Epic Electric Motorcycle Reality Show – Motorbike Writer

by Mark Hinchliffe – Motorbike Writer

Three men and a woman will ride from the tip of Alaska to the bottom of South America on custom-built electric motorcycles to film a reality TV series.

It’s called Expedition Unplugged and will be produced and directed by Robert Colbourne of Diamond Head Films in Vancouver.

Despite a BMW R 1200 GS being featured on their brochure, they will ride KTM 950 Adventures which have been customised with an AC motor, regenerative recharging and a 20K battery pack with an additional 5K battery for long days.

“Many electric motorcycles are built on 250 chassis or smaller,” they say in their spiel.

“This is too bad because it means that the bikes are under powered and lack battery life to get any real distance. Most of them are doing good to get over 100 miles (160km) on one charge. We simply wanted more than what the industry was providing.”

They say their custom electric bikes will provide more than 300 miles (480km) on a single charge as well as having the capability to run all road conditions.

Their ride will take them more than 40,000km, through 15 countries from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in June, arriving in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, in January.

“This eight-month trip will follow a colourful group of characters as they put themselves and their prototype machines to the ultimate test of endurance in some of the world’s most exciting, beautiful and dangerous locations,” they say.

“The journey will take the viewer on an epic adventure while showcasing existing green technology and exploring others along the way in order to illustrate the possibilities of alternative energy in real-world applications.”

We look forward to the TV series and hope it makes it to Australia or, at least, a DVD release.

Mercedes-Benz L-series truck – wikipedia

The Mercedes-Benz Trucks L-series is a conventional layout, cab-after-engine truck manufactured from 1959 to 1995. In Germany it is most commonly referred to as the Kurzhauber (for “short bonnet”).^[ The engine intruded into the cabin underneath the windshield, all in the name of making a shorter truck to meet the strict period German regulations on overall length.

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Bike #2

Expedition Unplugged KTM Number 2 is in Denver now and will be on it’s way to Chris Bell’s to become the electric bike it has always wanted to be.

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The 1st bike is almost ready to ride!

We are close to rebuilding the first motorcycle with its electric motor.

Expedition Unplugged Plans Epic (Electric) Journey

by Ted Dillard

Put this under the category of “unfolding adventure” stories, but we just found out about this caper and started following the progress.  Here’s what it’s about.

Expedition Unplugged is a TV/film/video venture that is planning a monumental trans-continental trip, all on electric motorcycles converted from KTM 950 Adventures.  The route starts in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska through North and South America arriving in Ushuaia, Argentina.  They’re allowing for 7 months for the 25,000 mile trip.

The pitch?

“Expedition Unplugged” is an electrically charged adventure, taking 4 riders on custom-built electric motorcycles to the edge and beyond in search of where people find their passion.

What do you do to reenergize your life? In this series, three men and one woman will take on a never before attempted adventure to find the outlets people use to recharge their lives and live with passion. They will travel over 25,000 miles through 19 countries on custom-built electric motorcycles in an attempt to discover where people among many cultures and geographical locations find their spark: to see what they love about where they live.

Though there’s precious little on the site in the way of information at this point, including nothing on the team (“cast”), sponsors or other details, progress is being made on the bike builds for the expedition.  That’s where we learned our buddy Chris Bell, of Bell Custom Cycles, (remember the Brutus, right?) came into the picture, with this picture:

 

Yes.  That’s an HPEV AC35 motor there, something that would be right at home in, oh, say, your family car.  Chris tells us they were concerned with “thermal issues”.  It apparently is headed to Manzanita Micro for the controller tuning.  Couldn’t think of a better place. That package, along with about 18kWh of Nissan LEAF batteries, is going into this:

…or, to be correct, four of them.  For those who are not familiar with this bike, you look under “off-road insane beast” in the dictionary?  There it is.  Chris said the conversions would weigh in at 630 lbs, vs the original weight of 500 lbs.  What’s particularly interesting is that Bell is working on an open-source, fully enclosed oil-bath reduction gearbox for getting the 6000+ RPM motor into a usable (read: tree-climbing power) range.  We’ll be watching that progress to be sure.

Follow along on the conversion process here, on Bell Custom’s YouTube channel.  For now, the latest update, Part 2:

911

The L-series was first produced in Germany in 1959 and was in production for export until 1995, long after domestic German sales had ended.  The L-series was a big export success for Mercedes-Benz and became very popular in the Middle-East, South America and Africa. In Arabia, the L-series in 6×6 sleeper cab configuration (Model ‘LS’) handled heavy road traction almost exclusively.