I've talked a about
map strategies and
methods for preparing and protecting your maps, it seems like I've left out an obvious topic and it's even relevant to the broader
CycleBetter.com site: navigation when biking.
There are a couple things to consider when biking and navigating (also known as bike-orienteering):
It's easy to get comfortable with a certain pace while
your traveling on foot, only to get confused when you start rolling by
terrain more quickly on a bike. I've seen it a thousand times . .
. teams can easily blow past a turn or a trail when they're
concentrating on biking fast and aren't adjusting for their faster
pace. A bike odometer or two can really help with this, but you should still focus on reading terrain
if you want to be successful while navigating by bike. I think
just being aware that this is a common mistake can help; you know what
to watch out for. You can also address this issue by assigning
teammates to watch for a particular feature or road or turn . . . it
keeps everybody engaged in your progress and makes better use of your
brains!
I've done races where reading the map on the bike was a
real chore. The wind catches the map case, or the strap gets
stuck in your hydration pack, or you start missing features because
you're trying to pedal and read your map at the same time. There
are a few solutions to this and the one I like the best, currently, is
the NAV 360 bike map case from Axis Gear.
Axis Gear is an old school AR company (some of the original Eco
Challenge jerseys came from them) and their map navigation tool is
top-notch. It's easy to install and remove, rotates and tilts for
ease of navigation, and keeps the map dry and protected. The only
complaint I have on this device is the map area that is visible at one
time -- in order to keep it out of the way while you're biking, the
visible area on the map is just a bit smaller than I would prefer; I
end up having to refold my map every once in a while when I use this
bike map case. Admittedly, the time I spend refolding my map is much less than the potential time wasted on missing a turn or wrestling with a convetional map case while biking without the Nav 360.
I know a few recipes for making your own home-made bike map case; maybe
I'll dig these up and post them sometime soon for your review.
They're not all that complicated to assemble and, if you make it
yourself, you probably save money that you can spend on race entrance
fees instead!
There are lots of other angles to discuss here, including night lights
for biking and gear to keep you warm when you're biking when it's cold
out. These two issues, however, the
pacing and the
map case, strike me as the most obvious elements to bike orieteering success.