Queen's Birthday Weekend

rossmaxmo Posted: 9 June 2011, 8:01 AM   The printing looked great and was really easy to read, but the paper was like toilet paper, even before it got wet. It was fine for reading short legs, but it went all floppy when you tried to look at more than 5cm of map. I had to stop on our longest leg and then continue running with the map in 2 hands to look at the whole leg. It would be perfect if it was a little more rigid.   Paul I Posted: 9 June 2011, 8:31 AM   so Pretex in a decent micron bag could be the ultimate for a long ruggard event. It should be more rigid, printing shouldn't rub off or lift at the folds so much and it would feel silky smooth..mmmmm, as opposed to a soppy dishcloth. How much extra would that cost?   thomasr Posted: 9 June 2011, 2:08 PM   Race two update http://thomasreynolds.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/qb-3day-day-2/   DMjunior Posted: 9 June 2011, 2:59 PM   Here is my blog from the weekend. Matt's will follow shortly. Do check it out, there is heaps of map snippets and things. http://theomennz.weebly.com/2/post/2011/06/10-top-legs-of-queens-birthday-weekend-duncans-post-for-the-weekend.html   Selwyn Posted: 16 June 2011, 1:04 PM   The Day 1 maps were printed using OKI C9600 which AOC has been using for the last 2 to 3 years (but some maps printed on othger club printers.) I suspect that issues about print rubbing off can happen on any map. I have certainly experienced it on maps in plastic bags. When I first experienced Pretex in the rain at WMOC last year I also got worried about its feel and texture. I described it as slimy! But it was still manageable and the reservations were just a gut feeling based on past exp[ereinces of paper. The paper woked perfectly. Pretex is the norm in Europe and often in Australia. But for a Rogaine and repeated use I would go for Teslin. More recent updates on price differential: Pretex 25% cheaper thasn Teslin. Environment: Pretex is a filled/coated wood pulp product which should be vaguely more biodegradable than Teslin, but I won't be putting in my compost heap. Teslin is plastic coated. When I put Teslin into the embers in my enclosed fireplace there was a massive explosion a couple of minutes later. Early Teslin maps that AOC used were 170 gsm which is clearly too thick. Later maps were 115 gsm which is good. Teslin, when cut tends to weld to the adjacent sheets and need much dedicated fondling on all sides to free it enough to feed into a printing machine of any sort. That's why off-set printers don't want to use it and why Pretex is prefered. For small runs as we have in NZ, I can deal with fondling the paper! I think that Teslin is probably the safer choice. It doesn't tear. But I was satisfied with the QB Day 1 maps. I collected maps at the finish for a while. All bujt one or two were intact. The damage to those one or two coiuld have happend equally to standard paper in a plastic bag, but not likely to Teslin.   Michael Posted: 17 June 2011, 2:13 AM   I've been following this for some time. The holy grail is a single "best" paper that we can use most of the time without bagging; like when synthetic clipcards came in, you didn't want to muck around with cardboard ones for minor events it was best to just change over. I was quite happy with the Pretex and have bought some from Selwyn and given it to my commercial printer for tests. I am interested in rogaines up to 24 hours as well. I would observe that if floppiness is a problem that only affects some people, or you are particularly heavy on your map handling, then you could bring your own plastic bag and stick the map in on the start line. A rare commercial note, I am pleased that Maptalk is free of such and think you will excuse this. Plastic bags MUST be 70 microns to be any good, the commonly available ones are 45 microns and they "scrunch". 70-micron bags are commonly available in A4 size from packaging suppliers but not A3. In the past I have commissioned the manufacture of A3's but the minimum production run is 10,000. I have run out and, in the light of increasing success with these new papers, have not re-ordered. Only one club has expressed an interest. I repeat that 70-micron A4's are easy to obtain, its only A3 that's a problem. This is used only by a minority of orienteering courses, and by rogaines. ...Oh. The point of that last para is that if anyone thinks there is a continuing need for 70-micron A3 minigrip bags please contact michael dot wood at mapsport etc. This message was edited by Michael on 17 June 2011, 10:34 AM