riding without GPS

[kawashima]

If you don't have GPS, and if you go to the place you don't know well, how do you ride?
-Do you put your map in the tankbag and ride reading the map without stopping (transparent tankbag)?
or do you often stop for reading for reading the map?
-Do you memorize your course perfectly before riding?
(including the crossing name and narrow road name)
-Do you memorize main road only?(like A406, M4, M25, M23, A23, A27...)
-Do you make a sheet of memo of your route and read it?
(for you don't have to scroll the map pages)
-Do you ride trusting your intuition?
(don't stick to the planned route)
If you use map, what kind of map do you like?
(large one or book type)
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own:2020 Serow 250
owned: 2012 YB125SP, 2008 TDM900, 2005 W650, 2002 LS125R, 2002 CB400SF, NS50F, C50 / Trip to UK(2009), Hokkaido touring(2013)

[CHR15]

i write all the road names / which way to turn at junctions in order on a piece of paper, then tape it to my top yolk.
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Turbocharged drag thing / project death weapon / GK73A
Ste: I'm not entirely sure how you'd go about verbally abusing someone with a potato but I'm sure it's possible.

[kawashima]

[arry]

Just tend to memorise the route - although I've not really been anywhere particularly unfamiliar as yet and I've got a fairly decent sense of direction generally

top yolk idea sounds a winner - might try that

[st3v3]

I just go in the general direction, bikin's in part about the traveling and every trip's an adventure with mine.
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Roger wrote: Women don't get damp for clingy puppies. Get some better happy pills, hit the gym & buy a medallion the size of a dinner plate. Job done

[LeeR]

I have quite a good memory for routes and stuff, I blame the Scouts.

Anyway, I'll look at where I want to go find the nearest town/village etc.. and then work the route backwards from there.

The easy part is the part of the route you've done before, I mean for instance say I was going to Northampton. Well I've been to Milton Keynes and Bedford before and I've made too many journeys on the A14 so I know I have to head in that general area.

After that it's uncharted territory and that's the bit that gets specifically committed to memory. I might also photocopy the road atlas page, but these days with google maps and the OS get-a-map on-line service I'll spend sometime looking over the map/satellite pics for major landmarks and the layout of junctions etc...

That's my technique and it works for me, it's a bit geeky but I love studying maps and stuff.
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My claim to fame: Austin Vince nicked my pen...

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[Itchy]

All roads lead to one another I went through france and spain not understanding the road nomenclature properly and still made it later this year I may pop through Japan and again not be able to read the road signs...

Heh I can get a RoRo from Yokohama or Nagoya , whereas the one from Korea is less frequent.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[Jaloopa]

I look up the route on google maps, try to memorise as much as possible, then look it up on my phone when I get lost.
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mattsprattuk wrote: but at least the lifan could do like 104mph in 3rd gear

[nick606]

Print the route off memorise it as much as possible, pull over then im lost and look at the route again, ask the closest person when i still cant find where im going, and finally ring the person im meeting or the place where im going when i still cant find it I really need a sat nav

[Itchy]

Sat nav is so overused and pointless though on my commutes when I used to have a job I would pass car after car after car with a GPS device attached to the wind screen, the same cars day in day out...

Oh come on its not as if your house moves around or your place or work moves around does it?...
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[The Shaggy D.A.]

I'll print a local map of my destination so that I have the street names, and then I'll either write a list of towns and road numbers (if I'm going cross country), or just a reminder of the junction on a motorway. If I'm taking the tankbag that's where it will go, otherwise I'll just tape it to the tank.
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Currently : Royal Enfield 350 Meteor
Previously : CB100N > CB250RS > XJ900F > GT550 > GPZ750R/1000RX > AJS M16 > R100RT > Bullet 500 > CB500 > LS650P > Bullet Electra X & YBR125 > Bullet 350 "Superstar" & YBR125 Custom > Royal Enfield Classic 500 Despatch Limited Edition (28 of 200) & CB Two-Fifty Nighthawk > ER5

[Bendy]

GPS is handy when you get down to trying to find your way around sprawling stupidly-numbered mock tudor housing estates but for the most part it's serious overkill. Know what direction you're heading in, know roughly what towns you're aiming for so the signposts mean something to you and most of the journey should be easily memorised or noted down in very simple form. It's only the last 'finding specific address' bit that needs some more detail. Eg, I'd find it quite depressing if someone who's lived in the UK all their life couldn't find their way from London to Aberdeen just using road signs. But I wouldn't expect them to find their way to 24 Claremont Street without a little bit more help.

[hellkat]

I still don't even OWN a GPS yet. I usually have a tatty old copy of A-Z of Great Britain in the top box/boot anyway.

When Andy was a courier, he had a huge collection of little mapbooks of local areas. So I used to borrow those.

If he didn't have them, or if my map wasn't detailed enough, I'd get a bit twitchy if I thought I was gonna get lost, but years ago someone taught me to walk into a petrol garage, read their local maps in the magazine rack, figure out roughly where I'm going and then get back on the road.

Occasionally I stood there for so long trying to figure out where I was supposed to be going, that I actually bought the map ... but not always
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[ms51ves3]

I memorise key places en route to my destination and then follow road signs, if there isn't a road sign I guess which way I should go.

[neil.]

I find the GPS handy for speed camera warnings and up to date info on traffic blackspots, and the way it ties in to my phone and helmet headset. No need to take the lid off to call someone, can type a text message on the touch screen without taking my gloves off, can see who's calling me on the GPS screen etc. Very useful.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)

[NSR Mick]

I have only used gps on the bike once and that was to get to Germany.

Most of the time I know where I'm going or I'm with someone else who does.
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If you dont like the way that I ride.......Stop trying to keep up!!!

[0ddball]

I look on a map to see where it is then just set off in the general direction When i get close enough i follow road signs to get to the town/village, then go to a petrol station and look at a local street level a-z.

I prefer to do it this way on the bike despite having a satnav unit in the car.

[Kal]

Depends.

I usually write out crib sheets with the road names (numbers), directions for junctions, mileage on each stretch and occasionally major landmarks.

I put the paper upside down in an A4 plastic wallet which I tape to my tank to keep it dry.

I remember the next section and when I am not sure or need to memorise the next section I find somewhere to pull off and memorise the next section.

Sounds really organised but I still managed to miss Birmingham by over 100 miles a couple of years ago. (Birmingham City Centre to Leicester City Centre is about 30 miles door to door)
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Kal...
I Like To Hoon It Hoon It I Like To Hoon It Hoon It I Like To Hoon It Hoon It Ya Like To (HOON IT!).
1984 GB250 Clubman,1983 CB250N Superdream, 1999 GPZ500S

[stinkwheel]

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I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[ms51ves3]

[Toukakoukan]

Well the 16,000 mile trip to india I did without maps, the secrets are...

1) Maps, lots of maps, preferably 1:2,000,000 or even better 1:8,000,000!
2) No particular preference as to where you end up that evening
3) A lot of time on your hands
4) The ability to point and say 'ISLAMABAD?' very loudly.

Do all that and it's easy!
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[Stelmer]

I used directions in the map pocket in the tankbag as well as memorising key points.

Even with GPS, it's always best to plan a route incase it fails.

[TheDonUK]

Before i go i study google maps as long as possible to get the route in my head, and i use waypoints as a guide, be them cities, roads etc.

I generally follow the rule of straight ahead unless otherwise stated, so on a little sheet thats in a tankbag i will usually write down the major deviations to my course if possible with the road number and destination of the road.

Never had any problems traveling through europe or dispatching in london using this method...

GPS is overrated, what happens when the americans decide to switch off the satellites?
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[Current Bikes - GSXR-750 K5 & C90-97 ] [Previous Bikes: Runner 125, YBR 125, GS500, Bandit 600, Hornet 600, ZX6R-99, C90-99, R1-99, XT600E-04, GSXR-750 K4, CRF250L '16]

[hellkat]

I study maps and stuff too, to get the route in my head, sorta.
But the thing is ... the map doesn't say "oh yeah, there's workmen here today, they've dug up all the road and you have to go two miles around on roads you have NO IDEA where they take you cos you didnt bother to look at THEM on the map before you left, did you, now?"

And then:
I can be looking at a map of [any London street] and be thinking, okay, go down there, down there ... and then when you actually get there you think "Oh, THERE." and you realise you've been there loads of times, you just haven't known what it was called.

On Sunday I was supposed to go from Noel St to Windmill Street, just off Whitfield St, and all in W1.

Now I know where GREAT Windmill Street is, no problem, but I had a notion that Whitfield was in Bloomsbury, in which area I am pretty shyte. So then I was told its off Newman Street (still got no idea) ... but when I GOT there, I realised its the left you do on Eastcastle, ahhhhhhh, gotcha, why didnt you say so,

Getting back from Windmill to Noel ... apparently I just had to "go round the block" - but I ended up getting lost on New Oxford St/Kingsway (yes!) and somehow magically managing to find my way back via Seven Dials. By sheer luck
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.