Battery Pack for Garmin

slowmonkey

Hi All,
Can anyone advise - looking for a battery pack to extend life of my Garmin 1000 on an up coming ride. I will be using the Garmin for about 11 hours - navigation/turn by turn instructions so will need extra power I think.

I heard there is an official Garmin unit but that is about 60 pounds! Far too much money for my one of needs!

Can anyone recommend alternative battery packs for Garmin units, or even advise on how to save battery life on the device while using it for navigation etc.

Thanks,

sungod

turn by turn navigation for 11 hours?

simplest is to do a bit of prep and use a map/print a route/or simply take some notes, you can always turn on gps if you get lost

_jon_

I would have thought something like this would work?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-PowerCor ... le+charger

You'd just need to find a way to attach it to your bike and run a USB cable from it to your garmin.

slowmonkey

sungod wrote:

turn by turn navigation for 11 hours?

simplest is to do a bit of prep and use a map/print a route/or simply take some notes, you can always turn on gps if you get lost

Thanks, well it is about 9 in the saddle. I was hoping paying nearly 400 for a Garmin may have seen it last a day, but it seems not... Will be taking my phone to use as back up.

slowmonkey

_Jon_ wrote:

I would have thought something like this would work?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-PowerCor ... le+charger

You'd just need to find a way to attach it to your bike and run a USB cable from it to your garmin.

Thanks for that - so any external battery pack with same connection maybe? Will certainly look at that one though.

redvee

I bought a Lidl Powerbank a few weeks back when they were on offer for £8 and powered my Virb X camera for 8 hours onn one charge so an Edge 1000 for 11 hours should be possible. You will need access to the USB port on the bottom so if raining this won't be a wise move and I'm not sure if the Edge 1000 can be used from an external power source. A gel bag on the toptube will be big enough for the Lidl powerbank.

grenw

Missus has used an Anker one in the past. In her jersey pocket with a 1m cable taped to the frame. Not a long term solution but it worked when she did her 200+ mile coast to coast

prhymeate

I have been thinking about the same thing recently. This guy had a pretty neat looking solution with a battery pack: http://brooklynarches.com/2012/06/going ... l-battery/

I think I'd do something similar with either the duracel one that he has used or one of the anker packs knocking around. You could get one of those tri bags to put on the top tube to hold it, or probably just tape and zip ties would work assuming it's just the occasional use.

trek_dan

Have you already got a good front light? If not and you intend on doing more long rides get an Xposure front light, you can take charge out of the light and use it to charge your Garmin via the USB link.

drlodge

Use a Garmin 800 instead!

philbar72

for longer rides, I use a tribag on the front of the frame, behind the steerer and fill it with gels, then attach a small powerbank via USB if needed and drop in the tri bag.

I'd also do the studying as per what Sungod says. it really helps.

cazhadfield

I paid about £4 for a rechargeable battery pack off of ebay, there's hundreds listed on there, anything that fits android phones will do the job.
The one I got is small and easily fits in a jersey pocket amongst all the other stuff you carry for a long day, recently did a 12 hour ride, just plugged the charger in for 30 mins whilst stopped for cake and coffee and it added about 15% charge (will obviously add much more charge if you stop longer) to my Edge 1000 which was enough to get me through the day, with turn by turn instructions for a good part of it!
Just recharge a bit whenever you stop, presuming you'll be stopping for at least a hour or more during the ride, I don't see any need to try and cobble something together to plug in and charge whilst riding.

slowmonkey

Thanks all, some excellent advice and viewpoints!

I will purchase a battery pack online - can't go wrong hopefully for less than a tenner, but also take some print outs too, as well as having phone for emergencies.

Thanks again...

skyblueamateur

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B011RB ... ref=plSrch

Brakeless

sungod wrote:

turn by turn navigation for 11 hours?

simplest is to do a bit of prep and use a map/print a route/or simply take some notes, you can always turn on gps if you get lost

Crap advice. Use the Garmin if you've got it. When you're tired after several hours on the bike a beeping Garmin is far easier to use than a routesheet, especially if you end up riding in the dark. There are plenty of guys on Audaxes who still use routesheets but it's a bit of a dying art and they would certainly have fine tuned thier ways of making them work over many thousands of miles. I'd say make a couple of GPX tracks in case one of them corrupts for some reason. On long routes I normally break the route down into several shorter courses for my garmin as well as one complete course.

dodgy

Small top tube bag to hold your USB battery pack will cost about 5 to 10 quid.

sungod

Brakeless wrote:

sungod wrote:

turn by turn navigation for 11 hours?

simplest is to do a bit of prep and use a map/print a route/or simply take some notes, you can always turn on gps if you get lost

Crap advice. Use the Garmin if you've got it. When you're tired after several hours on the bike a beeping Garmin is far easier to use than a routesheet, especially if you end up riding in the dark. There are plenty of guys on Audaxes who still use routesheets but it's a bit of a dying art and they would certainly have fine tuned thier ways of making them work over many thousands of miles. I'd say make a couple of GPX tracks in case one of them corrupts for some reason. On long routes I normally break the route down into several shorter courses for my garmin as well as one complete course.

no, it's perfectly good advice

there was a world before gps and smartphones, people did fine, they still do

slowbike

2 suggestions to extend the battery life of your Garmin

1) don't leave it displaying maps - the constant updating of the screen takes power ...
2) turn down the brightness - you usually don't need it to be backlit during the day - turn that off and that'll save a load of power.

Otherwise - a USB power pack is all that's needed - well - it works for my 800 anyway.

Brakeless

sungod wrote:

Brakeless wrote:

sungod wrote:

turn by turn navigation for 11 hours?

simplest is to do a bit of prep and use a map/print a route/or simply take some notes, you can always turn on gps if you get lost

Crap advice. Use the Garmin if you've got it. When you're tired after several hours on the bike a beeping Garmin is far easier to use than a routesheet, especially if you end up riding in the dark. There are plenty of guys on Audaxes who still use routesheets but it's a bit of a dying art and they would certainly have fine tuned thier ways of making them work over many thousands of miles. I'd say make a couple of GPX tracks in case one of them corrupts for some reason. On long routes I normally break the route down into several shorter courses for my garmin as well as one complete course.

no, it's perfectly good advice

there was a world before gps and smartphones, people did fine, they still do

There was a world before gears, carbon, clip in pedals, lightweight helmets and 'people did fine' . It's just that with modern technology things are a lot easier and have made cycling alot more accessable to a huge number of people. If you're questioning turn by turn navigation for 11 hours you've probably never done it and realised how good it is. You're advice is crap. I suppose you still buy a newspaper everyday because it's easier than looking online. :roll:

sungod

you ignored my comment about turn on gps if you get lost, now you're resorting to insult

it's obvious you're just trolling

have fun making yourself look a twat in public

Brakeless

sungod wrote:

you ignored my comment about turn on gps if you get lost, now you're resorting to insult

it's obvious you're just trolling

have fun making yourself look a fool in public

I'm not trolling at all. Have you ever riden 24 hours using a routesheet ? I've ridden 600ks with routsheets and 600ks with GPS and your advice about 'notes' and maps is crap for someone that owns a Garmin. A Garmin with a back up battery pack is the way to go. Do you still buy newspapers?

dodgy

Christ, imagine riding over 100 miles in a completely new area using a paper map, that sounds like something only a bloke with a beard would do.

Yes I've navigated with paper maps before, but now a paper map is very much the back up, but I've been using a Garmin Edge since 2006 and soon after started to rely on it as my first choice for navigating, I've never once had to resort to using a paper map, the technology is mature. Aircraft rely on it, yes I imagine they have paper maps stuffed under the pilot's seat

Every year I ride up to Grasmere from home (wife drives), my route is designed to keep away from any main roads, the navigation would be tortuous without a gps.

Anyway, use what you will, but I can't imagine anyone would go back from GPS to paper maps.

Unless they had a beard

sungod

no, it's something a competent person who's learned survival skills does without fear

incompetent people who lack survival skills will of course be scared witless and too cowardly to do it

pblakeney

Battery life is up to 15 hours.
Switch off everything you don't need and go for a test ride.


You could also just carry it around for 11 hours.

Brakeless

sungod wrote:

no, it's something a competent person who's learned survival skills does without fear

incompetent people who lack survival skills will of course be scared witless and too cowardly to do it

You're very good at crap aren't you.

darkhairedlord

A natural sense of direction should suffice.
Failing that,
Just tape a pidgeon on the stem.

lancew

sungod wrote:

Brakeless wrote:

sungod wrote:

turn by turn navigation for 11 hours?....

Crap advice. Use the Garmin if you've got it. .....

no, it's perfectly good advice

there was a world before gps and smartphones, people did fine, they still do

No it's bad advice. He came here asking about a battery pack and you told him not to use his Garmin.

Anyway I've had this issue in the past. My advice is to use one of the tube based battery packs like the Anker powercore and simply electrical tape it to your stem. It's easy to do and remove and keeps things nicely in place. As others have said though, you don't want to be riding with your rubber flap open. Also I found that it is a slightly tight squeeze to have the cable plugged in and the garmin clicked into the out in front mount.

You simply put a little electrical tape around your pump before you set off and keep the battery pack and cable in your back pocket until you need it.

pinno

darkhairedlord wrote:

A natural sense of direction should suffice.
Failing that,
Just tape a pidgeon on the stem.

pblakeney

Lancew wrote:

sungod wrote:

Brakeless wrote:

sungod wrote:

turn by turn navigation for 11 hours?....

Crap advice. Use the Garmin if you've got it. .....

no, it's perfectly good advice

there was a world before gps and smartphones, people did fine, they still do

No it's bad advice. He came here asking about a battery pack and you told him not to use his Garmin.

Anyway I've had this issue in the past. My advice is to use one of the tube based battery packs like the Anker powercore and simply electrical tape it to your stem. It's easy to do and remove and keeps things nicely in place. As others have said though, you don't want to be riding with your rubber flap open. Also I found that it is a slightly tight squeeze to have the cable plugged in and the garmin clicked into the out in front mount.

You simply put a little electrical tape around your pump before you set off and keep the battery pack and cable in your back pocket until you need it.

I wonder how much time and money has went to make the bike lightweight........

dodgy

sungod wrote:

no, it's something a competent person who's learned survival skills does without fear

incompetent people who lack survival skills will of course be scared witless and too cowardly to do it

Who's that aimed at?

slowbike

GPS or not to GPS ..

very few riders will carry around a paper map - let alone navigate by one these days - there are still a few - and no probs with them doing it - it's a good skill to have (and maintain).

Most of us ride with GPS - some of us use turn by turn directions too - which is great - but, do you do any course prep before you go? Do you examine the course and study where you're intending to be riding - isn't it good practice to know that you're heading in the direction of <big town/city> or have a turn point at <village/town>. You may not have the course spot on, but if your GPS tells you to "Turn right in 100 meters" and there is a turning right - but it's not the turning right that it means - it means the other turn right - there's a signboard, but ridding blind means you've got no idea where you're heading - so you go the wrong way. Sure the GPS will correct you, but knowing where you're going has got to be beneficial surely - if nothing else it gives you something to do.
Then there is the dreaded Low Battery - which is what this thread is about - what are you going to do when the GPS (and battery pack) run out? Ok, if you've got a dynamo hub with USB output - and have the cable - you could be fine - you may even have the luxury of a second GPS to run it on - or like most of us, you won't - just your single GPS, forgot to turn down the brightness or spent too long on the mapping - didn't turn it off at the coffee shop - whichever way, you've wasted the battery and you're now in the "middle of nowhere" with no clue as to where you're heading ... oh, and there's no mobile signal, so your Smartphone can't download the maps to show you were you are ... should've looked at that map? Yup.