LEL 2017 / London - Edinburgh - London Audax

Depends how long it takes I guess. I'm pretty sure I could get through it with a battery pack + Exposure light and a cheap rear blinky. But I already have a dyno hub.

Yes, I'm pretty sure you could get through it on that. I suspect I will be considerably slower... Maybe I can survive with a couple of battery packs, though.

Just get a bigger battery pack. Which light do you have?
Remember if you're sleeping at night there's a few hours you won't need lights for.

On the front I have an Exposure Joystick that's quite a few years old now, plus some tiny Moon thing to be seen by. On the back, a Niterider Solas 150 and another tiny Moon thing for backup. The Solas has quite a good burn time - 7hours on constant - so hopefully won't need too many charges either.

How long does the Joystick last? I'm looking to get one as a backup/helmet light.

I have a Maxx-D and a Six Pack so the heavy hitter lights. They last for a long time... :)

Maybe I should start an Exposure Lights rental service :P

Hah - I might upgrade to something chunkier, the Joystick is fine for short rides in the dark but probably underpowered for audaxing as the sole light.

I've got the MK1 Joystick (I said it was ancient) and my unscientific assessment is that it runs for bloody ages. I think it can do 24hrs in low power mode, although I've never tested that. The newer ones go up to 36hrs at the lowest power. Given I mainly use it in London on flashing mode, I end up charging it once every couple of months when I think it's been too long since I last charged it. t

Joystick for me would be secondary light - backup, extra light when going too slow to power dynamo light enough, bivvy spot hunting light, etc. I had a Hope last time but wanted a head/helmet mounted option.

Sounds good. I probably should sell one of my other lights before buying it though. I have an excess of Exposure lights that are less used since I'm not racing 24hrs and have a dyno hub.

Hmmm - they both look like slight overkill for my needs, or else I'd offer to take one off your hands...

Why not is because they take a not insignificant part of your power: for an endurance ride it knocks the equivalent of 10W off your threshold power, which takes a lot of training to get back. And many people don't do need to do too much night riding on LEL so don't have massive power requirements, plus you have drop bags.
Depends on your objectives, though: if you are neither in a hurry nor in any risk of being out of time, it's not an issue.

I think it's more like 5W at audax speeds and less than 1W when lights are off.

I think you may also need to considered that you need turn on the light in the daytime when it's pouring rain, foggy or even just a dark day.

Backup blinkies are probably better for being seen in shit weather. It's not like a normal light helps you see in rain.

I'm getting the vibe that some long-lasting blinkies plus something like the exposure strada will probably be enough? Plus a big power bank.

Yes, but you're not doing 100% of threshold at audax speeds. I'm generally doing 50-60%.
And it's back up to 5-6 w if you use it for charging in the daytime.
So, to get the same power my Threshold would have to be 10w higher.

For the IPWR I'm using a Hope V1 as main light. I get two full nights off 4 AAs so it got me round PBP without needing spare batteries.
It's not as bright as a dynamo but I'm not going that fast and it's good enough as I'm not used to anything brighter. I have a higher power light for descending, bad visibility but it eats power so use sparingly.
You could use a dynamo, but you certainly don't need one.

That's an odd way of looking at it, given threshold power isn't particularly closely related to Endurance or whatever new-fangled term they're using in WKO4 now for "long shit".

My SP uses 4W @ 15kph and 7W @ 30kph. The weight of batteries is probably less impactful than that but there's the storage space issue and as soon as you have to stop to charge anything the dynamo is looking like the better option as any 4-7W benefits disappear pretty quickly. If batteries were the better option Mike would have continued to use them for his racing after TABR and even then I think the only reason he didn't dyno was because of wheel choice or time constraints for building it.

Use of a cache battery means you're never charging all day and having 'power on tap' is way better than guessing at battery capacities in lights/cache batts.

You want one of my Exposures?

I still have a Gomadic I've never used so I could do the AA thing but there's also the waste associated with all those batteries. Lithiums are expensive and NiMH often seem to lose voltage too quickly. I also dislike the Hope I have because there's no battery indicator - it just goes from on to off. Very stupid. But it is a convenient backup - if you lose the dyno being able to light the way with AA-power is useful.

I guess there's no right answer but I love having my dyno on the bike, fit and forget basically. I leave it on for daylight running mostly. Again I'll probably add rear blinky and a smaller helmet light/front light backup.

Check that the Exposure is happy being charged off a power bank battery.

There's risk in riding without carrying a little power station on the bike. And it creates some stress when you are down to your last couple of duracells, or when you need a hotel to recharge.
But I like my setup and think it works well. I basically have two systems, AAs and power banks. Everything can run off either. I mainly use the power banks first with the AAs as back up.
I always use rechargeables for anything up to and including PBP so only used disposables on TCR and now IPRW. Probably uses more resources to manufacture the dyno that I don't have than the AAs I get through. I've only ever stopped to recharge while sleeping in the hotel. Costs me a minute to plug them all in and unplug.
Can see the advantages of fit and forget dynamo but I expect most people don't realise how well you can manage without one.
Shall I talk about my rim brakes next?

I'm sticking with discs, Di2, dyno hubs and tubes.

If I was racing Indipac though I'd probably just take my S-Works. You won't need brakes for about 4000 of the 5000k and with the reduced gear changing compared to TCR, cables are one less thing to drain batteries. Less likely to get overuse injuries in hands with cable stuff too so I'd go for my lighter bike and older Dura Ace config.

Yes, that would make sense.
I've gone back to tubes for IndyPac as I'm using my best wheels. They're a bit old now so I don't mind if they take a bit of wear. Now I've discovered 9/10 sp wheels take 11 sp MTB cassettes they have a second career ahead of them!
The Di2 is worthwhile for the multiple shift positions; wouldn't be such a big deal purely for smoother shifting.

I yeah I ignored that and it's easier for travel. But with the reduced shifting I could manage with a single shifter. I did many thousands of km on my TT bike with only extension shifters. Not optimal but certainly manageable. On really long rides I'd get a bit of wrist ache but that was probably just as much due to the bend than the shifting. Never a big deal, not like some people finishing TABR with full on carpal tunnel and similar nerve injuries.

I don't normally do this sort of thing for fundraising, but this is a bit of a special case and I wanted to share my reasons to signing up for LEL. My cousin Matty was knocked off his bike last year and suffered a serious brain injury. He had promised his friend Tom that one day they would ride LEL together, but seeing as that's not a possibility any more he passed the challenge on to me and another friend Phil. We're riding in his honour and also as a fundraiser, which you can read more about my following the link here:

https://gogetfunding.com/mattys-therapy-fund/

If anyone is able to contribute, or share the link it would be much appreciated.

I wonder if @Greenbank is thinking about it?

Not this time, decided against it as it takes up too much family time. Maybe PBP2019 or LEL 2021.

Need to work out plans for the summer holidays to see if I can sneak in some volunteering at Loughton though, that was fun last time.

So I've got my start time and rider number - 12:45 / Z35.

Much excité.