Friday, September 6, 2019

Hoodoo500 Voyager Gear and Supplies

This was the first time I'd done a ride this long unsupported, and some things worked well and some did not. Here's some of what I was carrying:

Blackburn Outpost Seat Pack & Dry Bag - This seems like a good bag. It is probably a good bag if you're carrying twice as much stuff as I was and/or are more than 5'2". I had problems with it rubbing against my back wheel and I think it wasn't the right bag for Hoodoo500 Voyager, but part of that is that I have very little clearance between my saddle and my wheel. I think it has about 3x as much capacity as I would ever use if I were not camping.

Handlebar Bag from Amazon - This was honestly kinda useless. I kept my charging cords and backup battery in here, but I'd just as soon have the battery taped to my bike and the cords in my backpack or saddlebag. Nothing wrong with the bag itself, but it didn't do me any benefits here.

Vibrelli Hydration Backpack - The backpack is pretty good - it fits a lot of stuff in it (I packed an ultralight sleeping bag in it when I was testing it before the race), and is reasonably comfortable. I do not trust the water bladder. After riding with it in the sun for a few hours, I went to drink from it and it had a strong bitter chemical flavor. I dumped it out and refilled it with fresh water, and then a few hours later it had that flavor again. I mostly avoided drinking from it during the race due to this.

Niterider Lumina 750 & 950 Boost - These lights are a nice amount of light and runtime for the price. However, if they're mounted upside down, they give absolutely no warning that they're low on battery before just going out. This freaked me out on this race.

Australian Gold Botanical SPF 50 Mineral Lotion - This stuff is great. It smells delicious. It stays on forever. It does leave white residue like all mineral sunscreens, but a lot less than some other ones I've tried. It is not greasy. It stays on forever so you can't get it off in the shower after your ride.

Trader Joe's Force Primeval Bars - These were great. They have a lot of carbs, and a little sugar from fruit and fat from nuts. They are also a very convenient shape to eat. 260 calories each.

Trader Joe's Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies - I brought these because they are delicious. But they all turned to crumbs and ended up being very difficult to eat. Would not bring again.

Large Pretzel Sticks - I really liked these as a source for non-sugar carbs. And salt. And the shape is far superior for convenient eating over the pretzel shaped pretzels that I also carried.

Chocolate Covered Raisins and Malt Balls - I carried these but didn't even eat them. Too messy.

Skratch Hydration Mix - This seems to reliably give me a headache. I have no idea why. Other people seem to like it.

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