Friday 17 September 2010

Riding back from Hoogeveen


Last week I showed what the centre of Hoogeveen now looks like. I also made a video on the way home again.

The company from where I buy the racks is 35 km from my home, along a route which follows the main road between the two towns. The video shows a representative section of the trip back home, which is mostly on separate cycle path but also some access roads (with little or no cars on them, but the occasional tractor) and a short stretch on road through a village. This is quite normal for riding between towns on routes which haven't been improved further.

I rode the Mango, pulling an empty trailer there, which was full of bike racks on the return trip, so I've now got a good stock of those again.

As usual, this was a straightforward and uneventful journey, with no nasty surprises over the 80 km (including the detour to the centre to make the film for last week). That's just how it is.

This film is a bit similar to one I made two years ago on the same journey, but despite the trailer not helping the aerodynamics, it was somewhat quicker this time around with the Mango.
Read my review of the Sinner Mango Velomobile.

2 comments:

Rob Mackenzie said...

Hello David,
Is that a solar panel I am seeing on your front hood? I don't remember seeing that before.

Rob Mackenzie

David Hembrow said...

Hi Rob, Yes. It's solar. It's been there since May. I also built a charge regulator so that it doesn't overcharge already full batteries. It's been a bit of an experiment over the last few months.

On good days it puts quite a bit of charge into the battery. However, as my batteries age (this being a problem with any rechargeable batteries) they no longer accept so much charge as they used to so charging by any means seems like fighting a losing battle.