Mountain Biking

Mountain Bike Images

A mountain bike (or road bike) can easily be adapted for general gps or geocaching use by fitting a gps receiver handlebar mount. There are commercial handlebar mounts by both gps manufacturers and third-party suppliers available for most of the common gps receivers used for geocaching, but these can be expensive as they are imported. A simple homemade mounting can be made by the average DIYer in an hour of two and can be attached easily to the handlebar by Velcro. An example of such a homemade mounting is pictured. This particular mounting made of perspex, Bisonboard and Velcro, fitting both a road bike and a mountain bike, has done many, many kilometres of service over varying surfaces with no problems.

One thing to be aware of is vibration. Vibration can cause the batteries to rattle around in the gps receiver's battery case and momentarily break contact with the battery terminals. This will cause the receiver to switch off. The remedy is to pack around the batteries so that they have no room to move around. Sometimes all that is required is to wrap a few thicknesses of paper around the batteries.

As a safety measure it is also a good idea to attach the gps lanyard to the bike by some method to prevent the GPS from accidentally striking the ground in the event of it coming loose from the handlebar mount. Those small karabinerÕs often found in geocaches (or $2 Shops) are excellent for this purpose. When clipped over a brake or gear change cable a measure of shock reduction is provided to help save your pride and joy.

In the Canterbury area there are many geocaches that are suitable for GPS mountain biking. Whilst most city caches can be accessed by either mountain or road bike, some caches such as Tour de Avon, Tour de Forest and Home Bay have been specifically set up for mountain biking access.