5000 Mile World Record e-Bike Ride

[Douglas Ruby]

Great to hear some news. In his blog there are only ~ 71 miles for yesterday. Is that correct? Did he have any other problems?

Thankd

The blog is currently incorrect. He broke yesterday's travel into two "trips". One was 71.1 miles the other 148 miles for a total of 219.1. His total mileage is 4796.5 miles through last night. (previous day + 219.1). If you follow his location last night to the headquarters of Stromer in San Diego, it is 385 miles, thus his total should be around 5182 miles for the entire adventure.

FYI, I-5 goes near, but bypasses Bakersfield, where it is currently 92F and expected to reach 101F. He is definitely NOT taking the scenic route. These are tough miles. If I were in his shoes, I would be just praying for it to all end.

 

[irenewg13]

Doug,

I was just going to post that same info re Ravi's status.

Thank you Brad, webmaster of Lenny's site, including the blog.

 

[Douglas Ruby]

Brad...thanks for helping us stay on top of everything. And thanks to Lenny for getting the e-bike word out and helping to sponsor Ravi's ride.

 

[Douglas Ruby]

Ravi has arrived at Stromer HQ. Total distance almost exactly 5100 miles. Awesome.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

Thank you @Douglas Ruby , @irenewg13 and @J.R. !

It was an incredible and humbling experience to say the least.
friends like you, Douglas, Shane, Mark, Roger, JR, Jed etc. have been more like a virtual family. I truly believe that wishes from friends and family have kept me safe on the road.

I have 3TB worth of video footage to process and upload. I was looking at some of the footage yesterday and it was scary. I am very lucky considering the kind of riding I did.

We completed 5102 miles in 34 days. I lost 2 days in between because the support van driver had to leave and then some low mileage days because of school work but overall I am very happy to have completed successfully. Also, thanks to Rich who was my support van driver who put up with very rigorous schedule.

I have learned a ton in this process and when I get more time, I will start documenting more in detial. Right now, need to organize all the proofs and send it to the Guiness Organization.

Here are some pics.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

The blog is currently incorrect. He broke yesterday's travel into two "trips". One was 71.1 miles the other 148 miles for a total of 219.1. His total mileage is 4796.5 miles through last night. (previous day + 219.1). If you follow his location last night to the headquarters of Stromer in San Diego, it is 385 miles, thus his total should be around 5182 miles for the entire adventure.

FYI, I-5 goes near, but bypasses Bakersfield, where it is currently 92F and expected to reach 101F. He is definitely NOT taking the scenic route. These are tough miles. If I were in his shoes, I would be just praying for it to all end.

Doug,
That day was truly crazy and physically very challenging!
Riding next to trucks passing by at 75mph on a 105'F hot day. I could see all the fire men and wild fires along the way. Thankfully, it did not interrupt my ride. Some blue tiny dots on this hill = fire men.

 

[irenewg13]

Ravi
You must be running on fumes! I can't believe that you are taking the time to write, at the end of this long journée, long month, and probably a very long day.

 

[J.R.]

Thank you @Douglas Ruby , @irenewg13 and @J.R. !

It was an incredible and humbling experience to say the least.
friends like you, Douglas, Shane, Mark, Roger, JR, Jed etc. have been more like a virtual family. I truly believe that wishes from friends and family have kept me safe on the road.

I have 3TB worth of video footage to process and upload. I was looking at some of the footage yesterday and it was scary. I am very lucky considering the kind of riding I did.

We completed 5102 miles in 34 days. I lost 2 days in between because the support van driver had to leave and then some low mileage days because of school work but overall I am very happy to have completed successfully. Also, thanks to Rich who was my support van driver who put up with very rigorous schedule.

I have learned a ton in this process and when I get more time, I will start documenting more in detial. Right now, need to organize all the proofs and send it to the Guiness Organization.

Here are some pics.
View attachment 9204 View attachment 9207

Congratulations @Ravi Kempaiah!!

More than a year in the making and now off the bucket list! I'm surprised you're not at Disney World. I know nothing's official, but I removed "Attempt" from this thread's title. I wasn't there (obviously), but I have a true sense of pride, knowing you and knowing how long and hard you worked for this. There's an inside story with this ride, I hope comes out in a blog or book. You've had some trials and tribulations in the past year, it would have been easy to scrap or postpone your ride, with justification. That makes this accomplishment even more amazing. Thanks for sharing your ride with us, I'm looking forward to you sharing those three terabytes.

 

[opimax]

Congratulations , great job. Glad you are safe. Waiting to hear more. Quit pedaling Ravi!

 

[JayVee]

Great accomplishment Ravi. Very inspirational. What amazes me the most is that there has to be really difficult days during such an adventure. But even so, you have to start again the next morning whether it's raining, hailing, or as hot as an oven...

 

[Jolly]

Congrats Ravi, You are the MAN.......

 

[Brambor]

Congratulations Ravi!

 

[Toynut]

Very impressive!
And to think that you weighed in at 195 pounds at the start of the trip.

 

[Ann M.]

Definitely Congratulations! Thank you for sharing this ride with all of us, Ravi. Had a training buddy years ago who etched one motto into my mind that I thought of with your ride: "It's Mind over Matter...If you don't mind it Doesn't Matter" She'd say that on tough days of riding and tough days when she didn't want to ride and you had your quota of each for 5100 miles. What a grand ride!

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

Thanks you all.
The last few weeks were little crazy but this weekend I was organizing some of the digital material and thought I would share these images with you all.
I have learnt quite a bit from this ride and have some exciting projects for the next year.
So many people were skeptical, including myself because of chances of experiencing stress injury, accidents etc. On many occasions, I had to ride in the rain, blistering hot weather, on narrow shoulders with trucks passing me etc. Life was very kind to me. I had no major accidents at all. But the scenery was brilliant. It kept me going everyday and really felt great by the 3rd and 4th week.

I don't consider this as a sporting achievement at all. I think Race Across America riders can do this in 10-14 days and I intend to race in RAAM in about 3 years but it was more of a fun and adventurous opportunity to popularize E-bikes and bring awareness to the benefits & possibilities of E-bikes.

Hope more people get on E-bikes and experience better health and enjoyment.

Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure. If anyone is planning such rides, I am happy share useful re: logistics, training, technical or anything relevant from my experience.

The complete map of my routes stitched from Strava.


The most pressing problem of 20th century and it's solution in one single picture.



Day 1- leaving from Crazy Lenny's store.


Grand Tetons - the place which is heavenly for biking ... something to remember for the rest of my life.

Mt Rushmore and Black forests. Just a great place.



My friends who were integral part of the ride.


Badlands national park is like mini grand canyon.



The exact point where I crossed the current world record mark of 4443 miles. Somewhere along the coast of California.



The famous ride through tree in Klamath, CA.



Wyoming and Montana were stunningly beautiful.



Really enjoyed visiting this place.



The most beautiful ride was from Helena to Glacier national park. The ride long the Flathead lake was stunningly mesmerizering. Also, the Redwoods were magnificent.

 

[Brambor]

so did they clock you on a radar ?

 

[J.R.]

Frame that ticket! That is if they're still using paper tickets there.

Really amazing trip of a lifetime and you're still so young!

 

[Kaldeem]

@Ravi Kempaiah You're a badass for the eBike community!!

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

Just a quick update on this old thread.
--------------------------------------------------------
It's been a long and somewhat tough experience getting my record verified.
At first, I had to process 4TB of videos and using my home internet which has a cap of 250GB upload, it took me six months to upload everything and then I sent all my documentation to the officials at GWR.

After providing all the documentation, now they are asking me to furnish updated witness statements. Everyday, I had to get signatures from local people and I did that. I accumulated over 70 signatures but GWR is insisting that I should have had a statement from each person I met. I am still in talks with them to get the final confirmation.

Other than that, Mike Minnick did 14,000+ miles across the US with a dog to promote pet adoption. He took 15 months and that might take quite a bit of time to get verified but if it does go through, then I may have to do 15,000 miles in 75 days or something. Unless there is a strong motivation/cause, 15,000 miles in 75 days makes is a tough task.

Soon after my record attempt last year, certain emotion took over me. More like a impostor syndrome. I think the reason was, I started getting to know real professional athletes and it stuck me that I had terrible riding techniques, no stamina or muscles compared to some of these pro's. So, me claiming some kind of world record was just laughable in front of them. It inspired me to build my core strength and do something that really is challenging. So, currently, an application is in process for the longest journey on an E-bike in 24 hours. If that gets accepted, I will be doing a 24hrs, 450 miles ride attempt later this summer or early fall.

Will update this thread once I hear back from GWR.

 

[Martinet]

Interesting challenge. Good luck and best wishes.

Are you planning to use a class 1 or 2 ebike or class 3? Maximum power engine (750w) May be optimum, if it allows 20mph on uphills and faster human powered descents. Thereby a rolling course could be better than a flat one. I'm sure you will come up with an optimum strategy. Will follow your efforts.