I'm sure this one's been done to death, but just in case...I'm a laminating addict! I do audax rides fairly regularly and bought a laminator and 100 A4 puches for less than £20 from Aldi. Result? Completely waterproof route sheets that can be folded or cut and which are stiff enough just to elastic band, with a back plate, to the bars and stem.
Applying same principle to JOGLE [www.justgiving.com/pedallingforjoy, starting 16 August], I've bought a 2.5 inch to the mile road atlas from the Works [£6] - this has 150 pages to the whole of the UK rather than the 50 odd for 4 miles to the inch and is very easy to navigate from. I need 20 pages for my route - sadly my laminator isn't up to doing A3 size, but I bought 100 pouches for £15 and am gettign them lamintaed at the local library. I've got tribars on the bike - with an A4 wide piece of hardboard mounted across them by Zip tie they can carry a folded A3 map without the board getting in my way.
Tried it our the other Saturday on a 100 mile ride in unfamiliar territory, using lanes as well as main roads, and it worked a treat! I'll laminate the rest of the maps as and when I need them, building up a library of laminated maps covering the whole country.
Any other laminaters out there?
Laminated maps
Oh yes!!!!
Trouble is, you need three road atlases.
(1) and (2) need cutting up and laminating. If you save on carrying A4 sheets, you can double side the laminations. The trouble is, sometimes the bits you cover up are needed!
(3) is to be kept pristine to be used for "the big picture" and route planning.
Trouble is, you need three road atlases.
(1) and (2) need cutting up and laminating. If you save on carrying A4 sheets, you can double side the laminations. The trouble is, sometimes the bits you cover up are needed!
(3) is to be kept pristine to be used for "the big picture" and route planning.
Mick F. Cornwall
I laminate the route when doing an Audax and that is why I prefer the route via e-mail as I can change size and print as many as I wish. However, main reason for laminating is to allow fast changes during ride as all laminated cards are clipped to my spacebar and rapid change on the move is easy.
When touring (or indeed mountaineering), I use an Ortileb mapcase over my barbag and have found this system to be totally waterproof which saves all the laminating. I used this technique on 2 x JOGLE and a French E2E; very bad weather days was experienced on all rides. Also, managed with only one road atlas on JOGLEs!
When touring (or indeed mountaineering), I use an Ortileb mapcase over my barbag and have found this system to be totally waterproof which saves all the laminating. I used this technique on 2 x JOGLE and a French E2E; very bad weather days was experienced on all rides. Also, managed with only one road atlas on JOGLEs!
-
ericonabike
- Posts: 362
- Joined: 24 Apr 2008, 4:05pm
Fair point. I've just packed my 19 laminated A3 sheets ready for the off tomorrow, and they take up more room than I had anticipated. Agree the laminating idea is ideal for audaxing - just surprised I've never seen another laminator on an audax ride. I'll post a review of how I get on with the A3 laminates once the E to E is done.