7922 miles for £50
Energica Esseesse9 breaks world record for longest journey by an electric bike
This Energica Esseesse9 has just beaten the Guinness world record for the longest journey by electric bike – 7922 miles in 30 days. The feat, by Egyptian Ali Abdo, clearly demonstrates the pros and cons of the current crop of electric motorcycles: on the one hand, maintenance free and only £50 on fuel for the entire trip; on the other, interminable charging stops and you need a petrol generator for when you run out.
‘Egypt still doesn’t have an efficient infrastructure for electric vehicles,’ Ali tells Bike. ‘We only have chargers in big cities so we had to use a plug and socket everywhere you can imagine – mostly petrol stations, hotels and cafes. Plus we had a generator in the support van because there were some stretches where we travelled 500km (312 miles) without even seeing a house.
‘We could have avoided those bits but the problem was that according to Guinness rules you can’t take the same road more than once because it is all about a journey from x to y. This forced us to go everywhere in Egypt – really, we went everywhere. It was Guinness’s rules that forced us to have a support van too because you need someone to video you every hour and get witness statements to say where I am.’
Ali was forced to change his riding tactics to rack up an average of 264 miles per day. ‘After two or three days I worked out I couldn’t wait for the bike to charge using ordinary plugs – it needed four hours. So I decided to start at 5am with a full charge, then ride 80 to 100km then top up for 30 minutes at a gas station, which will get me to the next station, where I’d top up again with just enough to get me to the next station. Charging only what I needed saved a lot of time. There’s no point charging until the battery is full because that last 20 percent takes longer. Later in the trip I started to sleep in the middle of the day while the bike was charging, then ride until 10pm.’ The bike itself lasted well. ‘It was amazing,’ says Ali. ‘We had extreme weather conditions during the journey – there was a lot of very heavy rain and high winds. And some parts were very hot, plus some of the roads were still under construction. It was tough. But after 30 days of continuous journey, nothing went wrong. The bike is completely standard – even the tyres are the ones it came on.’
‘The bike is standard – even the tyres’