Easter Cairngorms Tour

[allywatt]

Spent a great 5 days around the Cairngorms the week before Easter.  The two pics attached illustrate the weather conditions.

I tried out my new Ultimate Add-ons bike mount and case for iphone 4 - what a great piece of kit.  Kept the phone dry and safe in rain, hail and snow and close to zero celcius for the week - this is the case to get if you want to use your iphone on the bike.  All I need to do now is splash some more cash and connect the phone to the dynohub!  It would be nice to have a theremometer on board - has anyone tried a Stemcaptain, are they any good?

Happy touring,

Ali

[jags]

really glad you lived to tell the tale  how in gods name did you manage to tour in that weather.

[Danneaux]

Hi, Ali!

My, what a wonderful adventure! Glad you'd back safely from it. Fantastic photos -- my! Heavy, heavy snow; you (and the bike and tent) surely did well.

Ali, I don't have a StemCaptain myself (the Tout Terrain The Plug 2 lives in that place on Sherpa), but have installed them on the bikes of friends. On those, there was an adjustment on the backside (underside, really) that allowed fine-tuning the temperature reading. One was spot-on, the other two I worked with needed a slight adjustment, as they were off 3 and 5 degrees F respectively. In my opinion, having a way to calibrate the temperature reading to match reality is really worthwhile, as an inaccurate thermometer isn't worth much.

Another thing to keep in mind with the StemCaptain is face color. As i recall, they offer a choice of black or white faces on their thermometer inserts. Black absorbs more heat. On balance, the ones with white faces were more accurate outdoors (indoors it didn't matter), but they do add glare. Nicely made, though, and repairable with replacement inserts in case they get broken or the insert manages to get lost or you decide you'd rather have a watch/clock instead. They're pretty neat.

There are other options for temperature. An increasing number of cycle-computers have thermometers built-in. The one on my Planet Bike Protege 9.0 works well. I also have a digital thermometer in my Casio World Time Thermometer watch that works well and has a switch to allow for body temperature or off-wrist use. There's zipper-pull thermometers and ones that clip onto a watch band.

The thing to remember about bike-mounted thermometers is they measure the temperature where they are, and most are pretty good at it, but you have to allow for being a little apart from them. For example, if you're biking away from the sun, you'll absorb the heat and the thermometer will be shaded, causing you to wonder why it feels so hot for such a low temperature!

Thanks for sharing your wonderful photos. Looking forward to any more you might post in the gallery. Be well.

Best,

Dan.