PBP 2015 / Paris - Brest - Paris Audax

Getting super excited about this now, Parisian at work has offered me the use of his living room floor, so accommodation sorted. Its bike fettle and fitness next. Have a business trip to Istanbul that will get in the way prior but should get a Pendle 600 and a few 200's under my belt.

No chance of leaving anything there

That's going to be interesting. I'd planned to wear a normal set of clothes/shoes and put them in a backpack or something to leave at the hotel. Do you know of any other options for bag drops? Ah, I missed your last paragraph.. 'consigne' is what I'll be looking for. Le pain in the butt all this logistics.

I've booked my bike on the Eurostar both ways so that should (better) be fine

Nice one. I'll have a look at that as well and some time between now and Aug make some luggage decisions. Reading other people's ride reports it's looking like I could actually get away with 'less' than I took on the 600 because PBP is so well supported. That's kinda odd.

You can buy inner tubes at controls I learned today.

Apparently there's food, sleeping places and mechanics at a lot of the controls.

Tubes, pedals, wheels, saddles, probably entire bikes.

They are pretty well equipped and you see people's bikes undergoing fairly extensive surgery (new bottom brackets etc.). I suspect not cheap, but what's a couple of hundred Euros if you've spent thousands coming to Europe from Asia or the USA or whatever?

Still have no idea how I will be able to charge my light; do I need to buy a dynamo?

Every control will have food (usually a hot canteen option and a quick baguette option), sleeping dorms, showers and mechanics.

You pay for everything though - a shower might cost 3 Euro, a bed 3-5 Euro and a hot meal will probably be around 8-10 Euro.

Why did none of you buggers mention this to me before?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris%E2%80%93Brest

It took local knowledge from @VeeVee to share the truth about this epic ride...

DOPING BY CAKE!

Before and after photo combined in that link ;)

When y'all entered, did you get an email that said

"For your registration to be processed by the organiser of the Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur, you must indicate your four qualifying brevets. If you do provide three, please complete your application as soon as possible. The processing time of your registration will be about one week."

Because I think I DID enter 4 Brevets details.

Yes. What is the number of brevets on the attached file?

Yeah, but I'd registered all mine at the first instance so I think that's just a generic email.

Some jersey modifications for the big one. Have also modified my proviz gilet and will have photos soon.

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I think I am sorted. There are four qualifying brevets listed. It then says "You entered 0 PBP randonneur" which I assume is number of previous PBP attempts?

I've got a start time and a frame number and the email with the route and suchlike.

Anyone else doing the 90hour ride? Any accommodation booked?

Did you add pockets?

Yeah, the two outside ones from an old jersey. Got tested last week and they were great for keeping things readily available.

Patent pending.

Does PBP have rider tracking online?

Yes, but only with controle granularity.

Chip timing mats at each control.

It'll be here: http://www.paris-brest-paris.org/index2.php?lang=en&cat=randonnee&page=suivi_participants

Where someone will need to type in your rider number.

The results looked like the attached (which was mine).

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Is anyone doing any sort of bag-drop? I am just starting to think about logistics and wondering whether to organise something (this is probably a bit late in the day). I should probably also start thinking about getting me and the bike over there, some mechanism for having lights work throughout, that sort of thing shouldn't I?

http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/233347/?offset=325#comment12321902 'consigne' for bags.

I've booked Eurostar and bike space for me and the bike.

Exposure Six Pack should last two nights and I'll probably have a Maxx-D as a spare. Shouldn't need to charge but I'll likely have one of those Anker battery packs to charge Garmin external batteries too .

Exposure Six Pack should last two nights

So I thought that that looked a good idea and I would get one. I think I just changed my mind. That's a bit steep for a one-off use

I used two of these: http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/article/b--m-ixon-iq-led-front-light/aid:243308?gclid=CIzvoovugscCFWv3wgodPgkITA

4 AA batteries each, which are on sale at each control (or a small stash of lighter Lithiums easily carried in a bag).

Most of the time I had one on the low power setting. Can't think of a time I needed to put both on full power, and certainly not in the last 36 hours as I leant one of the lights to a random Italian who'd lost his only light. It was just easier to have two; both to satisfy the backup light requirement and, when the batteries started to go in one I had the other one to hand to turn on.

[EDIT] Many of the locals seem to get by with nothing more powerful than an ancient dim flashlight with exhausted batteries.

They look good. I might get some of those now. I am also wondering if I stand any chance of getting a SonDelux wheel built in time. I would at least get some more use out of a dynamo during winter commuting and it would be nice to be able to charge stuff too.