AR Navigation Supplies MBO-2 Rotating Mountain Bike Map Holder Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been running the AR Navigation Supplies MBO-2 Rotating map holder on my bike for a year or so now. It has seen it's use in 4 hour sprint adventure races to events longer than 30 hours (every event has included a section of mountain-bike orienteering). Previously I've used the AXIS map holder as well as a do-it-yourself version that I made myself. I have also used various handlebar map bags/holders. Finally, I've also raced with people who run the MIRY map board - so I've seen that one in action.
I can tell you that the AR Nav Supplies map holder wins hands-down.
There are 3 things that make a great map board for adventure racing and orienteering.

1. Rotation. Rotation is important for mountain bike orienteering because it assists the racer in orienting the map in the direction that they need to go. This aids in route choice and helps when the navigation gets decently complex. An important thing to note is that the rotation needs to be fluid - since we are flying down hills and over rocks while navigating between checkpoints you can't have the map holder rotating too easily which would mess up the map's orientation. Out of the box the MBO-2 map holder has just the right amount of rotation. It doesn't rotate too quickly nor is it too sticky when you turn the board. It is just right.

2. Durability. As an adventure racer I've taken my bike into some pretty harrowing places. Just recently I was racing in Nevada at Lake Tahoe. As the team's navigator I made a horrible mistake and as I realized what I did my heart sunk. I turned to my teammate and said, "Well, how do you feel about bushwhacking with the bikes uphill?" and he said, "How much uphill?". I did a quick check of the map and said, "900 feet elevation gain". Suck. This uphill bushwhacking was through rocks, manzanita, trees, and all sorts of other nasty vegetation. As my bike dangled over my shoulder I did not worry once about the MBO-2 map holder that was on the handlebars because that thing is DURABLE. Any regular mapbag would have been ripped to shreds. I've also crashed a number of times and the map holder is least of my worries.

3. Easy of connection. The AR Nav Supplies map holder is built with a universal mount and it takes up the least amount of space possible on my handlebars. This is awesome since during an adventure race I usually have my handlebars crammed with extra lights or food attached, etc. No tools are required to attach this MBO-2 holder either...so when I'm too tired to navigate it's a simple process to detach from my handlebar and just pop it on my teammate's handlebars. No time wasted at all. The AXIS boards require tools and that is annoying.
Finally, just a note about cost. $55 dollars is much cheaper than any of the other map boards out there. It may be more expensive than a simple handlebar bag but comparatively there are so much more benefits to using a rotating holder.
Also, I'm not sure why previous reviewers are even comparing this to a GPS. That is like comparing apples to goats. Sure they are both carbon-based lifeforms but, seriously, the comparison ends there...especially when we are talking about adventure racing and mountain bike orienteering here; events that traditionally ban the use of GPS.

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