The wager of £20,000 would be the equivalent of around £2 million today. Fogg left London by train on 2nd October and had to be back in London on 21st December (80 days) in order to win. In the novel, he wins the bet by a very narrow margin that involved calculating a 'lost' day crossing the international date line.

Now this journey is being replicated by an electric motorcycle named STORM Wave. Devised and built by a group of students at the University of Eindhoven Technology Department in Holland.

The group wanted to build the first electric touring model that would be capable of carrying riders over big daily distances. They have achieved this with a 28.5 kWh battery that is modular and easily replaceable by the touring rider. It gives a range of 380 kilometres without charging. The bike's power energy is renewed in seven minutes following a battery swap. It has an acceleration rate of 5 seconds 0-100 kilometres, and a top speed of 160 kilometres. And as might be expected in (progressive) Holland, the build team is a mix of men and women engineers.

The journey they have taken has involved creating what they are calling 'Storm Grid'. Wanting to use electricity grids to recharge in the countries they are travelling through, they have used the internet to make 'Storm Grid' contacts with companies, households and institutions that want to be involved.

The bike set off from Eindhoven on 14th August. Their route will take them through Europe, across central Asia to China, and thence by ship to the USA. A total of 26,000 land kilometres will be covered before they return to their home base in the Netherlands on 2nd November. A decent enough practice run before they enter the bike in an around the world electric bike race starting in Paris next year.

You can follow the live progress of the bike through the website on storm-eindhoven.com,  where there's also information about their crowdfunding initiative and a series of video diaries about the build.

Tell us what you think of the bike at [email protected].