Need some advice - achieving one of my dreams

MarinMartin

Marin Fan
I know I've not been on here much lately and that's because recently things have been a bit difficult (don't worry I won't bore you with the details) I'll apologise in advance for the long post, just want people to realise that this is important to me and that's why I'm doing everything I can to make it a big success.

With what's happened it's made me realise that I need to do what I can and achieve my dreams while I have the chance as you never know when it will be too late. For too long I've just put things off because I can't afford it so despite recovering from an injury and serious lack of money, I've signed up to do the Pivot TwentyFour 12 24HR SOLO :shock:. Not just to achieve my dream, but also to hopefully raise some money for a local mental health charity and help others who've suffered similar problems to me.

So basically I've been trying to plan it in order to do the best I can (setting myself targets etc), because that gives me something to focus on, but there's one thing I'm struggling with.

LIGHTS! So because achievement is a big part of my recovery I'm going to be trying to ride as much as physically possible and do as many laps as possible. I have 2 sets of Solarstorm X2 lights and light quality wise they're fantastic (well to me anyway as I've only ever been able to afford poundland crap) but battery life is rubbish to be frank. On medium I get about 1.5 hours. I know there are better battery packs but at £50 each there's no way I'll ever be able to afford them. Are there cheaper alternatives or am I just screwed?

I know there are a few people who've done 24hr solos over the years and just wondering how they managed with lights etc. Any advice you can give would seriously help me as this is more than just a fun weekend of riding to me. This is proving just what I'm capable of which after being ill for so long and thinking it would never happen.
 
Martin: welcome back! I'm impressed that you are turning your difficulties round into something wonderful for others.
Not knowing the course it's hard to judge specifics but:
1 I find with my setup (Fluxient 4xR5) that the brightest setting is unnecessary - I keep some dark adaption with the middle setting which gives me decent peripheral vision. I get 3+ hours out of a 6 cell pack.
2 You need extra battery packs, which saves money compared to more lights. Buying loose 18650 cells may be cheapest. You will need a pal to do pitstop battery swaps and recharges - probably 3 sets are needed. You could ask around to borrow extras for the weekend.
3 Buy branded batteries. Lots of the cheap Chinese ones use cells reclaimed from recycled laptops. I use Panasonic as they are well made and have good capacity.
4 Consider a dynamo hub. I know they are desperately uncool but they can provide enough light to keep you going if your battery lights fail.
 
goodonyer lad. Unfortunately its way too far from me to offer any physical assistance on the day but Im sure we can come up with some help.

As above, spare batteries need to be borrowed and a pit stop system for taking breaks and recharges. Don't forget at that time of year its not that dark until late and its light again pretty early so you probably need about 6-7 hours of light I guess.

What fittings do your existing setup take?
 
I did this with my ancient hope lights. Sourcing all the parts to build my own pack cost me 34 quid (including top spec batteries) and took me about 20 minutes to build.
It's not as shiny as the genuine pack, but works just the same (charging etc), and has slightly better run times.
I can also swap the cells in a few minutes for fresh ones. So if i was going to do a long event, i could just take a box of charged batteries. Or a charger and charge from the car battery.

You can probably do the same with your solarstorms. Trickiest thing is finding the right connector.

A quick bit of googling shows that the batteries provided with the X2 *used* to be about half their advertised capacity. Might just be worth nicking the fly leads and building your own. And bin the old ones (carefully).
 
Re:

my idea was to run with just the handlebar ones for as long as possible then use the helmet mounted set as well when it gets really dark in the woods (I tried the 12hr last year to see what it was like and had to retire after 6hours because the conditions were so flooded and muddy it destroyed my brakes and bottom bracket). Bought myself a bigger car so taking 2 bikes and a shed load of spares this year to hopefully avoid retirement which is where all my money's gone, building another bike (budget build turned into about £250 :facepalm: but it's a Marin so all's good :LOL: ).

Has anyone had any experience with the Cree q5 zoomable lights?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2X-CREE-Q5-L ... 0505.m3226

They take 1x18650 battery or 3xAAAs. Was thinking about one of those helmet mounted to avoid cables and wires plus can just have a few batteries charged up ready to go and swap them out when needs be.

As for pitstops etc. One of the trade stands there is charging people's batteries/lights for them but obviously I don't want to be popping there every couple of hours to swap batteries and charge the others. My ultimate target is a minimum of 15 laps so need to ride as much as possible bearing in mind if conditions are similar to last year it was taking 1.5 hours a lap (the pros were doing 20+ laps easy but I'm about 5 stone too heavy, and injured, to be a pro). I will be taking breaks in between to grab food/supplies but hoping for them to be as short as possible.
 
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After riding through the first day you should know the circuit pretty well so turn them off every other lap?

You'll either get through the night or not need them.

Best of luck! Keep on keeping on. xxx





Anybody remember Top Tips in Viz? :D
 
Re:

Yes, I've got a set of those Cree q5 lights. I use them for commuting purposes but it's so I can be seen by car drivers on lit streets at night, not to penetrate woodland gloom with no lighting. For the price, they're very good; batteries last for hours; easy to remove and put in a pocket; bright enough to get me noticed. You could get by with those lights on your ride but, if it were me, I would use something a bit brighter for off road night-time riding.

Good luck with it.
 
Nob":1sdtr49g said:
You targeting 450miles target?

450 miles? Couldn't ride that if I wanted to. :LOL:

The course is about 8 miles (can't remember what exactly) so will be more like 120 miles, I know it doesn't seem a lot but it's the terrain that's tiring and bearing in mind The most I've ever ridden is 62 miles on a sportive and that nearly killed me. Plus I have an illness which cycling affects, it's going to be one hell of a challenge but one I want to do as I might not get another chance to.

As it is I've been given a second chance as things happened which made me think I would never be able to cycle properly again and that's why it's so important to me, proving to myself that I can defy the odds.
 
Re:

I can relate to that. Good on you.


Still like the idea of ‘going dark’ though.
 
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