Audax rides

I'm there doing the 200 @Doctor_Cake and I think that @omash27 is too.

I now have a pal wanting to do the Welsh 300km one at the start of April. 5km of climbing in that though :-(

Might see you at the first control then. I was thinking about doing the 200, but I haven't done any sort of distance riding since Christmas and I recall there are some hills in this one.

I am expecting it to be a bit of a shock to be honest, not nearly enough miles in my legs. Did 150ish km last weekend, half into a headwind and can't say I loved it.

Ride geared though, not fixed.

I am doing it, going to ride to the start for this one. Makes no sense to get the train as it is 9 miles from mine to Paddington and only 23 miles all the way to the start. May ride home too but will decide on the day, I might prefer to nail a few beers after and get the train!

How long does the 200 battery last?

Mine only crashed fatally once, around 30hrs. It might not have even been mine and I was having issues with some external batteries at the time (which have since been sent back).

Turn by turn is WHY they are so good. I get a warning about an upcoming turn rather than suddenly finding myself on the wrong road and having to u-turn. I've navigated with the 800 without turnbyturn nav and it's doable but a pain. Also, having maps on them mean when I'm not following a route I can just pick another town to ride to that has a nice sounding name to get my hours/miles done. Or it can be used to get a sense of direction if I'm lost.

Anyway, as painful as Garmin make them to use, I still think the 800s are great.

I get 24hr from the 800 and a Powermonkey. I have an etrex Hcx Vista that uses AA but it's clunky and as I said above I don't like following a line on the screen. Prefer TBT.

Does anyone know why a garmin 800 might stop doing turn by turn navigation part way through a ride? Did Kennet valley run last weekend, turn by turn worked great for first half of ride, then abruptly stopped. It still gave me off course warnings & it forced me to finally learn how to read an audax route sheet, so wasn't too much of a problem, but I'd like to know why. I didn't spend too much time trying to fix it, but turn by turn still seemed to be on in the route settings.

This aside I'd mostly recommend Garmin 800, but I generally find it too painful to use for actual navigation on the map page compared to getting my phone & google maps out. Turn by turn is great when it's working though.

Mine used to do that I haven't used TBT for months/years, I now just upload as a GPX and follow the line, works much better.

My 800 will last a 200k if it is on the lowest brightness setting, I am not using turn by turn and I keep the screen off the maps page. Which is not helpful for following a line, and is useless in the winter as you can't see the screen in the dark. Pebble external battery in a bar bag cable tied to a stem works for me though.

Anyone fancy the Essex 200km on the 28th?

It is Wessex and a 300 on the 28th is it not?

Wormingford Dragon

Same lol
if you want someone to ride with I dont mind tagging along!

Etrex 30 does most of what you list. But not cadence. Also has altimeter.
I've just bought one to save the faff of battery charging on longer events.

.

People riding the LOL this weekend (Sunday 15th): how are you getting to the start? The trains being flaky on a Sunday or starting late I was thinking of riding to the start but it's 25 miles / 40 km which adds 80km making it closer to a 300km ride for me. Ulp. I'm planning to ride a 300 in April, my first, but was planning to build up to it gradually. Shall I just go for it on Sunday?

I've signed up for it. Did the Worm last year which was nice.

I could do this with you. As long as I'm not to jet-lagged I'll be ok.

.

As you know these events start so early that you could give us a ride in your van in the morning to the start ;-)

I am hoping to drive to the start, going from Barnet, but not confirmed that the other half isn't using the car yet. I really don't want to have to ride to the start.

.

It's actually called 'Garmin External Power Pack' (it's made by Powermonkey)

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=garmin+external+power&oq=garmin+external+power&aqs=chrome..69i57.183j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=0&ie=UTF-8#q=garmin+external+power&tbm=shop

I did last year. Just do it. Pack extra food.
If you need to bail you can take the train home to save your legs a bit.

Now I remember last year: slight frown where the required miles on the day were coming from as you might have to spend further time on the turbo if not.

Trying to decide between driving or cycling to start of LOL from South London. Anyone know of a painless route to follow while not fully awake if cycling? I don't mind the distance so much, just don't want stress of getting lost and having to hurry.