Got the new style BMW Tank bag for the GS, anyone recommend a map book that fits inside the clear section well?
Tank Bike Sized Map book
- Thread starter tunnie
- Start date
I've got a spiral bound a5 one which fits fine.
Bit like this, but mine's 4 miles to the inch.
http://www.mapsworldwide.com/sku_20127.htm
Bit like this, but mine's 4 miles to the inch.
http://www.mapsworldwide.com/sku_20127.htm
andy white
Registered user
Tunnie,
This thread should help, The A-Z A5 map is good.
http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199361
This thread should help, The A-Z A5 map is good.
http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199361
Bear
Registered user
My ADAC atlas of Germany is A5 width and A4 height. It fits my BMW tank bag map pocket perfectly. I don't know if they publish an equivalent for the UK or where you might buy one apart from the bookshop in Bernkastel where mine came from.
littleredrooster
Registered user
Michelin do a great touring-scale book of France which, when opened, fits a Baglug pocket perfectly - slightly less than A4.
The earliest version of bags had a very annoyingly sized map space. It was sized at slightly under A4, so a simple route plan (printed on standard sized paper) would not fit.
I have not seen the new bag, so have no idea if this silly fault has been fixed.
My advice:
1. Maps and map lay-out, like PC's, are a personal thing. What suits one person often does not suit another. Find yourself a decent sized bookshop, Waterstones perhaps, with a reasonable cross-section of maps / mapbooks. Take your bag along and find one that suits. You can save a little bit of money ordering them on line, once you know which map suits you best.
2. Think about where you are most likely to be riding your bike and how much detail you want the map to show. For instance, if you are going to be mostly riding within a 150 mile circle of your house, you definitely do not need detailed maps of Scotland. Similarly, if you want to stay on major / medium roads, you will probably not need to get particularity detailed maps, not least they are not particularly easy to read as you hurtle around.
3. The A-Z regional maps mentioned above are a pretty good halfway house, but you may not like them. A-Z does a reasonably good map of the east Midlands, out to Essex and the East Anglia coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, which you might find handy. There is a similar map going westwards, down to the Cotswolds. Going to Jockland or France or Cornwall? Buy a map to suit, as and when and if you need to.
4. Scale? Preferably something you can read whilst riding without crashing, is good. Bods on here criticize car drivers for map reading, "I was going down the M40 and a bod had his map book...." but often do the same thing themselves on their bikes, of course. You can get a good idea of the scale by thinking of a small village or hamlet you know reasonably well and then see if it is shown on the map. If it is, then the chances are all similarly sized villages / hamlets will be shown and all the small roads between them.
5. Everyone has their own way of plotting routes, many just relying on a GPS to do it for them. Me? I use a half decent map and then write the directions out in longhand on an A4 sheet in words and letters large enough for me to read. I also have a GPS.
TURN RIGHT B54 - Lower Slaughter
TURN LEFT B27 - Upper Slaughter - Middle Slaughter - Gloucester
At Gloucester A494 ring road to.........and so on. Sort of thing.
It saves me having to squint at a map. Obviously, if I know where I am going I don't bother with anything at all.
On last thought.
Ortlieb do a very neat map carrier in two sizes, with strings attached.
I often use one, tied over the tank bag or tank itself.
http://www.ortlieb.co.uk/product_info.php?pName=mapcase&cName=maps-document-bags
Not cheap but well made and lasts for years. Buy with confidence
Ortlieb do a very neat map carrier in two sizes, with strings attached.
I often use one, tied over the tank bag or tank itself.
http://www.ortlieb.co.uk/product_info.php?pName=mapcase&cName=maps-document-bags
Not cheap but well made and lasts for years. Buy with confidence
Cheers, was going to do the same. Been experimenting with TomTom & Tyre, i have a very old iPaq which has full europe maps, used it in the car euro trips many a time.
Find with Tyre you need to carefully plot the route, as sometimes the marker goes on the other side of the road, and takes you around a round-about and back again.
Tommorow's London ride is another test of it, it seems to work ok. Taking map book as a backup, also plan on taking printed out specific sections in A4 if all else fails.
Looking to head into Wales end of the month as another test of my setup, winding my way up for Isle of Man TT, its a good 300 miles to the ferry, and did 150 other day and was nackered
Find with Tyre you need to carefully plot the route, as sometimes the marker goes on the other side of the road, and takes you around a round-about and back again.
Tommorow's London ride is another test of it, it seems to work ok. Taking map book as a backup, also plan on taking printed out specific sections in A4 if all else fails.
Looking to head into Wales end of the month as another test of my setup, winding my way up for Isle of Man TT, its a good 300 miles to the ferry, and did 150 other day and was nackered
Find with Tyre you need to carefully plot the route, as sometimes the marker goes on the other side of the road, and takes you around a round-about and back again.
... Yes I have learned the hard way here too. I now always zoom right in on my way points to make sure I've not accidentally put them on the opposite carriage of a duall carriageway or the like.
When i go touring I tend to work with map and satnav together. You can get a feel for what a road is like from the map and pick and choose a preferred route, which I then plug into the sat nav, for that reason I tend to carry more maps of a lower scale, not so much to read on the move but to plot and plan with over a cup of coffee at breakfast.
.I found it out going along the A40, it took me back and around, i was sat there shouting at it WTF, did not look like that on Google maps!
Get home, zoom in, ah, bugger yes.
I did plot it in a hurry, taken my time and looks good this time so fingers crossed.
I plan to use a map book / paper map when touring so i can just go with the flow, just note major road junctions
Another top tip, is to put way points before and after a town but not in it. That way if you want to divert to a cafe, garage, stop for lunch, take a new ringroad....the worlds your oyster and you won't set your sat nav into freefall. It means you can take any 'recalculated' route through town regardless of where you've been. It will only be interested in your preset out of town waypoint and not getting you back to, say, the town hall!! 
.
.Another top tip, is to put way points before and after a town but not in it. That way if you want to divert to a cafe, garage, stop for lunch, take a new ringroad....the worlds your oyster and you won't set your sat nav into freefall. It means you can take any 'recalculated' route through town regardless of where you've been. It will only be interested in your preset out of town waypoint and not getting you back to, say, the town hall!!
Yeah i noticed that, if you skip a way point it forces you back to it. This time, i am going to put custom text before and after sections eg. 'Entering Oxford' & 'Leaving Oxford' so for what ever reason, fuel stop / road works, i can just skip to a bit that makes sense rather than just 'A34' on the waypoint list
Waypoints are electronic beacons. They are most often used in featureless landscapes or sea, one bit of sand or ocean looking much like another.
You have created a beacon (or a point) through which you have told a dumb machine you MUST pass. So, lacking any other input, it tries it's little best to do just that.
You might (with good reason) be very pissed off it it didn't and it cost you winning the Paris-Dakar when you missed a stage.
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