it’s been a while since jc and i have travelled together in TW560. since i’ve started a new job this year, currently, things are much less flexible as they were before. this is why jc and i have been planning just a few days away – not too far but still somewhere we’ve either not been for 20+ years (me) or not at all (jc). our choice fell on the vogese mountains – a mountain range northwest of basle between mulhouse, strassbourg and belfort. i crossed the vogese mountains more than 20 years ago on my motorbike (on my way […]
A beautiful day ahead…what to do?
Imagine: A saturday – my family fully booked with horse riding and shooting, weather forcast superb for all of switzerland… I decide to leave bright and early to drive wherever TW560 takes me. although i started out as random as possible, arriving in chur gave me just a limited choice of places to go. therefore, i decided to do this trip in the opposite direction, without the passes, since they were still covered in snow. i took the motorway, since i wanted to move away from where i usually am as fast as possible. then, slowly, my battery was quite […]
check your rims, often!
last thursday evening, on my way home, TW560 experienced a major problem: a rim broke whilst going around a corner at about 55 km/h. it was a harrowing experience. first of all, a big bang. then loss of most maneuverability. after that, VERY ugly splintering and scraping sounds coming from behind whilst trying to break and trying not crash into some containers just a few metres away. after what seemed an eternity, TW560 came to a shuddering halt. i stayed in the TWIKE for a few seconds to draw some deep breaths and then got out. what i saw hurt […]
DRL project completed!
i am happy to report that the drl project for TW560 is completed. below i will share the details of how the project came together and how the bom looks like. after ordering the switchback led’s from a US-supplier and blinker covers in germany i was perfecting my DRL amtel-chip powered LED switchback solution and even created a pcb according to the prototype i wrote about in one of my last posts. after only one week – this during the festive season! – the led’s and the covers arrived and i was very happy not to have had to pay […]
happy new year!
happy new year! thank you for reading this blog! TW560 has been a trusted companion for over 19000kms in 2013. i am looking forward to an exiting 2014 with many happy e-kilometers!
DRL > a new project for TW560
18jan14-update: project finished, see result here. swiss road laws are changing. from january 1st, 2014 onwards, every vehicle on switzerland’s roads must have DRL – daylight running lights – when in motion. older vehicles without dedicated DRL can comply with this law by keeping their main lights on during daytime. a TWIKE, obviously, doesn’t have any dedicated DRL and keeping the main lights on during daytime is not an option for most TWIKE pilots, including me: using 210-260W on just a bit of lighting just seems a tad wasteful and – in tw560’s case – will shave of 6-10 kms […]
WAVE 2011 – press clippings
i know it’s been a while since WAVE 2011 in india, but i recently stumbled across a selection of news clippings which i thought would be interesting to anyone who had followed our blog in the past. interestingly, most clips feature the TWIKE with either me or jc… click the images for higher resolution versions. enjoy!
visiting fine mobile, the TWIKE manufacturer
after a good nights’ sleep, i rise refreshed from yesterday’s marathon drive across germany. i have a nice balcony on which i enjoy my breakfast, looking down on rosenthal. breakfast over, i head to fine’s HQ… after chatting with some employees, i head for lunch with fine’s ceo, martin möscheid, his brother and the first official twike2fly (in german) partner from morocco, silvia brutschin (a.k.a. twikezora). after lunch, martin möscheid took some time to explain the history of how TWIKE production was transferred to fine mobile after swisslem went out of business. he filled in many blanks i had and […]
halfway through germany in one day
faster than expected the day has come to drive to rosenthal. i’m really looking forward to meeting the guys at fine mobile. some last minute changes to the route and a decision to add a quick 30 minute charge in wurmlingen and the usual preparations regarding my travel cabling kit. so, here i am, 4:40am. TW560 is fully charged, about 14°C and a sliver of dawn forming on the horizon. although i am used to long-distance >450kms day-long drives on our tours, we seldomly go over 300kms/day. View > rosenthal in a larger map above is the route i will […]
under the hood #2: water + batteries > combine at your own risk!
i’ve had problems charging the TWIKE recently. after driving in wet conditions, charging led to FI failures. i was, however, always able to charge using the two external onboard chargers i added to TW560 for fast charging. charging on normal fuses was no problem and since i normally charge the TWIKE during the night on a 6A non-FI secured line, it took some time to discover the problem… the problem had to be with the internal charger and internal electronics. thomas from moeckli elektrofahrzeuge agreed to have a look and this blog entry documents what we found… TW560 was one […]