Adventure Racing Holiday Gifts: Day 11

Posted by Grant on 16. December 2009 00:29

For the 11th holiday gift idea, I'm turning my attention to the bicycle as I've neglected them so far.  I think most adventure racers will agree that having a good bike map holder can make life easier on bike legs -- usually.  I say "usually" because bushwhacking with a bike (bikewhacking?) and having a map holder attached to the handle bars can increase the unpleasantness of the experience.  If a bike map holder is too tricky to setup, too heavy on your bike, or too awkward to work with you could be better off without the bike map holder.  

With all these concerns, I'm still a fan of attaching a bike map holder to my bike handlebars for adventure races -- but it needs to be the right kind of holder.  This is where gift #11 comes in, it's a good bike map holder.

I think the top of the list for me right now is the Nordenmark "Classic" model because if offers a large viewing area and will hold up to the rigors of a long race. I have used the Nav 360 from Axis Gear (but no longer distributed by Axis Gear), and while it is a good basic map holder for the bike, the map area is relatively small and I find myself often stopping to refold the map and readjust the holder.  This link from Mint Cake Mountain Biking covers a couple other models of bike map holder, and also has details on crafting your own.  Nothing says "I love you" quite the same way as making a custom bike map holder for the adventurer in your life!

I think, whether you buy a commercial one or roll your own, you can't go wrong if you add in a small compass that can be mounted to the map board.  Having a compass affixed to the map case frees the navigator to keep both hands on the handle bars, even during careful navigation, and for most bike navigation scenarios they won't need to get off the bike, pull out their fancy compass, and get oriented.  

If it was me, I'd probably go for the Nordenmark bike map holder and superglue an inexpensive (and flat-bottomed!) compass to the bottom left or right corner of the case; you don't want to hide valuable map real estate with the compass, but having a rough indicator of North/South at all times when you're riding can be a huge help.  If you need more of a celebrity endorsement, check out the photos below of Team Nike with their Nordenmark at the AR World Championships in Portugal:

I've been told that you can buy the Nordenmark product via the Gaiters.com orienteering supply; I can get them in Europe fairly easily, so I don't know what other options a North American shopper might have.

There is just one more day of holiday gift ideas . . . will anyone be able to sleep tonight with all the anticipation?  I've been really good about suggesting fairly affordable gifts so far, so just a warning that gift #12 is a budget buster.  But, what a sweet budget buster it is!