Might “only” be 200km; however, that was hard.
...same again next year.

Seven punctures; tubeless next year
Tyres were maybe a little to fast rolling; WTB Nano seem a good compromise, and tubeless.
When riding straight through there is no need for a proper sleeping bag a tent; lightweight sleeping bag and a bivvi bag
Major malfunction of “primary” Garmin GPS; always have a backup. Hopefully not knackered.
Overshoes were pointless; threw them in a bin 3/4 way round
Now see the point of 1x and a mega cassette for bikepacking; Shimano, get your finger out and make an XT meets Ultegra groupset.
For someone who drinks decaf tea taking six proplus in eight hours has interesting consequences
A bacon is a welcome post ride snack; will bring chilli sauce next year
A sense of humour is essential

I don't ride or walk fast enough for a Revo to be my only light!

And I hate gates which are tied up with plastic string at both ends

lune ranger wrote:And I hate gates which are tied up with plastic string at both ends

Oh, yes!

lune ranger wrote:I don't ride or walk fast enough for a Revo to be my only light!

Okay, so I am not the only one. I thought mine was broken. Fortunately I also had a Joystick.

Some musings/ramblings about the weekend - http://bobwightman.blogspot.com/2018/10 ... ition.html

Enjoyed that Bob. Sums it all up very well I think

I enjoy bobs ramblings , that one was enjoyable , the other message I got when I texted Scott to see how things were was "fecking brutal" which I also think sums things up nicely from what I have read , i was originally a peeved off that I couldn't get time off for this but a little bit of me is not so peeved as after seeing a couple of the photos in my heart of hearts I know it would have been a dnf for myself, well done to everybody who started let alone finished

Well done Bob (and the others) really sorry I missed this as it happens but looking at the news reports of the road network I was unlikely to make it in time in any event (hows that for an excuse!) will aim to get there two days before next year

Strava reckoned I was moving for just about 19h20m — in theory that puts a Black Badge well within reach. However ...

Strava and RWGPS calculate moving/stopped based on a minimum threshold and disagree on this, so it's also plausible that both are off and that I was "moving" for more than 19h20m. The problem is that "not moving" covers a lot of bases, including opening/closing gates, fording streams, two steps forward/one step back up the scree, etc.

So I had a little count — there were, I reckon, about 100 gates on the 200. I got to this number by tracing along the route on a map and — from memory, which is tired — added each gate I could remember, and a few I don't (e.g. I remember there being a lot of gates on that leg before the Mid Wales Inn, but I can't remember exactly how many). I got exactly 100 — go figure. Not all gates are made the same, so there's probably 90 minutes of non-moving faffage right there.

I also counted up the lift-the-bike-over fords. Not knowing the depths meant some of them could've been pushed, but a bad experience with submerged hubs over 20 years ago means often I prefer to lift than push, just in case. I counted seven of these fords on the route, although probably only three were proper lift-it-or-lose-it. There's probably another 15 minutes solo or 30-45 minutes in a group.

So, 19h20m + 90m + 30m = 21h20m "traversing". Yep, even with those interruptions I think there's a Black Badge in there somewhere, even in Saturday's conditions, but not a huge amount of time to do other stuff, like optimistically squeeze the dregs out of the socks, or eat, and there's still the unknown-accuracy of both Strava's and RWGPS's not-moving algorithms to account for, so maybe there isn't a Black Badge in there — this year — after all

ps. I got a blue badge for 25h36m, but I did have nearly an hour-fifteen's essential-snooze in the bus stop before Llanidloes, to which Asposium can testify. After that snooze I was much quicker than before it — I guess it helps if you manage to avoid accumulating sleep debt the week before, something to keep in mind for next year

Asposium wrote:
Now see the point of 1x and a mega cassette for bikepacking; Shimano, get your finger out and make an XT meets Ultegra groupset.

Ultegra 11 speed road levers (with hydraulic brakes) an XT clutch mech and a Linderets Tanpan to adjust the cable pull ratio.

I have this set up on the cutthroat (it was on another bike previously) and its works a treat

WilkyBoy, you mentioned that auto pause on the Garmin 1030 is disabled.

What does Garmin Connect say for the moving time?

My moving time (from a Garmin Fenix 5 Sapphire) was 18h36
Add a bit on for when walking so slow that the Fenix doesn’t un-pause

Those seven punctures really are into my stop time.

Rode a long way. Stopped quite a lot. Got wet, blown and almost dried. Slept by a school and climbed lots of hills. Mike talked a lot, sometimes to himself , but twas good riding as a pair. And, nearly got my 25 metre badge. Had some bamter and giggles and enjoyed it - even the type 2 fun was comical.

34 hours and about 20 minutes, so an orange badge well earned, and a joint time with Mike.

Cracking weekend, brilliant route, just on a slightly drier weekend would be perfect.

The only downside was that I had to get a Mcdonalds on the way home. That's a vow broken.

And, nearly got my 25 metre badge.

The only downside was that I had to get a Mcdonalds on the way home. That's a vow broken.

I'd have done you some more butties to take with you if you'd said.

Asposium wrote:WilkyBoy, you mentioned that auto pause on the Garmin 1030 is disabled.

What does Garmin Connect say for the moving time?

My moving time (from a Garmin Fenix 5 Sapphire) was 18h36
Add a bit on for when walking so slow that the Fenix doesn’t un-pause

Those seven punctures really are into my stop time.

Auto-pause is an optional setting on Garmin Edge devices — I have it disabled so that I can keep track of overall average speed on my more usual audax rides, as there's a 15kph min. I'm not usually troubled by it, but occasionally I stop for longer and need to keep a careful eye on the time/speed in the latter stages.

Strava says 19h18m; RWGPS says 17h19m; Garmin Connect says 18h49m. I like what RWGPS has to say on the matter — I suspect Strava is closer to the truth. Garmin appears to be a compromise between the two. Total time was 25h36m.

Wilkyboy wrote: Strava says 19h18m; RWGPS says 17h19m; Garmin Connect says 18h49m. I like what RWGPS has to say on the matter — I suspect Strava is closer to the truth. Garmin appears to be a compromise between the two. Total time was 25h36m.

It is curious Strava and Garmin don’t yield the same result as they use the same data.

Either way, we have very similar moving time
Goes to show how much faffing (and punctures) robs time.

Would be interesting to know the “moving time” and elapsed time of everyone else.

Asposium wrote:It is curious Strava and Garmin don’t yield the same result as they use the same data.

The "threshold" speed — the speed above which is counted as "moving" and below which is counted as "stationary" — is an artificial constant and so the software engineers picked a minimum distance/time (=speed) to use — possibly backed up by real-world data, or possibly just plucking a number from the air. The problem with GPS data is that it's changing all the time, even when the unit is absolutely still, due to many uncontrollable environmental factors and noise. All that happened here was that the developers chose different threshold values for each of the three platforms.

It would be interesting to try to work out what those threshold values are

Wilkyboy wrote:

Asposium wrote:It is curious Strava and Garmin don’t yield the same result as they use the same data.

The "threshold" speed — the speed above which is counted as "moving" and below which is counted as "stationary" — is an artificial constant and so the software engineers picked a minimum distance/time (=speed) to use — possibly backed up by real-world data, or possibly just plucking a number from the air. The problem with GPS data is that it's changing all the time, even when the unit is absolutely still, due to many uncontrollable environmental factors and noise. All that happened here was that the developers chose different threshold values for each of the three platforms.

It would be interesting to try to work out what those threshold values are

The Fenix allows the speed to be set
My Fenix would auto pause when I was walking, so set a custom speed.
Why it beebed so much in the audax hotel when on charge

Asposium wrote:Would be interesting to know the “moving time” and elapsed time of everyone else.

I recorded mine on an eTrex 30, I started at 07:13 and finished at 14:32 Sunday so that's a total of 31 hours 19 minutes. Strava says a moving time of 26 hours 52 minutes. I make that 4 hours 27 minutes stopped which given the amount of faffing with clothes etc. and stopping for 2 hot drinks isn't too bad? I also think at times I was moving slow enough for strava to calculate that I was stopped

sean_iow wrote:Strava says a moving time of 26 hours 52 minutes.

26 hours 38mins for me, so that sounds about right (obviously I lost most of my time to the tyre issues).

Asposium wrote:[The Fenix allows the speed to be set
My Fenix would auto pause when I was walking, so set a custom speed.
Why it beebed so much in the audax hotel when on charge

Ah, yes, that reminds me that the specific auto-pause speed can also be set on Garmin Edge devices. However, in spite of this setting in the device itself, Strava/RWGPS/Connect platforms also make their own assumptions and assertions about the speed above which you're moving and below which you're not, and that's neither published nor configurable, but would be interesting to know.

18 hours 15 moving time for me so must be a black badge for me next year . Must persuade myself to travel lighter and not be tempted by a nights kip Was put off riding through this time due to poor night time visibility ( fogged up glasses , or no glasses ) and the thought of tackling the ford in Hafren at 2 in the morning ( had forgotten about the foot bridge ) . Oh well always next year

My first BB200... that was quite an initiation!

A few numbers:
-One Hope battery and headlight knackered (Hope being very nice about it)
-One Exposure Joystick resurrected when the smart port (eventually) dried out
-One Garmin etrex30 that departed from its mount on rocky descent and lost
-One Exposure rear light lost
-One damp dead power bank
-110km navigation by phone GPS (not fun)
-lost count on the number of fords and gates
-16hr39min moving time according to Strava.
-20hr02min in reality
-1% power on phone at finish
-1% power on Garmin Edge at finish
-28 thorns pulled from my tyres Sunday eve.
-0 flat tyres
-lots of great banter.

I always carry a fair bit of redundancy but BB200 was the first time most of it was used! I'll be back.

The weather tag in garmin connect is interesting:

8mph southerly wind, cloudy, 13.9c

I wish!!