Blog #5 Rotterdam to Amsterdam

13th September

Port of Rotterdam to Amsterdam 93 kms

I've been lucky to have good funding for this ride. Yamaha are the biggest stake-holder in the arrangement followed by SQUIRE locks and Route YC Had they not been funding this project I contemplated going independent on an ordinary bicycle. The need to do something drives out all reason. After food, somewhere to live and friends, stories are the thing we need most in the world and this is mine. John has supported several motorbike expeditions plus the first long distance e-cycle ride I did from Nordkapp to Tarifa (see video)

Major sponsor John Squire owner SQUIRE Locks (oldest lock maker in the world)

It's a mental thing

In the middle of 2019 I suggested to Yamaha we ride around the world on the Wabash. They were a little unsure so I said instead we should test the machine riding the length of mainland Europe from Nordkapp to Tariffa. It was an experiment. I set off late October in 2022 and 7 weeks later riding 1000 kms each week we suceeded. An e-bike had never been ridden so far. That gave me the green light to examine if a world trip was feasible. Was I strong enough to ride 4 times the distance at the same pace?

The Route from Nordkapp to Tarifa (Oct - Nov 2022)

7000 kms in 7 weeks

Back to nearly now

Slowly we are getting close to a 'Ride Actual' - one in which rider and audience are in the present. Feeling the sweat and energy. Hearing about the heat and the need to be. So I roll off the ferry into the Netherlands.

It took all day because there was so much to see. The Scheur (Dutch pronunciation: [ət ˈsxøːr]; Dutch for "The Rip") is a continuing branch of the Rhine-Meuse delta in South Holland. At Rozenburg I crossed over the bridge. Sunny day, bike whirring along, except that on such a flat landscape I didn't need the battery. This bike can be ridden like a normal bicycle without using the motor and down hill is fasted if switched off. I needed 'flatness'. My fitness needs to be higher but the plan is to ride 160kms a day until northern Germany then see how I feel. I asked Yamaha how long they would like this journey to be and they said ideally 4 months but 6 max and I need 7. It'll be fine but there is a schedule to be adhered to whilst I gather data to make the ride. I guess my career is a journey for me, and any journey is incomplete without the struggle it presents.