ebikeblog.org

Just came across these guys, http://www.solarbike.com.au/ – hailing from my own home town, it seems these guys have been experimenting with a variety of charging options and are particularly keen on solar, which is neat. If I still lived in Perth, I would be very keen on one of these, as I had tried to get something along these lines functioning some years ago but gave up as I just don’t have the technical expertise. I like that they’ve worked out an optimal system and can set one up for you, not on the cheap end of things but they’ve done the hard work for you.

I will be heading over to Cambodia, Laos and Thailand for a short time  in the near future, and one of the things I’m planning on doing is hiring an electric bicycle wherever possible. As most eBikes are made in Asia, then it stands to reason there must be a few out there for hire – and my initial research looks promising, though a little limited!

Siem Reap, the base town for visiting Angkor Wat in Cambodia, appears to be quite flush with electric bikes, though perhaps the trend is waning;

Electric Bicycles are still available in Siem Reap, but they are not quite as popular as they used to be, although you will still see people using them to get around the Angkor Temples. If you want to rent an electric bicycle to get around the temples, then make sure your battery is fully charged before you set off. You do not want to pedal an electric bicycle around, because they are not easiest thing to pedal. There are electric bicycle stations around the temples to change your battery if you need too.

– from Siem Reap Rooms

I like the fact that in a country like Cambodia there are public electric bike charging stations. Utterly brilliant! I hope to take some better pics of signs like this when I’m there:

Other than Siem Reap, I’ve not seen many other references to electric bike hire. One small mention from a high end hotel in Luang Prabang in Laos and a rather expensive day tour here ( I’m hoping it may be possible to hire the bikes on their own); there is an outfit in Phuket, and another in Koh Samui, Thailand (though we will not be heading that way)… I hope to discover some more along the way and I will be blogging what I find over the coming month.

Also, Guim Valls Teruel’s Electric Bike World Tour right now is actually passing through regions very much where we are going (they just arrived in Laos!) – so with some luck, we may cross paths and I’ll get to see his electric bike which has done so many, many miles around the world!