Saw this and thought of you lot:

https://www.bikeperfect.com/features/be ... the-future



I've built trails with Guy and had the odd chat. Mad as a badger sometimes, fit as the proverbial butcher's dog and quite literally a lovely human bean.

Good spot, ta, reading...

" For many people, rights of way research and route plotting has a really old-school image of a rider crouching over crumpled paper in the dark - probably with a candle and a wheel building jig in the corner, plus a hint of a beard. Not a fashionably groomed, oiled, hipster beard either, but a haphazard hairy face statement that suggests the owner spends more time developing their 1:25,000 route-finding skills than their 1:1 personal skills"

Absolutely no idea what he's talking about and in no way recognise the rider in question.

What a smashing hymn to those hieroglyphic works of art that are all too often taken for granted.

So many quotable sentences it's hard to know where to start. This'll do for now: "That’s the other great thing about maps, they’re a picture story with whatever content and ending you want". Or maybe "Even if the route you’re following is brilliant, you might not even realize that unless you can see it in the context of the wider area" - move over you silly little electronic gizmos .

RIP wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 8:03 pm Good spot, ta, reading.

" For many people, rights of way research and route plotting has a really old-school image of a rider crouching over crumpled paper in the dark - probably with a candle and a wheel building jig in the corner, plus a hint of a beard. Not a fashionably groomed, oiled, hipster beard either, but a haphazard hairy face statement that suggests the owner spends more time developing their 1:25,000 route-finding skills than their 1:1 personal skills"

Absolutely no idea what he's talking about and in no way recognise the rider in question.

I'm looking around for the hidden webcam.

Actually, my forum name is a bit of a giveaway too.

"Artisan route planning"

Get in the sea ;-)

"Artisan route planning"

Does that mean that those of us who spend too much time looking at maps, are now hipsters?

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 9:24 pm

"Artisan route planning"

Does that mean that those of us who spend too much time looking at maps, are now hipsters?

Almost definitely not

My name is Phil Clarke and I spend hours looking at maps....
Stuff like that will have the hipsters lobbing their wahoos etc. over the back fence and rushing to buy paper maps. So yes we are now hipsters! What goes around comes around.

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 9:24 pm

"Artisan route planning"

Does that mean that those of us who spend too much time looking at maps, are now hipsters?

mapsters

hipsters lobbing their wahoos

that has made my decision for me.
feck the wahoo, i will just buy a new compass, and some strong reading specs.

Maps, I’ve always loved them even as a child, they fascinated me. The world shrunk and printed into a page, the joy of my O Level Geography paper with a map of the Kent downs which I knew like the back of my hand. Even google earth, while a brilliant way of wasting hours armchair globetrotting, can’t convey the true nature of an unknown landscape like a good map.
The STBEX Mrs Dummy once called me a very rude name, I’d been at the kitchen table for several hours with maps of BB lands, it started as route planning but in reality I’d just got lost in a good story line. Somethings you can’t explain to some people.
Sadly my maps were left behind in enemy territory, possibly with pins stuck in them

ton wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:23 pm

hipsters lobbing their wahoos

that has made my decision for me.
feck the wahoo, i will just buy a new compass, and some strong reading specs.

Wotsits wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:47 pm

ton wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:23 pm

hipsters lobbing their wahoos

that has made my decision for me.
feck the wahoo, i will just buy a new compass, and some strong reading specs.

BigdummySteve wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:53 pm

Wotsits wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:47 pm

ton wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:23 pm

hipsters lobbing their wahoos

that has made my decision for me.
feck the wahoo, i will just buy a new compass, and some strong reading specs.

Aye reading specs are an integral part of my bikepacking kit these days...

Aye it’s a pain, at 51 and needing varifocals I have a stark choice, especially in the rain. Either I can’t see where I’m going or can’t see maps/garmin. Tried rain-X etc to no avail, getting old sucks.

BigdummySteve wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:32 pm maps..... possibly with pins stuck in them

Is that a sort of voodoo attack on the actual planet itself?

Or possibly alternative pain relief for arthritis of the hills.

No I can just imagine STBEXMRSD* sticking pins in my maps, just because they were something I enjoyed, hopefully with map pins and inadvertently plotting a route which I would love
It’s been a difficult year, got to take some amusement from it

* soon to be ex-Mrs Dummy

Dave Barter wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 10:17 pm

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Thu Jan 14, 2021 9:24 pm

"Artisan route planning"

Does that mean that those of us who spend too much time looking at maps, are now hipsters?

mapsters

Oh just wait for it. It's coming.

A beautifully shot video on bikepacking.com with some beautiful people on beautiful bikes in a beautiful place, with images of them all huddled over an unfolded map, in the light of a camp fire, a finger tracing a fine line across contours. And the voiceover proclaiming: "It's time to get back to a new beginning, to put down the gadgets and lose yourself in the folds of a map, to find your own way and find yourself."

Or something.

I'm chucking all my maps in a box in the loft when it happens and fishing my Garmin out of retirement.

Well i tried to read it, but its just nonsense so gave up.

Although I’ve gone full digital for the actual trip I always start my planning on paper and that’s unlikely to change... unless I can afford a monitor the size of an OS map that mounts on the kitchen floor!

TBD -

Just going back to the hipster issue - surely, they all use paper maps already? Do they not favour the 'traditional' - Brooks, Carradice, etc?

Also, I'm wondering whether it's fair game to take the p1ss out of hipsters because I'm assuming that (a) no one believes themselves to be one (b) they'd never openly call themselves that. It's like w@nkers, there's plenty out there but rarely does anyone say, "hey I'm a w@nker" ... just a thought.

^ UH-oh. You know exactly what's coming next don't you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXyT1vy3BII

Well you started it!

It's reminded me what a great tune it actually had as well!

Just popping over to the 'Listening Now' thread..