Old school maps question - what scale do you use?

KnightOfTheLongTights

OK, I've not got a garmin and probably don't want one. I've managed OK with a decent sense of direction and OS maps so far planning my training rides - but it strikes me that I've never quite found the best scale for cycling.

The OS Explorer series at 1:50,000 obviously offers plenty of detail but if you are planning a long ride then that's a lot of map to take, even if you photocopy the relevant bits (yes I know...). This has been my default option thus far.

At the other end, the most detailed road atlas I can find is 2.3 miles to the inch, which is about 1:145,000 - not detailed enough and misses off a lot of minor roads.

Is there something I am missing - regional maps perhaps - that has a scale somewhere in between, say 1:90,000, which I think would be ideal?

Also can I ask how people cater for long-distance multi-day A-B-C-D rides when you'd have to carry, say, eight or ten OS Explorer maps to cover the whole ride?
Or even one-day A-to-B rides: For instance I was trying to plan a one-day ride from London to Shepton Mallet in Somerset recently, with as much as possible on smaller road - how would you map that out in a way that'd fit easily in your jersey pocket?

ugo.santalucia

They used to have a 1:100,000 range called Travel maps, which were perfect for cycling, but I don't seem to be able to buy them anymore. The 1:50,000 are excessive if you stick to the roads, but they are great if you want to take paths and bridleways. You can even customise your own map centred around the area of interest.
Personally I think a map is still a superior way of navigating, if you are looking for new and/or scenic routes and if you know how to read a map in 3 dimensions (considering altimetry, and topographical features, while a GPS is great for going from A to B if you don't care much for the view

KnightOfTheLongTights

Ugo I agree totally.
My best strategy over years of rides into mail Kent and Surrey from S/SW London has been to cut out a largish A3 section from the OS Explorer (because of course one can't photocopy them ...), fold it once and cover it in the thin plastic film you can get from Rymans.
I have about four that cover most of the good cycling territory across northern Kent and Surrey / Berks and the London borders adjoining.
But they are quite bulky, and it would be no good if doing for instance, London-->Somerset.

Bobbinogs

Personally, I always take a map but only use them when lost. I always buy a cheap large scale road atlas when they are on knock down at a garage and then simply cut out the page/s that I need on the ride. Scale is usually 2.5-3 miles to the inch which has most roads I want to cycle on. The trick then is to use a routecard, which is something I learned from audaxes. I write them up myself, something like:

TR, sp GREAT RISSINGTON
TR @ T, sp The Barringtons
Thru the Barringtons (bear right @ cross) and SO @ main rd
SO @ X (second main rd), sp Filkins
2nd Right (x), sp EASTLEACH Martin

The code is simple: sp means sign posted, a town in capitals means that you go through it, TR/TL are Turns, (x) is a junction where you don't stop, TFLs for Traffic lights, RBT for main roundabouts or mrbt for minis, etc. One can make it even more specific by adding in distance (total distance for each point and/or distance between points, e.g.,

1.3k 90k TR @ T

Print out the routecard, laminate it and then stick it in a Polaris maptrap so that it can be easily seen on the bars.

Maps are needed as back up in case you miss a turn, as TR @ T means nothing if you are on the wrong road

Ouija

I once used Marble (free atlas tool) to zoom into an area of a style of map i liked until i got the detail i wanted, switched on hillshading and then dumped out the map as a picture. Then flipped to the next section of map at that scale (up, down, left, right etc) and dumped those out as pics too, until i had a load of detailed pics of the route and areas i was interested in. Loaded them into a photoshop style program (paintshoppro) and reduced them to 16 shades of grey. I even stitched some of them into one big super map of Yorkshire.


Then i stuck them on my Kindle book reader.............

It's a little known fact that you can put pictures on your Kindle. Put them in their own directory and each section of map is treated as a page of a book. So pressing the forwards and backwards button flips you through the maps. Likewise, the big super stitched together pics can be viewed and scrolled around in with the cursor keys (turn scaling off so your at a 1:1 ratio)

The only thing to remember is keep the file sizes small (hence reducing to 16 shades of grey) and without lots of compression (jpeg etc) as the kindle doesn't have a powerful processor and takes ages to load and move huge, 24 bit pixmaps.

Can also do much the same if you go to the Openstreetmap website and do screengrabs of the content of the browser (their are a couple of different map styles to try out.... some of which are included with Marble).

dave in swansea

If you are using on-line mapping programmes to try and print, the size they allow is usually restrictive.
Use "Print Screen" and paste into word. You get a far larger area. Then trim off all the menus etc, and laminate.

KnightOfTheLongTights

just seen these replies - cheers

Coincidentally, just been up in Yorkshire for the last week and the cottage we stayed in had a cycling map by Sustrans for the area from this series:
http://www.sustrans.org.uk/shop/route-m ... k-district
It was 1:100,000 and looked like it was made by Harveys, with the very soft, foldable waterproof paper - perfect!
But think they only do them for certain areas.