Rookie needs solar, battery, laptop and video charging advice for unsuported biketrip

Oznog said:

Well, IMHO a better plan would be to carry like 2 extra sets of batts for everything, a 10-20AH sealed lead acid, and whatever solar panel you can fit. If you have a device that uses disposable batts, the "lithium" type of AA batts last about twice as long, maybe 3x even.

I'm figuring that with fairly limited use, you may not have to charge those batts much, and you might only end up using the sealed lead acid to charge only one of your items. Although it's kind of a bear when you do finally get a place to recharge because you'd probably only have 1 charger and 3 batts for each device. Again, a useful tactic here is the charger works far faster at first. So if you've got 2 batts and each needs 3 hrs to charge but you've only got an outlet for 2 hrs tops, then charge 1 for 1 hr and the second for 1 hr.

But whatever. See I'm just saying that limiting yourself to what you CAN manage would work. I mean, like, bring a camera and all the batts you can manage and hey, whatever happens, happens. Will you get 200 photos a day for weeks? Well, that's a lot of pics. 50 photos/day on average though is WAY WAY cooler than none. Most of those photos probably wouldn't get used anyways. Most of the time you know when you've got a good shot and taking a whole lot more photos is overkill where you're hoping for a slight chance that one will turn out to be a great shot. But if the overkill is that big of a deal then maybe just limit yourself to more high-value shots.

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Mr RB said:

This sounds weird. I thought you were going there to take pics of cool scorpions, and now you're going to go without a camera?

You were talking about 100+ pounds of payload, but now you won't take your camera?
A card of 20 AA alkaline batteries weighs about 1/2 a pound, and will do many days worth of photos before you use up all 20 batteries. And you say you can't "upload" photos, why not take a couple of 8 Gb memory sticks? They are pretty cheap and will hold many thousands of photos, even more if you delete the worst pics in the field and keep only the best.

Time to sit back and do a common-sense check here nomad.

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tcmtech said:

This all sounds rather overall to a unrealistic plan to me. You say your in bad overall health, have no money, and want to get some place else soon and cheap. But yet your planing an expensive high physical effort and long term trip carrying heavy loads through mountain passes on bike while flat broke and not eating. It sounds more like your getting in the dryer again and turning it up to high with hopes that no one finds you in time this time around.

If you honestly need to get someplace far a way for cheap take the train or a cross country buss.
If I recall correctly the last time I took the train I covered 1/4 of the continent in 12 hours. For around $75. I didn't eat or have anything but water from the rest room faucet.
You can take pictures from the observation car as well. Its heated and air conditioned as needed, the seats recline and you can get a bed if you want as well. Plus they do make stops to pick up and drop off people every hour or so and you can go out and use the vending machines for food if you dont like the prices of whats available on board. Or pack your own lunch and bring that with, its not like you are going to be there for all that long.

Its just a thought.

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tcmtech said:

I will take sound systems and traffic off in the distance over hungry coyotes and other dessert critters 30 feet away in the middle of the night.
I have a few friends who work seasonally in the south west desert regions and they say they wont sleep outside there and they they are good old country boys who are not typically afraid of anything!

Day time is the peaceful time. Night time is when everything dangerous comes out and comes looking for you as I understand it.

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tcmtech said:

Day time is the peaceful time. Night time is when everything dangerous comes out and comes looking for you as I understand it.

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Oznog said:

Are you IN Austin now? As cities go, it's pretty darn high on the "friendly" scale.

Yeah, I mean if your goal is to get to California, it'd sure be a lot simpler and far cheaper to bite the bullet and take a bus. I dunno because I can't really redefine your needs for you. All I could do is answer your questions on how to meet your electrical power needs.

But still have to point out that you're asking too much of your bike. And that was part of the task you outlined. Just like you can't get 20AH out of a 10AH battery, I try to suggest a solution that could be carried. As such the max I'd suggest would be about a 20AH lead acid or 40AH LiFePO4, if you had minimal other gear- but you have a lot of other gear that suggests the capacity is already far exceeded regardless of that.

I'm open-minded on the practical value of such a journey instead of the bus as being up to the journeyman. But the practical side of carrying it out seems like that, regardless of spirit, your bike can't carry so much equipment for that far, nor will you have a place to sleep. Those facts could come back to bite you when they might be avoidable if you had more of a plan.

I mean, I won't judge you for sleeping under an underpass or jumping the fence onto private property if you have no intent to cause harm. I'm saying that if you don't like the way cops treat you, you sure ain't gonna be fond of the meeting with the highway patrol when they spot you camping under that underpass. And that I recall stretches of a hundred miles where a) the side of the road is all fenced, and b) if you were to jump the fence and try to camp, you'd be visible from the road even if you were to trek a mile across there and thus probably get arrested. I dunno, maybe you could find a dry gulch periodically to bivouac in, and people are less visible at night, sure. I just recall the general lay of the land.

You see The Straight Story? old dude wanted to see his estranged, ill brother but his eyes were too bad to keep his driver's license, didn't like riding in other people's cars, and hated public transportation, so he went cross country on his riding lawnmower for weeks. True story, actually.

Not that it really matters, but Bell's palsy is a paralysis of nerves on one side the face. I don't see what is has to do with sound here. I'm certainly annoyed by people being dicks with loud stereos at night (or in the day) too, but I don't understand the Bell's palsy connection.

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tcmtech said:

I am not trying to be rude but rather I am trying to give you a few pointers on how to not have the local cops pick you out of a crowd and work you over every time so take it as to be so.

It sounds like to me you need to learn to read the human animals and its territorial habits to the levels you did your other animals and critters.
Knowing how the wild animals act is great! but then again the Bear whisperer guy thought he also knew who wild animals acted too!
If you document your trip well enough some day you may become a accidental celebrity like him if your animal intuitions go horribly wrong at some point as well.

For your trip how you portray yourself is what will determine whether your seen as a weary traveler or a stray mangy mutt wondering through town. One gets food shelter and good conversation, the other gets the short a fast trip out of town on the end of a boot.

What you look like is your human uniform and has everything to do with the immediate perception of your social status. Long greasy hair, mangy beard, a general unwashed stink, and looking like you find your clothing while you are eating out of dumpsters does not sell a person as being a weary traveler.
So is how you interact with your surroundings. The guy who is friendly with the local animals is good but the guy who has in depth conversations with the local animals is bad.

You may honestly not care about your social status but then neither do most of the other people who end up representing the bottom of the bottom human trash status. Many are nice and good people but thats not how human society views them because of simple appearances and personal actions.
A persons overall physical health has nothing to do with it either. Steven Hawking is proof of that.
How you do carry yourself and how you do portray yourself will determine how your trip and overall experience goes from start to finish for good or bad.

I was in Las Vegas a few years ago and I saw a guy get the bum rush by the casino security in front of the Bilagio. (the big fountain casino) He probably was not doing anything wrong but he didn't carry himself like tourist but rather far more like a suspicious homeless nut.
Care to guess why they didn't want him there? Long greasy hair, mangy beard, a general unwashed stink, and he looked liked he found his clothing while eating out of a dumpster. Plus the talking to the street pigeons like they where people didn't help his case either!

Plus dont try and tell everyone that their way of life is bad and what not. We like our way of life plus we do have the correct appearances and resources to get the cops on our side in order to get someone we dont like for whatever petty reasons we have run out of town! After all we are the ones paying the taxes that ultimately pay his wages.
Cater to their clueless whims and keep the negative view of how they live comments inside. Its the dirty little grease that keeps their wheels from running you over again and again. Plus it may just get you all the free power to charge your batteries you need, possibly a free meal and clean water, a safe place to camp for a while, and likely some much needed sympathy from the local authorities over all.

All the batteries and electronics gear in the world wont keep them off your back if you just come off as suspicious and negative for what ever reason.

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