If you put a few young friends next to each other, some of whom ride solar bikes, some of whom make videos, and some of whom make video games, you can easily create a base from which a lot of interesting stuff starts to grow. And that’s exactly what happened in Germany. Nineteen-year-old Kilian Weigand and his teammate Jonas built a solar-powered recumbent tandem based on AZUB TWIN and took it on this year’s Sun Trip. That is a 7,000 km / 4,350 miles long solar bike race, which this year ran from Lyon in France to the south of Morocco and back.
While they were clocking up the miles, another of their friends visited them here and there along the route, filmed, and are now gradually editing and publishing the extremely well-crafted pieces of the multi-part documentary series. But that’s not all. Based on the entire race and Kilian and Jonas’ experience, other friends are working on what could easily be called the world’s first recumbent video game. And you’ll soon be able to play it on your mobile phone. Of course, it won’t be just like that. As well as being able to control the monstrous solar recumbent tandem, you’ll also need to demonstrate the ability to tilt the solar panel at the sun, buy supplies, and avoid, for example, the camels you’ll encounter if you ride your bike all the way to Morocco.
The game is currently in what, in cycling, we would call a prototype phase, and the guys are still working on it. However, you can download and try out the prototype on your phone (Android only) on their Patreon profile, where you can also support the game’s development financially. Or you can “just” watch the video where they explain the development of the game and also show you a bit of it.
For me, it’s great to see that recumbents can excite even young guys, and that they make really interesting projects based on theior recumbent experience. Who would have ever thought they would play with a recumbent bike on a mobile phone!
