So, I have a ride coming up Saturday, it's Wisconsin's Horribly Hilly Hundred, this is the
route. I have not done this ride before, and wanted some opinions on how I should use my Garmin 820 Edge. As I see it, I have two options:
- Electric tape a power brick to my top tube and connect a USB charging cable from it to the Garmin, load the entire route, and have have no problem following directions, having bluetooth on, high resolution tracking, backlight at full blast.
- Use whatever powersaving modes I can, no backlight, auto shutoff, no bluetooth, no route (hope the signage is good enough and I can find enough other riders to follow) and just record.
Little background, I've had this 820 Edge for over a year, the battery is not great, it's perfectly fine routing, gps, and doing all the fun stuff for around 4-5 hours, if following a route it will drain itself by about hour 5 (less if it's chilly). In the total powersave mode, I've easily gotten 7 hours of juice in the past and I figure this ride will likely be in the 7-8hr range. The problem is, I really don't want to get lost and I love having all the settings on maximum (backlight, recording intervals, gps quality, etc.) and have done the powerbrick connection before, the only issue is this:
It's going to rain :'( so, if I were to electric tape everything together, do you think it'd be pretty waterproof? Would you personally just record, follow other people, and assume the signage will be alright (they've been doing this ride annually for years)? I'm just looking for some opinions and maybe other ideas.
Thanks!