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Hi-Tech Biker
Does Hi-Tech electronic gear have any place on a mountain bike ride? That's a daft question to ask me, I'm regularly to be found with a digital video camera, helmet camera, GPS and micro-cassette out on the trails' If you're a total Luddite even the bike itself has no place in the hills, lose the 'too advanced' Gore-Tex jacket as well' You see where I'm coming from.
So what's the state of the art in electronic wizardry for the biker of the ultra-modern zero's? Read on and we'll wet your appetite for big boys toys.
The Holy Grail of Navigation
I've never been too big a fan of GPS, until now that is. Back in the day GPS handsets displayed unfathomable coordinates, today's models give you proper OS grid references and that's just the beginning. Using Memory-Map Navigator' you can plan out your route on a full quality OS Landranger digital map, then download the route to your GPS so it points the way whilst you ride. The software allows rapid zooming and scrolling to see fine detail and plan your next leg. When you get home the automatically plotted route you travelled can be up-loaded to your PC for storage, this helps confirm the exact route you took and makes easy work of re-tracing a top ride shown to you by a friend. To cap it all off it's also possible to transfer the route data to the web, then you can follow un-marked classic routes, even in areas with open access like Coed y Brenin and Afan Argoed.
Garmin goodies
This system doesn't take away all navigational skill, you still need to understand all the symbols and lines on the map to make sense of it. A backup paper copy of the map would be handy in case of electronic failure, but you can print this off to carry with you. The entire country is covered in only twelve 1:50,000 regions, so you can centre your map where you like, there's less of that 'edge of the map' irritation we all know so well. So what's the downside to all this lovely technology you ask? As usual with state of the art gizmos it's all in the price. First off you'll need a GPS unit. The Garmin eTrex series is really excellent, starting at around £120 for the basic eTrex they rise to a heady £300 for the all singing and dancing Vista, with electronic compass and altimeter graph. If you go the pocket computer route however, you won't need all the extras offered by the Vista. However, the electronic compass can be useful, as a standard GPS unit will only show the direction you're travelling in, making it more difficult to orientate your map. A good old fashioned compass will do the job too, but they're really not techno enough for this article'The software you need is from Memory Map Navigator' and the current price for the PC version is £129.95. The Landranger 1:50,000 maps of the UK are £24.95 each, with the entire country being covered by only 12 maps, you get a lot of map for your money. 
Pocket possibilities
Once you decide that viewing your route after returning home isn't enough and you have to see the map out on the trail, you'll need a pocket PC. The latest models are small enough and light enough to carry, with sufficient battery life to use all day. Reflective LCD screens give excellent viewing even in bright conditions, the new Compaq IPAQ has a particularly clear display and can be found for around £500. A lot of money, but far les than a half decent laptop and you could write it off as a business expense' Cheaper pocket PC's can be found as low as £300 that would do the job nicely. For those who think all this technology is a distraction from the ride, think again. A GPS will store the route you travel whilst sitting in the back of your rucksack. Struggling with paper maps may be fun, but when you can't work out where you are it's certainly a distraction from your riding. Then there are all those open access routes that can't otherwise be followed without a guide. Interested? We are. This year we're going to be out logging routes on GPS, you'll be able to download the data and use your GPS to show the way. The MM Navigator software will allow you to see our route on the OS map with your position constantly updated on top of it. Now get lost!
Video on your head
Obviously, to be a really outrageous Techno-Biker, you need a helmet camera. The good news is these tiny minor-miracles are quite affordable at only £105 including a microphone and all the cables http://www.rfconcepts.co.uk/helmet_cameras.htm However you do need a camcorder with an analogue input to record the signal. If you want a Mini-DV (the small ones') this will set you back over £1000. The cheaper alternative is to use an older Hi8 camera (borrow your dads?) or a Sony Digital8 which is a halfway house and can be adapted for analogue input. If you want to edit digital footage at full quality you'll need a fast hard disk and a Firewire card. We have a Pentium III with 512Meg RAM and two 30 Gig IBM Deskstar hard disks running as a RAID. This means that they share the data, in effect doubling the rate it can be written to disk. Once you have the video on your hard disk you'll be able to compress it for the web, throwing away some 95% of the data to go from a 200Mb to a 10Mb file. Better make sure your processor can handle it.
Remote recording
Of course it's a pain having to undo the rucksack to gain access to the camera and battery pack at either end of a filming session. So you'll need to run remote wired switches to both the helmet camera and your camcorder. The switch for the helmet camera is just a case of Maplins Electronics and a soldering iron. Fortunately for us the excellent http://www.datavision.co.uk/ sell a remote switch which will not only operate your recording, but has a cute little red light to tell you when recording is on, very BBC. We've mucked about with various mounting systems for the tiny helmet camera itself, but nothing seems to beat the 'zip ties and strips of rubber' we first thought of. Low tech is sometimes the best way'