Month: July 2017

I decide to exploit this day to repair my trailer. I deplore multiple directions.
I make calls to Bourg-Saint-Maurice at several cycle stores, without success. Francis contacts Tom Papay, a suntripeur 2013 and 2015, who lives near here and who will present his film. He has an Extrawheel trailer, too, and a Mig welding machine, but you have to find a welder. I am going to see a farmer at the top of the station, he is ready to help me but his equipment is too powerful for such fine tubes.

The beautiful farm of Alain:

A car mechanic from Tignes wants me to show him my trailer …
After much discussion with each other, I realize that the remedy could be worse than the disease. Better to continue so …
Come what may.

Daniele is happy to have once again the honors of the local press:

Visits: 91

View Full Screen

Visits: 72

This is the profile of this morning’s course.

Luckily, I woke up early: 5:55. I will be able to catch up, even take a little advance.
The price to pay: no breakfast.

The charge of my battery is very low due to yesterday’s problems, so I choose the minimum level of assistance, so I go up very slowly. But it goes, the rise is fairly regular.

At 1 km from the pass, Zag overwhelms me, followed by Mickaël. More than 800m, 500m, 200m, that’s it!

Then others arrive, everyone exchanged their impressions on the climb, it’s warm.

The descent on Val-d’Isère is magnificent.

Visits: 68

After other incidents that still look at me, I arrive at Lanslebourg. 10 km separate me from the lodging where the others arrived, where a hot meal was months aside for me. But it is 9pm and by SMS, Daniele reminds me that the regulation of the SunTrip forbids us to circulate after 9pm. I need an accommodation: I turn my head, a youth hostel is extending my arms to the other side of the torrent. No hot meal, but a nice gite, my bike sleeps in the middle of lettuce and curly.

Visits: 82

The adventure continues for the competitors of the Sun Trip Tour, the tour of the region by solar bike. After a night in the Vercors, the most courageous have rubbed shoulders with the mythical big passes like that of the Iron Cross.

Today, cap sur Val d'Isère!!

Visits: 80

After a good pizza at the sun, with Paul, Jean-Louis, Daniele, Jean-Yves, we leave under a warm sun. Very soon, Jean-Louis warns me that the wheel of my trailer rubs on a tube! It's happening again! Forced to repair, I let the others go. I find a corner in the shade and I dismantle. I'm going back two hours late. I hope that this sanitary joint, by its flexibility, can withstand better than the steel collar used in the first place.

Visits: 74

Fortunately, it is midday and the team of France3 Rhône-Alpes Auvergne stops to eat with us. I entrust all my harvest of images to their computer. Thanks Amri!

Visits: 72

Everyone takes care of a serious intervention or finds a tinker to do on his bike. '

Visits: 64

Until it opens, Jean-Yves repairs broken rays, others cause. Fortunately, we're well settled.

Visits: 83

Daniele arrived first, he is interviewed by France 3: Suntrip Tour Wednesday 12 July

Sun Trip Tour Wednesday 12 July

Visits: 77

Nice step, the worries of the beginning of the day are forgotten, even if the problem is not solved. The descent of Lans-en-Vercors was very beautiful, overlooking the Chartreuse and Belledonne.

From Grenoble to Vizille, the trafic was painful. Fortunately, we drove in a group, then alone at the stops, then we found further suntripeurs. The climb to the col of the Iron Cross was long and rough, but no one can say that he was not warned: The climb was even more severe a few kilometers from the pass when the battery was empty, because of a sun hidden for too long. At that time, I was happy to have a development of MTB and to be able to “grind”. But the effort is always rewarded: arrived at the lake, the sun illuminated the valley a few minutes and I was able to film beautiful plans.

At the pass: Balance: few km, but quite a bit of difference!

Visits: 89

This morning, the collective departure of Lans-en-Vercors. I was quietly filming the Caravan of solar bikes when suddenly a noise in the trailer forces me to stop. A tube has completely desolidariséed. The troubles caused by a congenital malformation continue. The suntripeur gene reacts: Scotch and Rilsan allow you to leave. For how many miles?

Visits: 81

France 3: "Sun Trip Tour: They arrived in Lans-en-Vercors!"

Visits: 80

Daniele, Stéphane and Jean-Louis:

Visits: 77

Francis bichone sa "Tribellule":

Visits: 66

Departure of the Puy-en-Velay for the Rhône Valley: We have a very covered weather, our batteries are at the lowest! 1250 m of positive elevation is waiting for us, so our legs will be our main engine. Negative 1766m: Bicycles that have a "regeneration" function will be able to recharge their batteries. These are the ones whose unducted motor is located in the hub of a wheel. Their engine turns into a generator, much like a dynamo. A chance, that's the case of my bike!

Visits: 80

France 3: "Sun Trip Tour: First stage curled, en route for the second" Sun Trip 10 July

Visits: 86

This morning the trailer is again "on its feet". Today the stage is short but the weather announces a thunderstorm for the end of the morning. My Italian sidekick, Daniele, is proposing to trace the shortest to our destination. The few thinnings allow to scrounge a few watts but it is very little for the long climb that awaits us. Throughout the morning a stormy sky gathers and darkens in our backs. The threat forces us to redouble our efforts to cross the pass. A very small stop for a cereal bar and we are very fast on the Puy, more than 25 km! We arrive at the Matourt, our rendezvous point, just ten minutes before a torrential rain falls on the city. With other suntripeurs, we shelter in a restaurant.  In the shelter, we share our stories by tasting a delicious aligot, and we have compassionate thoughts for those who are still on the road! The progress of July 9th: "The cyclists of the Sun Trip Tour made a stopover in Le Puy-en-Velay" The Awakening of the Haute-Loire on July 10: «The Sun Trip Tour has staged the Puy» Site of the city of Puy-en-Velay: «Sun Trip Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes: 40 Solar bikes have FA It stage at Le Puy-en-Velay»

Visits: 93

I didn't believe it, but I did! I'll be able to leave tomorrow! Thanks to Guillaume who is there at the campsite, thanks to his drill, I was able to consider a repair. And thanks to the collective intelligence and mutual assistance between suntripeurs, I was able to repair during part of the night! The old suntripeurs me that the important thing is not to find the perfect solution, ideal, but a solution that allows to arrive at the next stage, where there, we seek a better solution.

Visits: 75

Since the middle of the afternoon, I felt the trailer moving abnormally behind the bike. The last few meters when arriving at the campsite, something began to rub against the wheel. Once at the campsite, I get off the bike and discover the extent of the disaster: the solar panels literally collapsed on the wheel of the trailer! I look under the panels: it is a centerpiece, yet stainless steel which has cracked and broken in several places. Despair is totally invading me! So many days of work destroyed for a room too fragile! And tomorrow is Sunday, no DIY shop open! No car garage, either! And tomorrow night, all the suntripeurs have an appointment at Le Puy-en-Velay! My first day of Sun Trip will be my last?!?  

Visits: 78

France 3: "The Sun Trip Tour is gone!" The Sun Trip Tour is gone!

Visits: 78

9am, Place de Jaude in Clermont-Ferrand: The structure with these solar panels is wooden, red cedar. France 3: "The Sun Trip Tour is gone!" The Sun Trip Tour is gone!

Visits: 89

I arrived at the campsite in the middle of the night. After only 3 hours of sleep, I meet at breakfast all the suntripeurs and Suntripeuses arrived since Thursday. Lots of bikes, all different and original, are parked, ready for departure!

Visits: 85

Like some participants of the SunTrip, I would have liked to arrive by bike on the place of departure (Clermont-Ferrand). But I had to take it by car. And Surprise! On the spot there was another bike already arrived! And not just any bike, because it is the "Tribellule" of Francis Cottard that I could see on the Internet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U1OMemZbS8 This vehicle is an adaptation DeFrancis Cottard from the bike oh how mythical of Bernard Cauquil, the Fastest SunTrip 2015!

Visits: 78