I’m beginning to get a handle on the things that, as far as I’m concerned, are “must haves” on my long bike trip.  Mind you, this is because they fit my style of bike touring, so what might be essential for me could be so much dead weight to a different rider.

I use my iPhone throughout my riding day as a bike computer, GPS, map server, and entertainment center.  This would ordinarily run the phone’s battery down in three to four hours.  You may recall that I sent my solar panel home- what was I thinking?  And my Schmidt Dynamo hub has turned out to be great for powering the bike’s front and rear lights but, as for my plan to have it power a USB charging port- well, let’s just say that it was an expensive experiment.

The one thing I got right was my purchase of two high-capacity Anker 20100 storage cells from Amazon.  Each one of these can keep my iPhone going all day and into the next day if necessary, along with charging camera batteries, Bluetooth speaker and my Bad Elf Pro GPS as needed. They charge overnight- taking about 10 hours, and I alternate them so as to always have one ready.  Each weighs about 3/4 of a pound/.3 kg.  They are small enough to fit nicely into my handlebar bag without taking up a lot of space.  I would still buy the power hub again for the bike lights, but for all other power needs these are all I would bring.

Highly recommended.

Rockport, Maine