Retiree travelling 18,000km around Australia on electric motorcycle

There is no petrol tank, no spare battery and in some parts of Australia, barely a town in sight.

Retired electrical engineer Ed Darmanin, from Sydney, has spent the past three months riding an electric motorcycle around some of the country's most remote roads, carefully calculating every kilometre between charging points.

As the 67-year-old rides from Frankston to Lakes Entrance through Gippsland this week, he is nearing the end of an 18,000-kilometre journey.

He is understood to be the first person to ride around mainland Australia on an electric motorcycle.

Mr Darmanin spent five years embarking on electric motorcycle journeys that had never been done before, including becoming the first to cross Australia by electric motorcycle and later riding from Sydney to Darwin via Birdsville.

He said completing an Australian first was part of the motivation behind his latest adventure.

"To be first was something I've wanted to do for years," Mr Darmanin said.

"I really wanted an adventure, a challenging adventure.

"And being a retired electrical engineer and understanding EV technology, because I've been driving EV cars since 2015, I know how it all works, and it takes a lot of planning to do this."

His latest journey began in Sydney on June 24, travelling anti-clockwise around the country on his Energica Experia and visiting every mainland state and territory. 

He has ridden parts of the journey with his wife Sally and son Evan, while completing the remaining parts solo.

Mr Darmanin said the biggest challenge was ensuring the motorcycle had enough energy to cover each leg.

"You can't carry a spare battery; that's just built into the bike. It's sort of like carrying a spare engine on a normal motorcycle, you just can't do it," he said.

"So it's all about planning; the planning includes just looking at where the available DC fast chargers are, which are the same fast chargers that the EV cars use, and my bike can use those as well."

Carefully crafted charging plans

The motorcycle's range is affected by speed, with Mr Darmanin sometimes having to slow down to make it between charging points.

"The battery in the bike is probably only around one-quarter of the size or one-third of the size of most electric vehicles," he said.

"And if you sat on 100km/h on a straight, flat road like in the outback, you'd probably only get about 160km with all the luggage and everything on the bike.

"But the distances were up to 260km. In fact, there were a couple that were 300."

Mr Darmanin said travelling at a slower speed could make a significant difference to how much energy the bike used.

"If I sat on 110km/h compared to 75km/h, at 110 you use double the energy or double the fuel," he said.

That careful planning has been particularly important in remote parts of the country, where there can be hundreds of kilometres between services.

"When you leave that town, it's 260km until you get to the first roadhouse, and there is absolutely nothing between those two spots," Mr Darmanin said.

Strong headwinds across the Nullarbor Plain forced Mr Darmanin to postpone crossing by two days, while his previous journey to Darwin included a 390km stretch of mostly unsealed road through remote country.

After thousands of kilometres, Mr Darmanin said he was beginning to appreciate how significant the journey had become.

"I'm starting to realise it's quite an achievement, and I like to share the story for that reason,"

he said.

"It's complementary to the fact that I've ticked off a major bucket-list item."

With the final stretch through south-eastern Victoria's Gippsland region before the ride back to Sydney, the finish line is finally in sight.

Mr Darmanin has shared his journey on his website, highlighting his stops and reflecting on the experience.