Getting lost on your bike - not as easy now
 

I was just reading through Northbend’s Cino ride report thread. He posted a pic of the map handed out in former days. It made me think of long rides done before we had so much technology to remind us of where we are all the time. I still like getting a little bit lost from time to time but it’s harder to do now. Not too long ago I scanned in photos from my honeymoon in 1996. We did a bike tour of the Ring of Kerry in SW Ireland. I nice gentleman would pick our bags up each day and drive them to the next B+B and my new wife and I would set off on the bikes guided by a slip of paper with maybe not quite precise directions. We managed to keep the ocean on the left and get where we needed to be though. Any other examples of how we managed to get by without GPS BITD?


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My mantra as recently as last month was, “Get dropped? Get lost!”

As it should be. The world is so much more real when you actually have to look at it to get somewhere.

"Inch to Dingle" made me smile, like Pennsylvania's "Bird in Hand to Intercourse."

If you have a GPS that gives you turns, you can focus on what is around you and not trying to ID where you are and where the next turn is.

I don't know. Crappy directions are crappy directions. Not having a GPS is not an excuse for poor design.

https://live.staticflickr.com/3870/1...13b6e2ff_k.jpgCentenario Bartali Cue Sheet by iabisdb, on Flickr

Nicely done! The use of color to designate an optional portion of the ride is brilliant. I'd frame something like that to hang on the walls of the Atelier.

There's something about a printed map that let's the eye wander around and imagine the ride. I haven't used the map pocket on my handlebar bag for some time, this reminds me to print a cue sheet off next time I go somewhere new.

What is this "GPS" thing and who uses it while riding, anyway?

Remember map pouches on handlebar bags? I can't tell you how many times I got 'misdirected' between Hingham, Cohasset and Scituate Mass when I lived up there in the late '80s early '90s

When I was on active duty in New Jersey I studied google maps and used a lot of dead reckoning slowly expanding my route/s

This is how I got around the Dover De area when we sat alert down there while the McGuire runway was rebuilt in 2010. I bought a GPS while there but found if cumbersome to map out a route and load it, plus if you deviated like through a parking lot or construction detour it wouldn't automatically reroute you you had to back track! It quickly became a $500 Speedo/HR meter


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PS I used to do this when I drove long haul too check out the map and just write 'short hand' directions to myself. Worked pretty good unless I stumbled on a state highway that was restricted but the atlas didn't show it.

Classtime When I first starting riding with groups it was real struggle to keep up, because if I didn't I would be lost, so I always hated dropping people and would try real hard to stay with them. I had a group drop me like a bad habit out of McGuire (Ft Dix) one night and I didn't think I was ever getting home again.

If riding solo,, or without locals, in a new place, I very much prefer the hassle-free turn by turn GPS. No memorizing street names. No memorizing left or right. No estimating distance to next turn. No guessing which turn is correct. Makes for a stress-free ride and I can enjoy the ride instead of directions.

Ha! Thanks Hugh, your new thread got me Digg'n in the recycle bin for some of the others I had thrown out when I found that Cino document.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0f382f9f_b.jpgBefore GPS by Matthew Pendergast, on Flickr

...and this old coaster from the Russian River Brewery. A guy at the bar that I had struck up a conversation with wrote up some ride suggestions around Santa Rosa
https://live.staticflickr.com/1492/2...1136480d_o.jpgRoute sheet by Matthew Pendergast, on Flickr

I don't do wireless devices. I keep my rides simple, no matter the length (not many direction changes) and write the cheat sheet in pen and ink. Just say no to radiation.
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Sweet! We were there for 2 weeks in 2000 or 2001. Whichever year they had Foot/Mouth disease across the country. Not cycling, though. Started in Dublin and worked our way down the coast and up the other side. Looked like the perfect place to do bike touring. Like the subject of your thread, we didn't really have an itinerary. Made it up as we went along. So many shades of green!

GPS?! Heck, I won't even ask for directions! No matter how lost I am, just ask my wife. :lol:

Seriously though, I'm old school, not only can I read a map........... I can FOLD one! :thumb:

I have a fairly terrible sense of direction, plus I need reading glasses, so even a map or a cue sheet in my front bag meant I’d be stopping a lot and figuring where the hell I was. GPS devices have been wonderful to lower that stress and allow me to enjoy the ride, particularly on a tour. Sure, there’s something to be said for getting lost, but around here that usually means ending up on the narrow shoulder of a 55 mph highway.

I wear bifocals but I stop a lot anyway so maps aren't a hinderance for me, the maps give me an "excuse" to stop LOL. Back in my motorcycle days before the bifocals I had a tank bag with a map pocket on the top. I'd slip a section of map in and just take off for the day switching the sections as I ran off the edge with no set destination. I miss those "before bifocals" days...... and the dexterity and endurance to sit on a motorcycle for 650 miles at a stretch.

I suspect that at some point we will regret letting artificial intelligence do our thinking. I'm a hard copy and folding maps person. GPS has directed some drivers onto inaccessible roads and/or into bodies of water. Some have died. AI will never replace a modicum of common sense.

And there's only one 'proper way' (pun).

And when the crease would wear out, one used Scotch tape with pre-patina clear yellow.

PS. I still have topographic portion maps of Colorado, circa 1950. Pfff...no one today is hardcore.

Cycle Oregon has maps with directions of that quality. But ... I refuse to fold them up and ride with them. They are the singe best memento of the week. And yes, I've ridden a few extra miles they could have prevented!

And amusing CO map story. My first one. Day 2. I'd passed hundreds(?) on Rattlesnake climb and was still going at the top so I rode hard the next 10 miles or so, picking up three draftees in the process. (Young women, very good riders.) We meet up again 6 miles before that night's camp. I'm riding the bike path beside the river with one of them when my seat falls off. Broken seatpost clamp. OK, out of the saddle time but I have to pad that jagged clamp with something or I'm for sure killing my shorts. "Oh yes, I've got a sock!" (A stretchy XC skiing sock.) But it still needs padding. Young lady reaches into her pocket, pulls out her map and starts folding it. Sweet gesture. but I can't destroy that beautiful map! (I remember I have a CO musette bag in my pocket and use that instead.) Young lady then silently offers her other gift. She lead me to camp, telling me who was coming up behind us and giving me early warning of turns. (Riding out of the saddle slowly on lvel ground in a place you've never seen before is a real challenge! Looking around and riding straight? Not happening without hours of practice? Having a rock steady wheel just just follow - wow!)

And this takes me back to the inaugural Trask River Trail ride, Forest Grove, OR to Tillamook on the coast; led by our @gugie. Everyone else was GPS literate. The map instructions were fine on the paved stuff but pretty sketchy on the unmarked logging roads. I got well ahead, stopped, waited a long time and started worrying I was off the route and wouldn't see them again. (Spending the night at altitude in the coastal range with no additional clothing, little food and one water bottle didn't strike me as fun. But: maps and GPS were not required. I was on a logging road. Downhill was approximately west and would take me to pavement and eventually, north-south pavement.

My solution: prescription bifocal sunglasses.

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When I toured the South Island in 2016 I didn't use a smart phone for navigation. I'd just get the local paper map from a gas station in each new area. It's great putting a map down and asking locals or fellow travelers for advice. Even if you do know where you're going, asking for gratuitous directions is an excuse to have a chat and introduce yourself. Plus paper maps are just really cool.

This works fantastic in an area which does not have many different routes, like much of NZ. In a sprawling city or country you're totally unfamiliar with, or with a language barrier, maybe not.

I try to avoid GPS at home too. It's easy to be over-reliant and then you turn into an idiot who doesn't know where anything is. I learnt the city when I moved here by going out on a bike in every which direction and getting lost 'exploring'.

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Put me on a bike and I can get lost in a one room apartment. :)

:lol:

Sorry for the thread hijack, I'll keep it brief, but that's very similar to how I'm going to set up my Fuji Suncrest MTB 650B conversion. Is there a thread with the details somewhere? I probably saw it once upon a time but wouldn't know where to look now.