Transcontinental Race (London - Istanbul) - #TCRNo4

I just saw this as a way to mount extra bottles.
http://www.bikepacking.com/gear/accessories/extra-bottle-cages-surly-ecr/
Should be shielded by your leg so maybe not too bad aero-wise. Prob need a mudguard mount, though (which I do have)

Could do bottles on front forks too.

That's got to be bad for aero hasn't it?
I think the guy who tested panniers found front ones were no worse than rear ones, but i'd have hoped it would be different for bottles as rear ones would be mostly shielded while front ones are very exposed.

Yes. But the location of those under the bars and falling into a wheel scares me. Probably slim chance.

Forks are a good idea, I think my Topeak things will fit on easily

Just super un aero.

You can use my wildcat famebag if it fits? If you want.

Might be a bit big? But was made for a compact ish frame

I used these SKS strap on things. With a few rounds of inner tube and tape on the seatstay.
Worked flawless, but a tight bidon/bottle fit is important if you're offroading.

Cheers for the offer. Think I'm gonna stick with the Apidura frame bag though after all they gave it to me. I'll figure something out with the water bottles at the front. What are you using this year then?

@sykodrama that's a nice set up. How long have you had the water bottles mounted on the seat stays like that? I'd just be worried that the tubes/tape eventually wears down?

For two weeks of touring. Checked the straps mid way and was still tight.

Was tight as fuck to begin with though. Very minimal movement, if any, so wouldn't worry about wear.

Fair. Restrap custom framebag.

Bidon under diagonal tube would be my #1 spot to add a third bottle, but depends on your frame clearance.

I don't have aerobars (can't use in PBP or MGM) but if I had them installed, I would surely use something like this:

and keep refilling it with the rest of the bidons

Anyway.. they call me crazy for carrying 2liters of water with me, but I'm big and live in hot Spain... why 4liters? Are you crossing somewhere with water restrictions or plan to be so slow in between towns that could not do it with 4*750ml?

I'm hoping that carrying all of this water will increase stoppage time. Last year with 2*750 I felt I was always stopping, maybe up to 8 times a day. Similarly the bag at the front of bike is completely empty but should be enough space to carry food for 24 hours

Well you probably know what you're doing as you've done it before and indeed for the same reason I've also carried three bottles on some brevets and will carry on tcr, to not have to stop so often.

My insurance company said the normal travel insurance will cover this, as they see I'd only need a seperate race insurance if I was representing some club in the race, and I'm not in any club.

Got my medical certificate. Doctor signed the version from the Facebook site. Wasn't too happy, but did it anyway. Practice has an £18 standard charge.

cough decrease cough

In other news, the Garmin City Navigator maps appear to cover all of Turkey so I don't need more maps.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-IE/GB/maps/on-the-road-maps/city-navigator-nt/city-navigator-europe-nt/prod6299.html

Get garmin, go to maps page, zoom out, go to balkans countries, check.
Then you know for sure.

Well, the 800 fails. It's called City Navigator Europe but in fine print says "UK & Ireland".

For Turkey the directions aren't that hard to do on the phone. It's just leave Greece and turn right

The etrex fails. It has Garmin TopoActive for West Europe only.

Also, I don't know how to convert 40.15 lat to N40deg09min or whatever. You can only enter the lat/long into etrex it doesn't allow for decimal degrees. Can't imagine engaging my brain to do this..

I would turn 180 degrees right and end up, after another few weeks, in Scotland.

Bollocks, the Edge 1000 only has Cycle Maps EU and some other weird things.

I have the City Nav maps here but I seem to have never bothered with inserting the SD card. Um, whoops.

Are the Garmin maps locked to a unit? I have Garmin City Navigator maps for somewhere (it's worked for me in France, Switzerland and Austria but that's all I've checked) in my Edge 705, they're from 2010 or so.

City Navigator Europe NT according to MyGarmin.

Will have a play with it tomorrow...

I don't believe they're locked. I've used mine in multiple Garmin.

Hippy you could use open street maps?
Also why do you need to input lat/long?
@hippy

My old ones were I think, to the HCx. The new ones don't seem to care what they're inserted into.

I have newer Europe maps but they're on an SD in maybe the HCx. I have too many GPS devices, basically. I need to find the newest Europe maps and see if they do indeed cover Turkey.