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The Road to PBP 2019—Entry #3—The Setup Up Front

6/27/2018

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Randonneuring differs from other long-distance riding in that one is constantly navigating an unfamiliar route, often with lots of turns, and one has to be prepared to ride (and navigate) in the dark. The methods for doing both have advanced enormously since I began riding brevets in 2005: Halogens have been replaced by LED bulbs, and navigation has been greatly aided by GPS devices (a leap forward that cannot be over-emphasized).
     The central component that makes it possible for GPS and lighting to operate over long, long rides is the front hub, pictured above. The Schmidt dynamo provides power to the twin Schmidt eDelux lights, and, when the lights are switched off in the daytime, it supplies current to keep charged an external battery pack and an iPhone and an LED light for reading the cue sheet at night.

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The wires run from the lights to the hub, pictured above, sliding on to a pair of spade connectors. When the front wheel needs to be removed, I used to have to gently pull these connectors off the flat spades and reattach them once the wheel was back on. Pulling them off always risked pulling apart the wires from the connectors, and putting them back on was difficult work, especially in the dark. Now I leave the wires affixed to the hub and, instead, free the wheel for removal by simply pulling apart the wires where they are joined with a magnetic coupling device, shown separated below:

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So that takes care of generating electricity, and if all I needed were headlights at night, that would be the complete setup: dynamo, break-apart wiring, and lights. But navigating also requires electricity, given that I'm riding for many, many hours at a time, and relying on an iPhone and cue sheet to do so. That's why I've installed a USB port on my fork (pictured below) from which I can draw power from the hub when the lights are off:

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From there, the USB cable runs up to a top-tube bag, through a waterproof opening in its side, and into power input on the side of a pass-through power bank. Then an iPhone is plugged into the charger's output jack (pictured below). The reason to use a "pass-through" charger is so, when the power bank is full, electricity from the hub will pass through to the iPhone, topping off its battery as well. A standard (and cheaper) power bank will not charge a phone while it is plugged into a power supply.

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This shows the USB cable passing through the side of the top-tube bag, and how the iPhone is mounted (in its waterproof case) to the handlebar stem using a vice device. (It also shows my great brass bell.) I run ridewithgps on the phone to view the route, and, with a single earbud in my right (away from traffic) ear, I listen to the turn-by-turn instructions. I also rely on a printed cue sheet, both as a backup in case of app- or device-failure, but also for the additional info found on a cue sheet, such as dangerous railroad crossings, fast traffic, off-route bike repair and food, etc. Below is a picture of my cue-box, a homemade device for holding an entire cue sheet, free from getting wet and the necessity of turning over pages. It is made by taping the cue sheets' pages end-to-end and winding up on the lower roller, where it's slowly transferred to the upper roller by turning the knob after each turn is made: 

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Inside the cue box, under the cue sheet, is a set of LED lights. They are connected to a small rechargeable power bank (that's attached, between the handlebars and the box, to the box's supports) by the gooseneck cable you see on the far left. The power bank's on/off switch serves to activate the lights (see below). From the power input jack on the power bank a cable runs into the bag (the red cable seen in the photo earlier); during the day the battery pack can be recharged by unplugging the iPhone and plugging this red cord into the pass-through chargers output jack.

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So there you have it: Pedaling generates electricity via the front hub dynamo, which travels by day to the iPhone or the cue-boxes' powerbank (or even to the charger used for the bluetooth earbud), and by night to the LED headlights.

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The Road to PBP 2019—Entry #2—The Rough Plan

6/10/2018

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Now that I've decided to try PBP in 2019—and fortunately this decision came at least a year and a half before it's August 18 start-date—my first concern is being denied entry. I'd hate to plan and train and day dream for nothing.
     Being turned down can happen for two primary reasons: 1) The organizers decided to cap the number of riders from the USA, and this number turns out to be greater than the number of registrants; and 2) you fail to complete the required Super Randonneur series in 2019 before the cut-off date for qualifying rides.
     It's too soon for me to worry about #2—that will have to wait until late next March when the ride calendar begins. So what can I do about Worry Number One? Other than simply hope that no one who completes the qualifiers is turned away, I can take advantage of a rule that says, The longer you ride in 2018, the sooner you get to register in 2019."
     If you complete a 1000 or 1200K in 2018, you can register beginning 1/14/19; 660K begins 1/28; 400K, 2/11, etc.
     So the first order of business on my road to PBP '19 is to complete a 1000K this year in order to insure entry in the case of an imposed cut-off.
     Given that 600K is the longest brevet I've ever completed in my 12 years randonneuring, this is a big ask of myself. And the fact that so far this year the longest ride I've completed is an unofficial 200K, it looks even more daunting.
​     But in two months there is a 1000K in Ontario that's very flat, so that's where I'm heading! Hopefully between now and then I'll get some long rides in!
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The Road to PBP 2019—Entry #1—The Journey Begins

6/9/2018

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Today I took an important first step on the road to Paris. No, I didn't buy a new bike, or book a plane or a hotel. No, I didn't complete my first 1200K—I've yet to do that, after three attempts. In fact, I only logged 40 miles today, just tooling around town. 
    What I did was to start this blog—and while each word I type won't get me more prepared, or add to my needed amount of funds, they will make this far-off, far-above-my-current-ability goal that much more a reality.
    And so it begins. Watch this space. 
 

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