Upon request, I post a picture of the handlebar map holder I made for my touring bicycle.

It’s a thin piece of plywood (or whatever you have, other wood, plastic, metal) cut out to fit standard AAA road maps. It’s attached to a mountain bike handlebar with a quill stem. I drilled some holes and used two [white, see picture for positioning] zip ties to attach it to the stem. I made a cut out at the top to make room for the bolts where the handlebar attaches to the stem so the map holder rests flat against the handlebar with very little flex.

The map is held to the wood with the four rubber bands. Obviously it doesn’t work in the rain but it will be easy to fashion a plastic cover for that eventuality.If it rains, just put the map in a ziploc bag.

If this seems like too much work (it really wasn’t… two cuts with a saw, four holes, and some sandpaper) you can buy a similar map holder at REI for $20. This one only costs a few cents to make.

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Originally posted 2011-05-22 17:42:32.