Had a blast at Pikes Peak Fan Fest in Colorado Springs with the Hollywood Electrics crew!
After another terrific AirBnB experience, I headed for Denver. Little did I know that I could travel so fast that an unexpected meetup would be possible with the Hollywood Electrics guys who are preparing to race at Pikes Peak. My first few charging spots were town parks that have RV Hookups. Much like the easy-peasy charging in Ohio at service plazas, it was simple-simon to charge at parks in towns. There is no attendant to discuss anything with, and I dropped a couple of bucks in the drop box. Once in Colorado I had some bad luck. My Supercharger stopped charging at 86% which was juuuuuuust enough to get to the next planned stop. However, I decided to stop at a town in between and see
Leaving Sioux Falls, NE for McCook, KS my first order of business was to get food for the day. Most RV parks don’t have food available so I have been buying a cold cut sub and this will be my 3rd day eating one for breakfast & lunch. Ah the glamorous life of an adventurer. Upon crossing the state line into Iowa I stopped by a gas station and had a fun conversation with the guys who were eating breakfast there. You never know who will get to hear about riding cross country on an electric motorcycle! Then I headed to South Sioux City, Nebraska where I charged at a police station. The guys at the police station were awesome! They gave me a tour of their fully operational Nissan LEAF police
Minneapolis to Sioux City started off a bit wet, but became a beautiful day to ride through 3 big plains states. Hit some weather leaving Minneapolis, but otherwise it was a lovely cool day to ride through the midwestern plains of the US. The wind really has a significant impact on my range today. In the morning I traveled against the wins, so I ended up riding behind trucks quite a bit so they would block the wind. This causes quite a bit of turbulence that I have to ride through, but it wasn’t too bad. Then in the afternoon and evening the wind was at my back and I could ride at 70-72mph using 100Wh/mi of energy! Holy moly! Usually i have to ride at 55mph to get that kind of efficiency
Chicago to Minneapolis was a long beautiful day of riding filled with a few challenges, of course. Leaving Chicago I thought there would be no traffic since I would leave North Chicago heading North. Wrong. Apparently there is well known reverse-commuter traffic heading to Midway Airport. Oy! However, I’m on a motorcycle so I sliced through the traffic by safely lane-filtering. Lane filtering is when motorcycles travel along the dotted lines between cars that are either stopped or going 30mph or less with a speed-difference of less than 10mph. It is safer for motorcyclists by reducing the chance of getting rear-ended, and gets everyone where they want to go faster. My first stop was a AA
Riding from Cleveland to Chicago was frought with challenge and near-misses. The beginning of the day was easy peasy! Ohio Service Plazas have RV hookups at them, so my first 3 stops were all quick and as easy as getting gasoline. I pulled into the plaza, plugged in, grabbed food, unplugged, and was on my way. This is rather different from my normal charging stops. Typically I need to pre-plan my stops at RV Parks, call ahead to ensure they know I’ll be coming, pull into an RV Park, chat with the office manager for a bit, plug in, perhaps chat some more, then unplug and head out. This takes extra time to negotiate where I’ll plug in and every minute is precious. So the “normal” charging
Day one was filled with rain, a visit from a friend, trying out a brand new supercharger, and going into limp mode twice Normally 7am is my preferred start time, but some rain was moving along at 7:20. I decided to be a gentleman, and let it go first. Once it stopped drizzling, I hit the road on my 2014 Zero SR with a lightning paint job at 7:30 headed for Seattle, via Cleveland. My first stop was about 75 miles away at the Pocono Vacation Park at 8:45 where they have 50 Amp outlets for RVs. I called the day before and they gave me permission to charge in exchange for a couple of bucks for the electricity. The digiNow Supercharger worked perfectly, firing up at 9kW about 30 seconds after
A lot of planning is necessary to travel long distances using an electric vehicle. Thankfully Plugshare is there to help you out. Check out my planning process to see how easy it is!
How to gear up for an epic road trip using an electric motorcycle. Everything in this video is available publicly and you can buy it now! Check out my bike, charging system, and protective clothes as I embark on a trip to the four corners of the USA!
Found a person going to church who has a NEMA 14-50 plug in his garage and sweet talked him into letting me test my rig with it. This is make-or-break for me since my first 480 mile day requires a lot of charging via RV Campgrounds.
My Zero SR got a new look for the summer. Inspired by it's electric nature I chose lightning as the theme. Highlights include an atom atop the tank area (which atom is it?), and a portrait of Nikola Tesla whose many inventions and discoveries made electric motorcycles possible.
IT'S SUMMER TIME! That means it is time for another epic road trip on my Zero SR electric motorcycle! This year I'd like to visit friends and family in Seattle, California, Texas and Florida. Those locations are not near each other, and they certainly aren't near me in the NYC metro area. Since my chosen profession is teaching, I have some time on my hands to ride around a bit and see the country. The big change this year is that I'll be charging with a digiNow supercharger much faster than before. On my 2015 Elmoto Road Trip I was able to travel 310 miles per day on average. This year, my plan is to travel farther and to do that I need faster charging. Here's hoping it works out! Thi
