Powermonkey extreme good deal for touring.

[GarminDave]

mad question time - were you trying to charge the iPhone using the same cable as the iPad? I ask because we have the iPhone 3GS and it will not charge off anything other than an iPhone USB cable... the iPod cables don't work for it. like I said mad question. Incidentally, out iPod's charge off the iPhone cables so we have a work around.

Thanks for the idea, I will try that.

I too have a Schmit SON hub and after four years, only about 2,000 miles per year it is perfect. I'd heard their planned maintenance should be at 50,000 miles. I' also heard that SON and Rohlof are bomb proof? We'll see but so far so good.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Thanks for the idea, I will try that.

I too have a Schmit SON hub and after four years, only about 2,000 miles per year it is perfect. I'd heard their planned maintenance should be at 50,000 miles. I' also heard that SON and Rohlof are bomb proof? We'll see but so far so good.

if a rohloff hub can survive my husband (as well as the SON) then it is bomp proof. both have been fine (though the front light schmidt edelux died in the far north of norway from water ingress (and to be completely honest those 2 days were murder)..
from our journal... those 2 days

Eventually we crawled out of bed, the usual ignore the alarm clock because it was raining option just kept going on and on and on - it had not stopped raining. It was one of those days when the weather was going to test you and we both very nearly failed that test. Taking the tent down had been an interesting experience, with Stuart and the panniers holding the tent down whilst I tried to get the poles out without the whole thing flying away. We even resorted to leaving some of the pegs in the ground in an attempt to stop the tent taking off like a kite!
We had always expected today to be hard & slow, but by lunchtime we had only done 5km! I think we were close to having set an all-time low record!
We had abandoned the idea of cycling to the lighthouse to the north of Gamvik, the wind was such that getting there would have been easy - getting back again would have needed a miracle. As it was, Stuart informed me later, I was cycling leaning into the wind by 10°. I needed that to stop it blowing me over!
I tried putting in a complaint to the office manager about the air conditioning unit being overly effective today, not to mention it spitting water at me, but I was informed that I could not complain because the required paperwork had blown away! When I asked if an oral complaint could be made, I was informed that I could not be heard over the wind! I could see it was going to be one of those days and it most definitely was. We then started a +300m climb in near gale conditions, with horizontal rain, up and over Nordkinnhalvøya. It was hard going. Somewhere near to the summit of this climb/plateau, we came across the only shelter we were to find today, a red skip which Stuart believes must have been a bag pipe in a former life - the noises it was making sounded remarkably like 'The Last Post'. It is quite surprising what you are prepared to consider as shelter when the weather is against you - climbing into it was only ruled out because the large entrance was currently padlocked!
I have also reached the conclusion that the locals have 1 of 2 opinions of cycle tourers - hardy or insane - I think today was mostly the latter from the looks on their faces!

To sum up today, I quote Stuart 'I ran out of swear words and had to start making them up' within the first 2km of leaving our wild camp. When he got fed up of making them up, he propped his bike up against a crash barrier on what felt like an endless, unrelenting climb, and walked back down the road to help me. I was still (amazingly) cycling at this point, so he waited until I cycled passed him, and pushed me and the bike up the hill. As hill starts went it was a bad one and the weather did little to help - the wind had swung around overnight and we now had a serious headwind to contend with.
Horizontal rain, high winds and an unforgiving environment left little room for progress. 17.5km by lunch felt like a miracle and I have never been so happy to see a shelter or a public toilet, neither had Stuart. We were both cold (it was too wet to stop to add extra layers without them getting soaked before you had them on) and hungry - it was just too cold to eat more than 3 biscuits without getting chilled to the bones when you stopped. The shelter - one of the first we have come across in Norway - they are frequent in Sweden, meant we could at least get out of the rain long enough to put more clothing on - the long climb up onto the plateau meant we had little on under our waterproofs. But it took the trangia (stove), the public toilet and 3 cups of coffee and lunch to stop us shivering. I think we spent over 2 hours in that public toilet - I am so glad they are good ones in Norway. We were both very tempted to spend the entire night there if needed, and had even worked out how to get both bikes in there, dry the floor off and have enough room for both sleeping mats.

but in all fairness to our bike shop, when I later contacted them via email and set pictures of the light, we simply returned it in the post and they shipped a new one out to us same day to a post office we would cycle passed in Finland without waiting for the original one to be received and all done under warranty. luckily we were in the land of 24 hour daylight at the time which helped once those 2 days of bad weather had passed. We think it is likely that that is the day when the water finally made it into my Rohloff gear shifter cables as well.. by Greece (we were as far north & east as you could get in Norway at the time) the shifter and pulley in the external gear changer had corroded to the point of needing replacing. Through Hungary & Serbia I had suffered with frozen gears which we tracked down to the a cable - insulating it resolved the issue for a short period of time, but the shifter was getting harder and harder to move... those were pretty much the only failures on the bikes.

 

[GarminDave]

Does not sound like a failure of gear to me just a test to destruction; sounds like it almost destroyed two of God's creatures Tojo? Epic ride.

Later

Dave

 

[gilespargiter]

Thanks for the reminder. I'm considering the dynamo option on my touring bike, primarily to charge a cache battery but also as a 'just in case' lights option. I don't see the need to go the dynohub route for a few reasons; usage, cost,maintenance, etc.

Interesting you should say that - pretty much how I started using them again.
Couple of points you might find useful that I have found, because setting them up well to start with is the key to trouble free life with them, are:
I have found on my MTB framed tourer, that the brackets you can buy which fit on the cantilever/V brake bosses work well with a bit of judicious adjustment with pliers. I do not however use any of the brackets you can buy on my clubman/tourer bike (which has a lovely set of center pulls and no brake lugs) as these are rather clumsy ungainly and altogether unsatisfactory affairs. I use two 16mm clips, intended for carrier mounting to the stays of cycles with no brazed lugs fitted such as these http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/rack-fixing-clamp-for-old-man-mountain-racks-prod25558/ and make a stainless plate similar to those that can be had as "braze ons" and bolt it with the clips round the stay. This makes a much neater and more secure mount, with no risk of damaging even the paint on the frame. I would, as with front derailleur mounts not have these as "braze ons" even at times when it is an option - because no opportunity for change.
Really must get my act with a camera together, it would be much easier to show you a picture.
I thought that just might be useful information for you.

 

[gilespargiter]

if a rohloff hub can survive my husband (as well as the SON) then it is bomp proof. both have been fine (though the front light schmidt edelux died in the far north of norway from water ingress (and to be completely honest those 2 days were murder)..
from our journal... those 2 days




but in all fairness to our bike shop, when I later contacted them via email and set pictures of the light, we simply returned it in the post and they shipped a new one out to us same day to a post office we would cycle passed in Finland without waiting for the original one to be received and all done under warranty. luckily we were in the land of 24 hour daylight at the time which helped once those 2 days of bad weather had passed. We think it is likely that that is the day when the water finally made it into my Rohloff gear shifter cables as well.. by Greece (we were as far north & east as you could get in Norway at the time) the shifter and pulley in the external gear changer had corroded to the point of needing replacing. Through Hungary & Serbia I had suffered with frozen gears which we tracked down to the a cable - insulating it resolved the issue for a short period of time, but the shifter was getting harder and harder to move... those were pretty much the only failures on the bikes.

Sounds as if you now have a good story to tell when sitting by a roaring stove with the wind howling outside!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Sounds as if you now have a good story to tell when sitting by a roaring stove with the wind howling outside!

Closest I have ever come to spending the night in a public toilet by my own choice!
if you find yourself with time on your hands, and want something to do, make yourself a cuppa and follow the link in the signature. (if you are squeamish, after Day 350 part 2 there are some photos to avoid... but most pages now come with a warning.)

 

[StuntPilot]

I bought the PowerMonkey Extreme a while back and it works well with the solar panel and via mains charging. Recently I purchased a B&M Dymotec 6 bottle dynamo and Tout Terrain The Plug II +.

The Plug II + is a great device and charges many of my devices without a problem. The big problem that with a bottle dynamo and the Plug II + is that you can not charge the PowerMonkey Extreme from the Plug II +

Just thought I would mention it as some on this thread are considering purchasing it as a dynamo driven cache battery for touring.

I have confirmed this with Tout Terrain. It appears that the PowerMonkey Extreme draws between 0.5A and 2A. The Plug II + cannon supply enough power to charge the PowerMonkey Extreme battery below speeds of 32 km/he (26 inch wheel).

Has anyone else had any problems charging the PowerMonkey Extreme from the Plug II +?

Does anyone know of another cache battery that works well with the Plug II + and that can charge a device attached while being charged itself from the Plug II+?

 

[gilespargiter]

Pretty slow reply I know Satnav, but I have had time to sit down with a cuppa and look at your blog now. You seem to have had some pretty "epic" moments during the course of that tour. Seems a rather painful and frightening incident that brought it to a premature end. Certainly must have been quite disturbing for you both at the time. Must say I would be slightly irritated if one of my exploits came to a stop like that. I hope you have fully recovered now and will be able to take up where you left off at some point.

As I'am making another post on this thread, I might as well add that a normal modern bottle dynamo puts out 6V and 3 Watts - same as an ordinary hub dynamo. Ones that produce 12V and 5 Watts can also be obtained. At this power unless they have a larger drive wheel I would not be surprised if they did slip when wet. I believe (although I have not checked lately) that hub dynamos of this power output can also be obtained.
As someone mentioned wheel size in relation to dynamo output. It is probably worth mentioning that with a side runner you need to think in terms of feet of tyre/yard !!! to determine the revolutions of the dynamo - ie. yards/min rather than revs/min as with a hub dynamo. In other words - wheel size makes no difference but ground speed does.

While I'am at it here is a picture of the way that I avoid using the crappy brackets often supplied to mount them on. You can clearly see all those unsightly wires dangling everywhere...

 

[Somebuddy]

Will the http://www.bike24.com/1.php?content=8;navigation=1;menu=1000,2,140,141;product=29909 mentioned in the second thread be good enough to charge my iPhone? I have just discovered a B & M headlight Luxos U with USB connector and was thinking of getting a dynamo hub to connect to it and also charge my iphone from the handlebar controls.
I have also just discovered Big Al's wheelcraft, based in Glasgow and was going to ask his advice. I was considering a joule 3 dynamo hub or a SON.

​

 

[Glenn]

Talking of solar chargers, Lidl have one next week http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/SID-F...our-offers-2491.htm?action=showDetail&id=2281

 

[Somebuddy]

That would be cheaper than getting a new wheel build with dynamo hub and usb to charge phone! Wonder if its any good.....mmmm!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Will the http://www.bike24.com/1.php?content=8;navigation=1;menu=1000,2,140,141;product=29909 mentioned in the second thread be good enough to charge my iPhone? I have just discovered a B & M headlight Luxos U with USB connector and was thinking of getting a dynamo hub to connect to it and also charge my iphone from the handlebar controls.
I have also just discovered Big Al's wheelcraft, based in Glasgow and was going to ask his advice. I was considering a joule 3 dynamo hub or a SON.

iPhones and most modern kit require a minimum voltage into them before they start to charge. they can not be trickle charged and that is where virtually all of the problems charging them happen. What is usually required is a secondary battery that can handle trickle charging and once it has capacity it can charge the iPhone or other kit. We used a Schmidt SON 28 on tour and never once managed to sucessfully charge anything directly from it, but I will conceed that we are not the fastest tourers around, however even our front lights required speeds close to what we cycled at to get maximum power from them.