What is a Mountain Biker?

[Red Light]

Maps? I really don't think maps are part of the scene any more. You either load the route onto a GPS or you follow arrows around a trail centre.

Maps and compass are much more useful than GPS and they work when the batteries are flat.

 

[gaz]

IMHO - A person becomes a MTBr when they ride a bike on anything more technically challenging the forestry fire roads.

Even if they do it on a BSO?

 

[Red Light]

Even if they do it on a BSO?

I was walking in the Lakes yesterday and an elderly guy came down the track on a touring bike with mudguards and dropped off down a gully I would think twice about on my mountain bike. I suspect a Rough Stuff Fellow but is he not a mountain biker.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Maps? I really don't think maps are part of the scene any more. You either load the route onto a GPS or you follow arrows around a trail centre.

That said, I have noticed an increasing amount of discussion on Singletrack about Scotland - there is more interest in getting out into the wild and riding some quite long remote routes. My guess is that these are people who have been to the Alps and seen the potential of the MTB as a means of covering long distances in the mountains. I would hope that most of them do carry maps and compasses and know how to use them.

You just know that isn't going to happen.... they graduate from UK trail centres to guided group alpine mtb holidays to the highlands? Yikes.

In my view the tech hasn't quite reached the state of reliability or battery life (I use an Etrex which means easy swap batteries but no OS maps) to do without maps even if only a 1:50,0000 jobbie to show the roads. But for me a bike part of the attraction is to sometimes dispense with a route guide or preplanned route on the GPS and just ride the damn thing following the ground with a bit of help from 1:25000 OS map..... "what's up there?", "I wonder where this goes?", "does this join up with that?". "oh well another climb to a dead end, going down will be fun"

 

[Alembicbassman]

I did 34 miles in the Peaks on Sunday with an OS map and my MTB I had a brief idea of where I wanted to go, but no planned route. I have walked there for over a year and know how to read a map. I am a bit of a Luddite, I don't like technology much, especially when it won't work. Many devices will lose a signal in gulleys and valleys. This ride had tunnels too. https://www.cyclechat.net/

I also carry tyre levers, puncture pack and hand pump - no slime, no CO2

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I did 34 miles in the Peaks on Sunday with an OS map and my MTB I had a brief idea of where I wanted to go, but no planned route. I have walked there for over a year and know how to read a map. I am a bit of a Luddite, I don't like technology much, especially when it won't work. Many devices will lose a signal in gulleys and valleys. This ride had tunnels too. http://www.cyclechat..._1#entry1788072

I also carry tyre levers, puncture pack and hand pump - no slime, no CO2

I'm a recent convert to CO2 but Mr Bassman I like your style!

 

[Globalti]

I love maps and have a huge collection especially of the brilliant 1 in 25,000 OS maps. I have spent many a happy hour studying maps and working out routes, which I then go and ride.

Somebody once said that viewing a map on a handheld device is like viewing it through a rolled-up tube; you only see the bits in your immediate area and you miss all the fascinating information around you.

For other map lovers, the French IGN maps of the Alps in 1:10,000 scale are absolutely stunning, we have all of them and they look beautiful framed. Here: IGN

 

[GilesM]

I love maps and have a huge collection especially of the brilliant 1 in 25,000 OS maps. I have spent many a happy hour studying maps and working out routes, which I then go and ride.

Somebody once said that viewing a map on a handheld device is like viewing it through a rolled-up tube; you only see the bits in your immediate area and you miss all the fascinating information around you.

For other map lovers, the French IGN maps of the Alps in 1:10,000 scale are absolutely stunning, we have all of them and they look beautiful framed. Here: IGN

Another map lover here, and the OS 1:25,000 are perfect, pure art. I'll have to look intot he IGN alpine ones sound good.

 

[GilesM]

I'm a recent convert to CO2 but Mr Bassman I like your style!

Had a go with CO2, but not really impressed, just ordered the longest (I think) pump I can get in my Camelbak.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Somebody once said that viewing a map on a handheld device is like viewing it through a rolled-up tube; you only see the bits in your immediate area and you miss all the fascinating information around you.

This is straying off topic, but I agree with this. Sat Navs and GPS devices have their uses, but they're just not as ... good as maps. I still navigate by A-Zs in the lorry, and I'd never consider going cycling (1:50 000) or walking (1:25 000) anywhere new without the appropriate OS maps.

 

[Cubist]

This is straying off topic, but I agree with this. Sat Navs and GPS devices have their uses, but they're just not as ... good as maps. I still navigate by A-Zs in the lorry, and I'd never consider going cycling (1:50 000) or walking (1:25 000) anywhere new without the appropriate OS maps.

Bit of a laugh really, but we've just got back from the Languedoc area of the Midi. I went into a decent bike shop and asked about local trails etc. The owner smiled and said that the French MTBers used GPS to find the good stuff, but did point to a couple of areas that had some decent trails. After a few minutes of chatting I had determined that there was no problem riding on any type of path or track in terms of access etc. I then went and bought a 1:25000 map.

I then mapped out a 20km loop and Cubester and I set off to ride it. An awesome mix of singletrack and some pretty sketchy paths and tracks, but at one point we had missed a couple of turns, and not all the paths were marked on the map. We found a group of "men of a certain age" on carbon susser XCs who looked at Cubester's Ragley in awe, and visibly turned their noses up at my Cube..... I then asked one of them to show me where we were on the map. I had a good idea, but just wanted to confirm. He joyfully turned to his GPS and checked the coordinates onto the map. He pointed out an area of flat open farmland exactly two squares to the west of the densely wooded hilltop we were actually standing on. So, in answer to your map ideals RT, I think I'll stick with maps for a bit and leave GPS to the experts.......

 

[Ticktockmy]

There are too many vertical scramble down sections with no landing zone to be ridable on Swirrel and Striding Edges even for Danny Macaskill.

I reakon he could do Swirrel but Striding edge..LOL