Month: December 2016

How do I go about making my solar bike? I don't own an electric bike, I don't know much about solar energy capture… So the questions are in all directions:

• For electric bike: What type of engine? Motor hub or pedal?  Motor on the bike or on the wheel of a trailer that pushes the bike?
• What power for the battery?
• How can the power of the sun, irregular, charge the battery? How does it regulate?
• For solar panels: how much? What power? What size? Where to install them? On the bike, on a trailer, on both? How to fix them?

To sort out all these ideas, I realize a mental map: https://app.wisemapping.com/c/maps/503304/public I'm looking for resources on the Internet, there's no shortage. Of course I fall on "the" precursor: from France to Japan by solar bike

Today I met Jean-Claude who is a physics teacher in Dijon. I asked him all the questions that had come to my mind on the previous days:

• How to calculate the energy consumed by the bike to determine the required surface of solar panels?
• How is solar energy regulated by nature so fluctuating?

He enthusiastically embarked on clever calculations and brilliant demonstrations, which I sometimes only partially understood, but it was so reassuring to meet someone who knows! Someone who dissipates the fog around us! I will leave with answers and full of new questions, particularly on the practical aspects of the implementation of these basic principles. Before leaving, Jean-Claude tries my electric-assisted bike. For the photo, he poses near the sign bearing the name of his street: "Path of the solar", I'm on the right track!

According to Wikipedia, an electric power-assisted bicycle (V.A.E.) is a bicycle equipped with an auxiliary electric motor and a rechargeable battery. Legal definition of a V.A.E. In France, a bicycle with electric assistance must conform to the European Directive EC2002/24 and the French standard NF R30-020 laying down the following general principles:

• The rated power of the engine shall not exceed 250 watts,
• The assistance works up to the speed of 25 km/h, not beyond,
• The support is provided only when the user is pedaling.

A vehicle will be considered a moped if one of the following conditions is fulfilled:

• The rated engine power is greater than 250 watts,
• The assistance operates at a speed of more than 25 km/h,
• The support works when the user does not pedal, for example using a joystick.

In France, such a vehicle must be insured like any moped and requires the wearing of a suitable helmet. Moreover, it is not allowed to take the bike paths.

This afternoon it was my "first time", my first try with an electric-assisted bike loaned by the gable-on-street cycle shop. It was a very informative outing for a novice like me, my impressions were contrasting: on the one hand, a great satisfaction to climb the coast of vises at an unusual speed, but on the other hand, what frustration on flat ground when The assistance leaves me as soon as I exceed 25 km/h, the high weight of the bike is then felt! I'll have to get used to it… But on reflection, in recent years, when I randonnais bike with my saddlebags (tent, sleeping bag, clothes, food etc…), my average speed has always been less than 25 km/h. This will still be the case this summer, especially since the course in the Alps will have a difference! Under these conditions, the lack of assistance beyond 25 km/h will be more rarely felt.