I rode close to a dozen miles both yesterday and today during my lunch hour. An hour is not that satisfactory: After all, it's only a half hour ride one way and then you have to turn around and hump back towards work to make it in time. But it's better than nothing.
I've been having battery problems the last couple weeks. If I ride much more than an hour, my batteries go soft and the GPS gets finicky and the radio stops transmitting and . BAH - Very boring without working electronics on board for THIS geek.
I got out the meter and checked my current drains for my bike electronics..... Mercy. Up to 3/4 Amp on receive and over 1.5 Amps on transmit with the GPS 350 color display running (my favorite, of course). With a 2 amp hour battery pack I'm lucky it lasts me as long as it does at this rate. Yesterday when I rode the ham radio APRS tracker didn't work at all..... because.... I had left the ANTENNA DISCONNECTED!
Today I rode with the Magellan Gold GPS which isn't as fancy but draws about HALF the current of the Garmin 350. As seen in the tracker voltage reports, the battery was much happier with this arrangement.
Tomorrow, Thursday, Jacque is again coming to town and can give me and the bike an afternoon ride home... Meaning I will again do my new favorite portal-to-portal 32-mile ride from home to work When I first did this long ride a couple weeks ago it was the culination of a long-held desire to try it at least once. I had no idea how much FUN it would be to ride that distance or that I'd start doing it quasi-regularly.
Beginning Battery Voltage: 13.5 Ending Voltage: 12.8
Stats from the GPS: Total Miles: 11.15Overall average speed Moving Avg Max Speed
08:47 Mph 10.06 mph 19.0 mph
Total Trip time Moving Time Stopped Time
1 hour, 3 mins 1 hr, 0 mins 03 mins
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