Another year, another Transcontinental race kit list. If you have followed my riding before, you’ve probably already read my 2014 kit list. I will occassionally refer to changes from last year.
More photos in Flick album.
I am riding my trustworthy old steed. Tunturi F500 frame from 2003 that has seen many incarnations from hybrid bike to frankenbike it is today. I changed tires from unreliable, but smooth (Vittoria open pave), to more reliable, but rough (Schwalbe Durano 25 mm). Rims were replaced and hence wheels rebuilt since last year. SON deluxe front dynamo hub and PowerTap rear hub.
I am still afraid of the dark and am using the same setup of lights as last year. Busch&Muller Luxos U and B were both replaced as warrantry issues since last year. B had broken connector and U just stopped working. The newer model of U is better design, but has too-likely-to-get-lost external usb-port. In the scale of high impact to daily mileage, likely to get lost and impossible to replace this small cable is probably the worst.
MyTinySun is mostly for long uphills, where dynamo is useless, and rough downhills where backup light is very important.
GoPro 3+ and MyTinySun are mounted with KlickFix mounts. They are very steady and easy to use compared to most available mounts.
The big change since last year is 3T aerobars. I usually vow for simple and aesthetic dashboard, but couldn’t really get it any better. For reference here is last year’s setup.
Garmin 810 is the same old, best of the garbage. Polar CS600 was replaced with ”state-of-the-art” V800. V800 has its share of problems. Probably worst is no battery level indicator so you can’t even tell if it is charging or not. Also I haven’t been able to figure out when it runs out of memory. It is however stable enough that I should have my daily stats available at Polar flow.
The small bag will be used to hold powerbanks, rag, spork and small parts when neccessary.
Speaking of aesthetics. I was – this close to mounting 2nd B&M Secula to get symmetric rear view. Secula is always on to be visible and Niterider Solas is for blinding people behind me, should it be needed for some reason. It was also replaced since last year as warrantry issue as the old one drowned at Alps during last year’s Transcontinental race.
The front top tube bag is for food and the, my precious, B&M usb cable. The other bag is for tools and work glove.
Triangle bag is for always needed extra clothes. Arm warmers, leg warmers, buff, shoe covers. Exactly the same as last year. 
Tools are also pretty much the same as last year.
nipples, spokes are in Carradice bag
Tools are packed in Carradice bag’s main compartment. 
Also in the Carradice main compartment are the spare cloths, and some extra food. One pair of socks, Kalas mission jacket, bibs and Mavic Vision reflective wind vest.
In Alpkit bag under saddle there is bubble wrap for sleeping. Clothes to be used during breaks. I left shirt and shoes off from the list this year. Some shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant and razor.
As I will not be using a hip bag this year there were some changes in the side pockets of Carradice. Right pocket Assos chamois cream, sun lotion, space blanket (not in photo) and Petzl Tikka 2 xp headlamp when not in use. Headlamp has GoPro mount retrofitted in it. Left pocket has packable backpack (lost my old one and got a waterproof Sea-to-Summit instead), cable lock, GorillaPod and bag of GoPro spares including extra battery. 
Finally the kit I’m actually wearing. Pretty much the same as last year. Sworks shoes, Assos gloves, shorts, jersey, cap (2014 edition in photo for obvious reasons :)) and Assos socks.
As mentioned earlier I don’t have hip bag this year. Hence I had to make a few extra pockets to my jersey. One for documents and another for primary mobile phone.
Left rear pocket has secondary mobile and wallet. Middle pocket has 2 2x usb chargers, cables and occasionally a power bank in a homemade organizer packed in Ortlieb waterproof bag. Cables include 3x micro usb, 2x mini usb, 1x Olympus usb and 1x Polar V800. Polar V800 is another likely-to-get-lost-high-impact cable along with the B&M usb. Right pocket has Olympus TG-3 camera.
And same as it is used. 
My undershirt has a homemade SBH-52 handsfree mount. It is easy to start and stop using the ear plugs with this setup.
Most of the electronics in same photo. I have 3 power banks, Tespack also has solar charger, that are held where they happen to be needed. 
Belgian Geraardsbergenistä Istanbuliin pyöräiltävä Transcontinental race alkaa keskiyöllä kello 0:00 lauantaina 24.7.2015. Matkaan lähtee noin 180 yksin ajavaa ja 20 paria. Kaikki ajavat itse tekemäänsä reittiä ja matkan aikana saa käyttää vain yleisesti saatavilla olevia palveluita kuten kauppoja ja hotelleja. Kaikki itse järjestetty huolto on kielletty. Pyöräilijät ajavat kilpaa sekä toisiaan että kelloa vastaan. Maalissa Rumeli Hisarin linnoituksessa Bosporinsalmen rannalla pitää olla viimeistään 14 päivää ja 22 tuntia lähdön jälkeen keskiyöllä lauantaina 8.8.2015
Matka on lyhimmillään yli 4000 kilometriä eli vähintään noin 300 kilometriä päivässä. Nopeimmat tulevat olemaan maalissa noin kymmenen päivää lähdön jälkeen.
Reitin tulee kulkea neljän kontrollipisteen kautta. Ensimmäinen kontrolli on Mont Ventoux Provencessa Ranskassa. Toinen on Strada dell’Assietta Italian Alpeilla. Kolmas on Vukovar Kroatian ja Serbian rajalla. Neljäs on Montenegrossa Kotorinlahden rannalla olevan Mont Lovcen vuoren huipulla.
Yleisö voi seurata tapahtumaa osoitteessa www.transcontinentalrace.com. Pyöräilijöillä on mukana seurantalaitteet, jotka päivittävät tilanteen verkkoon reaaliajassa. Päivittäiset raportit tapahtuman etenemisestä osoitteessa www.poljento.com.
Mukana on yksi suomalainen ajaja. Mikko Mäkipää, Helsinki (@mkpaa)
Lisätietoja Mikko Mäkipää / 0505822386
Jäljellä muutamia lyhythihaisia Randonneurs Finland L- ja XL-kokoisia paitoja, hinta 65,- + pk 5.-
Tilaukset ja tiedustelut; antti.pietila ät kotiportti.fi
Mitä brevetit ovat ja miksi?
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18.4. ajettiin kauden ensimmäiset 200 km brevetit. Espoosta starttasi 50 ajajaa ja Oulusta 15. Seuraava tapahtuma on 2.5. ajettava 300 km brevetti. Lisää kalenterissa.
2015 vuoden brevettien deadlinet on lisätty kalenteriin. Kaikki maailman brevetit löytyy ACP:n omasta kalenterista.
During this year’s Transcontinental race over 50% riders [citation needed] used Garmin navigators for finding their way. Also it is fair to say everyone had some problems with their navigation. Most of the problems were just imcompetence, poor planning, lag of attention or wrong decisions. Navigating through Europe on your own is not easy task for anyone. The problems do however underline two things.
One. There is no real option for Garmin right now so we are stuck with it. I can ride by street signs, paper maps or cue sheets, but I’d be riding on bigger roads and it is significantly slower. Mobile phone navigation apps are trash because of user interface and battery life issues. And the competition. Ugh. Magellan/Mio go home and see your next year.
Two. Even the best in the market is unsuitable for long distance/audax riding. While it is obviously possible to find my way with Garmin, it should not be dangerous, distracting and complicated.
I use Garmin Edge 810 for navigation. Polar CS600 was there because Edge is unsuitable for tracking distance and heart rate.
So lets get started. I will repeat this issue again later! Why on earth would I want the device to power off when charging ends? To keep my Garmin juiced up I need to charge it. Obvious way to charge it is dynamo. When I slow down the dynamo will not give enough current so charging stops. What does Garmin do? It gives me 15 seconds to click ”No” or it powers off. And why would a cyclist slow down? In uphills, red lights, intersections and cities where they… navigate. During this year’s Transcontinental I restarted my Edge 810 more than 100 times. Mostly it didn’t matter, but still it adds up so that I spent maybe an hour waiting for Garmin to catch up. It is dangerous and distracting to play with Garmin in traffic. But why don’t I use power bank or something else for charging as dynamo doesn’t work properly? Well. I could, but why the heck should I? This is a problem caused by Garmin’s retarded design choice that they can fix with a simple firmware upgrade. No warnings. Please?
The device is a navigator, but could it please stop navigating? Most of us spent hours or even days planning our route. I absolutely don’t want the navigator to try to guess where I want to go. Just show to route and shut up. How about a simple way to turn off ”navigation” and turn-by-turn instructions? In brevet cycling it might be even against the rules to leave the route. Just show the planned route! Well. There is a way to do this. Stop course and choose a new one. The old course will stay on the map in colour I chose. However I will lose two important features. Upcoming elevation profile and distance to destination. After I start the new exercise and load the new course I’ll just have to wait for the blessing of ”Route calculation error”. After that the device surprisingly work’s as I wanted it in the 1st place. Maybe replace ”lap” button with ”inject route calculation error” button? That would be a lot more useful. And for no obvious reason loading a course also overrides activity profile’s navigation preferences to ”cycling” which in most cases means 200 km of u-turning. I could keep going forever about this issue. There are a few ways, other than waiting for ”route calculation error”, that sometimes work. Turn gps off before loading a new course and turn gps back on. However you’ll have to turn gps off every time you continue exercise after reboot. Remember the device usually powers off when I slow down. And there is the other way. I love this one. Load both OSM and City navigator maps to memory card and set both enabled. Then you’ll have the turn-by-turn instructions, but no turn-by-turn alerts. That should be the best option really and very obvious to figure out. Right? What do you think?
Then there are obvious software bugs, usually related to navigating. For example my route from Mont Lovcen to Greece was very prone to these errors. It was a bit ”too long”, about 550 km. The problem was that when starting the device it would simply power off again while loading maps. Fix was to power off, remove memory card, power on, continue exercise, end exercise, power off, insert memory card, power on, load course, start exercise and continue business as usual. Maybe 30-40 times during Transcontinental. In uphills, in downhills, in cities, in traffic, in the middle of the night, sometimes even when it was raining. I always did this while riding. Only, not ”business as usual”, issue was how to hold the memory card without dropping it while clicking through the menus. The same with the hard reset I had to do. Finally the grand annoyance was that while I had set Garmin to save activities on memory card it obviously didn’t work then memory card was in my hand. So the hard reset wiped out the activities that were saved during these map problems. Meaning I lost about 1000 km worth of activities when I finally had to do the hard reset after the device wouldn’t turn on at all. For the record I was using routes planned in www.gpsies.com, downloaded as .gpx and added to Garmin via NewFiles folder. Map source was www.openfietsmap.nl/downloads/europe.
Why on earth would I want the device to power off when charging ends? To keep my Garmin juiced up I need to charge it. Obvious way to charge it is dynamo. When I slow down the dynamo will not give enough current so charging stops. What does Garmin do? It gives me 15 seconds to click ”No” or it powers off. And why would a cyclist slow down? In uphills, red lights, intersections and cities where they… navigate. During this year’s Transcontinental I restarted my Edge 810 over 100 times. Mostly it didn’t matter, but still it adds up so that I spent maybe an hour waiting for Garmin to catch up. It is dangerous and distracting to play with Garmin in traffic. But why don’t I use power bank or something else for charging as dynamo doesn’t work properly? Well. I could, but why the heck should I? This is a problem caused by Garmin’s retarded design choice that they can fix with a simple firmware upgrade. No warnings. Please?
Another rather strange ”warning” Edge 810 has is the ”course found” alert. Well, thanks. Can we continue? This is mostly a issue in roundabouts where the planned and actual route slightly differ. There are always minor differences in gps fix/map source/planned route. What happens is in the middle of intersection/roundabout I get ”course found” alert and screen basically jams for 5-10 seconds. If I wasn’t sure where to continue I’ll just have to pick something, and fast, if there happens to be other traffic in the roundabout. That I have found a course is pretty much secondary to where I should be going. Usually not a problem, but still maybe 20-30 cases during Transcontinental. This is obviously a software/design issue.
My last, not so important, problem in current design is related to starting/stopping the device. When I continue it is damn sure I’ve moved to wherever I am. In easiest case you could add a direct line from wherever I stopped to wherever you continued. And if you were and still are on route it would be a good guess you’ve actually travelled the route. That way I’d have better idea of distance travelled and average speed for later use. If you are sportsing with your sports computer you might prefer the current way.
And a bonus. A physical ”lap” button in Edge Touring? Seriously? Riding 10kkm+ per year for last 10 years I’ve never considered pressing it in any device I’ve had. Switch it to ”day button”. That would tell you what day it is. That would be a lot more useful. You have maybe hundred options for data fields, but no weekday or date. I can obviously check it from my cell phone, or simply try to remember it, but easier if you just add it to the available data fields. I think I actually had to check it 3 times during Transcontinental.
Garmin also provides a mobile phone app that connects to latest devices. App is nowadays quite good. A while ago it, and the website too, failed to upload routes longer than approx 300 km and stopped syncing, but that bug is gone. There are however some odd things about the app. Maybe the most obvious is location management. Edge locations are places you can pin point on map and then navigate to. Why can’t I choose the locations, or courses, and start activity/navigation from the app directly? Phone user interface is thousand times more suitable for that than Edge’s. Now I can’t even add new locations from the app. Other odd things is that I can’t add gpx files to device directly from the app. I can do it by inserting the memory card to my phone and adding the gpx to NewFiles folder, but I can’t do it from the app. Why?
These are the obvious problems with Garmin for long distance cycling. Like I said in the beginning most of the problems cited as ”Garmin problems” are really something else. No matter how good a navigator is it can’t figure out problems in the map source. Routing will never be flawless. Roads come and go, as do road constructions. In the end cyclist is the real navigator, not the device. And the device shouldn’t distract the real navigator.
I hope you are still there. 🙂
Instead of writing about everything that was great in Transcontinental race 2013 I focus on what went wrong and how I intend to address it in 2014.
London-Edinburgh-London 1400km brevetille on ilmoittautunut mukaan 12 suomalaista. Matkaan lähdetään sunnuntaina 28.7. aamupäivän aikana omasta lähtöryhmästä riippuen.
Seuraa osallistujia: (lisää tulossa sitä mukaan, kun saan osallistumisnumeroita)