Discussion: Bike-O map mounts

I am racing my first Bike-O and I do not own a map mount. Any ideas as to what else might work/works?

cardboard and duct tape

If you are wearing Lycra, just tuck it under the leg opening on top of your thigh. The elastic will hold it in place. If you are wearing baggies, cardboard and duct will have to do. Good luck.

It's funny how MTB-O takes a bashing from the O-community. You might have better luck asking on the AR forums. I have a map mount for my bike made from a map-sized piece of plastic mounted to a modified aero-bar. I use rubber-bands to hold the map to the plastic board. I have also seen ARs put velcro on their map cases and the board and stick the map case to the board. I think most of the ones I've seen are homemade. Best advice is to buy a aero-bar kit or tri-bike water bottle holder and modify it to a handle bar map board. Allowing the map board to swivel so you can turn the map and orient your direction is a must.

Or just buy an Axis Gear one and not look back.

There are lots of MTB map boards on the market for $60-100. I agree with Frank that the other comments are unnecessarily facetious. Axis appear to have stopped making/selling their board, as its not on their website any more. (If anyone knows where I can source these please let me know!).

Here is a good article about MTBO map boards:
http://www.mintcakemtb.talktalk.net/bikingarticles...

It boils down to two basic types:
- rotatable so that the map is always oriented, footO-style, to the direction of travel. These tend to be large and I have heard some people mention that they don't like not being able see all of their their front wheel.
- fixed, like the polaris maptrap. These are much smaller and neater, but you have to be able to navigate without rotating the map.

Both are good solutions, both have advantages and disadvantages, it is a matter of preference. A lot of people make their own map board.

The one thing I would recommend against is trying to hold the map in your hand or stuff it into your clothing; both are useless options.

The fellow who designed the map board that was being sold by Axis Gear is now selling the boards himself. Mark Honsberger can be reached at:
intrepidhons AT rogers DOT com

If you're going to the trouble of getting a map board, definitely get one that can rotate. If you buy one of the European ones, I believe they come in a couple of different sizes (maybe 10" and 14" square if I remember correctly?) I've found the smaller size good for adventure racing on 1:50,000 maps. The larger size can be useful for orienteering since otherwise you bike off the map pretty quickly.

It does take some practice to get used to not seeing your front wheel. You have to look ahead a little to see what you're coming up to.

Mark Honsberger's map boards are also available at The O-Store for $65. While I've never done any mountain biking myself I've lots of good things about the map board.

if stuck with no time to order a proper one and your home-made attempts are failing, you can always borrow a ski-o one (provided that anyone in your community skies!). It's not as good at the handlebar-mount type but it works quite well.

No need to be so sensitive, folks. The Bike-O in question is tomorrow and Hemlock and haywoodkb are well known to each other. Quick and dirty solution was asked for and provided! An O-Club adding a Bike-O event isn't exactly dissing Bike-O!
Check it out! And here is haywoodkb's bike trail website.

You just need a bit of cardboard, a couple of zip ties an old map bag and some bulldog clips and away you go. Never failed me. Everything else just breaks.

A factor to consider in your choice is whether you like orienting your map. Since I'm not looking at the map as often on the bike as when I'm on foot, I think every little advantage is worth it. I've seen a couple of map boards break as the result of a fall. Considering that adventure racers' bikes are thrown into trucks with map boards attached, then driven over rough roads with bikes banging against one another, it's impressive that they don't break more often.

Turns out that Hemlock won the day with cardboard and duct tape. Brake failures, notwithstanding. Beat out some Adventure Racers that had some pretty fancy gear. Anecdotally, some in Georgia call duct tape Alabama chrome. (I know that's going to get me in trouble...)

plastic pancake turner ($2.00), a smallish rubber coated spring-clamp ($1.00), and some duct tape.

Cut the flipper part off the pancake turner. Duct tape whats left (the handle) to the stem of the bike. Tape the clamp to the handle. Instant map holder.

I've got one, as reviewed by the Gear Junkie here:

http://gearjunkie.com/handlebar-mounted-map-holder

Works great and seems to be of high quality.

If 2-litre icecream tubs are the same round the world, this one has a price-performance ratio that I haven't seen bettered:

http://www.mapsport.co.nz/mtbo/maphicecream.gif

I use the "extreme" model from Nordenmark and I like it a lot. Not sure if they're available in the US.

Guess there might be some info on there homepage: www.nordenmark.com

you can always borrow a ski-o one. It's not as good as the handlebar-mount type but it works quite well.

Funny, my experience has been the opposite. After trying both handlebar mounted mapholder and ski-O mapholder, I found I could read the map much easier in the ski-O holder. The difference for me was due to 2 reasons. One, the handlebars get turned back and forth a lot when riding trails, avoiding obstacles, etc. And two, the map just seemed to bounce up and down a lot more mounted on the bike than it did mounted on me.

So I guess that really boils down to just one reason: with the ski-O mapholder, the map and my eyes are in the same frame of reference and moving together, while when it's mounted on the bike they're in separate frames of reference and frequently moving relative to each other.

Good point Mitch

Just searched around and found this old thread and thought I would ask my question here...

I have been using Mark Honsberger's board for a few years now with a few modifications. Since August I have been using his updated model that is 20-30% lighter and has three points of contact to the bike as opposed to just one on the older model. I love the updated version as it is A) lighter B) allows for fast mounting / removal for AR's that require you to box up your bike C) the 3 points of contact eliminate any movement of the clamp as the one point of contact was a pain with the tapered bars (31.8 clamp size), You could get the clamp tight, but it could slide to the outside of the bars and then be lose as the bars tapers.

But my problem is that I seem to break the top board off of the mount in every other race I do. The board will get some pressure on it and then the washers holding it on will bight down on the part they cover and the board will pop off leaving a big hold the same size as the washers. Mark mentioned that I may need an aluminum board, but that sounds heavier than the plastic one. I just purchased a Miry top board to try out, but I am afraid the softer material will make the map vibrate too much to read while riding. How about carbon? Light! Stronger? Source? A teammate replaced the stock washers with larger diameter ones. Will that help or just make a bigger hole when the board gets some pressure? Really all I need is a 11"X11" piece of material with a hold in the center that will be somewhat lightweight and more durable than the stock plastic.

Thanks. 12 weeks until the next race so I have some time to experiment!

A couple of ideas:

Maybe a more flexible board?

Reinforce the current washer with some big "fender washer" cut from thin (1/8in or so) transparent polycarbonate sheet?

Make it "pop off" with a disk or rectangle of velcro? You could use polycarbonate or ABS or PVC sheet to make two disks (or rectangles), attach one using the washer so it pivots, then velcro on top that disk to another disk attached to the back of your mapboard? (If it were me, I'd use hook on the bike and loop on the map).

We do similar things in ARDF (radio orienteering). With velcro, you might not even need the pivot---you can just reposition it for each leg.

We use coroplast for map boards. We cut a piece just larger than a letter-sized sheet protector (this is about A4 sized), then use Scotch 77 adhesive to spray the coroplast and attach the sheet. It doesn't seal, so it's not for the rain, and you need a piece of tape to make sure the map doesn't slide out.

There are two distinct families of solutions. The coroplast/cabletie/ducttape ones are fine for occasional use. If you're a regular you will pay for one of the commercial models which are durable, stable, and rotate. I only know a handful of foot-orienteers who read the map north-up, the same reasons apply on the bike. There's a good article about mapboards in a recent "Australian Orienteer". Ozzies, is that available anywhere online?

Coroplast and cable ties don't really belong in the same category as duct tape, but your point is mostly valid. The question was about a repair or modification to improve an existing design, so that was the focus of my answer. My gut says any commercial design that is durable is (arguably) either too heavy or too flexible, and having some consumable feature is going to be better---For example, it's really hard to beat the weight and stiffness of coroplast, but it's so light and so stiff that if you tweak it, you're going to have to replace it. I refuse to believe that the design space has been really explored. I would believe that making your own is economically already a bad choice---If you consider your own time worth anything, and even if you ignore the raw material costs, which are probably significant, the current models offer a lot of value and performance.

I have the Axis Gear board and have the same problem with breakage. I've broken two boards in the way mentioned by Kyle already this year (over the washer) - one in Oct and one in Nov - so since they were so close together I started to doubt the viability of the design. I had thought about a larger washer but then figured the board had to give if I landed on it so would break in some other way anyway. I've snapped them in two before.

I've also bent the mount before. There is only one point of contact with the bars but I've not really had an issue with slippage once I got the attachment sorted (use rubber under the clamp).

One of our local orienteers used to make boards that were great for super fast mounting as there were no screws or bolts involved but he stopped making them. I also never broke one of his boards because they had a lot of flex in them. Unfortunately he stopped making them.

Pilot One mapboards has the Ozzie orienteering article on his website. You may need to visit the czech version rather than the english version of his site to find the article. http://autopilot.makeit.cz/default.aspx The article is in english!! The other option to try is what i try to stress to Ricky is not to crash or use his mapboard as a cushioning device...

@ gruver I just found this thread, and if anyone is still interested the article can be found here

I bought a Pilot One mapboard. My how I've changed in the past year.