TRAVERSE 105
“ I never had a motorcycle before ,” laughs Romain Nedielka , a resident of Indonesia . “ All my life I was living in places with good public transport or road networks , there was just no need for two wheels .”
Yet , his new home , Jakarta , Indonesia ’ s most congested city changed opinions and soon Romain was looking for an alternative to being crammed into buses and trains or stuck in traffic for hours . Two wheels became a source of obsession .
“ I looked at pictures of all sorts of bikes , and saw an electric thing from the USA ,” Romain confirmed as if suggesting we knew what he was talking about . “ I showed my girlfriend a picture and she was like ‘ oh , we have one of those in our garage at work ’, I just dismissed it as if she had no idea what she was talking about .”
It seems Romain ’ s girlfriend did indeed know what she was speaking of because the business she worked for had used a few Zero EV bikes for a promotion and was now tasked with selling them , it seemed it was easier to sell them to the Indonesian market rather than trying to ship them back to the USA .
“ I just loved it ,” enthused Romain , who purchased the bike and started to explore his new world . “ Suddenly I could go places , and I started to love Indonesia .”
Romain did explain that until that point he had a great dislike for the Asian island nation with it ’ s congestion and lack of mobility , admittedly he was confined to one of the world ’ s largest cities . “ I was living in an urban bubble .” A seed had been sown and Romain was looking at what was being said about electric vehicles , worldwide and closer to home . He found a litany of mistrust , misinformation and generally a negative perception . He felt his experience with the little Zero was a chance to exploit and prove that these machines are more than capable .
“ I rode [ the bike ] to Bali , which is like sixteen hundred kilometres from Jakarta ,” he explained . “ I realised , well , if I can do this with this bike , which only had a one hundred kilometres range , with a better bike I could probably go around the world .”
Planning such a feat required a number of obstacles to be cleared , the usual , purchase a bike , have it imported and registered , look at insurances , get a driving licence . That ’ s right , despite riding in Indonesia for a few years Romain still didn ’ t have a valid drivers licence to obtain an International Permit . When the time came to get one he found that the test was conducted on a conventional combustion engine motorcycle , he had to learn the nuances of clutch control and gear changing .
Romain gave himself five hundred kilometres around Indonesia to become familiar with the new bike , a Zero DSR / X dual sport , and ready for the big ride .
“ They [ Zero ] had just launched the new bike ,” Romain shrugged . “ I didn ’ t have enough time to fully ride it .”
It mattered little as a commitment was made and the ride was to begin .
Planning was left to a minimum , the coordination of finding somewhere to charge was often left to the moment , with little need to prebook hotels or accommodation .
“ I ’ d already been riding electric bikes , so I had this system on how to get the bike charged overnight ,” Romain grinned . “ I never booked a hotel because two or three times I had and found that I couldn ’ t get the bike close enough for the charging cable to reach the plug .”
Plugging in the bike was always the number one priority , “ first the needs of the bike needed to be taken care of , then I would look after myself ”.
Other occasions meant uncomfortable interactions with local people , like a truck stop in Kazakhstan where the drivers were already well on the way to a drunken
TRAVERSE 105