Video/presentation: 7000 km cross-Canada electric bike adventure on$10 of electricity
 

Last night I watched a really entertaining presentation on Google Video by a Canadian e-bike enthusiast & entrepreneur who rode from coast to coast last summer on his custom built Franken-e-bike.

(Edit: this is a 2 hour video. Not that there's anything wrong with that: I found it as entertaining / engaging - if not more so - than spending that time watching a typical Hollywood movie that would eat up as much time.)

7000 km on under $10 worth of electricity *

(Calculated from his battery pack, not from the grid. It was not quite a couple of bucks difference.)

His average speed was something like 35 km/h, which is pretty decent.

The bike was pretty interesting:

http://hackadaycom.files.wordpress.c...if?w=450&h=324

It was a rolling platform for testing his home-built chargers, motor controllers, and different battery chemistries.

His goals for the trip were:

1) to meet up with other e-bike enthusiasts across the country
2) to test the feasibility of such a trip (in terms of finding power for recharging, etc)
3) to field test the stuff he built
4) to demonstrate how energy efficient e-bikes are

The cool thing is he mounted a digital camera on the bike that took a photo every minute, so he had a great basis for his presentation.

Talked a fair amount about the interesting characters he met along the way, too.

Video link: Justin - E-bike Ride Across Canada

Via Hackaday: E-bike across Canada for $10 - Hack a Day

Is there a condensed version of this:p

Do you know how much weight in batteries and cargo he end up with?

Interesting voyage :)

It's Lazarus! Back from the dead! (Sorry.)

I don't think there's a condensed version. I should have warned people (will edit the post). But honestly, next time you think you want to sit down and watch a movie, watch this instead. It's surprisingly entertaining / engagine on multiple levels.

Not sure about his pack specs, sorry. I think I can find reference to the total bike weight... hang on....

Nope, in the video, right before he was going to tell us how much it weighs, he has a technical glitch and skips over that point when he resumes. :)

But if you check the discussion thread of his epic adventure, he starts out describing the rig. Maybe the answer is here:

Endless-sphere.com • View topic - Cross-Canada by Ebike

Thanks, That would be a fun trip. Not dead just not talking much:)

I found this very interesting. I wish I knew more about electronics in general, and his electronics in particular. He talked about how his regen charged up the batteries in one long downhill! I could really use something like that around here. Pretty brave to ride a concept vehicle without support across the continent.

Have you seen this thread? it's got some very good stuff in it.

Didn't have time to sit and watch the video just now and the following may be mentioned in it. Justin has been around E-bikes for some time. Here is a link to his business and some of the work he has done in the past. I have a couple of his early drain brains (now called cycle analysts). One has been on my ebike for 6000km. The other has never been installed.
JJ

JJ maybe I'm missing it but no link appeared:)

Ooops! Link must have got lost between the sixth and seventh drinks. I'll try again.

The Cycle Analyst Homepage - Ebike Amp-Hour and Watt Meter

JJ