Annual exhibition in Geneva:

Visit us from April 9 - 15, 2024 in Geneva, at the Galerie l'Ice Bergues in the center of Geneva!

With the illustrious co-exhibitors from AHCI, we show the latest trends in watchmaking and art!

Opening hours: daily from 14:00 to 22:00.
Location: Place des Bergues 3, 1201 Geneva

Exactly 40 years ago, I started a journey that had a formative influence on my life: with the self-built motorcycle OPTIBRUMM, I set off on an often adventurous journey to South America that lasted almost two years.

In June 2023 I start again, this time on a bike tour over a total of about 2,500 km in the direction of southern Italy, which is also a test for an e-bike concept that does not exist on the market!

On many rides, e.g. over my "house pass" Kunkels, I test the components, especially the transmission and the luggage concept with the lightweight, practical aluminum boxes, but also the climbing ability of the vehicle.

June 5, 2023: The takeoff is a success! The machine feels for the first few kilometers like something between a sedan chair and an ocean liner. I had never ridden with a full load before, and had probably underestimated that a few books, a bit of laundry, some tools ... would add up to quite a lot of weight in the end!

The leisurely ride, soon uphill towards San Bernardino, tempts to thoughts about the self-evidence of speed and still increasing speed of our time. So I will pay special attention to this question, besides interspersing technical details of my vehicle concept here and there.

The south welcomes me with cold fog and soon drizzle, so that I reach the hostel "Da Erminia" in Verdabbio, situated high above the valley, shivering with cold. Nice there is a warm meal and a good glass of wine from its own vineyard!

June 6, 2023: In perfect weather today, a short day's ride takes me to the Italian part of Lago Maggiore, where I once again enjoy the hospitality and exquisite cuisine of the host couple Carolin and Thomas and the tranquility and wonderful view from the terrace of their Villa Morissolina in Trarego Viggiona. Highly recommended!

Some key figures about my bike:

- Range: 200 - 250km. This succeeds thanks to two battery packs, which together store a good 3,000 watt hours of energy. With moderate support of 400 - 500 watts, which gives a brisk cruising speed, I can be so 6 to 8 hours on the road until a power outlet is indicated.

- Climbing capacity: > 25%. The mid-motor delivers its power via the drive chain to the cassette on the rear wheel, which has a largest pinion of 46 teeth. The resulting 1 : 1 ratio allows the motor to climb even the steepest mountains at high speed without overloading the former.

June 7: If we fade out the first part of the day in the dense, hectic and sometimes life-threatening agglomeration traffic of Milan, it was for dozens of kilometers an almost silent glide along well-kept little roads along the extensive network of canals of the Po region.
In the morning, however, I was already wondering whether there was any room at all for slow-moving traffic. Anyone who can't keep up with the flow of traffic, which is characterized by ever wider and swankier SUVs, gets no respect and can be glad if he still has all his bones in the evening!

June 8: Today's long stage over 190km and with 1500 meters of altitude confirmed the correctness of the dual drive, which I have realized in this bike for the first time.

While hub motors on e-bikes have the well-known disadvantage that they can not increase torque because of their direct running with the wheel, as it would be helpful on steep climbs, the mid-motor located in the space of the bottom bracket offers just this possibility. On the other hand, the gear ratio for pedaling is usually too short for speeds above 30 km/h, so that one tends to pedal too high a cadence and therefore the derailleur usually shifts to the smallest rear sprocket. This small pressed sheet metal disc must now withstand both pedaling and the up to 10 times higher motor force over a long time!

So I have done the following:

- On the pedal axle sits a loosely mounted very large chainring with 65 teeth, separated with a free-wheel clutch.

- The freewheel can be switched on via small, rotatable cams, so that the pedaling force then acts on the freewheel or the large chainring. The freewheel is necessary so that when the motor is switched on the pedal crank does not necessarily rotate.

From this large 65 t. chainring now leads a second chain on the smallest sprocket. This chain is not shiftable and always results in a ratio of 65:12, which means a development of 11 meters on the 26 "wheel, so you pedal comfortably even at higher speeds.

We made the small pinion ourselves from a gear steel quality, case hardened. It has a much more solid geometry, since no climbing aids etc. are required. Wear should be a foreign word.

If a mountain etap is coming, one simply turns the five small cams, and the pedal crank acts as usual on the same axle on which the engine sits. Now everything remains the same and you can still help in the smallest gears. The large chainring now turns very slowly without further function.

The biggest advantage is that the engine can now operate at higher speeds with the chain running straight most of the time on a middle sprocket. Even with high and long power output, it does not overheat and the wear on the cassette is low.

The first 1,000 kilometers the drive has proven itself so far.

June 10. After now 5 travel days the following picture arises:

- The vehicle side is perfect. No breakdowns so far. What is painful is the lack of suspension. The roads are often very bumpy. Several times it empties me half the front basket, in which I carry water, road map and a few other small things!

- What weighs more heavily is the experience that I have to decide for one of two road types: Either I drive contemplative side streets, which mean however very often large detours and because of the little reliable route planner (komoot.de and Garmin Edge Explorer 2 - navigation device) to empty trips (once I drove in the circle around, once 500 meters of altitude down and after having driven around a farmhouse I climbed the same 500 meters of altitude again) to considerably larger travel distance and time leads. Or I take the larger roads with dangerous heavy traffic, in the best case a drivable shoulder, in the worst always looking at the rearview mirror, whether the next truck driver may have seen me...

My thoughts always revolve around a suitable vehicle concept. I'm fascinated by the efficiency and tranquil driving experience of my pedal/electric machine.

Would it have to be a bit faster to keep up in traffic? Traffic today is so dense and a never-ending stream of metal that a vehicle traveling at 30-40 km/h is perceived only as a hindrance and therefore receives no respect.

Or is it necessary to adapt the way of traveling? And say goodbye to being everywhere in the world within a few hours? For most people, this is an unimaginable prospect, since putting one's feet into the Balinese sea for a few days or moving around daily in a steel corset weighing several tons, powered by an engine with several hundred horsepower, is a "state of consciousness" that one does not dare to question. If then the perception goes at all so far!

Conclusion: After effectively driven 700 kilometers and increasing back pain, concerns about the danger of the highway traffic, still 2/3 of the way ahead of me, in addition worse weather forecast, and the prospect of the same dangerous way back, I decide to look for a hotel with garage in Pistoia, where I can set the bicycle for 2 weeks.
By train it goes now in a few hours to Salerno, and after a short time of rest in San Marco di Castellabate, where Renata has escaped a few weeks of the Swiss cold, I come back to Pistoia and afford me an enjoyable ride home over 600-700 km on hopefully as bike-friendly as possible, lonely country roads!

June 22:: The journey continues!

Since in the next few days daily 2'000 - 2'500 meters of altitude are pending, I thought about what energy my batteries must provide for this.

A simple calculation: There is a lifting work of a certain weight around a certain height to perform.

As a simple mental calculation it results:
Weight x height x 10 = lifting work
So in my case: 140 x 2'000 x 10 = 2'750'000
If I divide this number by 3,600, I get the power required to do this if I do the work in one hour.

If I have 2 hours to do it, the power needed is half, in 5 hours a fifth, but 5 times longer, so in total the same amount.

So if I divide 2'750'000 by 3'600, I get 765 watt-hours. My batteries store 3'000 watt-hours, with which I could travel for 3 hours with 1'000 watts or 10 hours with 300 watts average consumption. So today I need about a quarter of the available energy for altitude "work".

To have a comparison with common forms of energy: 1 liter of diesel has the energy content of about 10'000 watts. So today I need about the equivalent of one deciliter of diesel to climb all those mountains.

Note: This calculation does not take efficiency into account. Since the electricity was generated in a power plant with mostly poor efficiency, in practice 3 to 4 times this theoretical amount has to be taken.

June 23:: Back in the Po plain

After two days of crossing the Apennine mountains, uphill, downhill, and back up and down again, at temperatures above 30 degrees, I reach the Po plain again. Once more a colorful mixture of busy highways and idyllic bike paths. One notices the attempt to want to create a network of bike routes, at the same time one becomes aware of the great challenge of achieving and maintaining this over a huge area.

There are freshly asphalted, perfectly signposted paths leading through shady avenues, but there are also narrow sections where you can hardly avoid the overhanging branches of wild bushes. Once I realize at the last moment that they are the outriggers of brambles, armed with a hundred thousand sharp thorns, centimeters long and razor-sharp, which I almost ran over. With nasty consequences...   So far I have had hardly expected luck to have survived the meanwhile far more than 1'000 km journey without breakdown!

Back to technical aspects: Again and again I am asked how heavy the battery is, which allows me this long range. "19 kg", I answer - and the next question comes just as surely: whether this is not too heavy.

A few thoughts on this. Today, we take it for granted that the electrification of transport is the next big goal. We also take it for granted that the vehicles that go with it will have to be even faster and more powerful than those previously equipped with combustion engines.

If, for example, 500 kg of batteries are now installed in an average Tesla, 2.5 million tons of batteries will one day be moved in Switzerland alone with almost 5 million passenger cars. Not to mention the raw materials required for this.

It is a mystery to me why the weight and volume of our current vehicles are nowhere, but really nowhere, an issue. Today's technological change would offer the opportunity to rethink the entire mobility and to draw the consequences today and now: SMALLER, LIGHTER, LESS MOTORIZED.

Back to the topic: with the e-bike, advertising suggests that we spend money for every gram of weight saved; with the automobile, we spend a lot of money to make these things even bigger, heavier, faster and more powerful.

If an electric bike weighs 40 kg, we turn up our noses: impossible. That's 50% of the driver's weight.

In the case of the Audi E-Tron GT, the unladen weight of 2.4 tons is thirty times the average driver's weight. Who will initiate a discussion at the highest level about these relationships?

June 24: After a pleasant stay with Marie-Angela and Roberto in the family atmosphere of their Bio&B Cascina Montebello not far from Bergamo, I find myself on Saturday morning in the excursion bustle in the direction of San Pellegrino and Passo San Marco, which I still remember from a crossing almost 50 years ago as a completely remote, deserted, even unpaved mountain pass.

At least the opportunity was taken to convert the track of the old narrow-gauge railroad through the Valle Brembana over long stretches into a comfortable bicycle path, which is also used lively.

To avoid the stinking and roaring avalanche of metal and motorcycle thunder, I take the Strada Provinziale No. 62 westward, which first leads through a cool, rocky, impressively monumental valley before it goes up. Very little traffic and wonderful atmospheres make the detour worthwhile.

In the evening I charge the batteries for the last time at Morbegno in the Veltlin. Tomorrow the Splügen pass awaits.

June 25:

Well I drive off early in the morning in the cool air of the shady Veltlin. Still there is hardly any traffic, which then changes quickly after Chiavenna!

It is Sunday, splendid weather. A competition of horsepower and decibels shakes the picturesque valley. It is hard to believe that there are no more interesting individual characteristics with which people can stand out from the same of their kind. Even faster, even louder, even more aggressive is the credo.

Nevertheless, I enjoy the ride. I didn't expect to make it all the way without a single breakdown or other incident. I only had to change a pair of brake pads.

In the early afternoon at home, I draw a conclusion about distances, heights and energy:

- 1'500 km ride
- 15'000 meters of altitude
- 9 1/2 days in the saddle
- 30 kWh energy consumption
- Electricity costs for the whole trip 6 € or 40 cents per 100 kilometers.

And conclusion, how the bike should be for the next trip:

- full suspension rear and front
- if possible with recuperation (after all, 15'000 meters of altitude are also 15'000 meters of altitude downhill, with often continuous braking)

Some technical data of the bike:
- Motor continuous power 1'000 W
- Battery capacity 3.1 kWh
- Voltage: 48 V (Range:  58 - 42 V)
- Charging at 230 V socket with 13 A approx. 4 hours
- Gear ratio motor -> rear wheel:
     Chainring: 46 T.
     Cassette: 46 - 16 T.
- Gear ratio pedal axle -> rear wheel:
     small: same ratio as motor
     large: chainring 65 t. -> sprocket 12 t.
     largest roll-out thus about 11 meters per crank revolution or cadence at 45 km/h: 66 revolutions per minute = very comfortable!

Epilogue

I don't want to teach or convert anybody with my interspersed remarks and information concerning energetic connections. I am very aware of the fact that these thoughts might be new for many readers and their content might be unknown.

However, in my opinion, this does make the discussion about it even more urgent.

We have watched on the Mediterranean Sea (and Renata shot some photos), how thousands of tons of limestone blocks were floated to the shore with the help of a huge ferryboat in order to reinforce the shore walls with gigantic shovel excavators (the drivers in it looked like little toy figures at the wheel of their monster vehicles). The next day, looking at the previous day's work, one realized that hardly a drop had fallen on a monumental hot stone, not worth mentioning. And we know today that in a few decades the seas will rise maybe 2, maybe 4 meters. And we do not nothing, but in the consciousness of almost all contemporaries the conviction has matured that the purchase of a new electric car is a contribution to the avoidance of these apocalyptic future prospects.

Unfortunately, this is not the case if one analyzes the context a little more thoroughly. And there our unrestrained energy hunger is the cause, and this energy hunger is fired by the ridiculous energy prices, because we have no idea, which VALUE a single liter of oil has.


Thanks for your interest and I hope to see you on my next trip!

Florian

Thanks to deepl.com for the translation!