Transcontinental Race No. 6 - TCR6 - #TCRN06 - 2018

Does the 3 units include the phone?

Yeah, two Garmins and a phone. The phone has two independent GPS nav apps on it too.

I take getting lost very seriously...

As someone who has never used a GPS/Garmin/Wahoo etc before I'm leaning towards buying a Garmin Etrex Touch 35 for the TCR (predominantly for the battery life and AA compatibility), I know GPS chat is up there with dynamo and tubeless chat as almost pointlessly subjective but does anyone have any first hand experience?

I've used etrex but not etrex Touch. Presume touchscreen? How much are they?

Yeah touchscreen and £200. I can get Wahoo on "industry pricing" through work which is a comparable price but Etrex seems more robust and less likely to fail catastrophically

don't get the touch, get non touch. But etrex is fine (if a little clunky).

I haven't used the touch, but a friend I trust said it's annoying (the touch screen).

One potential issue with the wahoo is that you can't do new routes on the fly if you don't have a data connection on your phone/WiFi.

Not too sure. I’ve only ever used them for phones and Garmins. None of them recharge anymore

Most odd. I have three Anker. I've used one of them a shitload. All my races, most training rides over say 7hrs and no issues with it or the other two (one smaller lipstick, one big double usb one).

How are you charging them? Tried plugging into a PC?

Will give the PC method a go - any reason why’d it would be different to a USB plug though?

Which battery packs do you use, out of interest? I'm a serial Anker man.

I've got 3 Ankers (2x10Ah, 1x5Ah) and 1 Teknet (10Ah). I've got a couple of spares too, but 4 is the most that you can take on a flight. If I really wanted to optimise I'd upgrade the 5 to another 10, but this lot gives me more than I need.

I’ve used Anker a lot because they’re extremely good value. However, I question their longevity - I’m now a proud owner of four, now defunct, ones. After a while they seem to not charge anymore and I’ve tried a variety of cables and plugs but nothing seems to get them going again.

Odd you've had so many fails. Mine have always been fine, and not too fussy about what cables they use. They are widely used amongst audaxers and I've not heard anyone else reporting failures.
That level of coincidence means it is virtually certain to be something to do with how you are keeping them. All I can think of is do you keep them plugged in to the mains long term rather than disconnecting when them when they are charged? That could kill them.

Better regulated currvolties™ I guess. I've heard people charging Di2 with power packs have thought batteries are dead only to plug them in using a PC and it works again.

Better regulated currvolties™ I guess. I've heard people charging Di2 with power packs have thought batteries are dead only to plug them in using a PC and it works again.

Di2 has some kind of PC interface software that does some performance stuff, doesn't it (not plugged mine into PC since 2 years ago)? Doubtful that the leccy from a PC usb port would be any better for a battery - but worth a try!
(Says he who forgot to charge Di2 and had to ride 80km singlespeed yesterday!)

I'm just basing this off other forum posts of people who've had a dead battery and then tried a computer USB port instead of a wall charger and found it started working again. I charge mine off a laptop but do not have any Shimano software so it's effectively just a power source. No issues. No issues with the Ankers either.

Thanks for the reminder I should probably see what mine's at. In longer events I carry my di2 charger with me + dynamo = never run out of shifter juice :)

Always store Li-Ion batteries charged (ideally 40%) to prevent the battery from dropping below 2.5v / cell, triggering sleep mode

Re batteries I've had great experience with Xiaomi batteries from Aliexpress. All USB-C and fast charging makes a huge difference in charging time, my phone has a USB-C connector too, which is convenient

.

So looks like the check points are going to need to be hit in order to obtain a GC classification

1 Attachment

So they should. Down with the rebels!

Anyone apart from @skinny famous enough to need a media license? Your Gooch need its own licence @hippy?

The told me I needed two media licenses... I'm not sure why.

#hippyisfat

@frank9755 - might be of interest

https://www.cyclingabout.com/dynamo-hub-drag-lab-testing/

I've seen that one before, I think that was where I got the dynamo drag numbers from. And they come up with similar figures to my estimate on the time loss from using a dynamo: 2-4 hours over the TCR.
Obviously it depends how much of the time you have it switched on for.
The other factor is that it makes more difference for slower riders (ie most of us after the first 2-3 days!).

So looks like the check points are going to need to be hit in order to obtain a GC classification

That was always the case, other than for a very fast rider, given the closing times

2-4 hours over the TCR

That's one lunch stop panic-charging everything in a cafe because you slept in a ditch the night before instead of making the hotel you'd planned.

:)