A solar-powered electric bike from France to Japan… on the road to the rising sun

Why do I have to learn this kind of information on an American website?! Either I'm not reading the right sites (in which case, friends, speak up...) or we're behind in France! Or maybe we've already talked about it, and given that it just ended... So Florian Bailly covered 13,000 km (what calves, man!), crossed 11 countries (I'll list them for you: France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China and Japan), 2 continents, doing 120 km a day (that seems just enormous to me) all on a solar electric bike...

Sometimes man surprises me... because it's certainly great from a human point of view to go out and meet others. Doing it by cycling is even better, whereas I would usually have flown (even if I would have offset the flight afterwards), but thinking about clean energy is another approach altogether... Well, it still costs a hefty €7500...

You can watch the first few minutes of his film, and it's true (even though cycling really isn't my passion) that I found this excerpt very accurate.

Because I don't want to misrepresent his words, here's what Florian says: "The solar electric bike remains a bike; the idea is not to use a motorcycle, but to keep human energy as the basis of operation. The electric battery provides assistance, allowing you to go faster for the same given pedaling power. Solar energy, meanwhile, contributes to autonomy by allowing the batteries to be recharged."

The great news, just a little personal anecdote, is that my ski resort's twin station, Valloire (yes, Jean-Baptiste Grange's one), is partnering with the project because they want to install them in the resort... isn't that good news!!! (Okay, Valmeinier, now you do the same)