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Mapdec SquareDec Map Board Review

 

Product Description

The Mapdec SquareDec Map Board is simple but effective map board at a very affordable price.

The board comes flat-packed in a nicely designed box and can be quickly assembled, and then fitted to a bike, in just a few minutes, using two standard Allen keys.

The SquareDec board consists of a strong plastic mounting bracket that also provides the platform for the rigid Foamex map deck to attach to. Four felt pads between the mount and the map deck damp any vibration very effectively.

The I-Beam design of the mount makes it strong and rigid and the fact that map deck sits 6cm above the handlebars means there is enough room for a gps unit, bike computer, or light on the handlebars as well. A side benefit of this is the map is a little closer to you which is particularly good for those of us over 40 whose eyesight is not as good as it used to be.

The Map Deck

The wipe-clean Foamex map deck is 3mm thick making it more than strong and rigid enough for off-road use. The map deck can be rotated through 360 degrees so you can turn the map round to face in the direction you are riding. Tightening the bolt between the map deck and mounting bracket affects how easily it rotates, so it can be adjusted to your personal preference.

The map deck measures approximately 22.5cm x 22.5cm which is an ideal width for an A4 map, and two 4mm bungee loops secure the map to the map deck and hold it tight. There is no cover for the map but it works very well with the polythene type bags that are usually given out at the start of our events, and also with laminated maps. You can choose to have the map overlap the board a little so you can see the full A4 map, or folding it at one end will see it fit exactly to the map deck.

Mounting To The Bike

The Mapdec SquareDec Map Board is designed to fit to oversize handlebars, which you find on most mountain bikes sold today. The bracket isn't adjustable so you do need to fit the map board on the thickest part of the bars right next to the stem. Doing this is highly recommended as this makes the board take up the least handlebar space. No rubber inserts are supplied for fitting to standard sized handlebars, but left over rubber padding of the type that came with your last bike computer or cut up inner tubes would do the trick nicely.

The map board can be mounted to either the right or left side of the stem. Mounting it to the right aligns the map over the centre of the handlebars, while mounting it to the left pushes the map deck forward slightly - allowing a bit more knee room.

In our use the map board seemed to be very durable and functioned very well on all sorts of off-road trails. Despite its simplicity, the design of the board has clearly been thought through well and it really is a clever bit of engineering. So if you are looking for a new map board that won't cost the earth for the coming season then this could be just the thing for you.

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