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[benswing]

Iiiiiiiit's that time again! Time for a summer road trip!!! Here are my plans, and if you can provide a place to sleep I'm still looking for a place to stay in Roanoke, Natchez & Tupelo. Or if you live between two of these places and want to meet up for an hour while I charge, that would be amazing!

I plan to post updates to the site www.InsideEVs.com, so you can follow my progress and updates there.  If you have any questions that you find interesting, feel free to post and I'll try to address them in a video or a post.

June 12-13 - Centreville, VA
June 14 - Roanoke, VA
June 15-16 - Ashevilla ,NC
June 17 - Charleston, SC
June 18-19 - Titusville, FL
June 20 - Tallahassee, FL
June 21-22 - Zachary, LA
June 23 - Houston, TX
June 24-25 - San Antonio, TX
June 26 - Houston, TX
June 27 - Natchez, MS
June 28 - Tupelo, MS
June 29-30 - Nashville, TN
July 1-2 - Columbus, OH
July 3-4 - Cleveland, OH
July 5 - Home, sweet home!
July 6-10 - Watertown, CT

[Lecram]

[protomech]

Let me know when you're coming through Nashville, will be fun to see you again : )

[Burton]

Where is there a place to charge in Centreville VA? Or is this your stopping point for the day?

What is your charging array looking like

From my estimates you will spend a little over 8 hours between charging and riding if your goal is 250 miles a day and your charging array is at least 5500 watts.  (see attached)

Hours for range is hours of riding. For reference the streamlined ratio is set to 1.5 and from what I have been told this is about what you would get with just the front cowl of Vetters system on.

[benswing]

Centreville is where my friend lives, but it happens to be where a Trader Joe's has a J-plug and a CHAdeMO.  It is off of route 29 just north of 66.  Can you get up here at some point on June 13?


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[protomech]

this is about what you would get with just the front cowl of Vetters system on.

Are you running a vetter fairing, benswing?

[Burton]

Yup I can be there the 13th, I live about an hour from ther and know where you are talking about. Didn't realize they had chargers there >_<

Most likely because I filter out networks I don't belong to or stations which have a fee.

Are you running a vetter fairing, benswing?

I stated the ratio as there are two tables on my image, one is for a stock bike, the other for a streamlined bike. But the latter is pointless less you know the ratio and scenario I set it up for.

[benswing]

IT'S GETTING REAL!!! 

Bike is prepped and ready to go!  Packing now and getting pumped for my electric motorcycle road trip 2015!!!

Follo me on InsideEVs for (almost) daily updates and there will be an article on www.GreenCarReports.com on Friday, June 12th about this journey.

Looking forward to seeing some of you along the way! 

Protomech, I don't have a Vetter Fairing (yet) this summer.  That will probably happen next year.  I'm still traveling without much aftermarket stuff.  Just a couple of Elcons and a Nema 14-50 to J1772 adapter.  All things anyone can buy and plug in. 

[benswing]

It's ON!!! 

InsideEVs will follow the trip with daily updates:  http://insideevs.com/5000-mile-road-trip-zero-sr-electric-motorcycle-begins/

Green Car Reports coverage:  http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1098657_electric-motorcycle-ride-from-mexico-to-canada-my-summer-road-trip

See you on the road!



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[benswing]

Day 2: Charging

http://insideevs.com/three-country-tour-electric-motorcycle-charging/

[Ndm]

Hey Ben, great trip reports, this just goes to show that onboard charging is very important to get the electric motorcycle more mainstream, j1772 with 6kWh is a great way to travel, if this was standard (no disrespect intended) you're trips would be less of a feat ! Keep up the great work!

[benswing]

Thanks, Ndm!

In today's update our friend Burton makes an appearance with his awesome bike!

http://insideevs.com/three-country-tour-electric-motorcycle-frankenbike/


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[ultrarnr]

Ndm,

Having L2 charging on your Zero is only part of what it takes to do trips like Ben is doing. There is a lot of planning that goes into trips like this. Plugshare is really good at showing you where charging stations are at. But if there is one you need to charge at and no one has signed into that one in two years you are taking the risk that it may not work. If there are no other charging stations around that leaves you looking for a 110 outlet to plug into and your charging time just went from 2 hours to 10. Or maybe the Nissan dealer you needed to charge at suddenly decides that if you aren't one of their customers you can't charge there. And in some areas like eastern NC Nissan dealers are your only option. Or maybe someone is using it while they are at work and you are going to wait they are out of work before you can charge.

Until infrastructure improves trips like what Ben is doing are only for the adventurous types. In and around population centers there are often many charging options. But once you get out on the open road they become far fewer.

At least Ben's trip is far more interesting than reading about another Tesla owner who is hopping from one supercharger to another. (Yawn)

[Ndm]

I never meant to imply that it was an easy task, I've done trips in my imiev(always carrying my Honda generator as a backup!) Until qcdc is as common as gas stations it will always be an adventure!ride on Ben

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

I just caught up on the videos, and appreciate the planning and contingency discussions. Keep it up!