DIY

I like tinkering and often make gizmos for my own use. For this trip I needed a couple of solutions.

My Garmin has its own battery extender but this hangs below the mount and gets in the way of the handlebar roll. Solution: make a higher mounting point. I found a short piece of carbon tube offcut, glued some ends on it, squeezed in some M6 rivnuts and mounted it up with a spare Gloworm lights bar mount. This also has enough real-estate to backwards mount a Quadlock bracket for my phone if I need it there.

Because I have never before needed a dynamo hub I couldn't quite spring for one for this event. I have used battery powered lights for years but the existing batteries are all old and lacking capacity. Solution: Build my own high capacity battery packs.

These are 8.4v(charged) 2 and 4 cell packs of 5ah and 10ah respectively. Using 5000mah 21700 lithium ion cells. The small packs use Tesla cells while the bigger ones use Astrolux vape/torch cells bought from eBay and AliExpress. They are managed by a protection circuit in each pack and I have recycled the connectors from old packs. The casings are carbon and fibreglass (on the inside) to seal the sparky bits from the weather. Run times on the larger packs are in excess of 30 hours on the lights low setting which is plenty.

Lastly is my Spot tracker HiVis vest. I am a firm believer of having the spot carried on the body.

My worst ever cycling accident was while bikepacking a couple of years ago which resulted in a broken leg. I collided with a fallen log trailside which pitched me and my bike off the trail. If it wasn't for my mates who were with me there would have been no way for me to reach my bike or tracker after I had extracted myself back on to the trail.

The vest has double lap Velcro tabs to mount the tracker high on my back so regardless of where my bike ends up this little life saver is with me all the time.

There is also a pocket sewn on the inside to stash a battery to power the helmet light.