Choosing a mountain bike map board for adventure racing or orienteering can be a difficult proposition, at least here in the US. Most boards come from international sellers and it can be hard to assess quality and compatibility without actually ordering. That's why we bought and tested every adventure racing bike map board so you don’t have to.

This is a brand that should be familiar to many US based adventure races, especially those on the East Coast. These map boards are made in Czechia and sold through Pennsylvania based race directors, Rootstock Racing. They’re a popular brand and you will certainly see a lot of them on bikes at adventure races in the States and abroad

Another relatively new manufacturer of map boards is the well known compass and orienteering supply maker, Kanpas. Along with a line of quick settling compasses, this company makes other essentials for orienteering athletes and they have now added their version of a bike map board. 

The Miry bike map board system offers a variety of sizes and formats, mostly geared toward MTBO events. The SL or “Super Load” versions are best for adventure racing due to their larger size boards that can accommodate unfolded maps. For this review, we purchased the MIRY 14/12 SL.

Fibril is the newest map board to enter the market from Australia. These map boards, designed and made by Elijah Dixon, sport a 3D printed handlebar attachment. Seeking advice from adventure racing forums in creating his design, Dixon has been very responsive to the needs and wants of the athlete community.

Drawing from other popular designs, this Portuguese map board’s ring and claw system is one of the beefiest among the group. Orifix have been making map boards for adventure racing since 2010 and this, their most current design is beloved by many for its stability and sturdiness during long expedition races and MBTO events

Known for their ski-orienteering chest mounted map boards, the Swedish company, Nordenmark, also makes bike map boards with super premium materials. While they run on the more expensive side, these are some of the sturdiest and well-engineered boards we tested. The model on our list is the MTB Extreme Gold Carbon XL. The company makes a more basic version of their mountain bike map board with lower cost components but when we reached out to the owner Sven, we asked that he recommend for us whatever product he would recommend for the 2021 and 2023 AR World Champions, SAFAT (Swedish Armed Forces Adventure Team) and this is the model we got. 

The AR Nav supplies map board has been on the market for quite a while now. Its design is simple and effective but it lacks many of the features shown in more recent designs. Still it’s a solid choice and many riders prefer the straightforward design.

In 2010, Gearjunkie.com founder and editor, Stephen Regenold published an article entitled, “ An Open Letter To: Adventure Race Directors.” In it, he describes his experiences as an avid racer and journalist with a strong desire to grow the sport and makes a call to race directors for improvements. Looking back at his list of 22 suggestions 15 years on I wanted to take a moment to see how we, the adventure racing community, have responded. We’re all trying to grow the sport and there are some really great suggestions in this list. What have we done well? What still needs improvement?

Like a lot of folks in the adventure racing community, I have already gone to see the new movie Arthur the King. If you have somehow missed this release, go check out the film while it's in theaters. Now that I've seen it with Strong Machine Adventure Racing there were a few things that stuck out to me that I'd like to mention in a brief review here.

Imagine a rolling countryside covered in farms and olive trees, occasionally dotted by mountaintop chapels, medieval castles, Roman bridges and tiny villages tucked into the hillsides and valleys. Terras de Trás-os-Montes (the Lands Beyond the Mountains) seems to stretch on forever in all directions. Separated from the rest of Portugal by the Duoro River valley in the south and Spain in the north and east, this corner of the country offers adventure to all those who travel there. 

If you haven’t seen the Amazon original series, “Eco Challenge Fiji: The World’s Toughest Race,” do yourself a favor and binge it next weekend to get a feel for what it’s like to be an adventure racer.. If you’re still interested in getting into the game after that, read on. Like many adventure racers, I saw Mark Burnett’s Eco Challenge in the 1990s and was enthralled and inspired by athletes who could cover epic distances over unthinkable times. That series launched a wave of interest into adventure racing that has been renewed thanks to the high production value reboot with outdoor personality Bear Grylls. I started adventure racing almost by mistake in 2016 and I have really come to love the sport and the community. I’m in better shape now at 38 than I have ever been in my life, and I owe it all to adventure racing.