Sustainment

I've always been into bikepacking and camping. Waking up in one town, packing up, and not knowing where you're going to end up that night is pretty cool. You may be sleeping in a cemetery or a Comfort Inn California King with Timmy Cat. Either way, you're probably in trouble.

One thing that is always a pain in long and short tours is lights and keeping batteries charged. Heavier lithium batteries take time to charge up, so quick stops at diners and gas stations don't always work out.

A couple years ago, I got a Schmidt Son28 dynamo hub. This is the black/purple model. It's laced up to a DT Swiss rim that works with the direct-pull brakes on my cross-check and can also hook up a tubeless mountain tire. The hub has disc mounts, so it can pretty much be used for anything.



I mostly use this hub to power Supernova lights on the cross-check, which I use for riding to work. I also used it in Maine with my Frankenstein-like touring mountain bike. The overall bike setup worked, but wasn't super ideal for the conditions. The lights worked well, though.

The Supernova lights have large capacitors inside, which hold a charge for about five minutes or so. This allows the light to act as a stand-light in the scenarios when you're not moving but still need light at intersections. Or, when you're standing in the parking lot of said Comfort Inn with a blank stare on your face as you contemplate near-term sleeping arrangements.



The headlight is powered by alternating current but has output wires that shoot direct current to the Supernova taillights. Unfortunately, if you have a Supernova headlight, only their taillight will work with it. I think if you altered the outgoing voltage with some resistors or something you could do something messy to get it to light, but it probably wouldn't be reliable.

Lights are cool. But, other stuff is cool, too.



So, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out a way to use the power to charge devices like my phone, iPod and Garmin. The first thing I came across was the Tout Terrain Plug II.



I nabbed this photo from Google. Whoever it belongs to is probably pissed off, because the Plug II doesn't work very well. The idea is to convert the dynamo power from alternating current to the five volt direct current that all our fancy devices need.

One of the single speeders I met down south, doing Trans North Georgia a few years ago, struggled like crazy trying to use this in Tour Divide last year. He hated it. I told him I buried mine in my backyard.

It's a super great idea. Clean. Well-integrated. The functionality just isn't there.

Busch & Müller has manufactured lights and electronics for bicycles for many many years. Their E-Werk has been the standard for converting dynamo alternating current. It's a little less-integrated, but it works. From Google:



The significant problem to overcome is needing a cache / buffer battery between the DC converter (E-Werk, Plug II) and the device to charge (iPhone).

So, you're riding your bike with your iPhone plugged into the E-Werk or Plug, and it starts charging...

...Charging, charging....charging...wind blowing in your face...charging...charging.... charging...rain...rain...rain...more wind...roadkill...charging...stop at an intersection...

...The phone lights up because the supply of power has stopped. Its battery starts burning up, because the backlight is on. You start riding again, and the phone starts charging (and again lights up).

And by the way, you've got a text from mom, so you may as well read it.

This back and forth charging doesn't work. So, the idea is to have a buffer battery that supplies a constant charge to the iPhone, and the dynamo will trickle charge the battery with its stop-and-go goodness.

This is a good idea. And, it works. Except, the Plug outputs a voltage that isn't compatible with most available batteries. I've tried a few and can't get any of them to work. This is why I buried it.

Busch & Müller recognized this as a problem, so they developed a super sweet light called the Luxos U. You basically hook this thing up to your dynamo, and you're set. It has a small lithium cache battery built inside, and it has a control button and USB port wired to it.

Not messy. Few wires. Bright light. I hooked this up to one of the silver Son28 hubs. This one's on my Fargo.

The whole Luxos U setup is super satisfying and works exactly how it's supposed to. I got one and my friends, Jason and Rob both got them for their touring bikes. In the DC run last fall, my Garmin was about 15% battery life after 20 hours. I plugged it in, and it took about an hour to get it back over 60%. Pretty quick. It'll charge a phone from 50% to full in about an hour.

Better answer that text from mom. She's probably worried about where I'm sleeping tonight.

Earning a Few Badges

This email went out a few weeks ago.

I'm guilty of all seven requisites. I blurred out the eighth, because it's a little inappropriate for my PG-13 blog. I was guilty of it, too :/

A closer look at the badge:

Regardless of your sport-of-choice and athletic ability, I'm pretty sure everyone has earned a Schlup Badge at one time or another. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Going out for a 40 mile ride and turning around after seven. Earned.

Getting up at 6:00AM for a five mile run only to jog the first and walk the rest, all while being mindful to run and look strong in front of all bus stops, regardless of student age. Earned.

Going out for ice cream after earning a badge will get you another one. That one's not in the rules, it's just self-evident.

Gotch, Jason and I decided a few weeks ago we were going to ride our packed bicycles down to Ohiopyle for Beer & Gear, then ride the remaining 20 miles of road to Big Bear. We'd ride home on Sunday. This was the perfect opportunity to earn a few badges.

Ian and Ry signed up to do coed at Big Bear, and we had a bunch of friends camping down there, so we had the motivation. But, really. Who were we kidding? We knew we'd never make it down there, and of course we didn't.

We spent an hour playing in the river, then another hour waiting in line. We met a bunch of cool people we didn't know and saw a bunch of friends we did know. All-in-all, it was mucho fun.

We camped Saturday night then rode home in the pouring rain with Rob and Chrissy on Sunday. It was warm enough, so other than some muddy faces and gritty gear, the day was super great.

My badge and sea-salt caramel pretzel ice cream was earned. Well earned.

Rail-trail drafters.

Month of Muddddd

Month of Mud starts this weekend.

There had been a many-year streak of Moraine being the venue for the last race in the series.  Now, it's the first.  Ohiopyle - the sort of new venue and home to many locals that failed to out-dance j-pok, is now the caboose.

Ryanne signed up for Moraine.  I hope her summer training will pay off and earn her a third women's expert series.

Hill repeats.

Intervals.

We'll see.  She'll have her hands full.

Last year, Gotch, Jason and I were joined by some others and rode down to Ohiopyle the day before the race.  We're planning to do so again this year.  Breakfast on the Southside, ride down the GAP, eat more food, then heckle racers on Sugarloaf the next morning.  We lived large last year and even picked up an extra roommate / dance party partner along the way.  Anyone who wants to make the trip with us, should.

The last Michaux race for the year is also this weekend.  Extra special luck to that extra special someone - TJ. And of course to anyone else from Western PA making the trip.

Haunted house season is coming up.