Battery Advice - Cross Country bike tour

[kuksul08]

Hi everyone. A friend of mine is riding his bike about 4000 miles this summer across the united states. He is looking for some kind of powering solution for both charging his cell phone and ipod as well as a bike light battery (8 eneloop AA's).

He has been looking into solar panels, but they don't really put out that much power. I think the power source for his bike light is going to be Eneloops, and I don't think a solar panel could charge those.

He doesn't want a dynamo unless he can only engage it for downhills. Even then, I don't know that those put out enough power.


Do any of you have suggestions? There are only going to be a handful of times when he can stop to actually plug something in.

 

[cave dave]

Early to bed, Early to rise...

That is what most bike tourists do. You can get a lot of riding in between 6am and 9pm.

 

[kuksul08]

Early to bed, Early to rise...

That is what most bike tourists do. You can get a lot of riding in between 6am and 9pm.

What about charging the cell phone and iPod? Do those small solar panels have enough power?

 

[cave dave]

I've used an energizer to go for the cell phone. I had a old version and it sucked, since some Nimh wouldn't fit. The latest version can fit my Nimh. It works great on Li Primaries and Eneloops but probably sucks on Alkalines.

http://www.energizer.com/products/energi-to-go/Pages/ipod-cell-phone-charger.aspx

My impression of the solar devices are that they are gadgety, poorly made, expensive and only work under ideal conditions. I might be wrong though. This seems like one of the best ones. They are resold under more recognizable names. Powerfilm

Where is your friend gonna sleep? Is he gonna gorilla camp the whole way?

Restaurants have outlets, but its very easy to forget your stuff in them. Campgrounds have outlets somewhere, bathhouse etc. Support vehicles have 12v outlets. Hotel once every 10 days should keep you charged. You can always buy primaries along the way.

The longest self-supported tour I've done was about 10 days.
Cell phone - left it off, never needed charging
Flashlights - never had to charge anything
Ipod - I brought a paperback instead - classic sci-fi usually.
Camera - had to change the 2AA once towards end of trip.

 

[cave dave]

For expert info I like the Touring section on Bikelist.org

i encourage your friend to join.

Searchable archives: http://search.bikelist.org/

search on solar charger

To Join:
http://www.phred.org/mailman/listinfo/touring

 

[kuksul08]

Thanks Cave Dave.

He is going for a couple months straight. Most of the time will be camping in designated areas or just in the woods. Maybe a few times they will stay somewhere more official but for the most part they won't have many resources.

The Powerfilm looks pretty neat, much better than what he was looking at before. So he can recharge the Eneloops using that thing (set it up on his rear rack while riding), then use the energizer charger to charge his cell phone and other stuff? Seems like a very compact and simple method.


Thanks!!!

 

[yellow]

imho, without regular access to wall outlets and such a long trip, the only way is to use a hub + (homemade) circuit to charge the various devices.

Everything else requires too much time + full sun + the space to place it openly on the bike.

The hub on the other hand, works guaranteed, can have the parts to charge stored away from weather, and gives endless light power should the need arise, ... (if the light is not switched on, there will be no power losses from the hub, just while riding)


Pretty sure there might be some ideas in biking, and possibly in the links posted above

 

[tuborg]

Check out the dynamos - they can be disengaged and are very efficient these days.

B&M Dymotec6
They are engineered (and maybe made) in Germany. There is a representative in the USA, but I lost the contact. One site I googled is:
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/dymotec.asp

A $50 solution - and very efficient. These are not the dynamos from kid's bikes in the 70's.

 

[yellow]

found one thing not good in my dynamo advice:
of course the bike has to be moved to charge ...

so a combination of both dyno and solar might be the best.

 

[kuksul08]

In case anyone is interested, here's the link to my buddy's blog.

http://twodudestwobikes.blogspot.com/

Since it is so hot, he has been biking in the early morning and late evening, getting a lot of use out of the light I made him Since the solar charger he ordered never came, they have just been plugging in at campsites every so often... I guess that's been working out alright.