¡@¡@In October 2010, French cyclist1 Florian Bailly arrived in Tokyo, Japan. To get there, he traveled over 10,000 kilometers through countryside, deserts, and mountains. The trip took him through a total of 12 countries, and he did it all on a solar2-powered bicycle, just to prove that it would work.
¡@¡@The bicycle Bailly rode used both pedal3 power and an electric motor. The electric motor was powered by a trailer4 pulled behind the bicycle. The trailer contained large batteries5 that were charged by solar panels6. Using the batteries, the bicycle was able to travel much faster than Bailly normally could under his own power. In fact, Bailly could ride 120 kilometers in a day with his design.
¡@¡@That does not mean the ride was easy. Besides the difficulty of the ride itself, Bailly had to travel through many foreign countries, and he often found it hard to communicate with the locals. The only thing that all the countries had in common was a fascination in the special bicycle. Bailly hopes that this means there is an interest in solar-powered bicycles as a new form of transportation, and he hopes to make them available for sale sometime in the future.