I announced my
non-venu just now
So where to start? Injury:
I have had a hamstring injury in my left leg before (2010 ?) and reading medical sites discover now that the scar tissue never really heals 100%. Now that I know that I will adapt my driving style. The temperature was 33º C all day Wednesday and I may have exaggerated a little... A >6 litre day for 200 km (I got lost twice) and had to stop 20 min to repair once.
Lots of little friends in the night but no mosquitos got in the tent. A rabbit dug a little hole in front before being chased away by the camping ground cat. Just before dawn I heard a wild boar galloping along the beach... My rabbit:
The next morning I didn't feel too bad so started north again. After 35 km of "mostly flat" it became clear that it was not a good idea to go any further. A short note on "mostly flat":
If you look closely at the profile you will see a positive gradient that is so small that a lighter, faster vélomobile would not be affected. That stretch is about 15 km long and straight except for a couple of very slight corners. When you have a bad leg very slight gradients are not your friend...
So off to a camping ground in Le Teich, yes it has a pool! So pool, massage, rest in tent (away from the mosquitos...), pool, massage, walk around camping ground to keep leg mobile, dinner then sleep.
(insert photo of very similar campsite here, no not necessary...)
Battery:
I started by frying the charging board I use for charging both batteries at once from one charger... A too tired to think error. So that charge was after 186 km and I drove 14 km without using the motor. The second charge lasted 182.16 km with some Basque Country hills to climb. There I discovered that despite my old GSMoon motor being a clone of the BBS01 at least it has a freewheel when the motor is not receiving current. The BBS01B is still engaged when the battery is empty so you hear it grinding away and eating your precious Watts - 20.45 km on the way home
Cycle paths:
@kitenteddy said I would be fine on the cycle paths, maybe he wasn't driving 35 km/h?
A chicane:
I used cycle paths where they were a short cut and of course when the battery ran out of gas. Mostly I drove on the road and there is a lot of traffic including logging trucks on those roads. Once a day a driver made me notice I was driving on his road, or disagreed with my use of the road - black Range Rover which had to follow me for about 35 seconds. Or that I was nuts - van coming in the other direction. Hey I know I am nuts, no need to tell me! Considering the amount of traffic one unhappy person a day I can live with. Mostly very positive reactions, lots of instagram et al exposure I am guessing. Even a little GoPro action when I was driving parallel to the route on a good cycle path (with hurt leg rarely over 25.8 km/h).
Agilo stability in cross winds:
We have talked about this before in the Agilo thread but now I have significantly more experience and at speeds over 60 km/h
@Felix Logging trucks are very big and very powerful, when they are empty drivers like to drive at 110 km/h (because they can) and being passed in both directions by these monsters I felt... Absolutely nothing! Busses at 80 km/h? Nothing much either. One logging truck threw a piece of bark at the windscreen - that made me think closed has some advantages over head out... Yesterday the wind was gusting strongly from the east so at a 90º angle to the road and I was > 65 km/h down a couple of hills in the home straight. You feel the gusts but have the time to compensate without wild swerving or any feeling of being in danger.
Bodo Sitko!
An apple stop and an example of the roads in the north of the Landes. I think the longest straight is over 15 km without a village or a corner. Many of the cycle paths/small forest roads are still closed since the huge forest fires during the summer. My route should have passed through the affected area but I did not see a single burnt tree.
420 km in all and just before the end, 25 km from home the Bayonne cathedral in the centre of the photo.
I lost 1.5 kg body weight (fat) over the 4 days. No problems with hydration or "fringale" because I have long distance walking experience and know what my body needs. Temperatures too high for full windows (rain was announced for the return from Vendée), yesterday 26º air temperatures but with a tail wind blowing about the same speed as travel speed you do not get much fresh air...
I have read travel reports and suggestions etc. here but there is nothing that can replace your own experience. Now that I have tasted vélomobile travel I will be starting again as soon as I can. Projects to the south have a lot more vertical metres, that will be interesting. Before that i need to work on the brakes, coupled brakes suck badly on steep hills... Even VM.nl admit that from posts I have read. Yesterday the only emergency braking - a car refused a stop - and we both managed to stop in time. But there is not enough balanced braking power and my parking brake stopped working after just 200 km, can someone explain that? I reset the brakes in Bidart before the last big downhills, driving through Biarritz was a bit hairy in traffic.
So there we have it, Agilo as touring vélomobile. I need to work on the design of my forward luggage compartments and glue them in - speed bumps make the contents jump up even at very slow speed.
The tent goes here and on the other side more stuff but that one broke crossing a railway line after very few km.
I had too much stuff, some didn't come home but was recycled along the way. The tent was perfect but I would never share it with a second person - too small. The self inflating mattress is too heavy but perfect comfort, almost like the mattress at home.
Despite not reaching my initial goal a very satisfying 4 days.
