LEL 2013 / London - Edinburgh - London Audax

My Garmin 800 with the Garmin Powermonkey pack only lasted 23.25 hours.
If you can get a power source that lasts then you might want to force it to save each 12 hours or something by doing a reset - some people report Garmins dying on long rides.

Garmin eTrex - 23.5 hours before I turn it off (with light on all night) when the ride finish showing 1/4 bar of battery left.

AA battery Garmin FTW.

My eTrex doesn't talk to my powermeter so it's no use when racing (fine for nav). I had the backlight on full time - I think last year I had it turn off automatically. That probably explains the battery fade.

Different kettle for different folks I gather, eTrek probably more useful in ride like the LEL than a 24h TT.

Out of curiously, what were the advantage of it talking to your powermeter? to get information while racing?

Wouldn't an efficient dynamo with a USB charge output be hugely useful for LEL?

Different kettle for different folks I gather, eTrek probably more useful in ride like the LEL than a 24h TT.

Out of curiously, what were the advantage of it talking to your powermeter? to get information while racing?

I train and race using power, just like everyone was crying about Sky doing earlier this year. Plus it reports everything else like time, distance, cadence, whatever.

Wouldn't an efficient dynamo with a USB charge output be hugely useful for LEL?

Some Garmin does not charged while running.

But yes, people done that in previous audax ride, but only to charge battery that'll charge the Garmin when they pulled over for a quick sleep/feed.

Wimbledon is miles away but... i do like beer more than I should sooooo....

Where are and when?

My Garmin 800 with the Garmin Powermonkey pack only lasted 23.25 hours.
If you can get a power source that lasts then you might want to force it to save each 12 hours or something by doing a reset - some people report Garmins dying on long rides.

Hey hippy, congrats BTW!!!!!! Oddly/fondly I remember meeting you a couple of year ago on my first couple of sportives in Wales (devilsride/autumepic)...

I had an issue with my battery (powermonkey) last year in that i'd only used it once and it broke - I called them and sent it back (possibly out of warranty), due to the short notice i kept calling them to check and double check they were sending me another, anyway i ended up with three and no invoices for the extra ones - so customer service wise they are AWESOME!!

I get what you saying about the distance so I think I will reset it when I sleep (460km) I think.. ish...

Oh you're that Kristian! I remember you (vaguely, it's been a while hehe). Looks like we've both upped our mileage in the last few years eh? :)

Upped the mileage but not the speed alas... Unlike you :-)

Some Garmin does not charged while running.

I had a chat with them on the phone today and they are super helpfull. Old ones no, basically the solar will charge about a third in a day but wont daisy chain at the same time. The new ones will (also massive i.e. 2500mha vs ~6000+ or some such). Anyhoo with my three batteries plus a crap duracell one I may need one plug for a bit or something - the alternative is to spen 120 on a new one which will last the distance but... I think I have enough toys.

I had a chat with them on the phone today and they are super helpfull.

Does not compute.

Does not compute.

Second time i've had dealings with then in so many years - only thing I say is awesome. Although.... their normal usb widget does need some manual wittling to make it fit.

I kept my Garmin Edge 705 going throughout PBP using a couple of 5000 mAh USB power packs, it also kept my 'phone topped up (although I just stuck that in Airplane mode between controls).

The Edge 705 had no problems running from the USB powerpack whilst also charging. It can come down to the cable though.

I used an AA battery powered Garmin eTrex H (the yellow one) for LEL 2009 so didn't have to worry about external power packs.

For the next long ride I'll probably stick with the Edge 705 as it also takes the power data (bit sad for me to have a PowerTap hub but I like data. I'll only ever do 500km, not miles, in a 24TT). Garmin needs to do something as good as the Edge 705 (or 800 range) but takes AA batteries.

[EDIT] Anyway, should be able to help out at LEL on registration Saturday too. Look out for LFGSS cap.

Look out for LFGSS cap.

I was at norths drinks this eve saying we should have more caps..

Saturday it is! I'm X4 10:30 start on Sun - in retrospect it might have been a mistake - I think earlier would have been better, but we shall see.

Aha, knew there would be a thread somewhere. I'm L22 starting a bit earlier (white highracer recumbent, blue tailbag, black cap with white stripe).

To get my head around the route I ended up writing a TdF-stylee stage preview job last night. Elevation profile might be handy if you're not a GPS person:

http://www.darkerside.org/2013/07/london-edinburgh-london-2013-stage-preview/

I'm laughably underprepared for this...

I look forward to the ride reports. Might do the route to Edinburgh in 4 or so days when this contract finishes.

Good luck everyone! I am a bit sad I'm not doing it.

Not that sad though.

not too late to change your mind.... you've still got the spot dont you?

for anyone interested, I'll be riding the prologue, and starting at 8.

I'll hopefully share some load with some quite strong guys I've met this year who are starting at the same time, until yorkshire at least where they will drop me at the first sign of a gradient greater than 10%.

weather forecast looks almost perfect for riding.

RE: Garmin charging, I will be using a hub, but previously have used one of these ,and some re-useable vecro zip ties to fasten it under my stem, to charge a garmin 705. works a treat and has the obvious AA battery advantage.
Black Portable Battery Powered Travel Charger for Apple: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

also have used it to charge my phone before.

My Garmin 800 with the Garmin Powermonkey pack only lasted 23.25 hours.
If you can get a power source that lasts then you might want to force it to save each 12 hours or something by doing a reset - some people report Garmins dying on long rides.

Mine died on Sunday after 16 hours. I had to remove the memory card to get a PC to even recognise it (even though the ride wasn't on the card) and managed to get 90% of the ride data off it that way (it also needed fixing via an online tool). Then I had to do a factory reset to get the unit to power back up (even though it still had 91% battery as it had been running from a powermonkey).

I had recently updated the firmware to 2.5. I had no such problems on 2.4 - but I had very similar experiences with 2.2 in the past. Make of that what you will...

I can check my firmware version if you'd like? I think it's 2.5 but can't be 100% sure. I recorded my ride to the SD card, rather than internal storage - maybe that's a factor? Do you have a decent SD card in yours?

Hmm, I might delay upgrading mine to 2.5 then - it told me recently the upgrade was available but it's all working ok at the moment and if it ain't broke...

When I did my fixed 300 last year I bought a Pebble which is a 5000mAh portable battery charger with a USB outlet and charged my 800 from that when it started getting low with its USB lead. I'm pretty sure it charged from that while switched on.

I think it might actually have stretched all the way (it took 17.5 hours all together, slow...) but it was good to know it definitely wouldn't run out, mainly because I was using it for navigation.

Garmin 800 drains a lot faster in map display.

I had mine run out of juice after 105mi the other day and for some reason only had my gps position logged for first 50 miles even though overall timings were correctish. Not happy.