Surprising stability of solar-powered bicycle

Last year I posted some pictures of electric bicycles with overhead solar panels:

• Solar leaning trike safety concerns — November 17, 2023

That post included this photo:

My thinking at the time was this type of design would be impractical, due to side winds. Well, it turns out I was wrong!

Jack Butler won the 7,000km Sun Trip 2024 on a bicycle similar to the above. Including riding in "gale force" winds. Here is his participant page and a photo of his bike:

https://www.thesuntrip.com/en/participants/jack-butler/

Jean-Marc Dobouloz came second, in a velomobile:

https://www.thesuntrip.com/en/participants/jean-marc-dubouloz/

Jack has a YouTube channel and he posted several videos about the Sun Trip challenge. What really fascinated me is that when they hit the "gale force" winds, Jean-Marc was in the lead but his velomobile got blown over, whereas Jack managed to keep going and got into the lead.

This is Jack's post about encountering the high winds:

"The Sun Trip 2024 Day 8 - Fighting for my life in gale winds on DIY Solar touring ebike"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsWqHQHJobA

This comment is interesting:

Incredible you managed to stay upright in those winds on two wheels while Jean-Marc with the greater stability of three wheels came a cropper. I wonder if it’s because you can sway and bend a bit with the gusts which he can’t.

Another thing that I wondered about is the attitude of the police when they see Jack's bike. That is also interesting; he only got stopped once by the police, and fined 200 Euros. And that was for holding his phone and wearing headphones!

After the Sun Trip, Jack posted a video describing his bike:

"Unique Touring Bike Review after 7000km with huge solar panel roof shade"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDByoLRS9QA&t=587s

As I am building a solar-powered recumbent trike, I read reports of other projects with great interest. I'm fascinated by the weight of these bikes and trikes, posted here:

https://www.thesuntrip.com/en/les-velos-du-sun-trip-2024/

...Jean-Marc's trike is 74.8kg when empty. That is very heavy. I wonder if by "empty" they mean fully laden with luggage, such as camping gear and food, just sans the rider? No, "empty" should mean just that, no luggage.       

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