Ordnance Survey maps...Grrrr!

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PpPete

Legendary Member
Location
Chandler's Ford
I must be getting less tolerant in my old age.... but this now irritates me beyond measure.

Don't get me wrong - love the OS mapping, used it for years, but why of why do they have to put a stupid cardboard cover on that prevents it being folded neatly to show just the section you're in now.

Harveys do it better, just print the cover design on one unimportant corner of the map itself, so that it's visible when folded to be put away, but doesnt impede any refolding.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Er... you can always tear the cover off then glue it back later!
 
Am I remembering this right, or didn't there use to be a dotted line printed around the edge of the cover, inside, so you could trim it to exactly match the map folds?
 

Glow worm

Legendary Member
Location
Near Newmarket
porkypete said:
Don't get me wrong - love the OS mapping, used it for years, but why of why do they have to put a stupid cardboard cover on that prevents it being folded neatly to show just the section you're in now.

You could always get one of these... http://www.memory-map.co.uk/adventurer/
Santa brought be one last year, and the device lives on the handlebars on long rides through unknown country. Gone are the map flapping in face while riding woes!
 

Chrisz

Über Member
Location
Sittingbourne
I always remove the cover first and then trim the map before covering it in sticky back clear plastic (fablon) to waterproof it and make it more durable. If you then iron the paper side with apretty hot iron to ensure good adhesion you can then remove the paper by soaking it and rubbing it gently (the paper rolls off in little sausages). this then leaves you with a plastic map that is easy to fold, you can mark it with map pens and (beacuse yu have reomoved a lot of the paper) is light weight and compact ;)
 
User76 said:
The OS produce the most accurate, comprehensive, accessible, cost effective, easily understood maps in the entire world
I agree. For the record, I think the French equivalents, the IGN series at 1:25000, are total cr*p. Poor colouring, total lack of durability, scanty information about rights of way and other features, and difficult to distinguish between surfaced and unsurfaced minor roads, making it a nightmare when trying to explore rural French lanes on a road bike... Give me OS any time!

And - I remember from a trip to Austria many years ago - the dreaded Kompass Blunderkarte! xx(xx(;)
 

Davidc

Guru
Location
Somerset UK
Twenty Inch said:
The covers are stuck on with a lightweight glue specifically so that they can be removed easily.

Gently warming the glue helps get them off too.

It's the first thing I do when I get a new landranger for cycling or explorer for walking.

I wish they still did the cloth reinforced ones that we used to get in the 60s and 70s. It stopped them falling apart quite as quickly as the paper ones do.
 

wafflycat

New Member
I adore OS maps. I can lose myself in a good map for hours at a time :biggrin:

OS maps are my map of choice for cycle touring. When I'm out on a day ride, I simply take a copy of the relevant bits and slip those in my bar-mounted map holder. Keeps the original maps in good condition and avoids mapfold-rage ;)
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Britain is the best-mapped country in the world, we are lucky to have such fantastic maps. I can't understand why anybody other than a delivery driver would want to use a crap nav.
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
Globalti said:
Britain is the best-mapped country in the world, we are lucky to have such fantastic maps. I can't understand why anybody other than a delivery driver would want to use a crap nav.

Because I've my OS maps loaded onto them ... then I can see the route I have taken...

I've recorded the BBC4 series about maps ... but I'm going though a tired phase at the minute and fell asleep whilst watching it last night (not to do with the program - I also fell asleep around at my friends house whilst looking after her children (7 and older) and didn't notice my friends return to the house:blush:). The bit at the beginning seemed interesting.
 

porteous

Veteran
Location
Malvern
I believe you can still order OS maps in rolled format from your local OS stockist. Cheaper too. (Believe me, in the army we used nothing else, or nothing.).
 
Location
Edinburgh
It was interesting, this episode was not so much about maps to get from A to B, rather about political influence. They showed the maps used to track cholora (sp?) that showed that one outbreak was due to a contaminated pump and not a miasma in the air. There was one used by the Nazis to identify states in the US that they could use to influence the non entry of the US into WW2 and ones that showed which towns had Jews and Gypsies in. A couple of relgious ones to show the dominance of christianity and how to go on a spiritual journey to Jerusalem. A very interesting program.
 

Chrisz

Über Member
Location
Sittingbourne
Anyone else on here tried Fugawi? OS map of whole sections of the country on CD (I got the South) - an excellent resource for planning walking trips, navigating etc. I 'think' there is a way of hooking it up to a GPS receiver and using your laptop as a SatNav/Tracker too - never tried it myself though.
 
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