Sinje Gottwald has been exploring the world on two wheels for a long time. Back in 2017, she successfully completed her plan to ride around the world—certainly no small task. In February, 2023, she’s just completed the first electric motorcycle crossing of Africa on an electric motorcycle, without assistance.
What was her steed of choice? A CAKE Kalk AP, which she credits with requiring very little maintenance and also going far above and beyond the things it was meant to do. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, Gottwald is currently a CAKE B2B account manager, which helps explain the reasoning behind using this bike. Like many who eat, sleep, and breathe motorcycles, she’d been riding for a long time—and then scored herself a job in the industry.
“At a company dinner during fall 2021, I sat next to Sinje, when she told me she had the dream of riding electric, by herself from Spain to South Africa. Besides being amazed by her courage and spirit I was thrilled about the ability for us to support her, while truly getting a chance for extreme field testing,” CAKE CEO and founder Stefan Ytterborn said in a statement.
“We agreed that Sinje would change position for a few months from being the CAKE German B2B sales manager to become our most precious field tester and Africa Explorer. Now as she is through, and yes we have been worried, it's extremely rewarding that she and the bike arrived in perfect shape,” he concluded.
Gallery: Sinje Gottwald Crosses Africa On A CAKE Kalk AP
How long did the journey take? In total, Gottwald took 124 days to visit the following countries in Africa, in order:
- Morocco
- Mauritania
- Senegal
- Gambia
- Guinea Bissau
- Guinea
- Sierra Leone
- Liberia
- Ivory Coast
- Ghana
- Togo
- Benin
- Nigeria
- Cameroon
- Gabon
- Congo
- Angola
- Namibia
- South Africa
In planning her route, Gottwald said that she kept two major items in mind at all times: Where she could charge the bike, and available accommodation. She also tried to avoid mountainous roads, as much as possible.
Gottwald chronicled her journey on her Instagram, and if you’ve been following it at all, you’ve likely seen photos and videos and learned a bit about how the trip was going from her documentation. The bike came through quite well, with only minor things like burning out a fuse at the beginning of the trip, having a loose cable connection the charger that she was able to fix, and having a burned fuse on the battery, for which she ultimately had to find a workaround so she could charge it. Thankfully, it worked—which you probably already guessed, because she made it to the end of the trip in Cape Town, South Africa.
Overall, Gottwald completed a 13,000-kilometer journey (just under 8,078 miles) in 124 days, or about three months. She charged the bike less than 140 times in total—and amazingly, managed to complete the entire journey without experiencing even one flat tire.
As an experienced world moto traveler, she kept a complement of spares on the bike, just in case she needed them. These included two spare batteries, two chargers, a few essential spare parts, a laptop (in case she needed software updates or remote support for the journey), a camera, and her personal belongings. It’s an impressive feat that she’s accomplished—and it’s difficult to think of a more thorough test for the CAKE Kalk AP.
