I've returned to ES after a long absence. WOW, what an amazing, and inspiring post and journey. I want to meet you, you must be an amazing person if you did that!
You said you were happy to answer questions. These came to my mind, but may be too many (more poured out as I wrote), so feel free to answer any that you wish!
-What kind of tires & tubes did you use? What would you do differently (in terms of tires and tubes), if you were not going to go tubeless? What was your flats situation (any, and what did you carry with you). Fat gear is not easy to get, especially out where you were! I decided to go with Mr. Tuffy, instead of tubeless. I had a friend who got a flat on a slice of glass. He had Slime inner tubes, they didn't help, just made a mess. My (unexperienced) impression is that sealant (and I assume tubeless) is only good for small, round puncturs like thorns and maybe small nails. For wider punctures (glass--my main risk), I think a barrier like Mr. Tuffy would be better. Just thinking, but have to put my money somewhere. Also, not sure if thicker tubes actually help in real life, esp w/Mr. Tuffy (just don't know). My thought was, get Mr. Tuffy, and then use Ultra Light inner tubes to partly compensate for the extra weight. (Thoughts?)
-Do you have a blog somewhere that explains in-depth details of what you did? (which might answer some of my 'FAQ' here--or maybe this could form a foundation for it).
-How the heck did you charge up? You said visitor's centers, and motels if desperate. Gotta be more varied than that. Did you ask for permission, or what is the best technique to get access to a charge?
-What's the deal with the story behind "getting rid of your solar panels" along the way? Someone else asked that, maybe you were dodging it :wink: . How does one 'get rid of' solar panels on a journey like that. Without a trailer, I don't know how you even carried them?? Yeah, you'd have to stay put for long periods of time. Perhaps a lack of planning/doing the math of calculations for watt-hours/charging times? Not attacking just trying to learn. I told a friend about your journey. He loves biking and is interested in ebiking. Before Trump, we used to talk about end-of-the-world scenarios as globalism/socialism/leftism/soft tyranny was strangling the life of freedom from the Earth-human race and people were willfully going along with it (at the time--that is changing). We used to talk about how far you could get out of a city in this or that vehicle. We talked about bugout bikes, including e-bikes towing a trailer with a solar panel kit. I told him it was unrealistic (and he knows more about electronics than I do). Your experience is evidence that I was right. And I did not want to be right, as a 'solar bike' is an awesome idea--just more fancy than fact. But you actually DID IT, and can speak probably more authoratively than anyone on the planet on this subject. Really seriously, you could write up some articles about different aspects and segments of your journey, and get paid for them. Yahoo and those schlocky push-type 'homepage' type sites are always looking for fresh content. You know when your crap insecure Microsoft browser with all those vunlerable plug-ins enabled, forces you by default to go to MSN before you go to where you really want to go? Well all those ads beneath the fake news headlines, many of those are written by people like you. People who did something unusual and interesting. You really should do it. Heck, I'd edit your article for free too.
-What kind of charger did you take with you, and how long did it take to charge?
-You must have had to leave you bike sometimes (charging at visitor's centers, grocery stores, etc). Did you lock your bike up while charging? If so, how? Were you afraid of any of your stuff getting stolen (other than the 'skid rowe' drunk who DID try to steal your bike)?
-You said you're not from the USA. Can I ask what country you're from, and how you got it and your stuff here? (I'm guessing you're Canadian and rode in from Alberta--but that's only a guess?)
-I checked out that AdventureCycling.org. I looked at other paths/trails on their USA map, but, contrary to your journey, the ones I looked at appeared to go STRAIGHT THROUGH CITIES. I mean, the center downtown areas (which I always try to avoid--not just when biking either!). To me, 'center-city' and 'biking' should ideally be kept far apart, and there are usually much better ways around a city, than to go straight through the thick of it. The map paths are vague, so it's not clear if this is accurate, as--well, you know--Main Street is not a "bike path". I don't need a map to go bike through some downtown street. I need a map to find that secluded, out-of-the way area in nature, where I'm hopefully allowed to be. Yet one photo I saw (Oklahoma City, perhaps) showed ironically just that: people with bike trailers, riding through 'main street' as it were. Okay, here... Maybe an exception?
http://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/adventure-cycling-route-network/bicycle-route-66/
Yeah, I don't need a map to do what the people in that photo are doing. The ones in mid-atlantic states like Pennsylvania, Maryland etc looked similarly placed on major roads, the whole way, and I know those highways don't have even so much as bike lanes, there's just nothing bike-oriented that I could derive from the places I was actually familiar with, and there were some. I just don't see how a major non-interstate highway, and Main Streets when near a city, are 'trails' or 'bike paths', or even 'adventure'... other than like playing Frogger with your life, maybe. The Great Divide one you pointed out, seemed diametrically opposed--it was eye-popping!
-It's not clear why you have a correction of 12T to 10T. Maybe you really did use the 12T? On actual off-pavement terrain, the 12T makes more sense too. Your top speed of 21.5 mph, to my knowledge (and soon to be experience), matches exactly of what I know of the 12T. So I'm wondering why you corrected that. If your top speed was 21.5mph, that must have been the 12T (which is what I'm trying to mount now--thanks for your help in my post very much, BTW). Because if you had the 10T, and had a top speed of 21.5mph, I must be looking forward to a top speed of 15mph! I hope not, lol! Also kind of... shocking that you could own 2 types of these motors, and not know which one you took on a massive, epic tour like this [LMAO].
-This is the one I really want to know (in addition to the tires question): what kind of difficulty did the fatmac have in getting up hills, unassisted, and heat-wise? This is especially important, in light that you may have actually been using a 12T (I think you were). There must have been some pretty 'nice' hills along the way--I looked at the route--it's like ENTIRELY through the Rocky Mountains--from Canada to Mexico! Seems almost insane, you must have had to go over at least some mountains. I've seen some of the Rockies, but also must've been awe-inspiring.
-Without a fancy watt/voltmeter, what indicators did you use to monitor your "fuel level" while riding?
-Shark is sold in 10 and 13.5 amp-hour versions. Which version did you have? Dude I honestly have to say I think it's crazy that you didn't have at least the 17.5Ah version, or two of those 10 or 13-Ah batteries. But it's also a very important lesson that you DON'T need to have the best equipment--you can still just get up and go, and DO IT. However, you did say the 'smaller' battery was one of your regrets, and caused you trouble. Man, I would've had at least 20Ah for that.
-Can you take gasoline dirtbikes on that trail? I mean, even if you're not 'allowed', it seems so remote, I wonder if anyone would know or care? You mentioned something about sharing ATV trails. But also that this path was put together by a bicycling group, and bicyclists tend to be elitists and anti-motor and typically like to ban motors, typical lefties promoting "choice", yeah by banning everything. A good 4-stroke dirtbike seems MUCH more appropriate for that journey, especially in terms of fuel. Just seems like a much more natural thing. Doing it electric reminds me of the challenge/race they had in the US for the first automobile to drive coast to coast. It was a very unnatural thing at the time (lack of roads, fuel, lodging, etc).
You see why I should be an interviewer for a living.
I couldn't see myself taking large parts of the path, but maybe driving cross-country/touring, with the bike, stop near one part of the trail, go in for awhile, a day, maybe 2 days, go back. That would be neat. And easier/less-risky.
It would make an interesting video to discuss and possibly show what you did take with you, and maybe equally as importantly, what you DIDN'T take with you, and why, and what you thought were good and bad decisions in retrospect. Actually any kind of retrospect would be good, you gave a couple indications in here, but I bet there's more. I have tried to carry things on a bike (sans trailer), and it's always seemed pretty hopeless. I really think I can carry more on my back walking. Two-wheeled vehicles just don't seem very condusive to packing a lot of stuff. I've car-camped, and studied vehicle living, and even traveling out of a car (like a hatchback with no passenger seat) seems spacious when compared to bike camping. Egads. It just shows how much 'space' is relative.
A journey like this is amazing, but also seems like a way to kill your knees. Maybe not so bad with assistance. But this one you pointed to, I realized the guy had no assistance. I could barely watch it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aoF3gH6ym0
I can barely pedal my fattie a quarter mile without my knees hurting (due to too much past bicycling in my younger years). Now that I own one, I can't believe that anyone rides a fatbike withoug assistance.
REMEMBER TO TAKE YOUR GLUCOSAMINE SULFATE!!!!
