Paper Touring Maps

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

OK, given that the OS have discontinued the 1:100,000 series map and that my upcoming tour would need 2 of their 1:50,000 Landranger maps each and every day and it is a 13 day tour, what are the alternatives apart from the UK road atlas from my OH's car! I was thinking of something around the 1:125,000 or 1:150,000. We'll post maps home as they are used to minimise weight but I really don't want the expenditure or weight of 26 OS Landranger maps (suspect buying a proper touring garmin would be cheaper to be honest!). And yes, I know we have an edge 705, but my OH can't read the OSM maps on it for some reason and we both prefer paper. The plan is for a lightweight tour with minimal electronics (some items are essential such as my nebuliser and small camera, but laptop etc is staying at home).

I tried looking online but failed just finding guide books when I went onto stanfords. We are looking at needing Cheshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, Northumberland, Yorkshire & Derbyshire.

 

[Crackle]

Would 1:250,000 do? Download Mapyx, get the free 1:250,000 OS map and print out on waterproof paper.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Not sure. The road map from the car is 1:190,000 which is fine in the countryside of cycling on, but lacks a certain finesse when it comes to towns/cities of which (with the sole exception of Athens) I am useless at navigating - I have almost cracked the local town of Northwich for getting around, but don't ask me about what to do when the main road is closed... I just needed a touch more detail for cycle touring than the car atlas provides and my OH is fed up of me tearing the appropriate pages out of it...

looks to be an interesting site though...
We also have an annual subscription to the OS getamap site, but when I looked at the ins and outs of printing a 650 mile route out on A4 paper, I quit before I had gotten any further than the examining the first sheet!

 

[Crackle]

Yeah they don't do a lot of maps any more, including the Routemaster/Travelmaster series I used to use and Bartholmews have dropped their series too. I guess everyone is going/gone digital.

AA road maps appear to be the closest in scale and clarity to the Travelmaster series.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

shall keep rummaging and seeing what I can come up with. I did find something suitable for Scotland last year but only once we were on tour, it is just that England is so much more cluttered! Ahhhh even just purchased a portable nebuliser that runs off AA batteries so we can avoid electricity... though will still have to take the powergorilla with us to charge a couple of things its just the edge 705 is as temperamental as my OH is at reading non OS maps! somehow he can't get his head around the OSM maps I have installed on the 705 no matter which ones I have tried - lost count now!

Perhaps I shall visit amazon market place and work with 10 year out of date maps and simply hand update the cycle routes and campsites on them!

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

I'm surprised that Nicolson Maps haven't extended their range south of the border. Might be worth giving them a ring, they might be able to suggest something. I spoke to them on a stand at the Royal Highland Show last week, they were very friendly and helpful.
http://www.nicolsonmaps.com/acatalog/nicolson-tourist-maps.html

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I'm surprised that Nicolson Maps haven't extended their range south of the border. Might be worth giving them a ring, they might be able to suggest something. I spoke to them on a stand at the Royal Highland Show last week, they were very friendly and helpful.
http://www.nicolsonmaps.com/acatalog/nicolson-tourist-maps.html

they were the ones we found in Ullapool's tourist information office last September which were excellent for Scotland at 1:250,000 but that level of detail in the cramped roads of Lancashire/Cheshire unfortunately is not as good... now to add them to my favourites so I don't forget the name again...

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Phillips Navigator Spiral bound atlas, laminate the pages you need bin the rest. Those you take, bin as you go, or mail home for sentimental reasons. You can probably pick up a 2013 edition in a discount book store that sells remainders.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Phillips Navigator Spiral bound atlas, laminate the pages you need bin the rest. Those you take, bin as you go, or mail home for sentimental reasons. You can probably pick up a 2013 edition in a discount book store that sells remainders.

that may be a really good option... just looked at it is 1.5 miles to an inch which could be spot on. Shall have to see if my OH can have a peep at one next time he is in a service station and see if the scale looks good... thanks. I know the one we have (AA large scale) is 3 miles to an inch which is just pushing it too far!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

OK have purchased one and we shall see what it is like. worst case scenario my OH has a new map for the car which could be useful given the pages missing from the current one...

 

[mmmmartin]

The Phillips Navigator atlas is my weapon of choice for planning in the UK, it has every road on it. Would also suggest downloading OSMAnd to a device, it works very well when you want to know exactly where you are. You do have to stop, turn on the device and wait for it to fire up, but it will tell you what you need to know. For nav across towns my weapon of choice is the Etrex HcX with the Garmin maps on, I tell it to take me to the next village on the other side of the town and it takes me through the backstreets easily. Recommended.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

@mmmmartin I have NavFree on my smartphone but that will be off to save battery life - we are just not great fans of electronic mapping (my username is a play on that fact!). I only get around 2 days from in when it is on, and whilst I will be carrying the powergorrilla (which is basically a backup battery) I don't get have any way of recharging it from the dynamo hubs (SON 26's) and hadn't planned on taking the solar panel with us tbh! A lot of our route is unlikely to have mobile phone signal and even less to have a 3G signal, so we don't want to be reliant on electronic devices. We have a garmin edge 705 (with a shorting out issue that flattens the battery even when it is powered off! don't ask, we have even replaced the battery, it was however given to us free on the grounds it had an unknown fault!) but at this stage I am not certain we will even take that tbh. 1/2 of the route should be following signed cycle paths (trans pennine trail and the Hadrian's way cycle way) or at least until we get fed up of following cycle routes that drive you mad and lead us to freelancing... But having purchased both sets of maps for the trails, once you deviate from them you are on your own, they really only show 1 or 2 roads either side of the route and then you have cycled off the map which when you need to track down campsites that are a mile away is of little use whatsoever!
Good to know the Phillips navigator is useful... I await its arrival! fingers crossed

 

[totallyfixed]

When I lived in Germany all my navigating was done on 1:100,000, when I came back to the UK I was somewhat perturbed to find they no longer existed though I did manage to find a few Goldeneye maps of that scale. Of course, since electronic mapping has come in there is even less incentive to produce paper maps of different scales with the consequence that fewer people than ever can read a paper map. Sad times for us as we enjoy pouring over maps to plan routes. Every time, and I do mean every time we have followed someone with a Garmin or the like they have got lost so not a great recommendation.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Every time, and I do mean every time we have followed someone with a Garmin or the like they have got lost so not a great recommendation.

You need to go ride with some different Garmin users who know how to set up a track on their device and follow it. Maybe they are too busy looking at out for the Ospreys to follow the line on the screen.

Been using one Etrex or another since 2008 and never got lost following it. Even off-road in mid-Wales or in Scottishland.

 

[vernon]

Every time, and I do mean every time we have followed someone with a Garmin or the like they have got lost so not a great recommendation.

Clearly you have never followed me with my Etrex 20. It performs faultlessly. Your experiences are cases of PEBGAB - problem exists between Garmin and bike.