these kind of trips, and quite often, I end up in some interesting places. I highly recommend using google walking directions:

The sun was heading down quick, and I've only made it about 30 miles... not good, but it was too beautiful to stop, and besides, I have everything I need, tent, sleeping bag, and charger.

The wind continued to pick up, now I'm way out in the middle of cornfields, and very small towns. I have about 15 miles until anything relatively civilized. This is what it looked like at the last streetlight for 10 miles:

[youtube]AqOnCAyCeGU[/youtube]

So now I've entered Amish/Mennonite country. It was dark. I mean it. No lights anywhere. I have my LED headlight which was more than sufficient though. Suddenly, in the middle of Mennonite country, I lose all power. Luckily I'm running the LED headlight off of it's own battery pack, so I still have some light. I struggle to put the bike on the center-stand an keep it there. The wind is trying to blow it down, so I uncover my battery pack with one hand an hold the bike with the other. As I mess around with the wires everything comes back up. Hmm. Not good. After some more messing around I isolate the problem to a single bad anderson powerpole. I get out my knife and pry the burnt and half-melted pin up, in hopes that it might make some contact. I had been pulling about 20-30 Amps continuously, without really noticing it, definately cooked the connector.

All of the sudden I see something in the darkness coming toward me quickly. It wasn't making any noise, and it didn't have any lights! I was half blinded by my own LED headlight, which I had turned toward me so that I could see what I was doing with my knife. What the hell was out in these cornfields, miles from any civilization, cruising down the road in complete darkness? A man on a bicycle. It must have been an Amish/Mennonite cyclist, and with the tailwind (he/she was going the other direction) he must have been doing 20+mph just pedaling! It was starling to say the least, and it took me a few seconds to make any sense of it.

I pedaled along with minimal assist at about 12MPH. It was the best I could do considering, and I knew I couldn't risk burning the connector up any worse than it already was. After another hour of pedalwork, I saw the lights of the town of Penn Yan, a small picturesque fingerlakes town. I figured that there must be a plug here somewhere.

I found this plug here on the side of a gas station, and setup my somewhat worthless and pathetic 150w charger.

I plugged in and headed into the gas-station, bought a Gatorade, and explained to the attendant, what an ebike was, and why I had it plugged in on the side of the building, and why she didn't have to worry about it. She was intrigued but didn't mind at all. I asked her when she was working until, so that I knew what my timeframe was: 11:00.

Meanwhile I wandered around town to see what I could find. I ended up treating myself to a glass of finger lakes wine:

Even though the wind was nearly blowing me off of the chair I sat outside and watched the traffic go by.

Even though this place is only 45 miles from my house, it felt like another world. I would have never ended up here if it weren't for the ebike. I would have skipped over this place completely. The town was mostly empty on Thursday night, but I enjoyed it.

Needless to say, I spend a little more time sitting at the table outside the pub, and wandering around the town than I had budgeted for. Why not? I was just waiting for what little charge my 150w charger would buy me anyway? Well I finally wandered back to the gas station around 12, packed up my worthless 150w charger, and started out into the parking lot, when I was approached by several of Penn Yan's finest

After wandering the town for a couple of hours, I had completely forgotten that the gas station attendant, who I explained the whole situation to, had went home for the night, and a new gas station attendant was there. I had checked on my bike a couple of times, just to make sure nobody was messing with it, and in hopes that I would see some voltage rise... The attendant must have gotten concerned about this, and called me in as a "suspicious figure" I was wearing a backpack, and of course with everything that happened this week in Boston, everyone is a little on edge. I can't blame them. The officers were super nice, and weren't concerned in the least about the legaility of my ebike. The officers ran my license, I apologized to the attendant (who was very apologetic herself) and I continued on into the night.

I was running out of power fast and looked for a place to set up camp via google satellite view. I found a small church which had both an outlet, and a nice lawn to setup the tent, I plugged in, and then setup the tent.

The wind had subsided to about 18mph according to my phone, but I still managed to lose my tent bag, which blew away into the darkness. Bummer. I slept for 5 hours or so.

I packed up and continued on for watkins glen. I only had about 25 miles to go.


To be continued

 

[grindz145]

Part 2

So after hopelessly searching for my tent bag (which was probably miles away), I headed south, with about 800wh of usable capacity. There was about 25 miles between me and the Glen, so I figured I was in good shape.

I spotted this windmill by "windtamer" on the way. Some former coworkers work for this company, but they changed the name, and they don't focus on the turbine desin. It's basically like adding a venturi to a windmill.

I was running ahead of schedule when I rolled through the town of DunDee, and with a little bit of a headache from the lack of sleep and probably from the wine, I treated myself to a cup. Dandy in DunDee....

even though it was barely worth even plugging my pathetic charger in, here it is looking good:

Oh yeah, you just do your thing there...

I rode for an hour one-handed with my cup of coffee. I recently re-biased my throttle with different resistors, and I totally screwed it up. I only have about 50% throttle action, and then I basically just hit WOT, and it's super touchy. It made things interesting with the coffee, but it was worth it.

All the while I've been listening to the audiobook: A breifer history of time by stephen hawking. Half of my brain is riding an ebike through the fingerlakes, the other half adventuring through space-time. At some point I stopped the book, because ....one adventure at a time.

Of course with my walking directions, I traversed some more interesting terrain. The map lead me down some pretty gnarly seasonal access roads. At one point I was doing about 30 downhill with maybe 50% brakes on. I was really regretting not having regen enabled ....

Steeper than it looks:

The headwind this morning was slightly less brutal, but still brutal. I was burning through Whs. Smoke em if you got em. Well i ran out of em. I accidentally added a 10 mile loop around those seasonal access roads. I don't know how it happened. but I ended up right where I had been 40 minutes before. I pedaled and pedaled, and with a tiny amount of assist left, I pushed the bike up the hills at Watkins Glen Racetrack.

I was a little late, but not that bad. We performed technical inspections on the electrathon vehicles. It's basically a high-school competitive event, where the students build lead-acid powered electric cars. It's pretty awesome though, one car even had an Agni powering it.

it was still extremely windy.

Here they are in the event:

So there is basically 2 events going on at once one is the New York Electrathon:
http://www.nyelectrathon.com/

and the Green Grand Prix
http://www.greengrandprix.com/

So after the event I hung around (since my bike was charging and I had no option) and checked out the guys competing in the green grand prix.

This bike was built by high school students. It's an ex500 ninja conversion, pretty slick

Here's somebody boss porsche 911 electric conversion:

This is the electric moped top-tank conversion, half taken apart, by the RIT EV team:

After prognosticating on the future of ebikes, EVs, Cars, modern physics, and the Amish for the rest of the day, we decided to sneak in to the banquet for some grub. The banquet was held in this beautiful clubhouse. The only picture I have of it, is partially of my friend Nick, picking his nose (not intentional...)

While eating dinner, the weather turned really bad. Very high winds, and pouring rain. The wind blew the doors open... It also blew the cover off of my bike, and soaked my pathetic 150w (non waterproof) charger. I Think it's fine though....

Anyway the storm only lasted maybe 45 minutes, and I headed down through the village of Watkins Glen, and north up the lake. It was gorgeous. I didn't stop to take a picture , but man, it was gorgeous. I passed one of the competitors charging his volt with a bunch of adapters and extension cords at a hotel on the lake. The sunset over the lake was fantastic. Again sorry for not stopping to take a photo, but use your imagination.

I rode north, knowing full-well that I didn't have enough power to make it home. I figured I would just camp again while charging, even though I didn't like the idea since my tent (now without a bag) was soaking wet. along with everything else. In the meantime the temperature had also dropped to about 43 degrees, and I could see my breath.

(There's a bike there somewhere)

I was tripping the low voltage cutoff right as I entered the town of Geneva. Not happy. I was cold, tired, and full sand from the road. My wife called with a stroke of luck. She was at a dinner party..thing, 30 miles due north, with her Mom's CRV. This is the smallest car imaginable, that I could squeeze my ebike into, and luckily, I was able to ride the the last 30miles home in the car. Not my finest hour, but I was cold, and hallucinating slightly, so it was for the best.

Lessons Learned:
-build a bigger charger (600+W)
-Waterproof said charger
-Replace all bad powerpoles
-limit current to 20A for touring
-guerrilla camping is awesome
-headwinds suck

 

[GCinDC]

perfect, just in time for lunch at my desk. hurry up w/ part 2 already. :lol:

that poor 150w charger...

 

[melodious]

It's not an adventure unless you lose or break something. Hopefully, not your sanity. 8)

 

[chas58]

Interesting adventure!

I ordered one of those nashbar bike bags, and mine is about half the size of yours (8-10" long). I guess they have a new model out. What type & size tires are you using - those look just right for an ebike.

 

[chvidgov.bc.ca]

I'm glad you avoided "Cinderella Syndrome" aka Pumpkin time...I love these sorts of adventures.

 

[grindz145]

Interesting adventure!

I ordered one of those nashbar bike bags, and mine is about half the size of yours (8-10" long). I guess they have a new model out. What type & size tires are you using - those look just right for an ebike.

Those are actually the OLD version. I bought a couple when they were still available, and then I bought 2 more on clearance from Ebay after they stopped carrying them on Nashbar. It's too bad. They're fantastic.

 

[GCinDC]

i was there with ya. great story. great pics. even the dark one. well done!

i think i even have a tiny headache from that wine. :|

 

[grindz145]

i was there with ya. great story. great pics. even the dark one. well done!

i think i even have a tiny headache from that wine. :|

Haha. Nice. This is the type of post you see on ADVrider and the like. We're usually more concerned with important techincal stuff, but I feel like it's cool to justify our actions once and a while.

I gave up drinking except for red wine. Resveratrol is boss.

 

[Ykick]

Good show, thanks for sharing! Sucks about the weather - 'few cross country m/c trips at all times of the year, I feel what you were likely up against. Some worst MPG figures ever but at least there were plenty of places to get some more. No shame in catching a lift when needed.

 

[grindz145]

Good show, thanks for sharing! Sucks about the weather - 'few cross country m/c trips at all times of the year, I feel what you were likely up against. Some worst MPG figures ever but at least there were plenty of places to get some more. No shame in catching a lift when needed.

It's sobering, but it just means I need a 1kw+ charger... no biggie

 

[grindz145]

What type & size tires are you using - those look just right for an ebike.

Those are standard issue 26x2.5 maxxis hookworms. There are quite a few guys around here who are fond of them as far as bicycle stuff goes.

 

[dbaker]

Do you think you would have made better progress with a different motor setup? I am guessing you have a direct drive hub and 12 fet controller?

 

[wineboyrider]

Wow! Dude, what an adventure! My family on the Wickham side hails from that part of the country....

 

[jkbrigman]

Excellent Odyssey - Thanks for all the pics you got down in Watkins Glen!

Dude, you are one awesome ebiker: you run out of juice but don't wimp out - you find AC power source, have a glass of wine, relax, then keep on going into the night! YEAH!
That's a super badd looking longtail - that kickstand is monster!

Questions:

1) In your opinion, would a windshield or fairing be a worthwhile addition to your bike?
2) Have you gotten all your Anderson Powerpoles replaced, and if so, what did you end up replacing them with?
3) Your give great reasons for getting a higher powered charger - it can make all the difference in getting somewhere before dark falls, or not. What have you ended up getting?
4) Any other changes or updates you would make to your bike to ensure you can make a trip like this again in the future?

EDIT: This story and photos were insanely inspiring. THIS is what it's all about!

 

[wineboyrider]

Excellent Odyssey - Thanks for all the pics you got down in Watkins Glen!

Dude, you are one awesome ebiker: you run out of juice but don't wimp out - you find AC power source, have a glass of wine, relax, then keep on going into the night! YEAH!
That's a super badd looking longtail - that kickstand is monster!

Questions:

1) In your opinion, would a windshield or fairing be a worthwhile addition to your bike?
2) Have you gotten all your Anderson Powerpoles replaced, and if so, what did you end up replacing them with?
3) Your give great reasons for getting a higher powered charger - it can make all the difference in getting somewhere before dark falls, or not. What have you ended up getting?
4) Any other changes or updates you would make to your bike to ensure you can make a trip like this again in the future?

+1

 

[grindz145]

Do you think you would have made better progress with a different motor setup? I am guessing you have a direct drive hub and 12 fet controller?

Not really. It was just raw power. I've put 4000+ miles on it in this configuration and I've never got even close to that efficiency. It was a bizzare amount of headwind, and with the sleeping bag, I had a nice sail to scoop up the wind. Normally at that speed I would be looking at a 100+ mile range reliably. I'm sure you could optimize for that condition, but it just takes raw power at that point. headwinds at the worst part of the trip were literally 30-40mph.

 

[grindz145]

Excellent Odyssey - Thanks for all the pics you got down in Watkins Glen!

Dude, you are one awesome ebiker: you run out of juice but don't wimp out - you find AC power source, have a glass of wine, relax, then keep on going into the night! YEAH!
That's a super badd looking longtail - that kickstand is monster!

Questions:

1) In your opinion, would a windshield or fairing be a worthwhile addition to your bike?
2) Have you gotten all your Anderson Powerpoles replaced, and if so, what did you end up replacing them with?
3) Your give great reasons for getting a higher powered charger - it can make all the difference in getting somewhere before dark falls, or not. What have you ended up getting?
4) Any other changes or updates you would make to your bike to ensure you can make a trip like this again in the future?

1. I think a fairing would be extremely badass, but I'm not really willing to put forth the effort.
2. I just swapped them out for new connectors. 30A Powerpoles are OK, so long as you keep them down to about 20A, and keep them to a very limited number of mating cycles
3. I have a bunch of power supplies. I'm considering an IP rated meanwell HLG series.
4. Nope

 

[Diamondback]

wow !

thanks for sharing.

i myself am about to embark on a 1200km tour with my e-trike.
ill post up a thread in a week or so once we get going....

Jason

 

[grindz145]

wow !

thanks for sharing.

i myself am about to embark on a 1200km tour with my e-trike.
ill post up a thread in a week or so once we get going....

Jason

Awesome! I can't wait to read it!

 

[spinningmagnets]

What an awesome story! I will now refer to this thread as "Zen and the Art of E-bike Maintenance".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance

The issues you posted are the reason for a "shake-down" cruise before crossing the ocean. I think this is one of the types of user-profiles that would benefit from a non-hub that uses the bikes gears (I have recently recommended a 10T MAC using 48V to an average user, and I still stand by that for most new E-bikers).

You would have had to downshift to a lower gear and also a lower top-speed when you had hit the consistent head-winds, but keeping the motors RPMs up in its efficient range is not only good for keeping motor/controller heat down...you will use less battery per mile traveled. More range for the same battery mass, and less charging needed to top off when you stop. Also, lower overall amps passing through the connectors.

 

[grindz145]

What an awesome story! I will now refer to this thread as "Zen and the Art of E-bike Maintenance".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance

I never could get into that book for some reason, even after my longtime motorcycle touring obsession. I appreciate the sentiment though. I liked all the references to the old airhead BMWs in comparison to his Yamaha. All of the symbolism and crap though, I just couldn't dig it, and I found that most of it was just plain obvious to an everyday motorcyclist. It's like a romanticized account of everyday motorcycling, and I'm like, I'm already doing this

You know what, I aught to go back and re-read it.

Like I mentioned before, you can optimize for 12mph with a 30mph headwind, but you will still need a ton of power in this case. I have a low KV motor as it is. I think that It's more a lesson to pay attention to headwinds in the extreme case, when you have a limited power-source.

 

[henni001]

Very funny, great adventure - Inspires us to get out. But what was the light in the field? A Menonite on an e-bike I thought...Got to get back to work but I had to read Pt 2 too...

 

[hjns]

Very cool, awesome read!

 

[MikeFairbanks]

That was really cool. And inspiring. I want to do an e-road trip this summer. Not sure where but I'd love to do it.

Thank you for taking the time to write up your excellent adventure. Party on, dudes.