FarmallM51 

I use a Garmin Edge 305 on brevets. It works great and with some manipulation ahead of time, will notify me of turns. I don't carry any backup for it. What do others do as a backup to your bike computer? Do you start the backup at the beginning of the ride so the distance traveled will be the same at the time the primary stops working?

StephenH

Around here- mostly, no backup. Of course, most of the riders are riding in groups, on courses they know to a greater or lesser extent, so it's not super critical, either. And I have seen riders without a bike computer at all, just because that's how they did things.

Carbonfiberboy 

I always run at least two odometers, one wired. They all have some function that allows a trip odometer to be set to zero at the start. My wired is a Cateye Astrale, cheap and very reliable if you cover it to below the base with saran wrap in the rain. Everything else will screw up, sooner or later. I try not to rely on the riders ahead of me for route. Been down too many wrong turns. I've probably ridden about as many brevet miles alone as with groups. The only problem with sensor-driven odometers is adjustment. After a few brevets set by the same organizers, you should have gotten your wheel circumference set almost perfectly. Until you change tires, that is.

Machka 

I use a relatively inexpensive computer with the basic functions (distance, speed, average speed, max speed, time, etc.)

My backup is a paper map, my eyes, my sense of direction, a good grasp of time ... and occasionally a watch.



I have had computers fail on rides, and on the Great Southern Randonnee 1200K, fairly early in the ride, my computer leapt off into the ditch, never to be seen again. So I rode the rest of the ride without a computer. I was riding with a friend who had one, but as we rode into the 3rd night (830 km), my friend could no longer read his computer and was struggling doing anything much more than riding. He kept asking me the distance and what time it was ... and I kept telling him just based on "feel" and some calculations. I was a little bit surprised how accurate my estimations were when we rode into a town in the middle of the night and I was able to confirm the time and distance, and again when we rode into the next control.

RichardGlover

Done most of my rides with a Cateye Astrale 8. Backup is the cue sheet. The backup's backup is my phone's GPS and google maps.

Did a 200k last weekend without a computer. Biggest problem was this one stretch of road - 9 miles long or so - where I was riding into a headwind, with a gradual incline. I swear, it felt like 15 or more, so I was sure I'd missed a turn. Checked my phone/map/gps, and it turns out it was less than an 1/8 mile in front of me.

unterhausen

I don't use any computer. If it's a new route, I trace it on a ride mapping site. I have never really had much trouble with this technique. There are some routes where a wrong turn is possible and a mistake might mean a 60 mile detour. I think the only thing that will help that is a gps.

skiffrun

I know one local chap that loads the routes into his GPS and follows it religiously. He follows it off course almost every brevet.

The Octopus 

Been riding (and doing brevets and 1200Ks) since 2008 with no computer at all, oftentimes on routes and in parts of the country I've never ridden before. The cue sheet and paying attention to my surroundings does the trick. Occasionally I'll use a watch as a cue if I'm on a long segment with no turns or other directions. I've probably spent less than a dozen miles off route in those 4 years. Two of those miles were foolishly due to taking someone else's word that we were on route when I believed that we were not. That rider had a GPS. It took me a mile to convince him that his GPS was wrong and that we were off route. Grrr....

Key to making this system work is obtaining the cue sheet in advance and checking it against some kind of map to ensure that you understand the directions and turns (and to confirm that there are no errors in the cue sheet; sometimes there are!). A keen sense of visualizing the route -- playing through the turns in your head as you study the map -- helps tremendously.

And then there's PBP... where a relatively impenetrable cue sheet is compensated for by never having to look at the thing. I kept mine dutifully close at hand and consulted it probably twice, and only then out of curiosity about how far up the road the next control was.

The back up to this system is another cue sheet. You do carry a second one, right? What if you lose the first? Your brevet is likely over, no matter what kind of computer you have.

unterhausen

paying attention is the main thing. I think that's a pretty good backup. The odometer in my head works for distances up to about 10 miles. In Pennsylvania, there aren't many stretches longer than that. It took a while before I got used to estimating how long a stretch that included climbing should take.

I have occasionally followed along with someone that has a gps, and it usually works pretty well. When it doesn't work it always means climbing a hill for some reason. You really need to know the cue sheet reasonably well even with gps. There are often controls that are off a side street for a short distance followed by backtracking down that same road. Depending on the way the gps is programmed, you might ride right past the controle. Up a hill. If you're lucky, you get to ride back down the hill to the control after only wasting a little time.

One time there was a road with mile markers that were supposed to match the distances on the cue sheet exactly. I started to panic when the mile markers got to the distance where the turn should be yet there were no turns in sight. It was around the corner. That experience made me happy not to have an odometer most of the time.

Jamesw2

I would like to ask a additional question, Please. How many use a Heart Rate Monitor or other bio-metric device?

Are there any GPS's with a long run time? more than 24 hours?

Gonzo Bob

On day 3 of PBP 2003, I was riding solo and had been following a few hundred yards behind an unknown rider through a few villages. Entering another village I could see the PBP arrow at a "T" intersection way up ahead but I couldn't tell what direction it was pointed. Then a delivery truck parked in front of the arrow and I couldn't see it at all. The rider ahead had turned right so I didn't bother getting out my cue sheet and I followed figuring that he had a chance to see the arrow direction before it was obstructed. I rode for ~10km and reached the next village before I realized I was off course and that the other rider was not in PBP.

Machka 

I have used a heart rate monitor on the occasional long ride, but I don't like doing that too often because I find the strap uncomfortable. I prefer to use the heart rate monitor on shorter rides.


And I have never used a GPS. I've never even taken more than a quick glance at one.

Machka 

Prior to the 2003 PBP, I had never used a cue sheet. I had completed three Super Randonneur series and the Rocky Mountain 1200 ... without seeing or using a cue sheet. All the randonneuring events in Manitoba (where I did those three Super Randonneur series) gave us a piece of paper with a map on one side and about 4 lines of instructions on the other side. I just followed the map and didn't even look at the instructions ... I didn't need to. The routes were never that complicated.

And the Rocky Mountain 1200 wasn't that complicated either ... plus I knew the area quite well, and just referred to the map if there were any places I wasn't quite sure about.

I got the PBP encyclopedia of a cue sheet and carried it with me when I rode, but it wasn't until about the 1000 km point of the PBP that I actually looked at it ... and noticed that the words on this massive volume matched some of the signs I was passing. So I followed the cue sheet for a little while because it was a bit of a novelty, but I didn't really need to because there were arrows everywhere.

The Octopus 

1. I've never used a HRM on a brevet or other long ride. If I were racing, I'd use one, but I'm a perceived exertion guy on brevets.

2. My Garmin Edge 500 runs 18 hours on one charge. Years ago, I used a 60CSx, which ran about 14 hours on one set of batteries. Keeping it fed with batteries was among the reasons (although not the main one) that I stopped using it on bike rides. There are systems for connecting USB-compatible devices to hub generators, which eliminates or reduces the battery charging problem.

FarmallM51 

I use a HRM on long & short rides. It seems useful to keep me below LT on long hills on brevets, and above LT during interval training.

I can't imagine not having a bike computer of some sort on the brevets I've ridden in Iowa, Wisconsin, & Minnesota. Rural roads aren't always marked or marked poorly and painted arrows on the pavement are usually small & tend to fade. I pour over Google Maps before the ride marking turns for downloading into the GPS, but wouldn't want to rely on only a map & my memory in the middle of the night.

Machka 

A good route designer will clearly indicate the road you need to take with whatever identifying features are available.

The only randonneuring events I've ever done with road markings (arrows, etc.) were the PBP and the Gold Rush ... and I didn't identify the Gold Rush markings until someone pointed them out to me some distance into the ride. All the other events indicated the roads in the cue sheet or on the map.

Some, unfortunately, were not very well indicated. Those ones appear to have been created using a mapping program like Google, and it seemed that the route designer did not ride the route (or at least slowly drive the route), specifically looking at each and every turn, and noting what signs and other identifiers were there. For example, Google and other mapping programs don't always indicate when a road changes name all of a sudden, or has a word name instead of a highway number, or things like that. If the route designer doesn't get out there and look, incorrect information could end up on the cue sheet.

Others were very well done. The route designer had obviously taken the time to get out there and observe all the signs and other identifiers along the way.

And really good route designers will include confirmation/ reassurance identifiers along the way, like informing riders about railway tracks, telling you exactly what you'll read on a particular sign, or mentioning things like a church or McDonalds or whatever, on the corners where you need to turn.


If the cue sheets on your rides aren't clear enough so that a rider can follow them without having to use a GPS, then perhaps you need to talk to your ride organisers and offer to help them fix up their cue sheets.

Carbonfiberboy 

I use an HRM. I like to put a lid on my HR, which varies with the brevet distance. For a 200k, it doesn't matter much. But starting at 300k, I need to keep my max HR down so I don't blow the glycogen out of my legs too early. Can be done by RPE also, but I like having the numbers. Just 2-3 beats makes a difference. Higher than normal HR for the RPE is a strong indication of dehydration. Lower than normal HR for the RPE is a strong indication of low blood sugar or shot glycogen. Plus, it's a fancy Polar so it has an odometer and a download feature so I can see what I did. I'd probably use a GPS except that the Polar will run for over a year on its battery, which is nice. So that's one of my odometers.

Jamesw2

Just for clarification define RPE, Please
https://www.uwlax.edu/faculty/foster/...t%20jscr04.pdf

Carbonfiberboy 

Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) was originally developed by Gunnar Borg. Some use a 1-10 scale, some the original Borg scale of 1-20 as explained here:
https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/.../exertion.html