ZudeJammer

I still make cuesheets, using a computer of course, since I don't have a screen in front of me while I'm biking. I get enough screentime already these days.

canklecat

No problem, even with GPS I can still get lost just fine.

It also helps that Google maps and others often lag behind new development, especially shake and bake McMansion developments built on formerly rural ranch and farm land.

Murray Missile 

Thank you. Sweet bike! I thought I spotted a CX lever sticking down there, I was right. I'll be running a very similar cockpit layout.

OK, end of hijack, we wil now take you back to your regularly scheduled programming.........

downtube42

Holy cow I got super lost a few times on my Continental as a teenager. In retrospect they were adventures, but when I asked a farmer "which way to the city?" and he responded with "what city?", I was a bit worried. Cloudy days were the worst for dead reckoning.

I transitioned from paper cue sheets to GPS after 5 years randonneuring. There are pros and cons. I got really really confused once in Denmark with early GPS, when I didn't really understand the UI. Later I found out the organizer had been sitting in a car watching me; she was definitely into the self-sufficient nature of rando. These days I seldom ride bonus miles; maybe a bonus couple hundred feet if I'm not paying attention. Often with GPS I don't even know what town I'm riding through; it doesn't really matter. With paper cues, since I had to pay attention to nav all the time, I usually knew where I was.

Both are fiddly at home pre-ride. Paper cues suck in the rain, at night, and particularly in the rain at night.

I don't like to get lost anymore.

downtube42

... but my biggest issue with paper cues was, after I'd ridden enough miles, the mileage on the cue sheet wouldn't match my cyclocomputer. Maybe just a few tenths, but if I've missed a turn or gone off-route for food, from that point on I'm doing math in my head. Cue says turn left at 47.7 but I've ridden an extra 3.4, so math in the head. That's all fine and is something to do, but at 1am, math in the head gets hard. Getting lost at 1am is particularly unenjoyable.

bwilli88 

Personally I like going to Paradise thru Intercourse while avoiding Blue Ball.

Andy_K 

I did @gugie's North Trask ride well into the GPS era, but it kind of ended up not helping. I distinctly remember being at the intersection of two logging roads and trying to figure out which way I was supposed to go. I pulled up my phone and the GPS showed me exactly where I was but it didn't show me any roads in the area. I think if I had downloaded the route ahead of time into a GPS-specific app it might have helped, but I didn't. Luckily I picked the correct road, or I might be still wandering those hills trying to find my way to civilization.

gearbasher

Bianchigirll 

gearbasher


canklecat That is a big problem, for me at least, at work. . New developments are popping up around here like dandelions and the map on my tablet just can't keep up with them. Plus we get dispatched to "Lot 23 at Eagle's Butt Bluff" and first you need find Eagle butt and then find the lot.

RustyJames 

I used to set up wine tours for a car club I belonged to and I basically knew the area but every now and then I would discover an exciting or scenic new road and I would amble down/up for awhile just to see where it went. Fun stuff and I discovered some great wineries. Admittedly, I still had GPS to bail me out when I became REALLY lost.

A few years later one of my co-planners took over, laying out a route using Google maps and it was….umm….boring. Lots of main roads and not much scenery.

SJX426 

When I was young, I had pretty good orientation skills. Back then, no electronic devices were available so the map was the only thing other than recognizing and remembering references. Eyesight was better too.
I tried maps on the tank bag once on a motorcycle but ended up needing to stop to determine where I was on the map.
Today I have a Wahoo Roam (thank you daughter) that has big enough read out to be able to get buy without bifocals. I wear contacts and take a pair of reading glasses with me for the really desperate read times. Updates are frequent and there is teh option for audible notices for direction changes with helpful complimentary directions on the screen. The Garmin Varia, with light, hellp keep me informed of approaching rear traffic.

Riding for me is not what it once was due to the aging impacts and location. Out west roads are pretty straight forward. On the east coast, all the roads are cow paths or roads defined by the travel of the 1600-1700's transportation capabilities, horse and wagon along with going around properties.

GPS or maps don't help determine a good route. Still need to ride to determine what works well.

nlerner

For the last couple of years, I’ve been using https://cycle.travel to create routes with some adjustments in ridewithgps. Cycle.travel does a great job of optimizing MUPs and other bike paths and keeping you off the main roads.

iab

ridewithgps does have a heat map feature that is pretty good..

Spaghetti Legs 

I have a Garmin but found, like others I can’t see it well enough to read the directions so usually stop and look at the phone map, if I’m in an area with cell service. Even so, on occasion, Goggle maps will take me down a road that turns into a driveway or a hiking trail, like this time when I decided to ride back down to the valley from Skyline Drive.




I looked through my old mementos for the tourist map I used to ride around Singapore in the early 90’s but guess that was before I started keeping stuff like that. I had stashed my bike on my ship and did some exploring. It is mostly modern city but the center of the island, at the time was rural appearing and I rode by shanties with locals staring at me and winded up at the end of the road in a vast cemetery with no one around. It was kind of spooky and I turned around at which point a dog chased me, nipping at my heels. Pretty sure, from that point, since it was an island, I rode to the water and kept the ocean on the same side (rules to live by) until I saw my ship again. Anyway, I might be too old for those kinds of adventures but I still kind of like going off piste from time to time.

ehcoplex 

Ha, amen to that...

ehcoplex 

I kind of appreciate that even with a paper map and a smartphone, with the lack of signage and extremely spotty cell coverage it's still possible to get lost, at least a little bit, on the seasonal/logging/state-land roads around me. Yeah, a dedicated GPS would probably maintain connection, but where's the fun in that? Though I did miss a turn somewhere on a ride this past season that resulted in an additional 5 or so miles on truly horrendous washboard 'gravel' (& I really like riding gravel). It was awful on steel with 42c tires, I don't know how my riding mate did it on aluminum with 28c tires....

Pompiere

I picked up a map at a Pennsylvania rest area that was specifically for truckers. It has all the restricted routes and bridges color coded for different size and weight limits.

Bianchigirll 

Pompiere I used to have one of those back when I was OTR it was very nice

gugie 

Most of the gravel section has no cell coverage, so it's best to upload the map before heading out on that North Trask trail. The first time I rode the North Trask alone I did that. Once I got onto the gravel areas I put my phone in my shirt pocket and turned on the verbal turn by turn directions. Worked like a charm. It's a little known feature of the ridewithgps app.

davester

I did a big tour with my girlfriend in 1976 through France, Switzerland and England. We had a big Europe map that we used as a general guide (i.e. we are here and Switzerland is over there), but our MO was to buy a local map (typically a Michelin map), then use the map to seek out the minor least trafficked roads leading in the general direction we wanted to go, then throw away the map and buy a new one once we rode "off the map". Sure, we were semi-lost for a good part of the time but that was a feature, not a bug. I really like this kind of touring, where the general destination is in mind but the route to it is subject to substantial change as the days go by. It's sad that most bike tourists these days won't ever experience this kind of adventuring.

curbtender

I have a friend who seems to get lost at the drop of a hat and he always has to ride out front. I just make a left if he goes right. He did a group ride in Thailand and they found him in Cambodia.

squirtdad

I still look at a map, even if it is online before I go any place. old boy scout map and compass stuff lives

I also kept navigation active via sea kayaking.

but like most of us i do use google directions a lot

but if you really get out in the hinter lands, like middle of nowhere in montana, google et all may not have accurately mapped the little roads so you can still get lost

ironwood

There are some neuroscientists who think that over reliance on GPS has an effect on the brain. An interesting book on the subject of navigation is "Wayfinding,The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World" by M.R. O'Connor.

As for me, I guess I have a pretty good sense of direction and good map reading and compass skills and don't get lost. A couple of times motorists in cars equipped with GPS devices have asked me for directions.

Spaghetti Legs 

Sounds interesting, I’m going to check that out (literally, at the public library)! At the time of the Singapore adventure described above, I was a Ship’s Navigator. This was in the early days of GPS and we had a government issued device as well as the Skipper bought a commercial device which was more user friendly. It was only accurate to within a 100 meters or so, which was fine for open ocean but not so good for coastal navigation. This was confirmed in spades approaching Singapore, at night, leaving the Straits of Malacca, one of the busiest sea lanes in the world. I’ve always, even though I consider myself a tech savvy guy, been a little reluctant to fully rely on GPS/phone positioning. Back then I used to make all the young quartermasters get a morning and evening position using celestial navigation just to keep in practice because you never know! Plus, if nothing else, the Navy relies on hide bound tradition.

downtube42

I'm always cynical about (us) old timers pining for the old ways, complaining kids these days don't have the skills we had. Technology moves on, old skills become redundant, new skills are needed to navigate the new reality.

I don't know how to drive oxen with lines, judge when hay is ready to be cut, care for a dairy herd, store fresh milk without refrigeration, or do many of the tasks essential to my grandfather throughout his life. Even my uncles couldn't comprehend how I could earn a living when I chose to study computer science. Things change.

There's a whole ****-ton of stuff a person needs to know to navigate the world today, and it ain't maps and compasses. A few wrong clicks and keystrokes, and I can get mighty lost sitting right here in my chair.