City solar bikers racing from France to Iran
Name the strangest contraption you’ve ever seen travelling on a road and you still won’t come close to what a pair of Vancouverites are set to steer from France to Iran.
If you’re now thinking of Homer Simpson’s car of the future, you’re getting closer — but there’s still a key problem with such a vision: too much car.
Justin Lemire-Elmore and Anne-Sophie Rodet are driving a solar-electric rowbike from Lyon to Tehran as part of the SunTrip 2018 e-bike rally.
The rally has actually set Guangzhou, China, as the final destination point, but the Vancouver couple has a solid reason not to finish: they’re set to get married in August.
Yes, it’s one of the more unique pre-wedding honeymoons you’ve ever heard of.
The SunTrip 2018 tour has a simple driving premise: the e-bikes entered can only charge their batteries using solar energy. To get to China, the riders can take any route they like — but they also don’t get to have a support vehicle following behind.
The route Lemire-Elmore and Rodet plan to take before heading home for their nuptials will pass through Italy, Croatia, Greece, Turkey and then into Iran.
Lemire-Elmore runs Vancouver’s GRIN Technologies, a small engineering firm that specializes in conversion kits for turning regular bicycles into electric-motor-powered two-wheelers.
In a post on GRIN’s website, the project to build the e-bike is described as a case of turning “a Craigslist-trike purchase into the back-to-backtandem-solar-electric-rowbike of our dreams.”
Lemire-Elmore founded the business more than a decade ago as a spinoff from the electric bike club at the University of B.C.
It’s a business that’s very well suited to his natural instincts, one of his co-workers explained. And so is the bike he and Rodet are riding.
“Justin is the kind of person who decides to build a motor-assist unicycle,” Robbie Campbell said. “He’s always wanted to have a rowing bicycle.”
The three-wheeled contraption has two seats. The rider in the seat that’s facing forward pedals and steers the bike, while the rider in the back faces backwards and instead of pedalling with their feet, uses a rowing setup with their arms to power the machine forward.
There’s also an electric motor hooked up to the front two wheels, which assists in propelling the trike forward. The motor is hooked up to a solar panel that’s mounted above the riders’ heads, essentially doubling as a roof.
A normal conversion kit sold by GRIN goes for a couple of thousand dollars — the price for putting together the trike is obviously a lot higher, Campbell said. (GRIN sells about 1,000 kits per year to manufacturers, bike shops and individuals.)
Lemire-Elmore and GRIN’s focus is on promoting the utility of light, electric vehicles in our ever-densifying communities, Campbell explained. This trike may look crazy, but from their eyes, in a world most people’s vehicles actually spend very little time outside of their local communities, it’s a case of “why not?”
“It’s about how we use the space better for getting around,” he said.