Another great day greets me at 5.30 am. Cool air promises a few hours of perfect TWIKEng across France before the sun heats up the air again. Today I’ll be driving to the sea and along the coast before heading to a small picturesque village called Cruzy and a stay at a B&B. Another thing: Today is France’s national day – I suspect I’ll see some festivities this evening and lots of banners and flags out today. No-one is up when I head downstairs to unplug my TWIKE. As I mentioned yesterday, the charging setup was pretty impromptu – […]
TDE2019 Day 2 – First taste of France
I’m probably getting old … for two reasons: Didn’t sleep too well after staying up until way after 1am and having a few drinks whilst chatting with old friends and my body wasn’t at all impressed by me wanting to get up at 5.30 am instead of my usual 5 am and saw me super-awake at exactly 4.58 am. Which is why I decided to get up right away and prepare for an early departure since my trip for today would be very long anyway and would give me some more time to enjoy the drive. After a quick shower […]
TDE2019 – Day 1: Prologue
Today is the day! The side-bar countdown seemed to melt away in no time during the last 20 or so days. With my experience of many TWIKE adventures I was able to pack my bags and required cables for this trip within 30 minutes late Thursday evening after a late business meeting that saw me getting back home after 10 pm. Friday morning I spent a little more time than usual with my family to say good-bye. We will be meeting up in Barcelona coming Monday evening. As usual, my wife takes the ‘TWIKE 560 departing on a long trip’ […]
TDE2019 – GO!
TWIKE560 is on it’s way to southern Spain! Follow me here with the usual entries and see where I am exactly thanks to TW560’s GPS track!
Pre-TDE2019 balancing
Balancing batteries is an important part of maintaining pack health. Especially with a battery pack that doesn’t have an active cell-level BMS monitoring every cell. TWIKE 560 currently has three 100-cell stacks which all would need an own balancing connection – a BMS would be adding weight, considerable amounts of cabling and complexity to the setup. Furthermore, one of the really neat features of Dreifels‘ DFC 3.0 controller, being able to completely and physically disconnect the battery from the vehicle when not in use and effectively go to zero amps would be rendered useless as the BMS controller is connected […]
TDE2019 – Two Weeks To Go…
It’s been a while since my last post – life’s been hectic and super-busy. There are many draft entries in my queue waiting to be finished… One thing I’m looking forward, though, is our summer holiday as a family this year. We’re heading to Spain and staying at my wife’s parents apartment outside of Alicante. I’m in need of a break! This year, for the first time, our family summer holiday involves TW560 – hence the name of this TWIKE adventure: TDE2019 Tour de l’Espagne. Check out our route for this year’s 3-week break: Read more about TDE2019 and how […]
TWIKE 5 (…6) update
It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned anything about the development of next-gen TWIKE’s. My TWIKE is a third-generation TWIKE that went into production over 27 years ago and is still in production today! The first version of TWIKE’s were a human powered recumbent bike for two people, capable of sustaining 50 km/h for 50km. One of the first design studies for this vehicle looked like something from a science fiction novel: If you want to buy a new one, you can do so by visiting the website of the current manufacturer Fine Mobile and press the ‘contact us’ […]
TDI2019 Day 12 – Brescia -> Switzerland
After a very nice evening with my friends in Brescia, it’s time to head back home. Instead of choosing another selection of small road across the Alps, for today I chose to try a recently-built stretch of Autostrada that will take me to Milan quicker and with less traffic…and with a much better road surface. We say our good-bye’s and off I go, promising to be back soon! The motorway is as free as expected. I get TW560 into a truck’s slipstream and settle into a 1h20 drive to Milan. The road surface and the Pianura being flat brings my […]
TDI2019 Day 11 – La Spezia -> Brescia
Today’s trip to Brescia is going to be a full mix of landscapes – saying goodbye to the sea, crossing the Apennines and onward across the Pianura. For this I get up very early as I’ve planned to drive along some very small and interesting single-lane roads, exploring rural Italy away from any main roads. From La Spezia, driving northwards, I immediately start climbing towards the Apennine. And the views to be seen are really worth the never-ending hair-pin bends on less-than-ideal road surfaces. The further back the valley I get, the less tarmac the road surface is made of. […]
TDI2019 Day 10 – Terni -> La Spezia
Time flies – as always in Terni – and I’ve got to start making my way back home. I’ve decided to drive to La Spezia today, 410km further north. With the currently very moderate temperatures and the additional weight of my luggage, I believe this will be a near-full cycle for my batteries today. As per an unwritten tradition, we all congregate at the same bar we’ve been saying our goodbyes for the last 20 years and have a farewell espresso and cornetto 🙂 Today’s route will take me across a rolling landscape before meeting up with the sea and […]