Originally Posted by
joewein
Over here in Japan they won't even let you start without lights attached to the frame of the bike and you wearing a reflective vest, regardless of the time of day. And a bicycle bell, as it's required by law!
Lights and reflective gear are only required here if you are riding in the dark, and this is the first time I have ever finished a 200k or the second day of a 600k in the dark, so 90+% of the time they are not necessary in those cases.
Originally Posted by
joewein
Regarding the bonus distance, it's why I navigate all randonnees by breadcrumb trail and not by paper cue sheets. At least on my GPS that method is bulletproof. I already learnt my lesson during the training rides for my first randonnee
My gps just has a line on a map. I'm not sure if that's the same as breadcrumb trail, but it works great until the trail doubles back on itself and the line on the map goes two directions. In this particular case, I would not have made the same mistake if I had been using paper cue sheets. Normally I refer to the cue sheets at these types of intersections, but I was too lazy to print them last week and somehow strangely confident that the wrong direction at the intersection was correct, so I didn't bother to get out the cue sheet on my phone to confirm. I had in my head that the loop was clockwise when it was counterclockwise, so it wasn't until I got out my brevet card at the control that I realized the mistake.