Solo Rider Is First Lady to Cross Africa on EV Bike
As EVs turn into extra common on the roads, it’s changing into extra frequent to listen to moaning about EV ranges and the way limiting ranges of 200 miles per cost may be. Electrical ranges don’t must be limiting, although, and one particular person has gone out of their strategy to present simply what EVs can do by driving one all the way in which from Spain throughout all the African continent.
Sinje Gottwald set off from Barcelona, Spain, to trip an electrical Cake Kalk bike down the west coast of Africa, passing by way of nations together with Guinea, Nigeria, Angola and Namibia earlier than ending in South Africa. In whole, the trip noticed her cowl greater than 8,000 miles over 124 days – together with 140 stops for battery recharging.
“Discovering locations to cost was the toughest half,” stated Gottwald in a press launch. “In some areas it was extraordinarily troublesome, and I needed to plan the day very completely. Many instances, I didn’t know if I’d discover a place to cost in any respect!”
Gottwald coated all the continent of Africa unaided by technical or medical assist and, within the course of, turned the primary girl to cross Africa on an electrical bike.
She added: “I had a few minor crashes in troublesome terrain at low velocity, however greater than as soon as I used to be nearly run over by vehicles; visitors is loopy and vehicles that overtake don’t go away any area!”
To cowl the 8,000-mile journey, Gottwald set out from Spain with two batteries for her Cake Kalk AP bike. She additionally took two chargers and spare elements together with a controller, show, throttle, chain, and fuses, in addition to a laptop computer in case her bike wanted a software program replace mid-ride.
Gottwald hit the highway on October 14, 2022, driving to the southern tip of Spain the place she took a ferry throughout the Mediterranean sea to Morocco. She then tackled the sand of Morocco, earlier than heading into Mauritania and Senegal.
The primary challenges of the journey rolled in when Gottwald reached Guinea. There, she traversed muddy and waterlogged jungle tracks.
Alongside the way in which, the one points Gottwald encountered got here when the desert sand wrought havoc on her fusebox. Aside from that, Gottwald was simply caught out by lengthy border crossings and loopy visitors – all issues that may influence any gas-powered bike rider as properly.
