Rapha- new definition of Epic

[ERK55]

I haven’t bought any Rapha products for years but I’m still on their email list.
Today they’re promoting their new “AW24 Brevet Collection” as follows ( the caps are mine)
— Shoulder aches
— Thighs scream
— BATTERY DIES
— 30 km to home
— It’s the only way to be

— Be out there

LOL

[Wunder]

I mean they're not wrong. I saw several people PBP 2019 with dead Di2 batteries that had to single speed for a few hundred miles...

[downtube42]

You know you're in deep, when that resonates.

30k to go; we are done!

[Louis]

You guys are truly wimps - when the battery dies on my CatEye Micro I just keep riding.

[Talrand]

Originally Posted by Louis

You guys are truly wimps - when the battery dies on my CatEye Micro I just keep riding.

If the battery in my computer dies I'm calling a cab, If it's not on Strava I might as well not bother pedaling

[Peter P.]

What battery? What computer?

[unterhausen]

There's nothing like being 100km from the end in the middle of the night and your light mount breaks because it got bumped somewhere and you were a bit clumsy about aiming it. The feeling when you go into a convenience store and they have duct tape is one of the best feelings in the world.

I've ridden the last 30km of a ride when it felt like a slog, but usually I just count how many commutes I have left. 30km = 3 commutes.

It always annoyed me a little that people would ride with the Rapha vest on PBP. Why doesn't Rapha give in and meet the required standard for reflectivity? The Rapha vests are effectively invisible. I think that's partially why the organizers of PBP made it so you have to wear their vest.

[benb]

Add in you're kind of lost in the woods and your Garmin's electronic compass is malfunctioning again making the map confusing as heck.

Seems to be hitting me a lot with the 1030. Luckily I'm never really lost.

Rapha's whole thing with Epic seems to be about making your first world problem something that makes the ride epic.. when almost everything in those first world problems was stuff that didn't even exist 25 years ago and yet people still did all these rides anyway.

It's like if you did the ride and had to shift the drivetrain yourself and had no GPS to handhold you through the ride and no camera to record it and no social media to upload it to then it didn't happen or it didn't count.

[Waldo62]

Originally Posted by Talrand

If the battery in my computer dies I'm calling a cab, If it's not on Strava I might as well not bother pedaling

No, you pull up Strava on your phone and retrace your steps because you're a tough mofo.

[Wunder]

Originally Posted by unterhausen

It always annoyed me a little that people would ride with the Rapha vest on PBP. Why doesn't Rapha give in and meet the required standard for reflectivity? The Rapha vests are effectively invisible. I think that's partially why the organizers of PBP made it so you have to wear their vest.

Yeah, this annoys me as well. I have two of the Rapha brevet gilets and they are very nice vests from a fit and warmth perspective. However, they really should meet the EN standard for reflectivity.

[marciero]

Originally Posted by Wunder

Yeah, this annoys me as well. I have two of the Rapha brevet gilets and they are very nice vests from a fit and warmth perspective. However, they really should meet the EN standard for reflectivity.

Agree. If I were cynical I would say they did this on purpose as an eff you. Is not RUSA compliant, though it is close. I actually glued additional reflective material on one of mine.