Uberthumper, that's a great setup and pretty much what I did before sat nav came along. Although I am championing sat nav I stress it is only an aid, the tendency for most people is to just slavishly follow it, then moan because it leads them up the garden path. What I'm talking about using it for is not just going from A-B but the detailed plotting of complicated routes, for instance last week we were doing 300 mile days across France, mostly on rural twisties without the need to check a map. With 7 bikes behind you it can be a pain having to keep stopping to see where you are, especially in areas you don't know well (like rural France!).

But it will never beat local knowledge, tall buildings, woods and even low dense cloud can throw it off track, motorbike ones are expensive, there's a great deal of satisfaction to be had from using real maps.

I suppose what I'm saying is learn how to read a map and navigate using basic tools, but once you can do that don't dismiss technology, used wisely it cat enhance your ride
Oh, and is a lot better than mounting a clip board onto the front of the bike :icon_wink: ::

At the risk this will become another discussion on the pro's and con's of sat nav...

... I have a zumo since 4 years or so, and last weekend, for the first time, I went for a trip without taking a 'real' road map...

... so it seems you can get used to it...

... but like said: it's more an navigation aid and it is far from perfect. That 's something you should be aware of, especially when leading a group of bikes. So you still need navigational skills to be able to neglect or correct the sat nav.

The sat nav principle is based on navigation on street level. While touring you're mostly navigating on city/town level ('to paris via brussel') or simply direction ('head north'). The sat nav therefor gives a lot of obsolete directions, especially in a dense road network, while all you need to know what city or direction you need to go.

On top of that; there's one thing a sat nav can't do (yet) and that is: to anticipate.

On the other hand the sat nav is very good at telling you were you are... but to the smartest way around... better use your own computer (brain), assumed you know how to read a map and know how to navigate.

Sometimes I use the zumo in 'off-road' mode; set a waypoint 30 miles from home and let the compass point out the direction. Then I find my way by just turning left if the compass indicates left, and right when.. well you get it.
Often I never reach the waypoint, but I do discover some new roads and for sure have a bit of back-yard-adventure.

HJ

No argument with that - it's certainly much easier if you have to do that sort of thing. Didn't mean to turn it into a debate on the merits of SatNav - I only really mentioned it as a lead-in to the point about not needing all that many directions to get anywhere.

Maps, satnav, garmin, we'll all end up here at some time.

http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/...1/PICT0017.jpg

Its fun getting lost.:icon_mrgreen:

Sat nav widna be any use where we go. Don't think they do proper O/S maps. Would be handy if they did tho. Would save you getting us LOST all the time.

"Sat nav widna be any use where we go"

Au contrair, you can now get sat navs for walkers/cyclists that have landranger OS maps that would be perfect off road.

But, IMHO using a paper map and compass is all part of the off road experience.

I used to do mountain bike orienteering and experimented with all sorts of map setups Inc A3! As others have said, it's almost impossible to read it whilst mobile and actually all that was needed was a place to store it, correctly folded and with easy access. Take the time to look through the route and try to visualise what it will be like, make a few notes as prompts and voila, you have uberthumpers set up!!!!

PS getting lost can be fun, but there are times when that could be dangerous (Salisbury Plain impact area???).

I'm off to the HUMM next weekend. The Zumo is loaded with my route there and back, I've linked as many of those nice green highlighted Michelin routes as I can, but when I'm there my bike will be setup as above, for paper maps. Sat nav is not allowed on the HUMM but TBH I wouldn't use it anyway

Same setup at last year's HUMM, albeit without the tools on the tank. In that case I had the sheet for the next checkpoint on the 'outside' of the map holder, and opened it up for the map itself. The directions are just for the tarmac bits to the trailhead in this case - I find Spanish maps a bit too ambiguous to be able to write directions for the trails :D

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._6122826_n.jpg

I'd go for this :drool[1]: http://www.touratech.com/shops/008/p...b5d991b372b0b8

It works really well http://www.touratech.com/shops/008/i...b5d991b372b0b8

Great if you don't want a tank-bag or have a Sat-Nav :smilies0243:

I find this quite useful
http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...0Z/660Z006.jpg
Old acerbis holder, takes A6 paper rolls (ebay) which i note waypoints on & then refer to a map where necessary. It mounts to the crossbrace & doesn't obscure the clocks.
HTH, Gary

Acerbis did a smaller (half width I recall) version of that one too, which is also handy for notes... or toilet paper... x

Jx