Introduction
We wanted to take a long cycling trip to mark our retirement, with Blandine, my wife. The problem was crossing the mountains, which we enjoyed but didn’t really match our abilities… Hence the idea of traveling by electric bike, but this presented many constraints regarding charging and limiting our camping options. Discovering the Sun Trip made me think that a solar solution might be possible. Meeting Christophe Bayard (through his website Ve-Tech), who advised us, sold us the equipment, and set up the remote connections, allowed us to take the plunge into solar cycling. We’ve covered about 17,000 km on solar bikes in the last 5 years, including a 6-month round trip to Bulgaria. This year I changed Blandine’s trailer, and I think this will double our solar power production. These are the bikes presented here.
Technical Description
The Bike
This is a Riverside 900 from Decathlon, bought second-hand while traveling, after the motor on my original bike (an E-Motion with a Panasonic motor) broke down.
Motorization
Rear wheel hub motor (Ozo original).
Battery
36V battery 875 Wh (Ozo brand).
Solar trailer
The bicycle pulls a Bob Ibex trailer equipped with a 140W solar panel (with Sunpower Maxeon3 cells).
The panel is attached to an aluminum frame using double-sided foam tape. This frame is fixed to an aluminum tube (40 mm diameter). The panel can be tilted even while riding. The locking mechanism is secured by a seat clamp and a piece of 16-inch wheel rim.
Feedback
From the outset, our objective was to go wherever we wanted, without worrying about speed but with good comfort and therefore a certain weight. We also wanted good range, without aiming for total autonomy. This objective was achieved with stages of 50 to 60 km per day and sparing use of the assistance. In June or July, with stages that weren’t too hilly, we didn’t need to charge the bikes from mains power.
Last year, I was almost always energy self-sufficient with my trike, and I could give Blandine a few watt-hours of power via a cable connecting the two bikes during our long lunch breaks. We did a trip of about 3,000 km, quite mountainous (Redon – GrindeWald and Gimselpass in Switzerland – Chamonix – Bourg d’Oisans – crossing the Vercors and then the Massif Central – Redon). With the new trailer, I think we’ll be able to significantly lengthen our stages without spending more time on the bikes. The motors are sufficient for our way of traveling; it’s the energy supply that’s the limiting factor. We climbed hills with gradients of up to 20%…
Positive points
Few technical problems (we changed the MPPT solar charge controller after the ELEJOY model failed).
Points for Improvement
We lack experience with the new trailer, and even with an upright bike, a bike with a trailer is quite heavy to handle.
Update: New trailer equipped with a new solar panel
The new Energie Mobile brand panel is much more efficient than the old Elfeland brand one: approximately 2 to 5 times more solar production for a similar surface area.
| Old trailer | New trailer | |
| Trailer model | Bob Yak without suspension | Bob Ibex with suspension |
| Peak power | 120 Wp (purchased in 2021) | 140 Wp (purchased in 2025) |
| Tiltable | No, except at shutdown | Yes |
| Weight | 12.2 kg | 13.8 kg |
| test in overcast weather | 0.2 A | 0.4 A |
| test in midday sun in February | 0.4 A | 1.9 A |
Legacy Panel Features
Caractéristiques du nouveau panneau
Panneau X FLEX Black 140 W – ENERGIE MOBILE
- Cellules SUNPOWER avec technologie back-contact
- Très haut rendement 25 %
- Construction ETFE : surface antidérapante & renforcée anti-UV
- Full black : pour un look moderne et discret
- Ultra souple : jusqu’à 60 ° de flexion
- Puissance max (W) : 142
- Tension nominale (V) : 22,3
- Courant max (A) : 6,05
- Tension à vide (V) : 26,2
- Courant court circuit (A) : 6,4
- Tension max système (V) : 45
- Câble surgainé 3 mètres / 1 x (2 x 1.5 mm²) / Ø 7.5 mm
- Dimensions (Lxlxh) en mm : 1220 x 540 x 3