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Today we arrived in Eden, having travelled over 500 km in five days! I have to say I am starting to feel a little frazzled, and would love to have a rest day, but the schedule must be kept. Last night we arrived well after dark, tonight fortunately we were fine but tomorrow we have a longer day than any other yet and I am hoping we leave early enough and have no mishaps. The Schwinn had some problems today, seeming to be mainly to do with the battery pack not connecting, one advantage of the eZee bike is that it has the battery connecting at the bottom under the weight of the battery, so gravity is always on your side there. On the subject of batteries, I am starting to honestly prefer the NiMHs to the lithiums! A strange choice you might think, but on a ride like this I am finding the discharge pattern more workable: while they make you work harder as they run low, I vastly prefer that to a flat cut off. This is helpful because each sudden change slows the group down. Time for bed now, more tomorrow!

Hey folks! The ride is going FANTASTICALLY!!! We just had our first hilly morning and the bikes performed brilliantly.

I’m going to post a handful of pics and we are only hitting a net cafe … well, this is the first one and I only have 5 more mins before we set off again.

Phil Ceberano playing @ Launch

Me!

Heading off on the Yarra trail

Bebe!! Finnley in trailer

We have stopped for lunch, now in day three. Only the third real stop today but I am worried about the length of time it is taking to get moving again, if it continues like this on the harder days we are going to have a tough time arriving before dark! In more positive news, I got to ride the Schwinn today! It’s a lovely smooth ride, very well engineered bike, but the motor lacks sufficient power on the hills. This is the international version though: the US domestic release should be a lot more versatile, but this one is a real pleasure to ride on the flat, and the motor is much much quieter than most of the eZee bikes [though these seem to vary abit, some being whinier than others]. Ok got to go now, still half a days ride to go today. Also could someone please comment on one of the last three entries, I have not been able to get near a computer and I am posting from my phone, but I am not one hundred percent sure these are getting through! Ta!

So today we rode from Warrigal to Sale. Yesterday was overcast the entire day coming out from Melbourne: today was sunny with only a few clouds in the late afternoon, making for a lovely day’s riding. A lot less technical difficulties than yesterday, and the group has been getting more accustomed to riding together, we are getting tighter and more aware of the bikes capabilities and our personal space on the road. New seat is lovely and comfy and have had no issues at all today, the battery life is good and I think I am becoming even more efficient with my throttle technique. Getting probably close to forty km on a charge, probably a bit more as I have not totally depleted a battery yet. Big tests will be the bigger hills in a few days time! Lovely scenery too which I am told will get even more beautiful. Have been getting a lot of state media, tv and radio especially. Honestly not even slightly sore yet really, but give me a couple more days I may revise that!

Hey folks, have had no luck getting photos through so far but will keep trying! The launch went really well, and the ride yesterday was slower than hoped and free of any major drama! I am feeling bright and sparky after almost a hundred km yesterday too, proving so far that it’s a lot easier than a regular bike ride. My bike had a couple of issues: a blown fuse that was fixed very quickly, and my seat lost a spring so was replaced at the next pit stop. Many of the bikes had minor problems, Stephen even re-attached some wires that had come undone while we were stopped at traffic lights! Also one of the Red Cross relay team girls, Esther, is from Perth and did Bollywood classes with me! Dinner last night was lovely and we just had breakfast in bed. Tonight we will be in Sale. Gotta go now and get ready, will be trying to update more often now I can at least post even though I’ll only be able to post photos when we stop somewhere with Interweb.

Hey folks, I have arrived safe and sound in Melbourne. Yesterday I went down to the warehouse where the bikes have been stored, charged and in all manner made ready for the trip, to meet some of the guys, and to pick up mine! It is a gorgeous thing of beauty indeed. Here’s what she looks like over to the right. The motor has a bit of a whine to it, but I have been informed that has alot to do with the speed limiter. Rides wonderfully, soooo comfortabuls and very sturdy. The dynamo which I initially poo-pooed is actually quite good too, and didn’t feel like too much resistance when riding at night. I will be riding it a lot more today, so expect another update if I get time to get near the Interweb.

The other rather cool thing I got was a brand spanking new Crumpler bag – they are sponsoring the ride, and each rider gets a Crumpler to show off! In typical style I got a black one. It’s big enough to carry anything I’d need on the ride, and very comfy too. YAY CRUMPLER! Below is a pic of Christian, who will be making a documentary of the ride, unwrapping his shwanky million-pocketed Crumpler camera bag, while being filmed by Stephen, and Ilka watching on. Plus you can see one of the very cool cruiser eZee bikes in the background too:

We also had a small meeting in the evening last night for most of the riders to meet and get together. It was pleasantly informal. Unlike the launch; which looks like it’s going to be HUGE: Peter Garrett is confirmed to do the honours, which is a great show of support, and Kate Ceberano will be putting in a guest appearance to support her brother Phil who is playing at the launch and doing the whole ride! Stephen says in the last week media interest has gone through the roof and it seems like critical mass has been reached in regarding people believing in the event. Huzzah!

Have had some random intermittent problems with sending email from my phone [grrr] so updates may or may not happen directly from the launch tomorrow. Will see how we go! Wish me luck!

Here is a great pic I’ve just been given by Stephen of him, his gf and Phil Ceberano down on St Kilda beach with 3 of the bikes for the ride, which have arrived safely in Melbourne. How sweet do they look???

One huge beef I have been having about ebikes is how badly they have been portrayed in the media, and the rather negative, daggy impression most people have of them, if they know anything about them at all in the first place. I mean, I went to the UWA Sun Fair last weekend, and the only ebike there was this monstrosity:

Seriously – would you be caught dead on this thing? Cos I sure as heck wouldn’t. I didn’t get the ugliest angle of it though, which is directly side on, where you can see the hideously bad line of where the SLA batteries are stored. UGH!

But this was a direct example of the kind of uphill battle we have, and that I have had recently over at Treehugger a couple of weeks ago. Firstly I was pissed off at the type of bike linked to in the article: not far off this thing, ugly as sin, no design aesthetics, and practically begging to be discredited as anything a sane healthy person would want to be getting themselves about town on. But the author had fallen hook line and sinker for the [understandable] prejudice and tarred all eBikes with the same brush! Not all ebikes are equal.

I’m pleased to say that my argument was sound and the next ebike article by the same author referred to my challenge and his corrected stance. We have the technology and the Intarweb links, we have been reading and researching for a long time now indeed, and we have also had enough experience on the road to know why these things rock for everyone and for the planet.

The most exciting thing for me about the S T ride is that ebikes are going to be getting a whole bunch of completely different press, hopefully catching some serious attention: because we ain’t going to be looking like grannies or invalids or socially challenged nerds. We are going to be looking daaaaaaaamn sexy. Just you wait.

Just got told which bikes we will be using for the Suitable Transport ride [my pic and bio is up on the riders page now btw]. They are going to be these: the “eZee Torq”. I think they could have come up with a less cheesy brand name, but the bike specs are sweet!

Maximum Speed: 30Klm/hr
Battery: 36V 10 Ah Lithium Ion or 36V 9Ah NiMH battery
Range: 35 klm Li Ion, 30 klm NiMH
Weight: 23kg including battery
Motor: Brushless Servo motor nominal rating 200 watts with planetary gears
Charger: Automatic Smart charger, maximum charge time 5.5 hours
Frame: Road bike, Al alloy 6061
Tyres: Kenda 700 C x 45
Brakes: Tektro V-brakes front Shimano Roller brakes rear
Gears: Shimano Sora 8 speed
Efficiency: ~ 80%
Noise level: < 60 dB
Torque: @ 5N-m 120 watts, 4 amps, 36V, 200 rpm

AWESOME! These look a fair bit like the zbike I was keen on a few months ago – but these only weigh 23kg – including the battery[the zbike was 50kg, eeek]! Stephen has tested them and says they do pretty well up the hills, and he’s been riding longer than me, and is an electronics engineer, so I would say has a pretty good eye for such things. I’m super excited, if just a little bit trepidous for my bum, which will I expect get a little sore from that much time on a saddle seat.

Still: WHEEEE!

And now… here’s an interesting tidbit about bikes and helmets:

It’s safer to wear a wig

KAMALA HAYMAN – 14 September 2006

Cyclists may be safer wearing a long-haired wig than a helmet, new research suggests.

In England, a Bath University study found drivers gave a wider berth to cyclists with long hair than those wearing helmets. The study, by psychologist Dr Ian Walker, also found bare-headed cyclists were given more room than those wearing helmets. Walker used a bicycle fitted with a computer and an ultrasonic distance sensor to record data from more than 2500 overtaking motorists. He wore a helmet half the time. During his research, he was struck by a bus and a truck – both times while wearing a helmet.

In research to be published in the Accident Analysis and Prevention journal, Walker found drivers, on average, passed 1.33m from his bicycle. However, when he wore a long-haired wig – to give the impression he was female – overtaking drivers gave him an extra 14cm. By contrast, when he was wearing a helmet, they passed 8.5cm closer. Larger vehicles also narrowed the gap, with trucks passing 19cm closer than cars and buses, 23cm closer.

He wanted to do more research to understand why drivers appeared to give female cyclists such a wide berth. It was possible they were seen as less predictable than male riders because they were not seen on the road as often as male cyclists.

He suggested drivers saw cyclists with helmets as more serious, experienced and predictable than those without, and therefore needing less space when overtaking.

You’re probably sick to death of hearing about ebikes today, but, qamar just linked from her radio show lj, aclimateaffair about a really exciting awareness-raising ebike ride coming up in April! It’s from Melbourne to Sydney, with about 20 riders riding on ebikes for about 8 days, in their work gear, to prove you can do this without breaking a sweat, and that anyone can do it, not just super-athletes! It’s just everything I’ve just spent hours ranting about, and I’m bouncing around like an excited bunny at the thought of being involved!!

EEP! This would be the most awesome thing to do!!!!!

And one of the coolest things, I’d get to see in person the Schwinn World GSE electric bike pre-release model which Stephen will be riding – one of the 2007 Schwinn ebikes I have been salivating over since I saw them announced a few days ago. They don’t provide those for everybody though, damnit. Still, I was planning on getting another ebike anyways…