Why this 26 year old cycled from Mumbai to Goa

 Sushil Reddy, 26, holds a dual degree (BTech and MTech) in Energy Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (Mumbai). The 2013 graduate joined kWatt Solutions, a solar energy startup incubated at IIT-B. Nothing much unusual about that.

But when this young lad decided to tweak a bike to make it a solar-powered, motor-assisted bicycle, he took a sharp turn to Destination Unusual.

In December 2015, Sushil decided to take the bike for spin, and so began his journey from Mumbai to Goa.

The adventures with Solar Etwin

It all started with making an e-bike. Sushil began modifying the Btwin MyBike bicycle and rechristened it 'Solar Etwin', the solar-powered, motor-assisted electric twin of the Btwin bicycle.

A motor-powered bicycle assists in pedalling and eases the effort on flats and positive gradients.

Sushil built this bike under the mentorship of Chetan Singh Solanki, founder, kWatt Solutions Pvt Ltd, and professor at IIT-B.

A subsidiary company -- Solarizer Products Pvt Ltd and a Ketto crowdfunding campaign helped Sushil get the project going.

Sushil bought the necessary equipment and got cracking.

A few welding sessions and alignment adjustments later, it was time to test the e-bike system on 'MyBike'.

The initial result was an average speed of 20 km/hour and a mileage of 25 km per charge on reasonable flats.

Many rounds of testing, analysing results and re-tweaking later, the motorised version of bicycle was ready. It was now time to solarise Etwin.

"Flexible solar panels were the key to design the Solar Etwin because of the light weight. I procured a 60-watt flexible solar panel from an importer due to lack of flexible solar panel manufacturers in India," Sushil explains.

To put the Solar Etwin to the test of tests, he came up with the idea of cycling from Mumbai to Goa along the Konkan coastal route.

Sushil also wanted to spread awareness about solar energy while on his expedition, especially in the villages that are devoid of electricity in the Konkan region. Sushil carried efficient and cost-effective solar battery chargers developed by kWatt to distribute for free to the villagers.

Mumbai to Goa

Sushil joined a group of 10 other cyclists and a support vehicle led by an experienced campaigner, Milind Chitley from Hills & Trails. Help poured in from all quarters.

He says, "I approached Himanshu Singh of Decathlon who helped me by giving away the cycling accessories for the journey. I got in touch with Ashish Sood from HASTA – MTB Himalaya to help me spread the word about this ride. Holidify and Cycling Cities helped spread the word about this ride with a cause."

The ride began on Dec 18, 2015.

From Mandwa, the group of cyclists started pedalling to Alibaug, Kashid, to their destination for the day, Murud.

Some motorcyclists stopped Sushil to ask him about the bike and asked how solar energy powers the motor.

The first day ended after reaching Murud, clocking 60 km, just after sunset.

The cycling trip on the second day took them from Murud to Harihareshwar, a 70 km ride.

As gratitude and in a bid to spread awareness about solar energy, Sushil gave away solar battery chargers to the locals.