Expedition Electric = 3 eRiders 25,000miles from Alaska to Argentina

[T Rush]

I'm assuming that everyone and their dog watched Ewan McGregor(Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Trainspotting actor)and Charley Boorman(with Claudio von Planta riding along on a 3rd bike filming) in "The Long Way Round"(riding from London to NYC the hard way, circling the Earth going east starting in 2004) documentary series and then went out and bought a BMW R1150GS Adventure(BMW sold tons of boxer bikes because of these guys, I bought a used R1100RT myself and did a 4000mile solo ride)
https://www.longwayround.com/long-way-round
....if they didn't, they were given another chance for inspiration in 2007 when even Ewan's wife Eve joined them for part of "The Long Way Down"(John o' Groats Scotland to Cape Town South Africa) but now needed a R1200GS(sure that made a lot of wives eyes roll)
https://www.longwayround.com/long-way-down

these days everyone has found some adventure of their own to go on, so to make things harder in 2014 some folks got together and thought about how challenging it would be to build up a few plug in electric charging motorcycles and see how far they could go from north to south thru the Americas

a 7 month long trip is planed http://electric15.diamondheadfilms.com/the-map/

they got Chris Bell(Brutus Motorcycles) to covert some KTM Adventure 950 bikes for them https://insideevs.com/expedition-unp...ctric-journey/

even added a woman rider to the team http://www.danelllynn.com/ well, a woman that can ride a motorcycle farther than any man in the country

I think now they are hoping Lightning eMotorcycles will produce a 'dual sport' they can use http://expeditionelectric.com/


...well not much else I can say; but I love the idea and wish them luck on getting roll'n

[Ted Dillard]

Funny how there's nothing on their site about how it actually went.

The short story is, not so good. I left InsideEVs before I could do a follow-up, (wow, the site's been re-designed!) but the story I heard was they were kind of in denial about several things centering around the lead guy's pack design and the projected range. They broke down in Alaska, after I think less than a week, and gave up (if memory serves) once they realized basically the math that they were told was reliable was, in fact, reliable. I believe I heard the battery connections came apart as well. The lead guy was basically completely responsible for the pack build, and ignored a lot of very good advice.

Lesson learned was pretty simple. Do the math. Trust the math. Listen when people who know their stuff tell you something.

Of course, it got ugly after that, apparently. Pointed fingers, lawyers, stuff like that. One more example of litigating ignorance.

After seeing several guys basically trying to pull off stunts to get entertainment contracts or just publicity (starting with Chip Yates) and claiming to have developed revolutionary technology to do so, but really just amounting to so much BS, it kind of gets old. I made a very tough decision to not cover this kind of stuff in Power in Flux, simply because ultimately, they made very little contribution to the actual thread of innovation. I did, however, include any records actually set, but also went on to mention how stunts tend to flourish in periods of economic decline... (see "Shocking Barack" and "Balloon Boy" starting on p107).

Here's a great observation by none other than Frank Rich (NYT) talking about the Balloon Boy's father:

“Heene is a direct descendant of those Americans of the Great Depression
who fantasized, usually in vain, that they might find financial salvation if
only they could grab a spotlight in show business. Some aspired to the
“American Idol” of the day — “Major Bowes Amateur Hour,” a hugely
popular weekly talent contest on network radio. Others traveled the seedy
dance marathon circuit, entering 24/7 endurance contests that promised food
and prize money in exchange for freak-show degradation and physical
punishment. Horace McCoy’s 1935 novel memorializing this Depression
milieu was aptly titled “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”

In 1939, the year that John Steinbeck published “The Grapes of Wrath,”
his Depression classic about dispossessed Dust Bowl sharecroppers migrating
to California’s Salinas Valley in search of work, Nathanael West published
“The Day of the Locust,” about those equally destitute Americans who
traveled to Hollywood hoping to land in the movies. “They have been cheated
and betrayed,” West wrote. “They have slaved and saved for nothing.”
He could have been describing Americans who lost their jobs, homes and
401(k)’s in our own Great Recession.”

- Frank Rich, The New York Times

[Richard230]

Which reminds me. What ever happened to that fellow who rode a red 9kWh 2012 Zero S (just like the one that I used to own) from the U.S. to the southern tip of South America 5 years ago? I was following his story for a while on the internet and there was also a short illustrated article about his ride in Bike magazine a couple of years ago, but I lost track of what actually happened to the rest of his ride and his Zero. I was hoping he would write a book, but if he did I never heard about it. Anyone know more about that rather adventurous electric motorcycle trip? I can't imagine how he would ever have made it down the length of Argentina, considering how inhospitable that trek to Terra Del Fuego is.

[T Rush]

Funny how there's nothing on their site about how it actually went.


...

oh, Google didn't tell me they already gave it one go ... kinda a false or failed start huh?
...well sounds like they are still 'thinking' about it at least

... that fellow who rode a red 9kWh 2012 Zero S...

hmmm, oh really?, do you remember his name?

oh, here, my Google found it

Thomas Tomczyk who in July beat the world record (still awaiting verification by Guinness World Records) for the longest-ever electric motorcycle ride—riding from the United States to the southern tip of South America
http://www.roadrunner.travel/2016/05...south-america/

[Ted Dillard]

Well, if by "thinking" you mean "talking", I suppose so. I'll tell you what, though. If they're talking with Lightning, (Richard Hatfield) and start their shenanigans, it's gonna be ugly. I wouldn't describe Richard as a "my way or the highway" kind of guy, but he doesn't tolerate foolishness much.

[T Rush]

well maybe 'dreaming about it' was what I meant more by saying 'thinking'

I looked it up, nowhere else did I find anything on a Lightning 'dual-sport' like they posted, so