Ulm

Last Sunday afternoon I was off to Ulm to attend this year’s Nabada and subsequent Schwörmontag Party in the old town. Making sure to avoid the Autobahn, sticking to Bundesstraße only, the trip was smooth almost throughout.

Apple Maps had a few hiccups where in order to avoid the Bundesstraße it would try to lead me onto a bicycle lane that runs right along the Bundesstraße, but after ignoring that it recalculated and lead me the correct way.

Shortly before reaching Ulm it had tried to send me onto the Autobahn, which is why I made a quick stop in Merklingen and restarted the routing with the “Avoid Motorways” option again¹.

Arriving in Ulm I had approximately 120 km charge left, which is why I decided to park it and leave it there until departure.

Luckily, I made it there right in time before the rain and heavy winds started.

Lake Constance

The next leg of the journey was unremarkable, had to charge at the mid-point, which was either Biberach or Bad Saulgau.

Went with the first option and charged the bike at an EnBW charger at the Landratsamt Biberach. Rolled in there with 28 kms left, took 50 minutes to full charge, no issues.

The way onwards was nothing but beautiful, Maps had lead me through weird and narrow forrest roads. But the view was breathtaking.

Arriving with 46 km rest charge in Bodman-Ludwigshafen at the Lake Constance, I was lazy and decided to make the charging a tomorrow problem.

Black Forrest

For the onward leg, I still had to charge. Nowadays I rarely use the public chargers, but every time I try to use an Aldi one I run into weird issues. This time no debit or credit card worked, not even unlocking it with the Mobility+ using the QR code.

I found a different charger in a residential area, built and operated by their housing association. I initially started the charge using the Mobility+ app via Roaming, but then found their app instructions posted to a wall. After downloading their ChargeAtFriends app and setting up an account, I cancelled the charge process and restarted using theirs.

The journey to the Black Forrest was nice and unremarkable, beautiful but not as ridiculously beautiful as the roads were the day before.

Blumberg was the mid-point to take a break and decide if I was going further to the Titisee Lake for hammock camping or go back home due to the shitty weather that was predicted for the next few days. If I opted to make the way back home, I would have to recharge, whereas I would easily make it to the Lake Titisee with the remaining charge.

I hooked it up to an EnBW charger and went to see the Schleifenbachwasserfälle while the bike was charging.

Return to Home

Since the B27 runs from Blumberg straight through Tübingen I had assumed it would be 2 hours of riding Bundesstraße. Road constructions and diversions lead me right off it and through Towns, Country Roads and lots and lots of roundabouts.

I decided to make a short break in Balingen, then continue on back home. One last diversion caused by another construction site briefly lead me through a dirt road into the wrong direction, but after that was cleared I made it home.

Resumé

Total: Distance 436 km, Charging costs 11,35 € (+ the amount I had to top it up at home again)

All in all I made it through the entire trip without any bad weather².

Takeaways

• Mobility+ really is the Swiss Army knife of electric charging, a bit on the expensive side but it just works everywhere. If possible I will always try local accounts first but it is nice to have a powerful fallback option at hand.

• Taking a break every once in a while makes all the difference for a smooth ride. Fresh mind, rehydrated, and the option to take a peek at the upcoming route and if needed make adjustments.

• Public chargers are now a solved problem and range anxiety effectively nonexistent. Except for Aldi ones, they always seem to have issues making a connection to the payment provider.

• It was the first time I rode an actual trip with both side cases, the top case and my backpack. I didn’t notice any difference in handling though. If anything it cost slightly more energy, but then the acceleration still didn’t feel any worse.

• Unlike my last larger trip, I used the head up display for navigation and less for previewing the curve of the road. My ability to anticipate curves seems to have improved lots since last time.

• The charger in Stockach didn’t show up on the ChargeMap app, but it did on the EnBW one. Next time I’m in a pinch again, I know to check several apps. And I requested it to be added to the ChargeMap DB.