Bicycle map holder

An affordable alternative to conventional holders

Author: C. Egli, Winterthur, Switzerland

Online since: 28/09/2009, Number of visits: 116564

During a bicycle tour through unknown areas, my friend and I relied on a map. Unfortunately, neither one of us had a map holder on our bikes. I didn’t want to buy one for these infrequent trips – they are quite expensive, and a mounting piece is permanently attached to the handlebar which bothers me.

That is why we came up with a really easy magnetic solution: I snapped a large Q-40-20-05-N block magnet onto my iron handlebar. People with alloy bicycles (such as my friend) could, of course, glue the large magnet to the handlebar. The advantage in my case is that I can remove the magnet with the flick of a wrist.

We then put the map onto the handlebar with the interesting trail section facing up. Now I only needed to place a cube magnet (in our case a W-12-N) on top of the map above the block magnet – thus completing the bicycle map holder!

These two magnets are rather oversized – two less powerful ones would be quite sufficient as well. But it was important to me that the map would not shift, even in the occasional strong headwind. This was no problem. The only downside is that the (borrowed) map was not protected against rain or dirt – so our version is only suitable for fair-weather riders.