Perth to Sydney by ebike - ride preparation

[voicecoils]

Continuing the Glow Worm tradition of taking long ebike rides, Maurice (Glow Worm's owner) and I are preparing to do a big ride starting in August from Perth. We'll be riding around the WA coast, then across the Nullarbor to Adelaide and finally on to Sydney.

In preparation, we are setting up bikes, organising camping gear, planning recharge points and food drops. Close to the start of the trip in August, I'll start a trip thread but in the meantime...

This Friday is our first chance to take our bikes for a 1 day shakedown testride so I thought I'd start this thread to describe our equipment and then on Friday we'll update the thread during the day on our trip distance, battery consumption and photos if we have mobile reception. For the moment, the route is undecided but tomorrow we'll be charging lots of batteries and making a plan (with our fingers crossed for good weather, it's been wet wet wet recently in Sydney)! Any suggestions where to ride?

 

[voicecoils]

 

[voicecoils]

Both Maurice & I will be riding the titanium frame version of the eZee Torq ebike. He's pulled his bike ready built from the box but I've started with just a frame.

Parts of interest on my bike (so far... and off the top of my head...):

• GrinTech Cycle Analyst V3
• GrinTech Cycle Analogger w/ GPS
• GrinTech Cycle Luminator - multi brigtness front, 8 LED rear
• GrinTech Rev2 torque arm
• Thun torque & rpm sensing bottom bracket (to measure human power)
• 37v20Ah battery behind the seat made of Samsung NMC cells
• Tubus chromoly front and rear racks
• Salsa Fargo suspension corrected chromoly 700c fork with massive tyre clearance
• Touring handle bars & Vaude handlebar bag
• Ortlib Front and Back Roller Classic pannier bags
• Thudbuster long travel seatpost
• 1 x GrinTech 12V 20W DC-DC converter for netbook charging
• 1 x GrinTech 12V 20W DC-DC converter connected to dual USB cigarette adapter for phone and GoPro charging

 

[full-throttle]

Sounds like another epic trip! ~4,000km? Planned time?

When you get close to Melbourne we'll organise a group ride to meet up with you guys along with some festivities 8)

Are you using Marathon Plus tyres?
Specs on the frame?

 

[deffx]

How to safely cycle the Nullabor

http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/AT_CYC_P_nullarborridebrochure.pdf

I watched a video of the guy who cycled around the world, the relentless headwinds he encountered on the nullabor nearly destroyed his spirit, though according to the web site in that link, in August you should have west/north west tailwinds

Goodluck, look forward to following your jouney

 

[remf]

WOW...that sounds punishing and rewarding in equally massive proportions but not surprising at all given all you've both ridden already. I know there must be somewhere, but exactly where do you charge in the middle of the Nullabor?

 

[Gregory]

Good find on the brochure deffx.

Best of luck guys. I'm sure plenty of us here in the west would be happy to help in any small way you need.

I don't envy the Nullabor crossing. See you at the start line in August.

Greg

 

[voicecoils]

@ Full-Throttle

The frame is butted Ti, lovely welds with provision for battery behind the seat and designed around 700c wheels.

We have 45 days available and planning to be in the saddle for 40 of them. With all the detours and long ways around Maurice is planning, the km's should clock up fast, possibly approaching 6k!

We have 700x38c Marathon Plus on the bikes now (stock tyre for eZee) but will probably swap for Marathon Mondial 700x40c to test Schwalbe's description as the "ultimate touring tyre". We already know the Marathon Plus is a great tyre, but if we can save some weight and gain some tread for riding on loose surfaces it could be a nice choice.

@ deffx

We've read that guide and it was nice to see one exists! Thanks.

@ remf

On the Nullarbor, vehicles need petrol every 200km or less. The fact sheet deffx links to states 186km is the longest stretch between roadhouses or towns and we expect any of those places to have a powerpoint (even if it's powered by a genset!)

 

[Samd]

A group ride in Melbourne is a must. And if you call thru Ballarat on the way a beer and a recharge are on me.

 

[full-throttle]

Beautiful frame!

Hard to believe the high standards of ebikes these days 8)

150km per day on average for 40 days sounds ambitious, even with 20Ah packs.

 

[AussieJester]

Where you planing on staying in Perth? Welcome to use the workshop her if you need prepare anything charge up etc..

KiM

 

[Rodney64]

Abraham are you planning on allowing others to join in on different sections.

 

[voicecoils]

Yes we want to ride sections with as many e-folk as possible. I will post a detailed trip plan once we have one!

F-T: we will be carrying a minimum of 1.5kWh ( 2x 37v20Ah) but tomorrow's ride will give us some data to decide how much juice to carry.

Tonight's my birthday so I'm out drinking but tomorrow we ride!

 

[full-throttle]

Happy birthday!

 

[adrian_sm]

Happy Birthday !

And good luck for the trip. Hope I can join up with you for a leg or three.

 

[jonescg]

Looking forward to having you over! FINALLY I can return the favour

Kim, you have one month to get your bike running again, otherwise it will be the group ride of frocking shame :lol:

I should probably get my e-bike running again... Oh, Happy birthday Abe - you do realise you will be setting off for the south west with a hangover?

We can hook you up with friendly folks all the way around the coast too. I'm sure Lucinda and Simon in Manjimup and Rod Dilkes in Margaret River can sort you with accommodation and some photon-powered electrons.

 

[Hyena]

Another epic journey!
*subscribed*
On the off chance I have any goodies you dont have access to that would help on your trip you're welcome to them.
I think we spoke about this last time but have you got a an adaptor made to steal power from light sockets ?

Where are you headed tomorrow ? I was actually going to drop in at glowworm for a long overdue visit but sounds like you guys will be out getting wet in the miserable weather we've had lately.

 

[jonescg]

How to safely cycle the Nullabor

http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/AT_CYC_P_nullarborridebrochure.pdf

I watched a video of the guy who cycled around the world, the relentless headwinds he encountered on the nullabor nearly destroyed his spirit, though according to the web site in that link, in August you should have west/north west tailwinds

Goodluck, look forward to following your jouney

Must be a rather out-dated brochure:

Note that South Australia is 1.5 hours ahead of Western Australia.
Both states have daylight saving during the summer months.

Wind your clock back 2 hours and 15 years :lol:

 

[jateureka]

Titanium Those frames are gorgeous!
and a belated happy birthday too!

 

[voicecoils]

Well, despite the rain we've started off on an abbreviated test ride heading south through the Royal National Park.

We started at 9AM, covered ~19km so far. I've used 180Wh, Maurice on 150Wh. According to the CA I've contributed a measly 67Wh, that can't be right! :lol:

I arrived at the shop in Marrickville totally soaking wet but now the rain is letting up (for now) and we're warming up.

Thanks for the birthday wishes last night!

 

[Hyena]

Awe, you go riding in my hood without me ?
Oh yeah thats right, I have a broken wrist

9.4 whr/km is pretty good! There's a big downhill section at the start where you coast all the way but then it's matched with alot of up hill going back up the other side. I take it the Audley weir was open ? It's been closed for days with flooding.

 

[Hillhater]

.... I take it the Audley weir was open ? It's been closed for days with flooding.

I hear real men use a snorkel and just keep riding !! :lol:
Good luck guys..you are going to need a lot of Vaseline :wink: !!

 

[voicecoils]

52km down now. Maurice picked the wettest possible place to ride I think.

We crossed the flooded weir up past the axles and my thun cut out totally but throttle is still working.

First battery 37v15Ah is nearly depleted, more stats to share when there's less rain!

Grabbing a quick coffee now!

 

[launchpad]

.. and my thun cut out totally but throttle is still working.

Wet thun - I will be interested in how it recovers - (note to self: "another reason to avoid water above rims, on top of 'pisses the stoker off when she gets covered both front and back'"!)

Will be interested in your data - a good benchmark against our tandem. Would you mind supplying your CAv3 torque threshold and assist level for our comparison when you submit your data?

Peter

 

[voicecoils]

Testing complete - for today!

We covered just 81.6 km in almost continuous rain. Radar described it as 'light to moderate' but we were being pelted with buckets of driving rain that felt like hail at times.

Aside from the wet Thun, the bikes didn't suffer any other electrical or mechanical issues. We'll be making some tweaks in positioning for comfort, re-routing some wiring and checking to see if any nuts and bolts loosened up.

I used 21.6Ah (752 Wh) consuming one 37v15Ah pack and half depleting a second one of the same size. Maurice kept 2Ah below me the whole time, despite being in the lead. 9.2 Wh/km for me without any effort to conserve energy and some pretty weak pedaling in the sections of heavy rain were we were basically just holding on and trying to stay upright :lol:

Trip time was 3 hrs 24 min, average speed of 23.9 km/h, max of 61.0 km/h. Possibly slightly off as I have yet to do an accurate wheel roll-out measurement.

My thun was simply set to the stock pre-set settings in the CA V3 with quadrature enabled and the only 'tweak' I made was to change throttle up, down and fast ramp to zero (they then reset to the minimum allowable value of 0.05 I think). It's not particularity smooth, jumping forward at the start (current overshoot) so I have plenty more work to do to improve it. Kepler has spent much more time tweaking his and I plan to do some reading of the CA V3 thread for tips.