E bike roadtrip

Joppo

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Joined
May 25, 2013
Messages
135
Location
Norway
I making it official, some time in June I'll will do a test Tripp from my hometown to northcape it's only 400 km total but it should give me time to test equipment and see what I really need for a longer trip that I planed at the end of the summer when the musquito season is over. It's from norway-Finland-sweeden and back, about 1500 km trip. Hoping to do 100-200km every day depends on wether and technical problems. I think it will be a 3 weeks trip, why hurry?
The first trip to northcape I'm gonna do in 5 days just to get the feeling.

Already Started rebuilding my kid bike trailer to a storage trailer for all my equipment and battery's, my plan is to keep the bike as light as possible. Comfort and handling.
Only thing I can't decide is if I'm gonna build two forks on it or have balloon tyres so I don't destroy everything when I hit bumps.

Still trying to fing a good way to charge my battery's, been looking into solar charge but it seems to weak...
Got a lightweight honda aggregate but it's a lot of extra kilos to pull :|
Any ideas, I'm listening.

Ordered some 26*2,5" road tyres today and some other small things, i like to have everything ready so I don't have to run like crazy before takeoff.

First leg:
 

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about solar charging, isn't there 24 hours of light during summer that far north ? Maybe that'll make up for it ?
maybe make a panel on top of the trailer and charge 24hrs a day ?
 
Yes but when I get longer south there is not so much light during the night :( I can charge at day and ride at night, but I don't like riding in the dark on the main road.
Anyone know how much I can pull out of a cheap solar system? Someone got a link to a system that can work? Maybe I'll have a second look at it before I totally dismiss this idea
 
Will the distance between towns be that far? 100k of range ought to do it. Solar could work, or at least help extend range some. But you will still need to stop and charge somewhere. Carrying enough solar to really matter, like a 200w panel, is just too much bigger and heavier than another 700wh of battery. Same for a generator, unless you must charge where there will be no chance of finding a plug.

As for suspension, I wanted full suspension on my cargo bike because around here I might need to dive into a dirt ditch for my life when a car swipes me on narrow roads. I wanted no trailer for the same reasons.

Chances are, loaded like that, you will be going slow enough to not care about suspension much. But a good front suspension fork can reduce hand fatigue from road vibrations.
 
good luck with your trip
im sure the scenary will be beatiful
lets hope the weather is on your side- and nothing breaks down where there's no one to help
 
I'm going for sola power
But can only do 150w on my trailer 0,8x1,5 m with solar panel. it lets me charge 5A and that should just do it to ride my 100-200 km every day
450 dollar in panels and a little in a dc-ac converter, I can live with that.
Much lighter than my 15 kilo aggregate.
Now I'm starting to think I can do more than 1500km if I go solar haha. Let's see how this go, my destination is in luleå but i can see when i get there. Got inspired by this guy on YouTube who is also going on a road trip, but much longer than me. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oHJTJjr9dME

I have build my bike and I have started on the trailer but I realize now this is a bigger project than I thought it was in the beginning, maby that's what makes it fun.
 
With that much panel, you might not go fast, but you won't be limited to any route by the need to charge. 150w is enough panel to eventually get full again, and will also be enough to make a smaller battery go a long ways. If you can run at 300w then theoretically you could be pedaling 100w, solar 100w, and pull only 100w from the battery. That would be 7 hours of run time on a 48v 15 ah pack! Then either a day off to charge, or find a plug.
 
yeah good to know dogman, got a 48v 20ah battery maby if i get up early, make good progress and stop a few houers before night i get the battery full again, but im gonna make another 48v 20 ah lipo battery just for the range.
i was going to ask a gasscompany if they can help/sponsor me charge at there stores but im afraid of getting robbed when im sleeping. but i can buy a fast charger and just charge whenever i find a place to charge when its daylight, do anyone know how much amps i safe can charge a 20ah lipo whitout damaging it?

anyways, this is how my trailer looks now, think i go for the balloon wheels. just need to find the right size and order.
need to make a box and a hatch that i can attatch the solar panels too.
also need to make the arm that goes to the bike stronger, want it in steel so I can fix if it get destroyed.
gonna make a powerpanel on the front of it so i can switch batterys, turn on chargers, look how many amps my solar panel is making, volt on battery etc

of course the obligatory cat in the image

 
Charger would be best to take a MW RSP 2000 48V it charges battery with 2400 watt to 57V and wights only 2kg. Meanwell is quality and it´s costly but you have 5 years warranty.
Solar makes no sense for this with the curently aviable tech.
 
I agree, you need to get something fast, to fill up a 2000 wh pack. 250w 5 amps chargers won't cut it unless you plan on a really long lunch, like 4 hours.

I'm dreaming of some touring myself, and have 20 ah of newer 48v, and another 10 in crappy old stuff with double the weight. At 15 mph, at least 100k of range. The game plan will be camp outside of towns, then charge at very long lunch breaks, at 500w. All I have right now is two 5 amps chargers. 3 hours minimum, for 1500wh.

I thought long and hard about trailering, but am determined to fit it all on the longtail with no trailer. Keeps me skinny enough to cling to edges of bad roads. Getting run off the road out here in the still pretty wild west is a certainty.
 
I'm back to the honda aggregate theory again haha, I'm glad I didn't finish the trailer. Now I can make it smaller so I don't get so much wind resistance and save a lot of battery.

The the main reason I want the trailer is so I can have my own power station with me all the time, I may got some company to sponsor me cheap battery's and chargers. I'm talking to one right now. If I'm lucky maybe I'll get some free.
Think I did send mail to 20+ company's! everything from e bike, dry food and spare parts dealers.

And it's impractical to carry a 15 kilo aggregate + equipment on my bike so I think the trailer is a must for me on this trip.
I told them about my trip and that I also was willing to field test stuff too.
The thing I want is to not depend on other ppl to help me charge along the way, this is something I want to accomplish by my own. You guys know the feeling :) at least thats the goal.

Updat of the day: ordered 20*2,3" tires for the trailer, should protect the trailer from the worst putt wholes on the road and

talked to hopefully some of my future sponsors. Need at lest 1500 dollar in battery's, chargers, tent, food, spare parts, clothing and more I can't think of right now. Hopefully I'll get some sponsors, fingers crossed...
 
With a trailer to haul it, a generator becomes a possibility for sure. Mine is just too heavy, but I sure like taking it to the forest in a car, and having a charge at the campsite. An 800-1000w generator will be big enough to run a 500w charger with no strain. I have found listening to the thing run is fairly tolerable if you can put it and the bike 100ft away. I would hate to ride listening to it though.

I would love a 200w generator that weighed only about 10 pounds. That might be more tolerable to carry and run during the ride. Put a good muffler on it of course.

The Honda EU 1000 might be the best choice in a genny, that's easy to find right now. But I have given thought to trying one of the cheap china 2 stroke ones.

Mine is a very old Honda 800w, but it weighs over 50 pounds.
 
Yeah for sure, a mini aggregate would be awesome.
I got the new honda eu10i I think it's called. It's light weight and have a lot of power to charge the battery's. I think it's about 12-13 kg dry weight.

But I still want a small maybe 10-30w solar panel on the top of the trailer just to always keep my 12v battery charged top at all time, need it so I don't have to start the aggregate if my gps or lights turn of.

Need to start painting the trailer, high visibility. But it must look cool too 8)

Dogman you seem very interesting in a long trip, why not go for it? I got inspired by a poster at the store to do this trip lol. It said:

Twenty Years From Now You Will Be More Disappointed By The Things You Didn’t Do Than By The Ones You Did Do

Sooooooo true..
 
I don't think that generator is too heavy, I have pulled that amount or maybe more in my trailer 10 miles or so up some steep hills on pure pedal power back when I didn't have a electric kit on my bike.

Not sure how heavy the rest of the kit your going to carry will be though, at least the generator will give you some energy independence for emergencies. As you say, Solar panels might not supply all the power you need but you could still take at least a small one with you to charge all your gadgets and your lights. Perhaps you could do some test rides to see how it feels carrying all that weight in trailer and then get back to us :)

Make sure you install LED's all over your bike and trailer, maybe even your helmet so cars can see you easily.

I think having the generator running while riding along could attract attention from the authorities, I would pull over to charge to be on the safe side.
 
Yeah, I'm not taking the chance of charging when I'm on the bike. A lot of regulations as you say.
Already ordered LED light to have around the trailer, biggest fear.. To get hit by a car from behind.
But now I'm done whit the Research for a while so I'm gonna finish up my trailer, all the electrical stuff and test this out.
I'll post some pic's when I'm done, just for show off 8)

It can get up too 50-60 kilos with all my gear in total if I should guess.
 
About 30 pounds with fuel then for that generator. I think mine, a model from the 70's, is close to double that. If you were to have plugs handy, 30 pounds of additional battery goes a long way. So that is the way I am going with it. I have 40 ah of 48v, which has 30 ah of real world capacity. Half the pack is pretty old. 35 pounds of RC lipo. Finding a plug every 60 miles is doable for most of New Mexico.

But with the generator, you could carry as little as 500wh of battery and keep on trucking with no need to beg for a plug. I would not worry about running it while riding, other than wanting to be farther from it while it runs. On the trailer, it's obviously not a motorcycle engine. It's just a charger.

This is my tool for it, trying to keep it somewhat lean and agile. I WILL get run off the road into the ditch somewhere. USA :roll: .

What's stopping me? For years it was work, and other priorities on vacation time. Now retired early, it's bad health that keeps me from working. I got west nile virus, and now have chronic post viral fatigue. Now recovering some since I don't kill myself working anymore, I can store up energy for a few weeks, and then do normal activities for about 3-4 days before I collapse again. So I am looking at places I can ride for 3 days at a time. I can park a car and trailer at a relatives house Albuquerque NM for example, and three 60 mile days can do some nice loops in that area. In my locale, I have ridden, and will again ride most roads on day trips.

Do it now before it's too late is realllllly good advice. I did that, with rock climbing, backpacking, hunting and fishing, snow skiing, windsurfing, and flying hot air balloons. I was too busy till recent years for biking much. 8)
 
i agree with dogs approach, i plan on a 1500km trip myself for this upcoming summer. i figure with a 48v 40ah battery i can go a long long way- possibly 400 km a day if i can re-charge every 100-200 km- but this would be a long long day of riding- and dont forget re-charging takes a long time as well. in your case solar panels wont work, and you wanto carry as little weight as possible. a generator may do the trick, keep in mind there are losses, i wonder if you could strip the invertor so it pumps 12v dc current and instead of charging batteries push that to a dc booster and into the controller , either that or a charger
or something like this http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/351368122/digital_silent_pure_sine_wave_inverter.html to charge you while you're on the road
 
I see no reason not to carry a tiny panel to keep a pack for 12v stuff topped up. Lights, phone charger, etc. Part of my plan is to carry a 12v lifeo4 pack for light in the camp and such. I need to get a panel to charge it too. Till then, I'll have to carry yet another charger to top it up if it won't last the trip. I'd need to charge it every 3 days or so.

For sure, I have all the range I can handle in one days riding. I have made it to 50 miles on a few day trips, but I don't see my strength lasting for a 100 mile day ever. Unless I had more battery and could do it at 30 mph. At that speed, my range is 25-30 miles right now. But then I would see little of the scenery. At 15 mph, you see every bird, every bunny, every flower, and big critters you'd overlook too. You can really sneak up on elk with an ebike.
 
First of all, it's a 1500 kilometer trip, I'm planing too use 3 weeks and ride 100-200 kilometers every day I ride, do the math. I want that solar panel the days I don't ride. it's a small cost for a lot of luxury, anyways I made up my mind. I'm using a solar panel so I don't have to start the aggregate to charging a 12 v battery to use my i pad, lights, music or something like the cooler bag etc.

We don't got car charging stations this long north but we got gasseline stations that I can borrow some ac from but I'm not so happy stopping there late at the day alone :|
I would rather find a nice lake or something when I'm charging, taking my fishing rood with me
 
Joppo said:
First of all, it's a 1500 kilometer trip, I'm planing too use 3 weeks and ride 100-200 kilometers every day I ride, do the math. I want that solar panel the days I don't ride. it's a small cost for a lot of luxury, anyways I made up my mind. I'm using a solar panel so I don't have to start the aggregate to charging a 12 v battery to use my i pad, lights, music or something like the cooler bag etc.

We don't got car charging stations this long north but we got gasseline stations that I can borrow some ac from but I'm not so happy stopping there late at the day alone :|
I would rather find a nice lake or something when I'm charging, taking my fishing rood with me

So you still taking the aggregate as a last resort in case the main pack runs out? or you just going to pedal your way to the next gas station?
Fair enough using panel for the 12v aux pack, but I imagine it will have a tough time charging the main pack.
 
Im only using the aggregate to charge the 48 v packs + I can charge 8A on the 12 volt battery if I'm empty. The solar panel is only used to charge the 12v battery so I can run every electical stuff on my bike and trailer when I'm camping or riding.
 
I have ridden that exactly same road with Honda CB 125 during the eighties :wink: Unfortunately it was foggy in Nordcap. Nice road.
 
a little update.

got my ''gaseline generator'' 700w - 800w peak think its gonna charge up my batterys quik enough. not sure if im going to have it build in my trailer with cooling and exoust outlet.. it would be very easy to charge, just start it up and not so noisy.
i know i would hate to run like crazy in the rain and storm if i need to get it out of my trailer and hock it up.

im still trying to find out how im gonna designe the trailer, but it's comming along. i have like 10 drawings of ideas :shock:
i did a ''beta'' test with 50kg and it worked like it should.. for now :) the balancing of the waight is the tricky part when im getting all together.

approximately 3 +/- months left to takeoff :mrgreen:


ipad next to it so you can see the size
DSC00363.JPG
 
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