Cross-Canada by Ebike

[Zoot Katz]

I know of no place to plug in past Albert Canyon before you reach the summit of Roger's Pass. Maybe the ranger at the park gate will know.
The new bridges through the Kicking Horse hopefully make the road safer than the old route.
Drafting chip haulers through Eagle Pass was what I did for fun when I lived in Revelstoke. Mountain bikes hadn't been invented yet.

Ha ha. Well I'm in Revelstoke charging up right now and hope to make it to the summit of Roger's Pass in a single charge from here. Is there a touristy info booth kind of thing at the top which is likely to have power? I'm pretty sure I can make it there on my 36Ah but I definitely won't have enough to carry on all the way to Golden.

Justin

There is?/was a hotel at the top that's closed in the winter except for emergencies.
I always felt westbound was a harder ride.

[paultrafalgar]

Another thing occurs to me: I have Fugawi with maps for the UK. It gives elevation data such that if you input a route, you can see the profile and the total ascent. The company that makes Fugawi is based in Toronto, so I guess they have maps (and elevation data) for Canada. Maybe someone could get them to provide elevation data for Justin's route as a publicity stunt?

[Pheno]

OK I have a question.
what am i going to look for on the net when justin finishes his trip? lol
Im learning alot from the other posts and I think this trip is awsome. Im glad you put in the progress map.
one more question not so e-bike related, dont you kind of get lonely out there on the road for that long?
I wish my e-bike could charge up as fast I have to wait about 10hrs. and only go 60km. it would take me a year to go nearly as far.
any way good luck
im sure I will post again.

[silentflight]

Hi Justin,

Thanks for posting and giving the rest of us a chance to enjoy your trip.

I enjoy riding long distances at night and you have good lights, have you been riding after dark? Sometimes seeing the mountains in BC in the moonlight can just blow my mind.

Could you comment on your Stokemonkey experience? How do you think your trans-Canada ride would be different if you were using it combined with your current xtracycle and battery? What do you think of it generally? I suppose the forced pedalling would get old on such a long trip, but maybe the efficiency would be a plus.

Is your one photo per minute time lapse movie still in progress? I can't wait to see it.

Scott

[cycle9]

Hey Justin,

I was thinking about your trip some more today. It is so cool! I realized that I have always wanted to do something exactly like that, but I've never had the chance (ok, never made the chance). For my 40th b-day I had a crazy plan for something similar, but it fell through. Anyway, your trip has given me inspiration to get serious about doing this. I think the one difference I'd like is to do this with "off the shelf" technology, to show that it can be done by those without the very special engineering talents you have. Probably an eZee kit with LiFEPo4 batteries stuffed in my Xtracycle, or similar. But I'd really like to do a recumbent setup with fairing to reduce wind drag. Hmm... have to think some more.

Well, I would have offered a place for you to charge up and spend the night, but I think that North Carolina is a bit out of your way. However, if your trip is just so great that you want to keep going, make sure to head our way!

Anyway, my wishes for continued great progress.

Morgan

[bspalteh]

Sounds like there are quite a few people interested in doing something like this. What I have wanted to do for quite a while is compile a list (google maps style) of charging locations with some details regarding location, amenities nearby (food, camping, etc) any special notes, etc. If we can agree on a format that we can all contribute to that would be really interesting. Food for thought. This is the vehicle I plan to do a long trip in sometime in the next few years - the Aurora from http://www.velomobiles.ca.

[bspalteh]

Ha ha. Well I'm in Revelstoke charging up right now and hope to make it to the summit of Roger's Pass in a single charge from here. Is there a touristy info booth kind of thing at the top which is likely to have power? I'm pretty sure I can make it there on my 36Ah but I definitely won't have enough to carry on all the way to Golden.

Justin

Yes, there is a visitors centre at the top of rogers pass, that should be open during the day in the summer, they have power there and could probably be talked into letting you charge up. Let us know how it goes, this is a key charging location!

Does anyone know how the charging might be across the rest of canada, are there any area where there might not be any charging for 150+km? I am guessing there would always be some farms where you might be able to ask or a gas station if nothing else?

[nutsandvolts]

I'm pretty sure I can make it there on my 36Ah but I definitely won't have enough to carry on all the way to Golden.

Nearby Golden is most excellent whitewater rafting on the kicking horse river, highly recommended.
Batteries not included, nor required

Does anyone know how the charging might be across the rest of canada, are there any area where there might not be any charging for 150+km? I am guessing there would always be some farms where you might be able to ask or a gas station if nothing else?

I don't know if you have driven across this country before, but ... as soon as you get to eastern alberta, you're going to see a whole lot of nothing until you reach ontario! It is the lakebed of prehistoric lake aggasiz. Thousands of miles of fields. I have had car breakdowns in this area. The folks are very friendly and helpful though, so maybe farms will be the answer. They will be all you have anyways for long stretches.

[Perfesser]

Justin ! Yer the man.
Crazy yes, but thats why I'm so fond of your company.
I just got back from a week off, and I find that you've gone on this great adventure. Wonderful.
If I had known, I would have sent you off with a couple loaves of Cheese & BBQ pork bread to recharge your personal battery.

In your eagerness to do this thing, it seems that you forgot to tell people about it. So....
I've contacted the local newspaper, and have a reporter who wants to tell your story to the world (well, Vancouver anyways).
I will send her this thread and your business webpage, but she would like to interview you by telephone.
Are you cool with this?
When/where would you be able to do the interview?

Don't draft the SUVs.
-Karl

[jazzhermit1]

Hey Justin... You're more than welcome to charge batteries at my place in Calgary - a few blocks off the Transcanada. I'll send you a private message with details.

[Mark_A_W]

Map to Vernon.gif

-Justin

Hey! I've flown from Vancouver to Kelowna (to go to Big White...to meet all the other Aussies...coz the only Canadian was the taxi driver...). 11 years ago now.

I cheated and took the plane

[retread]

Hi all!

I spoke with Justin earlier in the evening, and he's asked me to pass on an update:

It seems that during the night Justin's laptop computer suffered some irreparable damage. Even so, our intrepid ebiker has been doing his best to revive the machine - in a parking lot, with minimal equipment - and if unsuccessful will simply pick up a new one in Cowtown.

He is currently in the Banff region and is undoubtedly enjoying some of the freshest air and finest scenery anywhere in the world. The downside of all this natural splendor is a lack of internet connectivity, so short of bashing out a message on a railway track with a large rock (or laptop computer), Justin will be out of touch for the next couple of days.

He is looking forward very much to providing some detailed updates on his adventure, and will soon be making posts at a blog set up just for this event: chargeacrosscanada.com. It's currently empty, but I may port a few posts from this forum across until he can get posting.

In the meantime, may the electromotive force be with you Justin!

(Mick)

[TylerDurden]

My question to the folks up there... why aren't yall riding along? At least for a day?

I hate crossing the border, but I might do it to ride with the man for a day or two.

Saddle-up, Cownucks... and get J a backup computer!

[Perfesser]

My question to the folks up there... why aren't yall riding along? At least for a day?

I hate crossing the border, but I might do it to ride with the man for a day or two.

Saddle-up, Cownucks... and get J a backup computer!

Hi.
Answer to your question: Justin didn't tell me (or anyone else, near as I can figure) that he was going to do this.
He is a very confident, capable, young bundle of energy and ideas. He does not let much slow him down, and when he decides to do something, he just up and does it. I'd have been delighted to go at least the first 200km with him, but I was out of town when he left, and it will now be tough to catch up with with the kid.

I just talked to one of the guys at Justin's shop (10AM, Aug eighth ), and Justin is currently near Banf, Alberta. His celphone is out of range, and as soon as we can re-establish communication, a new computer will be on its way.
I was told that he brought a Hammock with him. If that's true, I suspect he has never been to the prairies before (he grew up on Vancouver island).

[Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh]

u no it, eh.
I know if I had gotten any prior notice I'd have shown up in my touque loaded up with bacon & maple syrup with plans on turning it into a XC race, as I'm sure many other canuckleheads would have done the same.

[Zoot Katz]

. . . Justin didn't tell me (or anyone else, near as I can figure) that he was going to do this.
He is a very confident, capable, young bundle of energy and ideas. He does not let much slow him down, and when he decides to do something, he just up and does it. . .

The beans were spilled in another thread, July 21.
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5488&p=82370#p82370

I'd stopped by the store the previous Friday while Justin was helping a person sort out their stair climbing wheel chair featuring a lap warming array of controllers.
I only wanted to ask if they knew where to get freewheel removers that would accommodate the Xlyte axles. Justin was leaving the store so invited me to his home/garage shop where he bored out the freewheel removal tool I'd just happened to have with me.
We talked about the changes he'd made to his Xtracycle since I'd last ridden it with the Stokemonkey in June. He revealed his regen controller and plans for the X-Canada trip. More coincidentally, several of our mutual friends later happened into him on his island shake down cruise.

[oatnet]

Good luck Justin, and I love what you have done with your xtracycle.

-JD

[Lowell]

I deleted a few off topic posts from this thread, and the OP's are welcome to repost in the appropriate area.

[Pheno]

Any chance Justin is setting some sort of world record? It might be yet another way to gain poblisity.

[recumbent]

My question to the folks up there... why aren't yall riding along? At least for a day?
Saddle-up, Cownucks... and get J a backup computer!

I did, and so have others i'm sure.

I joined-up with Justin on my ebike 8-km from home, rode together down the river channel bike path, gave Justin a night on the town, (which was rocking BTW) He stayed at my house that night, then I rode with him half way to the next town of Summerland.

Most of us are not equipped to travel long distances, i have 10 AH Justin has 36.

We had a great time, he showed me how to tune-up my LIFEPO4 battery pack, we ate enough blueberry pie & icecream to keep him regular for a week His laptop was working fine at my place and also Vernon (his next stop, the day after)

Justin has more support than you think, we just don't like to brag about it.

[TylerDurden]

And where are the piccies????????

[justin_le]

Whoyee, so the landscape went from forested mountains to pasture land as I rolled into Calgary this morning. I got through the Banff area on Friday mostly unscathed having crossed paths with just two bears, (the friendly brown ones and not the scary grizzlies).

The image below shows the route to date, with each flagged destination being a point where I charged up.

Charging Locations to Calgary

Map to Calgary.GIF (36.47 KiB) Viewed 2083 times

The actual google maps route can be accessed from this link http://tinyurl.com/6ldloh

I've also attached a spreadsheet showing the stats for each segment of the journey. So far we're looking at 1158km done with a total energy use of 14.795 kwh, and with 0.714 kwh returned to the battery pack through regen. At this rate it looks like there shouldn't be much trouble pulling off the entire trip on a $10 electricity budget, unless my sense of electrical rates in the other provinces is out of whack. Average speed is right now nearly 35 kph with an average energy use of 12.1 wh/km.

I see there have been tons of postings and I hope to have a chance to reply to these over the weekend. I am currently staying with the friendly folks at Power-In-Motion and will be here for a couple days, and if there are others in the Calgary area who want to meet up then fire me a line. We're toying with the idea of having a group ebike ride out of Calgary on tuesday after work, leaving the eau-claire market around 5:30 and going East as long as your batteries will take you.

Justin

[Fumesucker]

Ride on Justin.

I like your machine and your attitude.

[bspalteh]

I'd love to hear some details on how you are finding the charging - easy to find? What types of spots are you charging up at? Restaurants? Gas Stations, private homes? Malls? Also have you talked to people while charging, and how has the response been, receptive, ? Has anyone told you you can't charge wherever?

[bshell]

Hey Justin, great going. Has this story been reported in the national media? Any pointers to articles about this would be appreciated. Also, and here's the biggest point: you inspired me to buy an ezee kit from your shop on the corner yesterday. On Thursday (on your advice) I went and bought a serviceable used mountain bike from Craigslist for under $100 and today I'm mounting the Ezee kit onto it based on the workshop you gave a month ago on Pandora Street. So way to go Justin. One more convert here to Electric Bikes. Next thing is to see if it will get me all the way up the hill to work at SFU on Monday.
Barry on Quebec Street (sax player guy)