Banana Riders - Esk8 Road Trip 2019 - Paris > Carcassonne - 1000kms in 10 days!

[Riako]

Banana Riders - Esk8 Road Trip 2019 - Paris > Carcassonne

• We are 5 crazy French riders, going to across France in 10 days, +1000kms, from Paris to Carcassonne.
  
  

The Banana Riders !

Our little French association, Banana Riders, to promote eco-mobility from 7 to 77 yrs old, with all the diversity of all type of small personal commuter.
But here of course with our fav one, the e-MTBoard !!!

This is going to be siiick!! Start on the 20th June ! It’s like tomorow
A crazy experience, for us and the gears, pushing the limit of one of my fav hobby and lifestyle !!
I’m so excited! I try to train my body (endurance), pushing at work 9h/day, sometimes doing over 500 squats in the afternoon (I lost the less grease I got and also lose the back pain at the same time !).

Also, big testing for the material in general!
We need a lot of Wh/day, a lot of spares parts in case … something happens …
The strongest and more efficient mount etc.
But also, we didn’t get our main support, so we are going to make as we can, with what each one is able to afford. (no big 12s20p for me for example ^^)

Banana Riders

Our 2m x 1m flag :

One of the most important stuff, from our main sponsor Overion.fr !! Big Up Yann

APS for the motors : 6384 80kV (2 on board and 2 as spare for everyone !)

Some will use v4.12, some FSESC6.6, I’m going with ESCape for the adventure !

The trailer and the top plate support :

I will make a full report of this experience after it, also hopefully a movie (should be daily vid share on social network too). I will try to focus on 3 majors points, but tell me what you want to know too from such an experience :

1. Riding experience (across France mean a variety of terrain, but we focus of using little trail across the map, not too much big road, safer for us. It was easy? Are all road really ridable ? … to be elaborate)
2. Material experience (what the worst point on the build, what works the best, what was made or not for a so long trip, did the summer season a good season for long travel with e-commute ? … to be elaborate)
3. Physical experience (how did the body endure this long unusual posture, mental feeling before and after, etc. … to be elaborate)

I will add a last one

4. would you/I do it again? Ready for the next bigger one !!???

Please, go visit and like our poor facebook page (Banana Riders) just to show support and interest,

Départ du Esk8 Roadtrip

and our Instagram page

Banana Riders (@banana_riders) • Photos et vidéos Instagram

This is like a test, next year we will make it better !

Thanks to Guillaume (the main organizer), Yann & Overion.fr, Bruno and Alien power System, Flipsky, and also Jenso and Duffman from e-Toxx, and all the community and my half

[Riako]

[reserved]

[Balta_6]

Gros bisous à vous les gars, ca va être top !
(Let’s have our french moment)

[whaddys]

What trail is this? GR11/12?

Actually that would be impossible on esk8 lol - taking the streets? Any trails at all?

[Riako]

Our custom parkour

…across France mean a variety of terrain, but we focus on using little trail across the map, not too much big road, safer for us…

It’s a real trip, we never test this!

[Grozniy]

Wish you the best of luck

[Riako]

Thanks a lot mate !! I guess I will need it

[Andy87]

Very excited to see how the trip goes. It’s a big goal to drive 100+km every day. Very interested how the gear will hold up and what ever experience you guys will take out of this trip! Wish you all the best and a fun time! Following on Instagram

[Andy87]

Oh and will we get a picture with all boards lined up please

[Riako]

Pictures and nothing else!

[image]

Just a funny pic with almost all my lipo for the trip, here something like 12s 56Ah 15C ^^
And I got almost 3kWh / 66Ah in total!

In the best case scenario, :

the longest daily step will be +130km I guess I got enought for eatch days ^^ (I also make the test with 20Wh/km of avg energy use of course).

[ducktaperules]

will you be on thane or pneumatic wheels?

[Sebi]

Good luck to you guys! That’ll be quite an experience and adventure!!

[Riako]

Pneumatic 8/9". The way is focus mainly on little trail, path, walk and right way without cars it need to be an AT.

I will post some pics of my setup start of the week

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Here, some parts used :

• MBS Matric 2 Pro hanger + ylw damper
• e-Toxx precision base plate
• Overion Drive Kit, mount + chain iso 06B
• APS 6384 80kV half/enclosed

[Grozniy]

How are you charging this? With 20a charger or something?
That’s a lot of juice

[Riako]

No, only what I already got, I will use two dual chargers for the 6s8Ah, plus an externe 12s BMS 8A charger for the 6s12Ah.
I only buy 4 new 8Ah lipo, the rest are already used and old one. (and I got a 12s10Ah brand new from last summer that I still haven’t use).

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Thank you a lot, @Sebi, for the support !!

[Riako]

Hey hey hey !

Ok, so. Quick short 1st report (almost 1month and a half after the trip) :

I have done one-third of the adventure !
Unfortunately, I choose to stop the trip earlier.
No accident, technical issue or etc. just an organization a bit loose ^^
Seeing all the investment and preparations done upstream, I prefer to save immediately for the next season/trip. (After 3 days I have driven my car more than 1000kms … instead of my board (+/- 75kms)…).
(We originally plan to stop the trip 2 months ago, because, it was too short in time, but we told us … now we got stuff, why not try !?)

Finally the trip wasn’t Paris-Carcassonne, but Bordeaux ^^ (we win at least 3/400km).
1 rider, finally didn’t come.
1 got a broken wrist (he couldn’t finish, so the trip was abandoned earlier for all).
And also, 1 got sprain.

1. We underestimated the initial course/trip, it was much too rugged > after the 1st two days, we change it for more bike path (a little bit less fun, but way more comfortable and easy for us and the setup).
   I wasn’t really ok to ride on the big road with traffic… But we have to sometimes …

2. Once again, we underestimated the length of the stages. They were way too long > we pass them the second day from 110/130km per day to less than 90kms.

3. We over-estimated our physical capacity > with the hard offroad, and long stages/steps, first days were very tiring and difficult for the body (numb feet, and painful knees (our suspension) in the evening). Less than 100km/day seems more reasonable (25km 1st part of the morning, 25km second part, and same afternoon).
   Also, 1st day I was coming from one sleepless night … not a good idea!!!
   Plus it was an heat wave week in France … dam to hot.

4. We should, all of us, go with the exact same setup, to minimize all the spare parts, and optimize time when we have an issue.
   Also one rider didn’t know eMTB, it was his 1st build/ride.

5. We need a broom car !!! Or at list, do not prepare the setup the day before for the next day !!
   of course, I was well aware of all that, but the time was right of me … ho no, I mean us !..
   3/4 was finishing our setup during more than 4 hours, while the departure should already to take place…

In fact there is just Alexis (some see him at it’s electric or electric games), you was really ready.
The only one without trailer (that we weren’t able to use in fact).
Plus it was the only one to get the originally planned battery pack (12s20p).
He was the only in quattro / 4WD … of course he could make the ong stages/steps.
But he was the only one who has tested and rides his board since month.

About the setup … Some mounts moved a bit, but because of rough setup on the morning before the start, some without loctite …
2 bads connexion (+/- inverted due to shitty custom connection) on two differents boards.
1 VESC 4.12 toked the 1st day, because he have set FOC at full capacity … it last 30kms. (in BLDC he made the trip.)
I will make another post with the setup later

For now, some souvenirs

See you next year Road Trip

[esk8manbabes]

Wow. Did not see that coming.

Glad all of you are okay. Good first effort and now you’ll be better prepared for the next banana run.

How did the boards handle? You must have had the stiffest spring setup for those giant packages in the middle.

[murdomeek]

OMG, that giant purple battery box! XD

[Riako]

Center = 12s 20p
Left and right side = charger + spares part
Like I say he was the only one without trailer at first. Just a little backpack ^^

[Moja]

Respect to this, I’ve wanted to do some emtb touring for a while with a trailer, I tour on my ebike and have a Lacroix Lonestar now so would be up for some bit trips. I think riding in Holland is really good, you can cover the country on really nice paths.