Suntrip 2018

In the summer of 2018 Grin decided to participate in the Suntrip Solar Ebike Race, both as a sponsor by designing and supplying datalogging boxes for all the teams, and also as participants with Justin and his partner Anne-Sophie riding a solid half of the event. This is page was meant to consolidate in one place links to the various posts, videos, pictures, and media mentions for those following the trip. A year after the event we edited together the various footage to make a short documentary "3 Wheels Under the SUn" that was presented at the 2020 Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival. You can watch that here too:

Endless-Sphere Forum Posts

Forum discussion Justin and other ebikes enthusiasts getting into technical details about our build and our trip before and during the trip:

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=93482

Build Videos

Trip Videos

MORE TO COME

Instagram

We started an instragram account for Grin halfway through the trip and uploaded some choice pictures along the way: https://www.instagram.com/grin_tech/

Press

Publications/Media about our trip:

North Shore News: https://www.nsnews.com/lifestyle/north-van-couple-commences-epic-bike-trip-using-solar-power-1.23333612
The Vancouver Sun: https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/vancouver-solar-bikers-racing-from-france-to-iran
Radio Canada: https://www.nsnews.com/lifestyle/north-van-couple-commences-epic-bike-trip-using-solar-power-1.23333612
Radio News 1130: https://www.news1130.com/2018/06/16/north-vancouver-couple-tackles-unique-electric-bike-ride-challenge/
Bulgarian newspaper: https://e-svilengrad.com/2018/07/04/???????-???????????-?-??????????-???/
?? https://www.lokalkompass.de/bochum/sport/solar-fahrrad-mit-ruder-antrieb-faehrt-bis-nach-china-d916974.html
CBC https://youtu.be/_80nWPup4fc

CNN Turk in Ezrican https://www.cnnturk.com/turkiye/gunes-enerjili-bisikletle-fransadan-erzincana-geldiler?page=3
Vidéo CNN Turk : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_hKg2_xvJs
Sport X in Turkey https://www.sporx.com/fransadan-erzincana-bisikletle-geldiler-SXHBQ719211SXQ
Kharabara Online (in Farsi)
Tehran Times (in english)https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/425637/Solar-bikers-traverse-Iran-en-route-from-France-to-China
Farsi news video clip
CGTN News (nice video clip)https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514d324d444d79457a6333566d54/share_p.html

Image Gallery

Here are some pictures from each country we traveled.

Vancouver

We started musing about this trike plan in the fall of 2017, but didn't actually get to work on it until April of 2018 when we found a tandem trike for sale on Craigslist. Things moved slowly at first but in the last few weeks before departure the whole team at Grin went full-on to get this vehicle built up and shipped to France in time.

Here's the tandem trike as we found it from a Craigslist posting, we couldn't believe our luck. — Original Tandem Trike

Flipping the back seat to face backwards was easy enough given the simple geometry of the Terratrike frame with a single square tube. The rest of the conversion into a rowing/solar/electric setup, not so easy. — Seats Reversed

The first prototype of the rowing systme used a linear rail with a plywood carriage for the foot rest and rope pulleys. It worked, but the complexity of linear slides reduced the appearl. — Linear Rail Row Prototype

In the catch position of the first prototype rowing rig, ready to push with the legs and the pull with the arms and back. — Row Rig Catch

Side shot of 2nd prototype with the roof temporarily installed. — Pendulum Rig Mockup

Our 2nd prototype row rig had a pivoting pendulum for the foot rest and pulley, which allowed for simplified mechanics and fewer moving parts. — 2nd Prototype Position

The intitial solar roof design used thin walled rectangular aluminum tubing , and supported just two 200W nominal panels. — Solar Roof Frame

Justin and AnSo's first test ride with a solar roof and the 2nd row rig system. Note that the tilting mechanism for the roof has not been built yet, it is fixed. — Test Ride

After welding on all the attachments for the roof supports, LiGo batteries, and storage racks, we stripped the entire frame down for touchup painting on all the ground and welded sections. — Frame Panting

At this stage we've pulled an all nighter, dual controllers and hub motors are installed and now there's a significant wiring mess to tidy up — 11th Hour Assembly

After a successful trial ride of the trike from Vancouver to Sooke, my nephew Xavier was all too keen to hop aboard and go for a ride too. — Nephew Explores

At the very last minute we decided to make an entirely new roof support from fiberglass covered construction foam, in order to expand the panel area from 400 watts nominal to 550 watts. — Fiberglass Cloth Prep

We cut thin strips of the 1 — Reinforcement Rib

This is just one of two support panels for the final solar roof. It is just a tad under 7 feet long and ~32 — Completed Roof Panel

In the 2 days before departure we also fabricated a new swinginf rowing rig from 4130 cromoly tubing. In the end the tubing was too small and flexible and twisted a lot, so a 2nd parallel set of tubes was welded to stiffen things up. — Revision 3 Rowing Rig

We purchased blank pulleys from Mcmaster-Carr at the suggestion of ES users, which had a nice deep groove for the string slot. We then machined our own ball bearing hubs. — Custom Pulleys

The day before departure we got one group shot with the assembled trike in all its glory, — Team Grin

Unable to find an only suppy of solar panels that were 6 cells x 4 cells or 6 x 8, we simply took a standard 100 watt 4x8 cell sheet and chopped it down. — Chopped Panel

Here you can see full 14 foot long 550 watt roof standing on end. It's pretty crazy to see it in this perspective. — Full Size Roof

After another allnighter, the entire trike was fully disassmbled to raw components and left on the floor for the staff at Grin to pack up and ship via air cargo, while Justin and AnSo rushed off to the airport. — Dismantled for Shipping

France

Suntrip through France

We had the trike components shipped to France one week before the event started so that we had time to re-assemble everything and make last-minute improvements, and also sort out our necessarily travel Visa's at the embassies in Paris. The Suntrip crew and participants gathered in Lyon for several days before departing as a group towards the Alps. This gave us an opportunity to meet and spend time with all the other riders and gave everyone a chance to field test their gear in some difficult conditions before the real race start on July 19th.

Shortly after receiving our Iranian Visa's, Justin proceeded to loose his passport, prompting a panicked day retracing our steps in Paris until we (luckily) found it in a cafe. — Iranian Visa

The good staff at Grin managed to get all the trike pieces packed away in 6 boxes and delivered to France via air cargo to Lyon, waiting Justin and AnSo's arrival. — Trike Shipment

After unpacking all 6 boxes we had everything laid out to rebuild the trike. Only a few minor components were damaged in shipping and nothing was missing. Phew. — Unpacked, Ready for Assembly

Anne-Sophies grandfather and aunt look on and help out with the trike assembly. Here they are sewing on straps to the cargo rack for holding our sleeping mattresses. — Trike Assembly

After two days of assembly with AnSo's family we're at the final stage to get our gear loaded and ride out to the Place St. Jerome. That's where everyone involved in the Suntrip is camped out. — Ready for Loading

For the first time we got to see all the other Suntrip vehicles up close. Many different varieties and approaches. We'd been talking of getting a front fairing like this on our own trike. — Other Vehicles

Most of the bikes had two but some even 3 Cycle Analysts for monitoring the various solar and motor drives. But the time we added our Databox logging device to each vehicle, that made for a lot of screens. — Intrumentation

Given that Anne-Sophie's grandfather (seated) is from Lyon, it's no surprise that quite an entourage from the extended family were able to come visit and see us off. — AnSo's Family

There was a large public exhibit of all the solar bikes at the Place des Terraux in Lyon — Public Expo in Lyon

Reasonably comfortable, protected from the sun, why not have a seat! — Mom and Aunt

Before all the crowds came and activities started AnSo's dad got a top view of the solar bike gathering for the event in Lyon. — Vehicles Gathered

The Suntrip organizers wanted everyone to be wearing the suntrip jersey for a consistent look and sponsor support. Unfortunately I lost mine the very first day of the race. — Official Suntrip Shirts

During the 4 day ride from Lyon to Chamonix, we were loosely accompanied by people who had done previous suntrip races. They called themselves the Friends of the Suntrip and some had very elegant solar bike setups. Since they were on a more leisurely schedule, there wasn't the need for as much solar panel area allowing for some cuter looking systems. — Friends of Suntrip

The tablet computer was pretty handy for recording the serial number association of each databox with the team particiapnt, so that after the trip we would no which set of logged data belonged to which team. — Configuring Databoxes

On the route from Lyon to Chamonix, we passed through the town of Chambery for a photo and media stop, with a local cafe sponsoring lunch and drinks. — Aerial View in Chambery

Some of the cycle routes suggested by Google Maps were quite lovely, like this one here. Smooth, paved, few cars, country-side views etc. — Scenic pathways

Regis is looking like a seasoned trike pilot — AnSo's Dad

On the test ride towards Chamonix there was some serious hill climbs that pushed some systems to find their limits. In this case, the bottlenect was anderson connectors on a motor with a fast motor wind. The connection remained in tact but we doubled up the anderson plugs for this competitor so this wouldn't happen again. — Melted Andersons

We were last to leave the campsight before the final stretch to Chamonix, due to time spent installing Databoxes on people's systems. We had no idea how long of a day was in store for us after this. . — Late Departure

These are the databox logging devices that Justin was attempting to install on each of the solar vehicles. They were custom made by us for the Suntrip race and log all of the electrical consumption, solar generation, and vehicle position and speed stats to a flash memeory card for post trip data analysis. — Databoxes

We were following the google maps recommended cycle route which went from a paved road, to a dirt road, to a dirt path, to a full on mountain bike trail (not shown but just a few meters further). The trike hit a diagonal culvert and flipped sideways. Luckily this was at low speed an nothing got damaged. — First Spill, blame Google Maps

We oversestimated the weather and underestimated the challenges on the route to Chamonix the day before the race start. Here we are at the final peak after climbing hundreds and hundreds of meters with the motor power set down to 200W to avoid completely draining the batteries. The pack shut off just a few minutes shy of the hostel. — Climbing on Empty

Having a map that shows the upcoming elevation profile is immensily valueable as we learned on this leg of the trip. That way we could dole out just the right amount of battery power to stretch it to the top. — Elevation Map

After the long haul up Mt. Vaudagne with almost no battery, there was little left in Justin's tank either. He fell out of the trike on arrival to the hostel where all the other Suntrip participants had gathered for a final meal together. — Exhausted

Our Endless-Sphere friend who goes by Made-In-The-Alps met us both before the race in Chamonix and also in Switzerland. Some of these chocolates survived to the end of Turkey. — Chocolate Gifts

At Chamonix we were treated to a gondolar ride to the top of a mountain for some spendid views. — True Alps

When parking an ebike you want to have the panels as perfectly oriented to the sun as possible, and in the evenings and early mornings that often ment propping the front wheel up to increase the angle beyond what the roof tilt allows. — Optimal Solar Parking

Switzerland

Suntrip through Switzerland

We left Chamonix, France, at 10 in the morning, and by noon we had already going over our first mountain pass and entered Switzerland, and then by the end of the day we had already climbed another mountain pass and entered Italy. It was an epic and sunny first day and our our last chance to see all the other riders before everyone headed out on their own path at their own pace. We covered 199km and over 6000 meters of elevation change.

Just when we wanted to stop for a thirst break while on the last climb in Switzerland, we see this spring fed fountain on the side of the road pouring crystal clear water 24/7. It was too perfect. — Perfect Fountain

A friend from endless-sphere, Arnaud, met up with us while we were passing through Switzerland. He hopped on the back rowing station of the trike, and I hopped on his high power hub motor full suspension ebike, and we both had a blast for a bit. — Riding with Arnaud

Italy

Suntrip through Italy

We were one of a small number of teams to take a southern route through Italy. The hazy skies reduced the solar collection and a few days in we had our first clouds and rain, but a visit to the Osteria Ai Ioppi human powered amusement park made sure made up for that.

There are many subtle differences between ridnig a normal ebike and a solar ebike. You instinctively start chasing every bit of available sunlight, even if that means following a path that makes other road users scratch their heads. — Shadow Avoidance

This was one of our first stops for wild camping. We looked on the map for any place near a river, and this spot was just perfect, made that much better by dancing fireflies all night. Sadly, this was also the last time on the entire suntrip that we overnighted in a place we could swim. — Wild Camping in Italy

When the sun shows up through the gap on an otherwise cloudy day, you can get the combined direct sunlight plus the diffuse light from the adjacent clouds. In this case 591 watts from our nominal 550 watt panels is the highest output we saw the entire trip It didn't last long, but after a mostly rainy and cloudy day it was a welcome moment of levity. — Epic solar watts

It was pretty neat to see 3 generations of of a family all working in different facets of the same family business like this. — The Ai Pioppi Family

Ai Pioppli is a restaurant first and foremost. A hiking group just had a private event and was served pork and polenta, and they kindly gave us a plate too. — Pork and Polenta

The main workshed is tiny and jam packed with tools. Here Bruno was using a cold cut saw to cut off small steel brackets that he later welded in place. — Bruno's workshop

The bevel gears linking the horiztonal shaft to spinning vertial shaft had a tendency to skip under higher torque. — Drivechain Inspection

Here Bruno is doing repair work and adjustment on the hub for human propulsion while his two grandsons give a hand. — Pioppi Hub Inspection

Don't look, it's bright! — Welding Goggles

OK, I'm somewhat exaggerating since it's not spinning all that fast, but it was still quite a thrill to be a test rider on the human powered tire swing while Bruno and crew were trying to get a new drive linkage worked out. — Tire Swing

It was frustrating when the map route would show a straight road forwards only to arrive and find a road blocked off. — Unexpected Dead End

Slovenia

Suntrip through Slovenia

Slovenia was a bit like switzerland. Almost perfect roads, countryside views, impeccable villages, and just like Switzerland we were through it in no time.

Luckily I had recently purchased a cordless drill and some cobalt bits as continenty repair tools, and was able to drill out and repair one of their trailer hinges which had torn through the rivets. — Trailer Repair

This isn't the best shot, but the small villages in Slovenia were almost as clean and idilic looking as those in Switzerland. — Picture Perfect Homes

This french couple was on their own solar bicycle journey completely apart form the Suntrip. We knew they were in the area but we bumped into each other quite by chance. They were doing things at a more relaxed pace of course. — Other Solar Cyclists

We'd been carrying around a can of black spraypaint for over a week now. It was finally time to use it! The plywood footrests got their makeover. — Paint Job

This cyclist had already ridden over 120km in a cycle race that morning, and was ever grateful for the broad draft that we gave him for his ride back home. We paced him for a good 20km or so. — Drafter

Apparently this is the patron saint of travellers. We didn't know that when we pulled over for a nap on the adjacent lawn and were then later given a fabulous Slovenian welcome — Shrine to St. Mhael

The woman here prepared a set of picnic and snack foods for us, her son on the left local accordian tunes while her daughter on the right acted as a translater. All this from taking a nap on the side of the road. — Slovenian Family

We thought this was the cutest border crossing ever, but it didn't take long after crossing it before the Croatian police escorted us back and asked that we go through the real border. This one's just for locals. — Croatian Border No Go

They were quite friendly about turning us back. AnSo with EU citizenship could have carried on by my Canadian passport required going through formal customs. — Croatian Police

After the picnic we were treated to a full accordian performance of local music by a very talented young man. You can't help but get up and dance! — Accordian Dance

Luckily the real border crossing was just a few km away. Another team with the Moroccan riders had to do a much larger detour after similarly being denied passage at their first border. — Entering Croatia

Croatia

Suntrip through Croatia

Inside Croatia we had some of our first setbacks of the trip, including multiple flat tires and the failure of the freewheel mechanism of our rowing system. But a miraculous Sunday evening repair from a freelance bike mechanic kept us rolling, and the generosity of the Croatian people coupled with their world cup soccer victory against Iceland meant we were very well taken care of. The many abandoned and war scarred houses we passed added a more somber element to the ride.

Anne-Sophie put on her best spirits duruing the downpour, even as passing cars would drench us with side spray. — AnSo Rain

Regular occurance of people in cars taking pictures and videos while passing us. Here at least it is the passenger and not the driver! — Croatia Driveby Vids

On the left are the tools common to a standard bike toolkit. On the right are all the additional things I brought to cover any eventuality . — Tookit

We have no idea what the story is behind this 15 foot tall giant penny farthing. Can anyone tell us? — Giant Penny Farthing

Anne-Sophie was convinced these are Storks. We saw them nesting on telephone poles like this all the way from Croatia to Turkey. — Bird Nest

The owner of this Bistro saw us taking a short 10 minute break on the grass and invited us in for free coffee, snacks, and wifi. And that's how a 10 minute break becomes 2 hours! — Bistro Lav

In between nice lived in houses were many homes that were long ago abandoned and still bearing the bullet holes and scars of war with Serbia — Riddled Homes

I was not really expectnig that we'd actually get our broken freewheeling double chainring rowing rig repaired in a small Croatian town on a sunday evening. Danijel you are amazing! — Freewheel Repair

The old failed freewheel after a succesfful and destructive disassembly — Busted Freewheel

Picture of a very happy AnSo and Justin now able to be on their way again after freewheel replaced. — Repair Success

After wishing and praying all day for the sun to come out, when it finally showed up it was so low on the horizon that all we got was a measly 2 watts. — LateSun

Our 3rd time fixing a leak in the rear wheel on the same day. We knew something was up. — Rear Wheel Flat

This is what the rear view mirror sees when a happy An'So is up front pedaling. — Rear View Mirror View

Turns out that it was a crack in the sidewall of the Marathon Plus tire that was abrading the inner tubes. — Schwalbe Wall Crack

We did some musical tires to get a new Marathon Plus on the rear and installed our offroad 2.8 — Larger Tires

People in Croatia were friendly for sure — Croatian Guys

This guy Mario went ahead and organized and then paid for a delightful B&B for us in his hometown after Croatia defeated Iceland in a world cup match. — Croatian Mario

We neglected to take photos of the place, but it was just a gorgeous country house with the sweetest host. — Croatian B&B

We experienced our first periods of really intense rain as we worked our way east through Croatia. The roof protected quite well in ligher rains, but in downpours like this there was no hope to stay dray. — Croatian Rain

Serbia

Suntrip through Serbia

Our initial route didn't go through Serbia as we wanted to ride down the coast, but we changed plans to avoid the extensive mountain ranges. We had a chance to meet up with another pair of suntrip riders (The Viguers) outside of Belgrade, and were well accommodated by locals, letting us sleep in a boat near the Danube river, and being served plums and cucumbers fresh from the garden.

An'So took to singing silly songs as a way to cheer up during the difficult times when we were facing rain and headwinds into Serbia — Making the Best of Rainy Day

The Suntrip organizers wanted everyone to take a picture in front of the Motherland Monument in Kiev. But we didn't go to the Ukraine, and so found the closest looking moment that we could, this one in Belgrade. — Not the Motherland

The two Viguier brothers caught up to us in Belgrade, and for the first time since we left we got to ride along with other Suntrip participants. With dual direct drive hub motors, we were faster than them on the uphills and so zipped ahead and then parked our trike to be ideally angled to the sun while waiting for them to catch up. — Viguier Encounter

Apparently these river boats can be purchased for about 300 euros. I was tempted. The catfish fishing here is good, and we learned all about kerplunking from one of the local experts. — Boats on Danube

We were kindly offered the option to sleep on one of the boats that was drydocked at the Marina rather than setting up our tent in the pouring ran. — Boat Overnight

We tried to adopt a kitten or two on the way, but the cats were having none of it. — Yes we'll take you

The Viguer borthers had very nice solar bike setups, with both roof and solar panels that could tilt not only left right but also forwards backwards, to better take advantage of the rising and falling sun when on an east-west bike trip. — Alain and Jean-Clead

We'd heard that Serbia was a country with many stray dogs that could become a nuissance to cycle tourists. AnSo was armed with a squirtgn but this puppy just wanted to run as fast as he/she could, and stopped chasing us once it saw a car that was moving even faster. — Dog Chase

We only installed one bolt on the front support of the solar panel and this proved a big mistake, as the bolt got loose and eventually punctured and broke trough the fiberglass and foam. — Roof Damage

The lovely Serbian woman who hailed us from the side of the road insistated that we depart with some plums in hand, and after a few minutes picking from her orchard, we were loaded. — Plum Picking

They had recently decided to retire from the larger city to a rural country home and were just loving it. — Serbian Retiress

One thing we noticed in both Serbia and Croatia was many more young people operating and working farm machinery than we see in the west, where it's a dying generation. — Horses and Tractors

Danger of recumbent bikes is things falling out of your pockets. I knew better but still had this happen, the back wheel rolled over and shattered the screen. Unofrtunately no phone shops in Serbia or Bulgaria were able to repair since the LG phone model was specific to North Americal. — Failed Phone Repair

Always a tough trade-off between the serenity and beauty of the countryside versus the rough and bumpy roads. — Serbian Country Roads

Bulgaria

Suntrip through Bulgaria

Unfortunately much of our intial time in Bulgaria was spent in the city of Sofia waiting for a care package shipment from Grin and attempting to get a broken cell phone repaired. The highway conditions and sun situation was excellent though, and we were able to get back into the swing of covering long distances each day.

Passing the Serbia Bulgaria border, only hold up was the usual border guards wanting pictures. — Bulgaria Border

Stayed at the very happening Hostel Mostel in Sofia waiting for Fedex Package — Hostel Mostel

AnSo met with a longtime unicycling friend Galina — Galena Meeting

Larger offroad tires frequently put to use — Offroad Tires

Small iron curl from lathe shaving caused one of numerous flats on the trip — Another Flat

The shoulder on the Bulgarian highways is just a dream for solar biking. Flat, smooth, wide, and with no trees or mountains to cast shaddows. — Bulgaria Highway Shoulder

After the most spectactular 200+km of perfect freeway driving, we get a 10 euro fine. Totally worth it. — Bulgarian Police

It wasn't until seeing the sign written that we got the name — Hotel Radi Inn

Yes, that's our Bulgarian traffic violation ticket — Traffic Ticket

I was not actually expecting our fedex redlivery to work out, but sure enough fedex came through in the morning. Spare tires, electronics, and freewheels in that box. — Fedex Arrived

Turkey

Suntrip through Turkey

We had heard great things about cycling through Turkey and our experience validated that for sure. The roads were great, the food and hospitality were excellent, and the sun was beaming down uninterrupted the entire time. We took a ferry to skip past Istanbul and did a southern detour to pass through the famed Cappadocia region, and ended up crossing paths with Waiwon Ching of eZee bike both at the begning and near the end of the country.

There were soo many active stork nests built on telephone poles from Croatia all the way down to Turkey. — Pretty big for birdlings

We shared the ferry ride from with lots of animals. It was impressive watching the truck drivers cram into this ferry deck without an inch of wasted space. — Sheep on board

Waiwon Ching of eZeebike happend to be arriving in Tekridag on the same day as us, even though it took a completely different path through Italy and Greece.

His trike setup has a much smaller solar roof and so he also charges the batteries at night with a Satiator. — Ching on the Road

We had a an entire day to kill unfortunately, we thought that there was an 11am ferry but it didn't stop in the right destination so we had to wait around till 5pm. — Justin, AnSo, and Ching

I took the opportunity while waiting for the ferry to strip down the trike so that I could replace the shifter cable housing on the Rohloff hub with compressionsless housing. That required taking EVERYTHING off the trike, which gave us a chance to appreciate just how much we were hauling. — Trike Emptied

Ching was a pretty popular dude whever we stopped in Turkey, here waiting at the ferry terminal in the Marmara sea to bypass Istanbul — Ferry Officials

At least the boat had a basic concession for food and drinks, and the relaxed day without pedaling or rowing was most welcome. — Ferry Ride

Justin turned the ferry parking lot into a mobile workshop and took advantage of the 5 hour crossing to do some major mechanical upgrades and repairs to the tilting roof structure. After this, we were able to change the roof angle almost effortlessly while riding, while before we'd have to stop the trike and take out the toolkit. — Threading holes for roof mount

We ended up with a pretty efficient system for dealing with flat tires as they came up, and it started by finding a nearby rock or object on which to prop the trike frame so that the wheel was off the ground. — Flat Tire Repairs

Sinking teeth into a juicy peach. Always the best part of a summer bike touring trip. I remember the same sensation in the okanagan valley on the cross canada ebike ride 10 years ago. — Peaches

We've just finished packing up our tent and gear while the bike was sitting in the grass aimed at the rising sun. Turkey was full of fields on the side of the road for easy camping like this. — Morning Charging

No idea what this frame of a building was for in an otherwise completely empty field in turkey. — Driverside View

It seems that they had recently sprayed the roads with a fresh layer of asphalt, and in this summer sun it become a sticky adhesive liquid on the road surface. Our wheels sounded like they were tearing through velcro and got sticky enough to launch rocks everwhere. — Slick Asphalt

The cattle seemed to know how to stay out of our way whenever we biked passed. They are gentle beasts — Cows

From a distance we thought these were dead trees sticking out of a pond. Turns out they were hundreds of people mulling about on a salt lake, with many harvesting bags of salt. — Salt Lake Visitors

As we left the first salt lake, we noticed quite a nice sunset behind us. — Sunset1

I had some faint notoin that the white salt might reflect some of the sunlight back up and increase the amount that hit the solar panels, but it really didn't work out that way. — Sunset Collection

Just a a flock of geese were in the middle of the road. — Geese

There were always groups of old men sitting around tables drinking tea in the small rural turkish towns. These guys hailed us over, provided drinks, and with tranlsating apps on our phone we engaged in some lively conversation. — Summer Chilling

Even the gas station restaurants in Turkey provided a culinary treat. We hadn't always been eating well through the Balkans so this was really nice. — Delicious Food

Those beams of sunlight, just missing our rooftop sadly — Sun Coming Through

Much more common than peaches were roadside stands selling melons at this time of year, and after lugging one around on the trike it felt nice to sink our teeth in and eat it for an evening treat. — Melon

In the morning, we'd prope the trike wheels up on rocks to get a better angle for the sun.
More competitive teams would have already been on the road pedaling for 2 hours at this stage ;-) — Field Camp

Not sure of the animal, — Foot prints in the Salt Lake

It was unfortunate that we only arrived in Goreme in the evening and didn't have time to stay and explore. And all the hot air balloons were grounded by the time we got there. — Inside Goreme

Most of these cave dwellings were carved in the rock thousands of years ago, and a number were used as lodging by the original silk road travellers.

Me and AnSo wanted to spend the nigh in onet, but had to clock a few more kilometers to stay on target. — Very ancient cave rooms

We'd seen pictures so had some idea of what to expect, but being there in person beside these otherworldy stone cones was still magical. — Rock Pyramids in Goreme

Our schwalbe marathon plus tires were not as puncture proof as we had hoped. In this case, a small wire had worked it's way through the outer layer and the anti--puncture strip and was poking inside the tire just enough to abrade a hole in the thick inner tube. — Why these flats

The descent into Goroem was the bumpiest cobblestones we'd been on, but our eyesr were transfixed on the ancitent buildings and rock structures. — Gorem Cobblestones

Truly like decending on another planet — Gorem

When we finally found a hotel to stay in Cappadocia, it was perfect. All hand carved right into the stone mountainside. The walls were so thick that the moment you stepped in the door all cell reception, wifi etc. went to zero. — Cave Hotel Room

Lots of villagers still inhabiting quite ancient homes in the region. This is the tiny town of Akkoy where we stayed in the cave hotel. — Outside Akkoy

This is the kind of breakfast service to drool over, and we got to eat it almost ever day in Turkey — Such good food

Their vehicle is clearly more suited for these brick road paths, but we made it back to the main roads OK. — Passing Tractor

After a little over 1000 km the treads on the 2.8 — Tire Swap

After weight ourselves on the truckers weight scale (260kg), we hung out with the entire staff at the weight station for a good hour telling tales and drinking bottomless glasses of tea. — Weight Scale Selfie

We ran into Waiwon Ching a 2nd time as our divergent paths through turkey happened to converge again. He was covering impressive distances each day and we met quite by chance after we joined back up with the main roads from the Cappadocia detour. — Ching Again!

Here you can see our two trike setups side by side, us with much more optimized solar collection, Ching with a battery charger in his bag ;-) — Grin and eZee

We had dinner together at theonly sensible restaurant in this tiny Turkish town, then Ching ended up asking if he could just sleep on the fllor there while me and AnSo still had a good couple hours of riding in us. — Dinner with Ching

AnSo was rowing and wanted me to stop so she could take a picture, and now I see why. — Roadside Sunset

As we were looking to set up camp at night, farmer showed up in a tractor and told us of an abandoned schoolhouse that would make for more secure tenting grounds. Then in the morning he dropped off a bag full of flatbread and fresh cheese from his very own cows. — Breakfast Bread and Cheese

We spoted this guy walking on the side of the road, pushing a stroller full of stuff, and had to know his story. Turns out he's been walking from Sweden on his way to Iran in order to spread a message of love and of an Iranian future without the islamic regime in charge. Notice him flying the original pre-revolutionary flag.
You think solar biking from France to Iran is a feat, imagine doing it on foot! — Pre-Revoluationary Iran

We were kindly invited for lunch by a cycling organizer and advocate in turkey, and during the course of eating we were aked if we'd do some interview for TV. Little did we know there was a slew of reporters just outside, and the got some great footage of the setup on the road as we rode away. — Turkish TV Interviews

This was a moment of celebration as we hit 200km by 6pm, for the first and only time the entire trip. In principle that would have meant we could stop of the day and enjoy a relaxing evening, but we were behind sechdule so kept on trucking, until another flat tire later at night slowed our momentum. — 200km Yeeha

We didn't run into that many fellow cycle tourers on the trip, but when we did it was almost a sure bet that they were Germans! This guy and another we passed the following day were both on independant road trips from Germany to Iran. — Germans Everywhere

We were fooled a couple times our first day in Turkey by these convincingly realistic police cars on the side of the road. — Police!

But as you approach, you notice something's not quite right with the parallax and then realize it's just a cardboard cutout, but equipped with real blinky lights at the top. Most clever. — The Ruse

We started now seeing signs for Iran on the highway, and knew that we were soon destined for the last leg and country of the trip. — Signs to Iran

Iran

Suntrip through Iran

Inside Iran we had both our highest of highs and lowest of lows on the trip. There were weather extremes and cultural differences in terms of personal space that we found challenging, yet we also met and stayed with the absolute loveliest people and had encounters that we will never forget. The very last leg over the mountains from the southern Caspian Sea to Tehran we took by truck due to time and safety considerations. In the end we were able to delay our departure from Tehran by several days to spend time exploring the city and meeting with people and press. We were very fortunate to have been hosted by a fellow Shahab who is involved with a group of people doing EV related work at an energy research institute, and got to meet other engineers looking to develop some kind of ebike scene in the country.

Our final flat tire was a straight up thumbtack. — Last Flat

It's too bad that the weather was so hazy. Mount Arrarat just at the turkey/iran border made for an aweome sight to behold. While it's not the highest peak in the world, it stands alone with no other mountains nearby which makes it look especially imposing. — Mount Arrarat

After a smoother than expected border crossing into Iran, we were right in the middle of the border town of Bazardan. Everything even auto shops were open at like 11pm, and people had no qualms stepping right into our trike for pictures. — Bazargan Arrival

For an uninterupted afternoon nap we had to ride off on a side road out of sight from the main highway. Even then, a woman spotted us here and gave AnSo some fruit, but let me sleep through. — Nap out of view

The scene of someone filming us on their phones as they drove by was a common one everywhere on the trip, but especially so in Iran. Luckily this didn't cause any vehicle crashes that we witnessed, but there were certainly a few close calls. — Driveby Filming

We attracted a tremendous amount of attention on the road, and many drivers would pull over to see if there was anything they could offer us. Frozen water bottles was a favorite. — Water and Gifts

Our 2nd night in Iran we camped in the rather barren fields. At first it looked idylic, but when the winds picked up overnight things got increasing precarious until they blew down our tent and made sleep impossible.At least the trike blew over such that it faced the morning sun! — Trike Blown Over

While the Iranian landscape the first few days was quite barren, there were still some beautiful sights now and then like these colourful mountain ranges. — Colourful Mountains

The attraction of the trike did complicate simple daily tasks like stopping for a bit stop or a quick snack. — The Trouble with Stopping

We loved the shape of the hay piles in Iran, stacked neatly and rising up to a point like this. — Hay Piles

We made the critical mistake of entering Iran without any euros or USD, forgetting that due to sactions none of our bank cards would work. Luckily, a connection in Vancouver was able to transfer Rials to the hotel manager who withdrew them from an ATM. This is what 15 million Rials looks like. Over the course of our stay their purchasing power dropped even further. — Rials

At some point we decided we were going to take a break from stopping every time a car pulled over to chat, but then we saw the smile on this couple and had to say hi.
They gave us travel pointers for hotsprings in the upcoming city of Sareyn, exchanged contacts, and later met up near Tehran at the end of the trip. — Helpful Stops

Dried fruits and nuts are the perfect calorie snack stuff for bike touring, and in Iran the roadside stands like this were everywhere. Those coloured sheets in the background? Massive fruit leathers! I was ecstatic, but they were all a little more salty and acidic than I'd like. — Fuits and Nuts

For the first week in Iran we didn't see a single adult on a bicycle, but that wasn't the case for children. This enthusiastic boy caught up and kept up with us on his mountain bike right through the town. — Kids on Bikes

The brother of our warm showers host in Sareyn ran a cute antique store, with bicycles hanging from the ceiling no less. Like most shops in this city, he'd keep it open until 1-2am. — Antique Store

This photo shows just a random sampling of the stuff that was offered to us on one day cycling through Iran. Sometimes we were given more than we could handle or have room for, but the fruits, nuts, and bread you see here made for great snacking. — Roadside Offerings

This is in the backyard of our hosts in Sareyn. — Turkey Inspection

Anne-Sophie had such a wonderful time with the extended family that was around at the warm showers household in Sareyn, and saying goodby in the morning wasn't easy. — Sad Goodbyes

They followed us out the gate tossing water on the ground in a farewell tradition, and then off we were back on the journey after a really special night. — Out the gate

Sometimes a small crowd attracted its own crowd. Here we just let people discover the trike for themselves while me and AnSo snuck into a restaurant to eat in quiet. It was pretty cute to watch the kids take turns in the pilot seat. — Gas Station Attraction

This boy especially couldn't get enough. He walked around wearing my helmet and smilling for like 15 minutes before the mother finally dragged him away. Hopefully this is a future ebiker in the making. — Born Grinner

While the trike created a fury outside the gas station, me and AnSo got to sit on a carpet and eat rice and kebab in peace and quiet. — My kind of seating

The night before this picture we had a flat tire on the side of a road, and while trying to repair in the dark with cars whizzing by us a man kept insisting that we follow him instead.
I was determined to just fix the flat and keep going, but it turns out he was just trying to show us that we could use his backyard and tools from his workshop. He introduced us to his son (2nd left) who helped with all kinds of things and before long we were given a place to stay in their brand new guest house. — Friends in Aselam

We told the hosts in Asalem that we'd be gone at like 7am to make up for lost time, but they knew better. At 8:30 we were given a breakfast tray with tea, millk, bread, jam, and cheese. — Aselam Breakfast

We had such high hopes for riding along the Caspian sea and going for regular swims, but the first 100km of travel was just far enough away and blocked by road meridians so we couldn't see a thing. You'd never know that there was a giant sea just a few hundred meters to the east.

Anyways when we finally saw a road to the beach we hopped on it, and AnSo was first to remove the shoes and get a taste of the water. — Caspian Sea

There was really surprsingly little development along the coastline and almost no boats or marinas. This was very strange for us since we're used to water being the epicenter of activities.
We knew that in general men and women have different swimming beaches and weren't sure of protocol, but in the background you can see an entire family all in the water together. — Caspian Coast

We started seeing more and more adults on bicycles as we rode down along the sea and then started spotting actual bicycle shops too. This was the third one we saw in a day. What we needed at this point was ice-cream rather than bicycle parts through, and a neighboring shop had that in good supply. — Yes, Bicycle Stores

I gave them all the encouragement I could to keep supporting bicycle culture in Iran. — Bike shop owners

We decided to have the trike brought from the coast to Tehran by truck rather than riding it, both from a timing consideration and because we'd been advised that the road from Chalus to Tehran was especially treacherous and unsafe. I took the roof off thinking that this would be necessary to fit it in the back of a van, but as you'll see in the next pic that was totally unecessary. — Roof Disassembly Time

I'm always a bit sad to to see a bicycle transported in the back of a car, van, or truck, but given the circumstances this was the only sensible option to be sure we'd make our flight out of Tehran. At this point, we really had that sensation and relief that the arduous part of the journey was over. — Trike Transport

Along the way to Tehran we stopped at a lake near the Sefid Rud Dam to stretch our legs. You can't see it in the picture by on the left and along the waterfront were rows of windmills. Large scale alternative energy is everywhere. — Windy Lakes

We arrived in Tehran in the late evening and were warmly taken in by Shahab, who had been an enormous help in working the logistics for many aspects of the Iran visit. The first thing we did was unload the trike at the Niroo reasearch institue, which nominally has a place dedicated to ebike parking, if you believe the sign hanging above ;-) — Meeting with Shahab

In the workshop was a large collection of EV's that had been built over the years. There were many projects that had been abandoned partway through, but others that were still active including a number of ebikes with locally built components. — Inside the Workshop

There were many EV projects from over the years in this little corner of the research institute, and this electric motorcycle was a work in progress that Ali, founder of ebikebc.com was working on. Given the road/traffic situation, electric motorcycles like this probably have a higher chance of catching on in a city like Tehran than ebikes. — Electric Motorcycle Test Ride

A number of professors and students came out to have a look at our vehicle and it was refreshing for me to explain things on a hiighly technical level to people who would undderstand. A number of these students were doing studies on related fields like lithium battery management systems, motor controllers etc. — Researchers and Students

Here's another shot with the team at the research institute. — Outside the Niroo Lab

This is a pedestrian bridge linking two public parks in the middle of Tehran. We were suprised at the overal amount of cleanliness and green space in the city, having expected it to be crazier. It was a nice sensation at this stage to be walking around on our two feet after 6 weeks of nothing but rowing and pedaling. — Tabiat Bridge

We thought we'd honor the very last selfie photo of random strangers posing with the trike. These guys ended up being interviewed during the press meeting and made it on TV. — Random Dudes at Azadi

Shahab took the electric motorcycle with me and AnSo on our reassembled trike as we braved the busy streets and aggressive traffic of Tehran to visit Azadi Square. This was both for a photo op and to meet with the associated press for a TV interview piece. — Azadi Square Arrival

This yellow racer was built 10 years ago by a team of university students for an electric car competition in Italy. It did well enough and was still in good kept in working shape. — Race Car

Word spread of our solar ebiking trip through Iran and we were contacted along the way by a number of press agencies. Here we are giving interviews near the Azadi Tower to Mohammad, a guy working for the associated press who also resides part time in Vancouver. — Associated Press

With the last media interviews done and us having had a chance to ride through the city of Tehran, it was time to get the entire trike disassembled and ready to ship back to Vancouver. This is the start of that lengthy process. — Final Disassembly

So Waiwon Ching took a different route through Iran, but we found ourselves in the same city once again. He'd broken a dozen spokes already and was waiting at a hotel for supplies shipment, and absolutely insisted on taking us out to a chinese restaurant for some — Ching Again

The man in the middle founded a pioneering solar installation company some 10 years ago which has grown to do small and mid-scale solar energy installations in Iran. He heard about our trip on the radio one morning and told his assistants to track us down and invite us to visit their company, so we though why not?
The young guy on the very right we met at the subway and joined us for the trip as our translator. He was a talented artist/photographer who'd just completed his two years of compulsary military service that day and was finally a free man again. — Solar Gostar Company

While we were in Tehran we finally had the free time to be tourists for a few days. The Golestan Palace was nice enough from a distance, but up close you could see that the upkeep was lacking and that many of these historic/cultural gems are in a gradual state of neglect given the economic situation. — Golestan Palace

We didn't go inside since we were short on Rials, but even the outside of the palace was worth exploring. — Golestan Palace

After a really nice meeting exchanging stories and also learning their possible interest in ebikes, we stepped into the lounge. One of the staff had her birthday today and there was plenty of chocolate left over cake for us too. — Birthday Cake

The friends we visited in Karaj took us out to see a Caravanserai, where silk road traders 1000 years ago would stop and rest on their travels. The stalls were still in use by various artisans and vendors. — Caravansarai

Here we are with the very lovely family that stopped on the road to help us much earlier in the trip. The man and his father in law operate a private school together teaching auto mechanics, the mother was a language teacher and now retired. Not shown is their the small baby who was asleep. The kindness and warmth was through the roof and made for encounters that we'll never forget. — Family in Karaj

One of the guys at the research institute has been trying to build and sell lines of ebikes inside Iran, and this here in the front is one of his more recent prototypes. His website is http://www.haxamanish.ir/ — Ebikes in Iran

Alcohol is nominally banned in Iran, so instead they make a non-alcoholic — Beer Ads?

Our last dinner in Iran was quite special. We went up to the north end of the city where the road gradually merges with the mountainside and all the backbackers and hikers hang out. There were colourful sour candies sold by street vendors and so many places to sit down for a real feast. — Final Dinner

On disassembling the trike for packing, we noticed that indeed cracks were forming on the front aluminum frame just at the welds, which is something that had been a concern. Another couple hundred kilometers more and these might have cracked right off. It's a good thing we stopped when we did! — Weld Cracks

At the end of the trip, you can see from the databox that we covered 5700km using some 80 kWhr of energy from the sun. That's not quite the amount energy that's on a single charge of a tesla car (85 kWhr). — Final Tally

Wedding

The reason we ended the trip in Tehran and not in China is of course because we (AnSo and Justin) had a wedding date set in early August. After flying back and readjusting from all the emotions of the trip, we sailed to Justin's family home town of Sooke and went to task preparing an entire wedding too. That included building a dock on the water and preparing a custom firework show on the water with a lit up and animated pyro unicycle.