The Big Lap: Ed Darmanin sets out to circumnavigate mainland Australia on his Energica Experia
E-Rider on the road, Electric motorcycles, Roadtrip
Australia, Ed Darmanin, Energica Experia, The Big Lap 2026
On 24 June 2026, Ed Darmanin rolled out of Sydney on his Energica Experia to attempt something that has never been done before: a solo, unassisted circumnavigation of mainland Australia by electric motorcycle. Approximately 18,000 km. Every state and territory. One bike.
The route runs anti-clockwise: north along the Queensland coast, west across the Gulf Country and the Top End, down through the Kimberley to Broome, south along the WA coast to Perth, then east across the Nullarbor through South Australia and Victoria and back to Sydney. Six sections in total. Three of them solo. Two ridden two-up with his wife Sally – through Far North Queensland and the WA coast. One with his son Evan, from Palm Cove via Cape Tribulation across the Gulf country to Mount Isa.
The same Energica Experia throughout.
Who is Ed Darmanin?
Darmanin is a retired electrical engineer from Sydney’s northern beaches with over 160,000 km of personal electric vehicle experience. For the past five years, he has been riding electric motorcycles into territory nobody else has touched – not as a stunt, but as a methodical exercise in what these machines can actually do.
In 2022, on a Harley-Davidson LiveWire, he became the first person to cross Australia by electric motorcycle – Sydney to Cape Tribulation, then Perth to Sydney across the Nullarbor. That 4,500-km return leg was covered by ABC News as the most-read story in South Australia and the Northern Territory on the day it ran.
In 2024, he rode his Energica Experia 5,000 kilometres from Sydney to Darwin via Birdsville – one of the most remote towns on the continent – including a 700-km stretch to Mount Isa two-up with Evan across outback roads where no electric motorcycle had been before. He completed it ten weeks after a cardiac procedure. The bike didn’t miss a beat.
The 2026 Big Lap is the logical next step: a complete circuit of the mainland, on the bike he knows best, across terrain he already understands, closing a record that has never existed.
Live GPS tracking, videos and updates from the road: