Perth to Sydney by ebike 2013 - ride diary

voicecoils

voicecoils

1 MW
Joined
Sep 16, 2007
Messages
2,173
Location
Sydney, NSW, Australia
UPDATE: We now have a map with daily updates, showing our progress and my own battery stats and distances.
Scroll down the page just a bit to find the map and by clicking on each stop you'll see my stats pop up.

After a great meetup with local Perth riders, our ride is now underway and I'm hoping to keep a diary of our stats and adventures riding from Perth to Sydney on eZee electric bikes.

Perth meetup thread is here: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=51632
Pre-ride preparation thread is here: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=51272

Page describing the ride and equipment: http://glowwormbicycles.com.au/perth-to-sydney
Blog, mostly of photo updates directly from Maurice's phone: http://ezeebiketouring.tumblr.com/


Approximate route plan:
file.php


EDIT: corrected link to pre-ride prep thread.
 
Day 4 - Pemberton to Mt Barker, 182 km (676 km to date)

43.6 ah
1551 wh
837.6 h wh
187 ave h wh

1150 meters total ascent today.

Rained on us the whole day, our gear is getting increasingly wet from several days of rain now. Bikes performing fine fortunately!
 
Day 5 - Mt Barker to Stirling Ranges resort, 90 km (766 km to date)

90 km
40.2 ah
1437.3 wh
284 h wh
127 ave h wh

My day to day human watt hour data has been quite variable but my actual pedaling has been fairly consistent so there's a good chance this and the ave h wh figures are simply not accurate.
 
Day 6 - Stirling Ranges to Jerramungup, 102 km (868 km to date)

26.7 ah
102 km
1005.6 wh
310 h wh
130 ave h wh

537 m ascent

More rain today. 20+ km of dead straight road was good practice for the Nullarbor with sections of nearly 200km dead straight. That should be fun!
 
Nice work guys.
Now which thread am I subscribing too for updates, this one or the diary one ? God forbid I should have to look in on 2 :p

Abraham, I'm curious what gear you're taking with you. On the GW site it mentions your batteries and DC converters etc but what about everything else ? What are you carrying in the way of tools incase of both electrical and mechanical issues ? spare folding tyres, tubes, spokes ? And survival wise, how much food and water ? Just a swag for camping out ?
 
What a great ride you are doing down there. This will be very interesting thread to follow. Those 36V-bikes seem to guzzle Ah"s though, according those figures. You are using around 30 Ah on every 100km, rough average. With 48V system that would be around 20 Ah. Your ascents seem hard, that possibly brings your effiency down.
 
Are you charging in hotel only or are you finding port outside in random places to opportunity charge along the way to increase your daily range?
 
We just stopped at Raventhorpe for lunch. I was amazed my Virgin/Optus service worked and with 3G.

Hyena, check this thread for my stats and comments. Most pictures will be found on the blog Maurice can post direct to:
www.ezeebiketouring.tumblr.com I won't keep posting on Chris' Perth meet up thread now that we're off and away. People keep posting there though!

High Ah use is from headwinds, hills, wet dirt roads and periods of lazy pedaling! Still haven't had a day that used our full 56Ah capacity (2kwh). Also, our bikes are heavily loaded ~60kg so hills suck up extra power, though I can get over 50 km/h easily down the other sides!

We also are trying to ration watt hours according to the day too, no point skimping on juice when your confident you'll make it to the destination. :lol:

I'll try to do a post of gear we've got tonight. In short we have some basic mech and elec tools, tents and camping gear and a few days food and water. To date, we have stayed in doors each night at caravan parks, pubs and motels due to the need for night time power points for charging. We do plan to spend some nights out doors in our tents though.
 
mvly said:
Are you charging in hotel only or are you finding port outside in random places to opportunity charge along the way to increase your daily range?
Click to expand...

Charging primary at night. We're carrying 2 chargers each that put out 4A per unit so for every hour we can each charge 8Ah into our pack's 56Ah total (7-8hr total charge time dead flat to full). We've wired them so we can charge 4 packs at once through 2 chargers and plug both in to just 1 power point. So for the 3 of us we have 6 charges plugging in to 3 power points of a 4 port power board meaning we only need to find a single wall socket to charge all batteries at once. Total power draw is under 1.2kW so a single outlet is fine (we're using less than an electric kettle!).

But, we've also been charging at some lunch stops 1-2 hrs when we were not sure we would make the distance or felt like a long mid-day break and found a power point. Also charged at a light house and spotted the odd outdoor power point that we could have used if we needed.

Opportunity charging is best done with a fast charger in an urban environment I think because it could let you carry a smaller pack than you might otherwise need in a day. We have slow chargers and large battery capacity (2kWh each) because we have few opportunities to charge and need to be able to go a full day on just 1 charge.
 
Hyena said:
Nice work guys.
Now which thread am I subscribing too for updates, this one or the diary one ? God forbid I should have to look in on 2 :p

Abraham, I'm curious what gear you're taking with you. On the GW site it mentions your batteries and DC converters etc but what about everything else ? What are you carrying in the way of tools incase of both electrical and mechanical issues ? spare folding tyres, tubes, spokes ? And survival wise, how much food and water ? Just a swag for camping out ?
Click to expand...

Camping Gear:
Ultra light sleeping bags and inflatable mats, light weight tents, water bags and water bottles, steripen for sterilising water if needed. Jetboil stove, cups and bowls, titanium folding sporks (oh yeah! 8) ) freeze dried and dehydrated meals for times away from civilization.

Mechanical:
basic hex keys, multi tool, adjustable spanner, chain breaker, spoke key, fibrerfix spoke, j.a. stein emergency lockring removal tool, spare tubes, patch kit, tyre levers, tyre boot (section of old tyre to patch large gash), zip ties, side cutter, spare gear and brake cable

Electrical:
small selection of assorted wire, electrical tape, wire stripper, screw down terminal blocks, ebikes.ca ConBag of JST connectors, JST crimper, pocket multimeter, CellLog8 (in case battery cells or BMS starts acting up and needs investigating) and ebikes.ca CA-DP to CA-SA shunt adapter to enable Cycle Analyst to check if chargers are working, measure voltage or act like a multi meter if the pocket one fails. Spare controller, spare throttle, spare fuses.

Mech and elec tools and spares are about the minimum you'd want to tour with and possibly stretching it for a trip this long!
 
So how's my perfectly legal soldering efforts going on the AC cables?

You're spending the weekend in Esperance? Could be worse - find a fishing line and chill out by the bay :)

My folks are in Hopetoun tonight, so they will probably pass you tomorrow on the road. The backpackers hostel in Esperance is pretty good, but mum might be able to hook you up with a place to stay in Esperance sans backpackers.
 
Rodney64 said:
Bugger about the spokes but hope it all holds up till esperence
Click to expand...

Thanks Rod. Luckily the cargo bike held for the ride today, fingers crossed for tomorrow's 188km ride. 15 km in tomorrow we'll hit our 1000th kilometer so we'll have to stop for chocolate and gatorade powder to celebrate :lol:

Today's stats...

Day 7 - Jerramungup to Raventhorpe, 117 km (985 km to date)

27.1 Ah
989.5 Wh
Thun BB readings of human wh have gone totally haywire reading negative 1573 h wh so I won't bother adding them any more.
67.7 ave pedal rpm

928m total ascent.

Finally a day with good weather!
 
jonescg said:
So how's my perfectly legal soldering efforts going on the AC cables?

You're spending the weekend in Esperance? Could be worse - find a fishing line and chill out by the bay :)

My folks are in Hopetoun tonight, so they will probably pass you tomorrow on the road. The backpackers hostel in Esperance is pretty good, but mum might be able to hook you up with a place to stay in Esperance sans backpackers.
Click to expand...

AC cables holding up well!

Tomorrow will be a big ride, nearly 200 km to Esperance so we're likely to arrive late, then spend the next day (Sunday) having a rest day and hoping replacement spokes arrive early Monday so we can sort out the cargo bike's rear wheel and get some km's under our belt before the sun sets.

Thanks for any possible leads on a place to stay, best option to get in touch is through Maurice as his Telstra phone is actually working much of the time unlike mine!
 
voicecoils said:
...and hoping replacement spokes arrive early Monday ...
Click to expand...

:lol: :lol:

Welcome to WA. We call it Wait-A-while. Esperance is a regional centre, so your spokes won't be there on Monday. Tuesday afternoon is always possible. I've waited 1.5 weeks for stuff to arrive from Brisbane, and that was metro to metro. It's only worse in the bush.

As for accommodation in Esperance, mum and dad will stop you on the road and offer a cup of tea out of the van. So ask them then about staying with Dwayne and the kids (our only connection to Esperance).
 
jonescg said:
My folks are in Hopetoun tonight, so they will probably pass you tomorrow on the road
Click to expand...
LOL, I feel this is becoming a recurring theme in this thread :lol:

Bummer about the spokes, Sorry if I jinxed you by asking if you carried spares!
Thanks for detailing everything you're carrying, I find that aspect equally as interesting as the trip itself. Your list of equipment sounds like it'd get you out of most binds. The only other thing I guess I'd try and take is a little gas soldering iron and a few spare cells incase one suddenly died. One pesky cell dying in a big 28ah battery could be a major set back. Not that roadside surgery would be ideal either!
As Chris said I wouldn't plan on getting those spokes Monday. I dont think they even guarantee next day delivery from sydney to perth CBD, let alone out lying towns. C'mon, time for some aussie bush mechanics - I'm sure there's plenty of fencing wiring around - whip out the pliers and get creative

IMG_0588.jpg


:p

I'm still blown away by the ~200km/day you're covering. The furthest I've ridden in a day is 80km and I wouldn't have been keen to back it up the next day, let alone do more than double that, every day! Props! 8)
When you're close to finishing I'll head south to do the final leg with you. Assuming your planning to head up from down Wollongong way ?
 
I know, its just that I keep getting texts from the olds saying "no ebikes yet" :roll: They have just learned how to use a smartphone... I do hope they can get some respectable floorspace in Esperance - drying out stinky clothes in a stinky hostel blows chunks.

The guys should be stoked that they are travelling as far in a day as your typical grey nomad in a forbee towing a caravan :lol: .
 
Great ride! Planning a ride similar to your but shooting for 250-300km a day. And doing it by opportunity charging with high power charger.

Any backup devices? I.e. controller, motor, charger, etc. I know you listed a few.

I would think before I ride, I would have at least a few backup stuff like controller, tyres, and charger. You never know when these break and when they do, at least you have a backup.

200km per day is pretty decent. How many hours? I road 120 miles (200km) in 9 hours on my ebike. But that was only for 2 day consecutively. I would think it would be much harder doing it for a week or longer.

Finally any recommendation on saddles? LOL. After my 2 day ride, my behind was really sore. I cheaped out on the saddle. : )
 
Just hit 1000km woohoo! 20% of ride successfully completed :)

Celebrating with a big chocolate coffee milk :lol:

Will respond to other posts tonight, still 170km left for today!
 
Hyena said:
jonescg said:
My folks are in Hopetoun tonight, so they will probably pass you tomorrow on the road
Click to expand...
LOL, I feel this is becoming a recurring theme in this thread :lol:

Bummer about the spokes, Sorry if I jinxed you by asking if you carried spares!
Thanks for detailing everything you're carrying, I find that aspect equally as interesting as the trip itself. Your list of equipment sounds like it'd get you out of most binds. The only other thing I guess I'd try and take is a little gas soldering iron and a few spare cells incase one suddenly died. One pesky cell dying in a big 28ah battery could be a major set back. Not that roadside surgery would be ideal either!
As Chris said I wouldn't plan on getting those spokes Monday. I dont think they even guarantee next day delivery from sydney to perth CBD, let alone out lying towns. C'mon, time for some aussie bush mechanics - I'm sure there's plenty of fencing wiring around - whip out the pliers and get creative

IMG_0588.jpg


:p

I'm still blown away by the ~200km/day you're covering. The furthest I've ridden in a day is 80km and I wouldn't have been keen to back it up the next day, let alone do more than double that, every day! Props! 8)
When you're close to finishing I'll head south to do the final leg with you. Assuming your planning to head up from down Wollongong way ?
Click to expand...


To do cell surgery, you'll need a tab welder as well. Maybe if they had a magnifying glass big enough and some sunshine...
 
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