Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)
  • Recommend me a power bank charger for cycle tour.
  • jerrys
    Free Member

    Hoping to escape on the bike for a week for a spot of camping and need to keep the iphone 4 and Garmin 500 alive. I expect the phone will need about 4 charges and the garmin a couple.

    What do people recommend? Anker any good?

    cheers

    simondbarnes
    Full Member

    I use Anker. Works well.

    whitestone
    Free Member

    +1 for Anker but don’t let them get damp 😳 The “lipstick” sized ones will charge an iPhone 5 and a Garmin 510 with charge to spare, they are basically an 18650 battery plus electronics and a couple of USB ports.

    Do a search to find the capacity of the batteries of both the phone and GPS then multiply up to see what overall capacity you need. A couple of powerbanks might be in order and you can surreptitiously charge one at a cafe or wherever – not that I’ve ever done that 🙄

    jonba
    Free Member

    Anker here as well. Bought off amazon for not much. The lipstick one keeps my 800 running on mapping for 24h+ Either get a few small ones or one big one. Advantage of little ones is that if one breaks you are not stuck. Also as above you can take your time over a cafe stop and charge one while using the other to charge your phone/gps

    jerrys
    Free Member

    Thanks all – I hadn’t thought about the advantages of several smaller ones versus a big one !

    shindiggy
    Free Member

    Another recommendation for anker. I’ve got a large 20,00mah power bank which keeps me powered for a week.

    Also have a 21watt anker solar charger which I use to top up the power bank during the day.

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    I rather like the idea of a solar charger on the outside of your bags topping things up as you ride along.

    slimjim78
    Free Member

    ’21w anker’

    Snigger

    hummerlicious
    Free Member

    I got one of these, I can charge it from the dynamo while it is discharging with something plugged in too.

    Zendure

    TooTall
    Free Member

    I rather like the idea of a solar charger on the outside of your bags topping things up as you ride along.

    Nice idea – truly crap in practice.

    Amazon Basics if you can get them in the UK. We’ve got one and it’s very good:

    http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-usb-battery-packs/

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    I use the Anker lipstick charger too. I’ve only used it a few times but it charges both iPhone and Garmin, that said I do take an Apple travel plug and cable along too..

    monksie
    Free Member

    To use the Anker in the USA, do I just need to get the two pin(?) plug in comverter thing?

    steve_b77
    Free Member

    Just beware that a Garmin 500 will only operate in charge mode, not recording mode if you plug in a charger without a special connection (something to do with a link on two of the pins).

    I use a Garmin Power Monkey, you can get them on ebay for around £25 and they come with enough power to run a 500 on record mode for over 20 hours, they also have adapter plugs and a natty little solar cell to recharge the power pack on the go.

    mattyfez
    Full Member

    To use the Anker in the USA, do I just need to get the two pin(?) plug in comverter thing

    They charge via usb, so you’ll need a usb mains plug, like what you get with a mobile phone, but a US style one.

    atlaz
    Free Member

    I’ve got an anker 2-port one which is great for long trips but on the bike I use either an anker lipstick one or a mophie. Both good.

    A lot of travel adapters these days include a USB port so get one of those and use the USB to charge the charger whilst you use the adapter part for any other power needs.

    whitestone
    Free Member

    Current setup for overnight and two night trips is:

    Novabeam battery (like the Anker lipstick but water resistant casing)
    A multi-way USB lead (USB-A at one end with USB-mini, USB-micro, Apple 30pin and Apple iPhone 5 connectors at the other) means I can charge two or more devices at once.
    Some rechargeable AA batteries

    For longer trips I’d be looking at a dynamo hub with a converter like the Cycle2Charge and either a pass-through buffer battery like the Zendure linked to above or a simple USB battery that can be charged then used later to top up other devices.

    The first method is low cost and basically works without having to think about it very much: charge battery at home; get to stop/camp; connect battery and device(s) and recharge.

    TooTall
    Free Member

    A few people are suggesting ideas that wouldn’t work for the number of charges you want/need.
    Work out the capacity of your phone battery and your Garmin battery then multiply those by the number of charges you need. Add them up and voila – your required battery capacity.
    An Anker lipstick battery will give you about 1.5 phone charges.
    A disadvantage of smaller over larger is they tend not to hold their declared capacity, so you need more smaller ones.
    I’ve used USB batteries for 8 years and have never had one (even cheap ones) fail on me.

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    I rather like the idea of a solar charger on the outside of your bags topping things up as you ride along

    I sue one for AA batteries – its tolerable but wont get a full charge in a day but I tend to be with my kids so its easy to point it at the sun when we stop

Viewing 19 posts - 1 through 19 (of 19 total)

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