General Cycling Discussion - may never be able to RAGBRAI again or ever do a self contained tour.

as mentioned i need a CPAP to sleep at night. it requires electricity, using a standard 110 power cord. unfortunatly there are none that run on rechargable batteries yet, & even if one could the battery would only last 2 hours at best.



because of this RAGBRAI may not be an option for me ever again, as when camping in the over night towns there is no electricity close enough to plug the machine into, even with an extension cord. and self contained touring may not be an option unless i want to carry the machine with me on the trailer and a extension cord. both can weigh quite a bit and take up a lot of room. and not all camp grounds have electrical hook ups.



so i have a brand new, never used B.O.B. trailer for sale. you get the trailer only. i'm keeping the bag, & you'll need to get a new skewer so you can tow it as mine is cut to the lenght i needed. Contact via PM if interested. but you pay for shipping.

thanks.

john.

Why don't you go to Menard's or Home Depot and get one of those generators when they go on sale? The smaller ones aren't that heavy (I don't think, but check). If you can't use that, I'd check with those stores to see if there's some kind of super-duper, heavy duty construction battery you can connect to your machine so you can still plug in your CPAP when you're in remote locations.

As far as self-contained tours, I don't see how you could possibly say that's over with- when I did my self contained tour, I only stayed at campgrounds about 20% of the time. The rest of the time, I stayed at hostels or low budget hotels. I think you can still do a self contained tour, no doubt.

Koffee

Most campgrounds have electric hookups anyway. You may pay a couple more bucks to spend the night in an electric site, but it's still doable.

RAGBRAI has housing options. I'll bet if you take the time to contact the host towns, they will find you an area where you can get power.

I'm a CPAP user too, and have looked online to find out what is available. And there are a whole lot of units out there. I know my area medical supply I dealt with didn't offer many choices though. But there are 12V units available such as this http://www.cpapsuperstore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=420G&Category_Code=CPAPDevicePuritanBennett Can run on 12 Volts and is only 1.5 pounds.

Peace,
Bill

thanks for the advice. i'll have to look into the options you've suggested. i think i'll keep ahold of the trailer for now and make a final decision later.

Hey, man, aren't you with like an army of bikers?

Can't you hook up a gyro generator and have the team cycle spin some electricity while you sleep?

I wonder if it could run on one of those 12 volt bike light generators from China. Just hook an extended wire from the bike generator to your unit and have them ride circles around you while you sleep blissfully. :eek:

Hmmm...

i did look into a hand held honda generator. but their smallest one weighs 29 pounds & requires gas to run. it would be nice to find one that uses propane and weighs a lot less. but still provides the power needed for at least 8 hours at night.

Isn't this a bit of overreacting? It's not like you are going to die if you are deprived of a CPAP machine for a few days. Persoanlly, when I camp, I do not sleep well because I am not used to a thin camping pad, hot, humid temperatures, noise from other campers, etc. Despite that, I manage to survive.

Besides, you may find that losing weight will reduce your apnea. I know that if I were dependant on a machine, I'd be doing whatever it takes to free myself from it.

Isn't this a bit of overreacting? It's not like you are going to die if you are deprived of a CPAP machine for a few days. Persoanlly, when I camp, I do not sleep well because I am not used to a thin camping pad, hot, humid temperatures, noise from other campers, etc. Despite that, I manage to survive.

Besides, you may find that losing weight will reduce your apnea. I know that if I were dependant on a machine, I'd be doing whatever it takes to free myself from it.

supcom, you're right it may be a bit of overeacting. but it is possible to die from apnea, as apnea is where you stop breathing at night. granted not to many people die from it it does happen. right now in my case i need the machine every night, only been using for a little over a week.

see for me going with out the machine its not a matter of poor sleep, but more a matter of no sleep really. because before i had it thats about what was happening. i'd go to bed tired, i would close my eyes and fall asleep, but would never go into the deep r.e.m. sleep that everyone needs. i would remember waking up at least 3 to 4 times during the night. now that doesn't happen. i'm sure others here with CPAP's can atest to the same situation with them.

i have discussed this with my dr. he did say that after i lose the weight, which could be a leading cause for my apnea, we will see about reducing my need for the machine. but even then that may not happen. time will tell.

when i camp i tend to be very comfortable, the humidity and noise do not bother me. and i make sure i have a comfortable pad to sleep on.

btw, i've lost 5 pounds since i started using the machine. the reason is i have the energy to exercise and i'm eating a lot better because i'm getting the proper sleep i need to live.

I saw a show recently about a paraplegic who climbed Mt. Hood, or was it Mt. Ranier. Very inspiring. It reminded me of the remarkable ability of humans to adapt to and overcome obstacles. I'm willing to bet that you can go RAGBRAI if you really want to