Whoa, people, reel it in a little. This is a conversation about compasses, not helmets or bike lanes.

Show some references if you want to refute what someone is saying, being nasty isn't helping your point and it only makes you look bad.

Gee that's disappointing I go back, and no mention of helmets or bike lanes, durn it!

Does one really need to get off the bike. Seems like maybe a couple feet away from the nearest CrMo tube might be enough to get an accurate reading, right?

Lost happens to me all the time. I'll just roll out north and then take a right on a random road. I'm so unfamiliar with east county that if the random road I've chosen is a curvy one, I'll have little idea which way I'm going after a while. Especially on thick overcast days, when I get deep into the woods. On straight roads like this, it's fairly easy to keep track, however, even with no hint of shadows or other vague indication of the sun's location.

When I have a compass, I know if I head south I'll hit the river, well SR-14 actually...

quick, head out the the garage with your compass and check it out if you doubt the deflection of a steel frame bike.

I got significant deflection at about 4 feet.

a person with their wits about them who has a grasp of their last known point and can extrapolate information from the terrain & sun as it relates to a map will rarely need a compass.

I do admit to having gotten 'lost' on a bike on logging roads. logging roads are often quite convoluted.

True story: i have a tattoo of a map on my back as a reminder of one time back in the 80's a group of us lost our bearings while mountain biking on some logging roads. The rest of the team didn't want to stop and read the map. We wound up in a totally different county and were about 30 miles from the van as the sun started to set.

Epic.

Afterwards, we'd go out biking and would come to those inevitable forks in the road. I would roll up my shirt, point to the map tattoo and say, "FOLLOW THE GUY WITH THE MAP!"

I got lost once around logging roads while cross country skiing at night. A case of left should lead to the highway. Scared me a bit at the time. I normally always know where I am. My wife is the opposite, I think there is some circuit where she without fail identifies correctly the direction, then her brain presents the opposite direction as correct. You can navigate by simply taking all directions in reverse, which I think she has started to do with even less reliable results. So not everyone can get er done without a compass.

I set out sticks and rocks pointing to where I'd come from when I do mapless MTB expeditions. Back in the day, sometimes I'd get paranoid that someone would switch which way they pointed on me. Hahaha! Seems like the most ridiculous possibility now. I think it must've come from living on a college campus where pranks ruled the day!

I figure that on a bike on tour you really only need a pretty general idea of direction since you are following roads. Something +/- 30 degrees is probably sufficient most of the time. A compass can be pretty bad and still provide that level of accuracy as can a general idea of direction based on time of day and direction the light is coming from even on a cloudy day. When there are other factors like visible mountain ranges or other clues just keeping track of which way is north becomes even easier.

Bottom line... Unlike when in the back country or offshore in my sail boat, on the road a compass is usually unnecessary. The few times it might be needed it is a very general idea of direction is good enough. So no worries unless the compass is very bad.

I use my compass mainly for working out where the sun will rise so I warm up early in the morning and my tent dries out (i.e not in the shadow of a tree).

Back in my hitch-hiking days I used a compass a couple of times to walk through a major city at night

Actually on the road, I get by fine without it

oh, and if possible I'll sleep with my head pointing north (my long gone grandfather taught me this) and I really feel I sleep better - anyone else do this?


hah! I just saw this was my 1000th post... thanks guys!

Not within 4 feet of a steel bed frame unless I compensate w/ a complicated magnet system. Brass or wood bed maybe. But not steel.

Congrats!

Woooaaaah,

Since I've been away this thread has grown quite impressively!
Thankyou for all the input (apart from the *****ing). I'll take some of those tips and try them out.

If anyone cares by this point, I'm cycling through Europe to get to Russia. A couple of years ago I went through France which has a vast density of beautiful roads which were ideal for cycling, but there was a fork every km or so, meaning a compass was essential. I suspect when I'm on the trans-Siberian highway, it'll be less necessary!

Much love,

D.

No, what's "simple" is that your "support" for your position is wrong. As a "counter argument", it fails.

For a carbon bike, the compass should be close enough for general direction. For applications like boats/ships and tanks, the accuracy of the compass needs to be verified.

Compasses in cars (or on bikes) don't have to be very accurate (in these applications, they can be way off and still be useful as an indicator of general direction).

The tank "illustration" is just wrong.

If the use (eg, marine navigation) requires accuracy, you would need to verify the accuracy.

Yes.

Note that car compasses often just show N/NE, etc rather than degrees.

My last response to you is - YOU ==> FAIL! Clear & simple enough?