Map holder

[ontheroadtofrance]

I'm looking for a handle bar map mount to secure my route sheet to the bike when im Audaxing! Any ideas

 

[Greenbank]

a) Polaris MapTrap.

Rixen & Kaul Minimap.

c) Make your own with a bit of correx (the stuff they make estate agent boards out of), some zip-ties and a bulldog clip.

 

[ColinJ]

I'm looking for a handle bar map mount to secure my route sheet to the bike when im Audaxing! Any ideas

A lot of people seem to knock up their own using a bulldog clip, a piece of cardboard a plastic bag, and a couple of zipties. The bulldog clip holds the route sheet against the cardboard, the plastic bag (see-through, obviously! ) is for waterproofing, and the zipties attach the whole lot onto your handlebars.

I prefer to go through a route sheet entering the route information into my digital mapping software, and then upload the route to my Garmin Etrex GPS.

(I always carry the route sheets as well, just-in-case, but I haven't needed to read one when out on my bike in over 3,000 km worth of events).

 

[ontheroadtofrance]

I have a Garmin 605 could i do it on that?

 

[Scoosh]

I'm looking for a handle bar map mount to secure my route sheet to the bike when im Audaxing! Any ideas

Something like this, perhaps ?

 

[longers]

Mine is bodged up from an old bar end, a sheet of three mm plastic and a couple of bulldog clips with a cable tie to hold it onto the bars.
It works ok, it's been used properly three times and hasn't dropped off yet

I did see some yesterday that looked like they allow the sheets to flip over once you've reached the end of that set of instructions. Having to stop to refold the sheet is a drawback with my effort as I would crash if trying to refold it and ride.

Anyone know what they were? They had a silver bar at the front of the holder.

 

[ColinJ]

I have a Garmin 605 could i do it on that?

I don't have personal experience of that model but this tutorial on Frank Kinlan's website might help. It is for the 205/305 but it might also work for your device.

 

[bonj2]

I have a Garmin 605 could i do it on that?

I've used a garmin 605 for all the audaxes I've done so far.
I'd recommend getting the maps on DVD, not SD card, as then you've got the detailed maps on the mapsource software on your computer in synch with the maps on the device, and you don't have to faff about injecting data files for the mapsource on your PC to plan the route using the detail.
(thanks to dodgy for that tip).
You do have to plot it out on its mapsource software, whose labels aren't quite as well rendered as, say, google maps, it'd be nice to have towns/villages and shield numbers more prominent, but that's a minor niggle - use google maps in tandem with it to figure out which road's which etc.
Only other tricky bit with it I've found is you don't always know which way to set off out of a control! - as when the garmin is stationary it doesn't know which way it's facing (as most GPSs don't unless they have a built in compass).
But again if you keep a route sheet as backup you're fine.


But regarding the garmin FOR AUDAXES I am becoming a little disillusioned with it. It just, sort of, makes it a little bit too ...easy.
Its battery life is only 15 hours so it will not last a 400 unless you're very fast and/or it has a reserve capacity over and above the stated specification, and almost certainly not a 600.
I'm considering getting an actual route sheet holder just to gain the skill of following the audax instructions, just 'cos I think that that is a skill in itself and it is a way of getting around that doesn't rely on battery life, and just using the garmin for training rides where i want to just blast around the lanes.
That said, I would always take my nokia N95 as while its nokia maps sat nav is only really suitable for car journeys, it is great for answering the question "where am I?" if you do actually get very lost.

 

[Amanda P]

The other solution is a handlebar bag with a mapcase on its top.

The bag is also a handy place to keep bananas, spare tubes, phones, keys, wallets, flapjacks...

 

[ColinJ]

But regarding the garmin FOR AUDAXES I am becoming a little disillusioned with it. It just, sort of, makes it a little bit too ...easy.

Its battery life is only 15 hours so it will not last a 400 unless you're very fast and/or it has a reserve capacity over and above the stated specification, and almost certainly not a 600.

I like not having to stare at a route sheet all the time to keep track of where I am. It frees my attention for looking at the scenery and I only do scenic rides.

I know some very experienced audax riders and they still get lost on a fairly regular basis using route sheets.

My bottom-of-range Etrex uses 2 AA batteries and draws about 100 mA without the backlight (which I never use). I use 2,700 mAH NiMH batteries and have confirmed that I get about 27 hours use from one fully-charged pair. That's easily enough for a 400. A spare pair of cells would see you through a 600. If you were reasonably quick, 3 pairs of cells would see you through PBP! To be on the safe side, 4 pairs of cells would do for PBP or LEL. I don't anticipate ever doing a ride long enough to need to swap batteries.

Cold weather might reduce battery life significantly but I don't tend to ride super-long distances in the winter.

 

[bonj2]

I like not having to stare at a route sheet all the time to keep track of where I am. It frees my attention for looking at the scenery and I only do scenic rides.

I know some very experienced audax riders and they still get lost on a fairly regular basis using route sheets.

My bottom-of-range Etrex uses 2 AA batteries and draws about 100 mA without the backlight (which I never use). I use 2,700 mAH NiMH batteries and have confirmed that I get about 27 hours use from one fully-charged pair. That's easily enough for a 400. A spare pair of cells would see you through a 60If you were reasonably quick, 3 pairs of cells would see you through PBP! To be on the safe side, 4 pairs of cells would do for PBP or LEL. I don't anticipate ever doing a ride long enough to need to swap batteries.

Cold weather might reduce battery life significantly but I don't tend to ride super-long distances in the winter.

hmmm.
Does it ever have the problem of switching itself off Colin, like the 605 does?

 

[ColinJ]

hmmm.
Does it ever have the problem of switching itself off Colin, like the 605 does?

I'd done over 2,500 km using my Etrex without experiencing a problem, then it started switching off when I hit big bumps at speed. It was really annoying!

I realised that it was due to the batteries bouncing around inside the battery compartment and momentarily disconnecting from the terminals. Garmin could have easily prevented this problem by soldering a capacitor across the power lines to overcome any short power glitches. Unfortunately, there isn't room to do that inside the battery compartment, and I'm not taking the thing to pieces to add one myself.

I wondered why the problem had only just manifested itself, and then it struck me... As mentioned above, I have some high capacity NiMH cells (2,700 mAH) and they are the ones that I normally use. When I looked inside the Etrex, I discovered that I'd inadvertently inserted some old 2,000 mAH cells. They are physically ever-so-slightly smaller and that meant that they weren't sitting snugly in the battery compartment. I've swapped back to the other batteries and the problem has gone away again.

I could probably get the 2,000s to work reliably by wrapping a length of Sellotape round each one to make them a tight fit too. I might try it on a ride that I'm not too bothered about logging accurately.

 

[bonj2]

I'd done over 2,500 km using my Etrex without experiencing a problem, then it started switching off when I hit big bumps at speed. It was really annoying!

I realised that it was due to the batteries bouncing around inside the battery compartment and momentarily disconnecting from the terminals. Garmin could have easily prevented this problem by soldering a capacitor across the power lines to overcome any short power glitches. Unfortunately, there isn't room to do that inside the battery compartment, and I'm not taking the thing to pieces to add one myself.

I wondered why the problem had only just manifested itself, and then it struck me... As mentioned above, I have some high capacity NiMH cells (2,700 mAH) and they are the ones that I normally use. When I looked inside the Etrex, I discovered that I'd inadvertently inserted some old 2,000 mAH cells. They are physically ever-so-slightly smaller and that meant that they weren't sitting snugly in the battery compartment. I've swapped back to the other batteries and the problem has gone away again.

I could probably get the 2,000s to work reliably by wrapping a length of Sellotape round each one to make them a tight fit too. I might try it on a ride that I'm not too bothered about logging accurately.

hmmm... i might get one of those.
i'm certainly selling my 605 anyway, largely 'cos it's just bloody annoying. It doesn't switch off that regularly but it shouldn't at all.


Which model of etrex is yours, and what software have you got with it?

 

[NickM]

Etrex (any Etrex, even the cheapie yellow one) plus Tracklogs works very well for me. Although Anquet Maps and Memory Map have the advantage of working on Pocket PCs, which Tracklogs doesn't.

 

[bonj2]

Etrex (any Etrex, even the cheapie yellow one) plus Tracklogs works very well for me. Although Anquet Maps and Memory Map have the advantage of working on Pocket PCs, which Tracklogs doesn't.

how much did you pay for tracklogs?