as you might know, older swiss twikes are fitted with a plexi windscreen to save weight. (elsewhere in the EU, the glass manufacturer-lobby was successful in having legislation for cars include glass as the only material approved for windscreens…which adds an uncool 30kgs to european twikes and forces even the hyper-efficient VW XL1 to have a glass windscreen even though all side windows are poly carbonate!) after my vandalism incident last year, and my subsequent purchase and custom fitting of the worlds’ last original twike plexi windscreen, i am obviously even more interested in keeping it in pristine condition! however, […]
fondue in malans – a two-day TWIKE trip
as you might know, the swiss TWIKE driver’s association organizes various events every year. since we’re in switzerland, fondues and related events are “de rigeur” during the cold season. this year, we’ve been treated to a total of 4(!) such events for the club alone – one of the better ones is away from the usual swiss gravitational centres: far off in the grison alps. i’ve already blogged about one of theses events here. this year, the grison event is going to be held in the wine-producing foothills of malans at a winery. both myself and my trusted co-pilot and […]
TDB2015: planning and preparations are progressing
time is a wonderfully fluid thing – just a moment ago, we were looking at a counter for TDB2015 at 130 days…and today we’re already at 80 to go! we’re currently applying for our russian visas – nothing has changed here from 20 years ago: you answer a TON of questions, need a “sponsor” from within, every step within the territory has to be accounted for and you need to prove your medical insurance covers russia by providing a written confirmation by your insurer. they were asking for all countries i visited during the last 10 years: an interesting challenge […]
Repairs: replacing the charging cable signaling pigtail
during the last few weeks, TW560’s been behaving strangely. whilst driving – and more annoyingly – at red lights, my TWIKE started to claim that it was ready for charging, although i was either driving or clearly not wanting to charge, since i was standing at a red light. it’s a really annoying and potentially dangerous problem. unlike newer ev’s, TWIKEs come with a non-removable charging cable which directly connects to the inverter. detection of drive-readiness is achieved through a dummy socket in the vehicle’s interior. my current problem was a bad contact or broken cable, since the problem was […]
on my recent visit to the us of a: hmm…
a recent business trip took me to california’s silicon valley. this entry consists of the bits and bobs i saw, heard and thought about during the 5 days i spent in america. since everyone in the us has to be hyped, pumped and ready for the fun, i thought it would be a good idea to blend in and get a fitting picture taken for my visitor badge! for me (and probably most europeans for that matter), america remains a puzzling place. nsa revelations and all the cyber defense babble (which was, after all, why i was visiting) aside, the […]
TDB2015: update on our preparations
quick update on our preparations for this year’s TWIKE adventure. as a few readers of this blog have correctly guessed, TDB2015 stands for “Tour du Baltique” 2015. we’ve decided to take TW560 to the baltic states and cross russian territory when visiting kalinigrad. as usual, i started out by drawing our direct line and then started by defining the start and end point of our trip on a map. later on, whilst driving, this map will be synched to our phone which then shows us the way. one evening i invite jc over to go over the rough plan. as […]
a new TWIKE adventure: TDB2015
ha! better start planning early! as nearly every year for the last 8 years, jc and myself will be taking a TWIKE further afield for around 8-9 days. we’ve decided on a general direction and now we’re dealing with visa regulations, vehicle insurance issues and other practical questions. TDB2015 will take us further afield than any other trip except the one across india. detailed planning of our route will start in february. i’ll be posting updates on our planning when appropriate – at least we’ve got our good old countdown going again and, and looking at it now, it’s only […]
good-bye 2014, hello 2015!
it’s been a while since my last post from tdm2014. TW560 has been clocking lots of kilometers, taking me across switzerland occasionally and taking me to my new office every day. every end of year allows me to check the resetable counter on TW560: Z3 Hand (manual counter) – this year it shows 26830kms – this is quite alot more than switzerland’s average yearly mileage of 12600kms! my average consumption this year is markedly higher than other years because around 85% of the kilometers were driven at high speeds on motorways. the last few days of 2014 were very interesting […]
TDM2014 – Day9, Easy going…after our last pass at 2106m alt.
today, we’re driving home. we know that the weather in southern switzerland will be rain all day long. on the other side of the alps however, things are looking up. this is why we decide to climb the gotthard pass and see if we get some 50/50 view of sun and rain somewhere at the top. View TDM2014 (TW560) TWIKE in a larger map but first we want to eat some breakfast – sounds easier that it is: a busload full of pensioners was raiding the buffet like termites feed off some wood. they leave but empty platters and stuff […]