Cycling UK Forum

Thank you very much everyone for your advice and suggestions, they're very much appreciated. Particular thanks to TonyF33 for the ebay details, courier companies and other sites to advertise on. I'm assuming Tony that when you said Parcel Monkey allow 20 g you meant 20 kg.

@ phil1965

phil1965 wrote:what mtb is it iam after one myself...and can pick up pay cash.......so no fees...

It's a women's Trek 6500 wsd (2006) in very good condition. We took it to Hlafords for a service and two mechanics, independently of each other, commented on it being a really nice bike even though we didn't ask them what they thought of it! One of them said it was worth £300 though what i've seen on ebay seems to vary wildly.

I haven't taken pics of it yet but it is the same as this one - http://www.evanscycles.com/products/tre ... 9#features

If you are interested then email me at davidnorth16 at gmail dot com as I do keep forgetting to log in to the forum for lengthy periods. I live in Chester if that's convenient for you to collect. If not, I can arrange to send it by courier.

Cheers everybody

Hi

I've offered to help a friend sell a good mtb and wondered if there are any particular places to advertise it that would help her get a good price. I can only think of this forum, the local paper and ebay so wondered if there might be somewhere better than those.

Just found this site with user reviews of lots of one-person / bivvy tents.

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/reviews/te ... on/12.html

tramponabike wrote: Might be a good idea to invest in some quality water resistant paper.

Nice idea. I was just going to print them on normal paper (both sides) and put them in a plastic wallet or map case. Once I've used a section it doesn't matter if it gets battered, torn or soggy as I'm not likely to use it again or, if I am, I can print another one. I've got GPS and OS maps on my phone but don't like using it for general navigation. Good for tracking a route or finding where you are if you're unsure (assuming you have a signal) but I prefer the 'bigger picture' a paper map gives. My phone doesn't always work very efficiently either and I don't have the technical expertise or interest to troubleshoot it.

I've used a Vaude Hogan for years which was bought for backpakcing and is really good but a bit heavy and bulky. In recent years, for summer woodland camping, I've been using tarp and hammock / bivvy bag.

The plan now, for cycling, is to combine the best of both especially for spring and autumn camping and when I intend to use campsites. To that end I'm looking at buying one of these bivvy tents - http://www.uttingsoutdoors.co.uk/Produc ... rc=froogle and taking my tarp with me.

The tent gives me a space to sleep in and, when staying on campsites and I've gone wandering, store my gear. The tarp gives me an open space to cook, relax, dress and undress without wriggling and squirming, and leave gear outside of the tent overnight. You can also use the tarp to hang wet clothes under and as a quick shelter during the day - handy for lunch breaks in wind, rain or shine. Here's the tarp - http://www.rvops.co.uk/dd-hammock-tarp- ... 0tle2r56l7

I received the email reply from OS today. They said,

"I can confirm that any copies made are for their personal use and if you need several copies of the same section of map, we will allow this. However If you need to make over 20 copies of a single section of mapping, then we would obviously question the use, as this is unlikely to still be for personal use. In this particular case; you can make the necessary number of copies required to cover your route and we would not have a problem with it."

I take that to mean that as long as I'm printing a route or routes i.e., each print being of a different area of map, then I can print as many as I want during the year - thousands if I can ride that far! I could also make up to 20 copies of my routes if I felt the need.

OR, to put it another way, I could print the whole of the UK 20 times.

If I've interpreted that correctly then it would be cheaper than buying the tracklogs software. However the £30 for the OS service is only for a year. Still, you could plan a good few future routes in that time.

alicej wrote:Don't know if this helps but I've found that I can get good photos of on-screen maps on my digital camera, and can use the camera zoom to enlarge them so I can read everything. . . but maybe wouldn't suit you if you prefer paper maps.

Thanks Alice, never thought of doing that and probably never would have. I do prefer paper maps but not exclusively so will keep your tip in mind for future.

steady eddy wrote:See maps at http://www.polysym.com/os/w2.htm - I found this as a link from touringblog.wordpress.com. They seem to print ok.

Thanks Eddy and thanks Wirral Cyclist for explaining how to use it.

I just called OS and spoke to a very sweet customer service assistant who said that she thought I should be able to print 100 to 150 for personal use. Nice but not very helpful as she was clearly guessing a figure that sounded about right to her. I've emailed in the hope of a more reliable answer.

Thanks for all your alternative suggestions and I'll let you know what reply I get from OS.

tramponabike wrote:Personally, and I am not recommending you do it, I would use a good screen grabber and tell them to stick their "fair usage" up their subscription!

I also noticed that the subscription service lets you see the maps in 'full screen' which isn't the case with the free service - they're only about a third of a screen. Now I'm wondering if the reason (or a reason) for that is to deter people from using a screen grabber!

I'll call or email them tomorrow and see if I can get a clearer idea of what they think 'fair usage' is. If it doesn't go to at least 100 prints then I'll follow your last suggestion

Hi All

I'm planning a tour around Wales and have mapped the route as a guest user of the OS Getamap service. I was about to pay the £30 subscription in order to print the maps but noticed the following in their T&Cs -

"We reserve the right to terminate your access to 'getamap' and your Subscription (if applicable) if you breach any of these terms or if the level of digital downloads, in our opinion, exceeds reasonable normal usage."

They don't give any idea of what constitues 'reasonable normal usage' and, given that I want to go early this week and knowing that a reply from OS customer services could take days, wondered if any of you had printed maps with this service and how many. I anticipate having to print around 70.