Power solutions for the long distance cyclist (mobiles and Cycling Computers)

By hook or by crook I’ll be doing Bath to London and back in August 2017, a 400km cycle. I want to monitor my numbers during this event but I’m slow and the battery for my Garmin Edge 800 will deplete before I finish. I think I have a solution; I have a One23 light with the battery pack attached to my frame-I was hoping that I could use this to charge my Garmin Edge. However, I will need a cable with DC Male end to USB Mini (5 pin). However, the One23 light has a specific square shape (to keep it water tight) I can’t find this cable online and I can’t even find One23’s home site. Alternatively, I could just use a general powerpack however I would need to get something as robust and waterproof as one23’s powerpack. Any soliutions or thoughts?

Cheers,

Gordon

Cheap USB power pack in a sandwich bag or rubber glove. I put mine in a small top tube bag

Dynamo.

Just go to Maplin and buy a USB battery pack. We’ve used dynamo hubs with b+m Luxus U lamps but charging the usb battery rather than driving a Garmin as the voltage change makes them unhappy.

A friend of mine used his ipad for 6 months of touring through Asia by connecting his hub charger to a usb power pack and that to the ipad because of the reasons aP describes.

Thanks folks! makes a lot of sense-Power pack it is. Some nice ideas.

Just go to Maplin and buy a USB battery pack. We’ve used dynamo hubs with b+m Luxus U lamps but charging the usb battery rather than driving a Garmin as the voltage change makes them unhappy.

Really? I’ve had mine (garmin 800) plugged in to the USB and never had any issues. Garmin ‘kept charging’ all day.

DrP

Im sure I found that on my Garmin edge 800 it will not function while charging from a power pack and USB cable.
I was trying to use it to navigate while charging and it wasnt happening

@ncb that might be down to the USB canle, if line 4 isn’t grounded then the device thinks it’s in PC mode and won’t navigate or log more data.

Two solutions the the OP’s request: dynamo and cache battery or power bank type battery and use mains to top it up whenever possible. With the battery, work out the capacity of the batteries in your devices and multiply by expected number of charges then get one around that size

I used a 520 with a cheap(freebie actually) power pack on ride recently worked ok.

I used a 520 with a cheap(freebie actually) power pack on ride recently worked ok.

Just one other thought, I find turning off the Mapping, reducing screen brightness and lastly turning off the Glonast tracking really extends battey life.

I did Newcastle to London (500km) last year and i kept Garmin running my using a “power only” cable (my Lezyne lights cable) connected to a small Anker power pack, main thing i found was to have it connected from the start, that why you are not connecting half way, which tends to confuse my Garmin!i did worry about water ingress into connection, so put a big piece of heat shrink around the connector and the rubber flap covering it.

I did a tour last September for 2 weeks and kept my phone alive with the catchily named B+M Lumotec IQ2 Luxos U, running off my dynamo hub. Basically pedal powered USB charging.

When using the phone for navigation there was some augmentation required with the use of a battery pack. If I was to tour again, and I fully intend to, I would look at getting one or two of the battery packs with a solar panel on so I could be more liberal with power use.

@whitestone.

thats very interesting as I would really like to be able to use / charge while riding during bike packing trips etc.
What cable should I look for?

You need a ‘power only’ cable when charging AND using the garmin.

DrP

Thanks DrP I shall try to get one of these power only cables. Having my garmin go flat in the dark at 11 at night was a difficulty I dont want to repeat.