Katima to Cape Ride - Electric bikes & folding bikes

eZeebikeKatima to Cape RideBy Rupert NanniWhen I first mentioned theidea to James Swift, theezeebike distributor inSouth Africa, I got thesame reaction as frommost people. “You’re mad!”But he didn’t stop there.He spoke to Wai WonChing, the head ofezeebikes in Shanghai, andtogether they said “You’remad, but let’s do it. We’vegot just the bike for thejob”. Ching even said he’dride with me and so itstarted.The idea behind it was toshow off electric bikes tothe public and prove thatezeebikes are one of themost reliable, low costforms of transport. If thebikes could go throughwhat I had planned forthem, then they wouldn’tbreak a sweat potteringaround town. I put togethera route that would be long,hot, wet, dusty, bumpy andincluded tar and gravelsections. Distances variedeach day depending on theterrain and I tried toalternate hard days withrecovery days. In practicethis didn’t always work,and in fact the shortest dayof the whole trip turned outto be one of the mostdifficult.The bikes we were going touse were the eZee Torqs, ahybrid bike with 28 inchwheels best suited to thevaried terrain. A 37V 10Ahlithium polymer batterypowers a brushless electricmotor in the front hub, andconnecting batteries inparallel would give us therange needed to do thelong distances. We alsoadded a Cycle Analystcomputer to each bike tomonitor closely thecondition of the batteries,and changed the standard250rpm motor to a 300rpmversion. This would allowus to travel at higherspeeds, but at the expenseof some torque. Thestandard throttle wasreplaced with ezee’s cruisecontrol dial to prevent wristfatigue. All this adds up toa hefty piece of machinery,especially when carryingup to four litres of water,food, tools etc. A backupcar was therefore used tocarry all our overnightequipment and to supplyfresh batteries, which weusually needed once ortwice a day.We set off from KatimaMulilo on the banks of theStarting in the northeastern Namibian town ofKatima Mulilo, the routecrossed the Caprivi Stripbefore turning south atRundu, and headingtowards Windhoek. Herethe tar ends as youtraverse and thendescend from the centralplateau into the NamibDesert.Hightemperatures, dust andgravel roads characterisethis section. PassingSossusvlei, the riderswent to Rosh Pinah andfollowed the OrangeRiver, before crossinginto South Africa. Astraight run south throughGaries and Clanwillliamsaw them finish inCapeTown, 3000km and14 days later afteraveraging more than200km per day.

Spreetshoogte Pass at sunriseZambezi River in the early hours of the morning, with 312km ahead of us. This area is relatively flat so a 300km+ day wasone of the goals we had set ourselves and it was completed it in just under ten hours with two battery changes. The firstcouple of days through the Caprivi Strip were all long tar hauls with little traffic but lots of wildlife. During onethunderstorm we rode into a group of elephants who were as surprised to see us as we were to see them. Luckily theyscattered into the bush.Riding a bicycle at speed gives you a new appreciation for wind resistance and we had lots of time to test differenttheories. On certain days, we would find that increasing speed from 32km/hr to 38km/hr would double batteryconsumption (with the same amount of leg effort) for a mere 6km/hr increase. Headwinds which plagued us most of theway to Cape Town were the biggest challenge, mentally and physically. There were the odd tailwind days though, andone of these allowed us to do 202km at an average of 38km/hr!As we neared Windhoek the traffic increased and the final 100km into the Namibian capital was very stressful. We werewitnessing Africa’s intolerance for cycling first hand. On several occasions we were driven off the road, some people evenstabbing their fingers into their temples in the universal sign for madness.The second leg of the tripwas the dirt road sectionsthrough the Namib Desert. Imust confess I was a littlenervous about this. I’d donesome off road testing overChristmas, but never with abike this loaded, and neverthrough loose gravel andsand. After a couple ofkilometres though, I startedto get the feel of the bike,and used carefully, it was a lot of fun. We had on the standard Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres which are designed fortrekking. Although narrow and lacking any knobblies, they performed extremely well and finished the trip with only apuncture in Chings front wheel.The Namib turned out to be a highlight of the whole ride. It was extremely hot but provided you kept moving and drinking,you were fine. In fact riding wasn’t hot but stopping was. The gravel roads varied from very good to pure mountain bike

Still miles to go south westof Windhoekterritory, and cycling downSpreetshoogte Pass atsunrise must surely rate asone of the worlds bestrides. Once on the flatlands below, theshimmering road stretchedstraight to the horizon, andwhen you got there, it did itagain. Probably the biggestchallenge were sand trapsin river beds which aregenerally too small tobother building a bridgeover. In the Namib they’redry except immediatelyafter the rains, and hittingthese at speed made forsome heart stoppingmoments. I found that withthe correct use of power tothe front wheel and a highcadence at the back, youcould power through in fulltwo wheel drive.Corrugations were the worst though. Occasionally they would cover the full width of theroad and you got rattled to a halt. Amazingly, the bike showed no signs of any damage.Again wildlife was plentiful, even in the desert, and we saw springbok, gemsbok, kudu,steenbok, zebra, jackal, scrub hare, kori bustard, ground squirrels, cobra and ostrich.The Orange River forms the border between Namibia and South Africa, and cuts throughthe Richterveld and Ais Ais National Parks. It’s a mountainous desert and the barren hills oneither side of the river act as reflectors, building up a fearsome heat during the day. Werecorded 42 degrees, but it got hotter than this when we turned away from the river andDayDistance(km)AvgSpeed(km/hr)Time(hr:min)Ascent(m)AmpHoursWh/kmWatthrsKm/battery131232.59:5322043.95161962220029.36:4133535.96.5131950326630.38:4543568.89.6247138420238.35:2249056.610.12039345260318:3573165.49.6241437616924.87:0779034.17.4126042713722.36:3930327.57.51031468145168:0877634.18.8126636920822.69:20161055.710.220373510168354:53447429.61560341114621.86:5489031.17.811553712247298:34152459.48.82201411322432.37:1280337.86.51429561422930.87:05215454.59198437The NamibrandNature ReserveAvg 28.3 8.3 41.8TOTAL 2913 105:13 11508 646.8 23786Average speed on tar - 32km/hr. Average speed on gravel - 21.5km/hr.

ControlsWeightBatteryChargerControllerRated powerStandard Model TorqTri-modal: throttle power-ondemand(or eZee Assist FactorDial), pedelec, pedal-onlyBicycle 22 kgLi Battery 3.1 kgTotal 25.1 kg37V 10 Ah Lithium with batterymanagement circuit. Batterycan be removed for or leftlocked securely on the bikeAutomatic Smart charger,maximum charge time 5 hoursPWM microprocessor and LEDself-diagnostic system. Overloadprotection 20 amps, Lowvoltage protection 31.5V250 Watts nominal poweroutputclimbed over a spur. At one point, the slight tail breeze wasblowing at the same speed as our movement, leaving us in stillair. Chings bike cut out when the controller overheated so Isuggested we walk to the top to let it cool down, but he washaving none of it. He thought that his cunning little commuterwas above walking up a hill, so he grabbed my water bottle andsquirted his controller. A minute later he was off, shouting “Usethe powaaaaa. Electric powaaaaa”.People often ask how much help you get from one of thesebikes and that depends on how much effort you put in. I havecome from a mountain biking background and I tend to pedalthe ezeebike the same as I do a normal bike. The only differenceRated currentRange5 AmpsUp to 60kmFrame Road bike All alloy 6061 T4 T6Tyres Schwalbe marathon 700C x 45 (27 x 1.75” ) with K Shieldpuncture resistantRim Weinmann (Rigida) CNC alloytwin wallGears Shimano Nexave and Sora 8speed with RF thumb shift.Some easy, some not so easyis that with electrical assistance you go faster. Climbing hills is where the big gainsare made and these can be done at double the speed that I’m used to.Back in South Africa and on the tar once again, we had our minds now on CapeTown, but were in for a rude surprise. We had the first real hills of the trip. Lots ofthem, and together with the heat, burning sun, traffic and headwind made the247km to Garies one of the toughest days of all. The last 60km felt like 200.On reaching Cape Town we did a detour to Bloubergstrand to jump on the beach.We’d done it! The finish at Canal Walk was a big surprise with a good crowd towelcome us home. The ride had obviously generated a lot of interest in South Africa.The Torqs proved to be incredibly reliable. They had ridden through severalthunderstorms, been subject to almost impossible heat, run at maximum power forhours on end, almost rattled to death on corrugations and even in Chings casecrashed a couple of times, yet they ran to the finish as smoothly and quietly as theyhad started. All we did was oil the chains and lower the tyre pressure for the dirt. Wehad ventured into true 4x4 territory and covered distances that would be impossibleon a normal bike.Wai Won Ching, the founder ofeZeebikes has “Treat the earthwell” as his company motto. He iscommitted to low carbon transportand has ridden the Silk Routethrough China to promote the useof electric bikes.Looking at the stats, my lowest Wh/km figure was on the first day. Although thiswas the longest, I knew that the overnight stop had limited generator power, so I’dused a lot of leg effort to keep some batteries for the next day. The average of 42kmper battery across varied terrain was very good, considering we were not riding foreconomy. Back at home with a single battery and no luggage, I averaged between60 and 70km when ridden economically. And the best part of all, adding a 20% lossthrough the charger, the “fuel” bill for my bike was R15.98 at Eskom rates of56c/kWh. The rates vary, but even if you double that, it surely makes electric bikesthe most efficient way of getting around!For more information visit www.ezeebike.co.zaRupert Nanni, a keen environmentalist, trail guideand cyclist has travelled extensively throughAfrica by bicycle. He currently lives inJohannesburg where he uses an electric bike toget around.