Sardinie - mountain bike guide

[NENRJ]

Actually I was thinking about rock climbing when I wrote my answer. I have some cleverly made mini guides from crags in Sardegna by Rockfax which I downloaded for a couple of euro's from their website. They contain al the info of a printed topo. Going digital seems so much more easy: I don't know how much the maintenance of a good website costs but I suppose it' s still cheaper than paying for the printing , distribution, shop and you can easily make updates and it is sustainable. Only disadvantage would be that every body could copy the guidebook but perhaps their is a solution to that. When your main goal is promoting MTB on the island and not making profit then it is not even a disadvantage. And personnally, I would gladly pay for a good route that took a lot of work to create. But people often have bikes from more than 2000 € , a GPS of a couple of hundred euros, clothing an extra 200 € but are stingy when it comes to pay for the work of others .

[Peter Herold]

I have some cleverly made mini guides from crags in Sardegna by Rockfax which I downloaded for a couple of euro's from their website. They contain al the info of a printed topo.

From http://www.rockfax.com/publications/
"Our Award-winning printed publications use the most up-to-date publishing techniques to produce guidebooks which are vibrant, colourful and packed with the latest information."
"Rockfax MiniGUIDEs are small, self-contained PDF guides which can be downloaded onto your computer for you to view and print out."

The guide we have made is of the first type, not a miniguide, with Italy's leading producer of mountain guides. The Rockfax guide for Sardinia is very out of date BTW, and at many (of the small sample of the island's 200+ crags) it covers there are so many new routes it's very hard with the Rockfax guide to tell where you are.

ciao Peter (bolts routes, promoted publishing of Ogliastra climbing guide, translator of 5th edition of Pietra di Luna)

[NENRJ]

I was referring to rockfax as an example. Perhaps the content is not what it should be and your topo might be much better.
As far as MTB concerns, you 'll put the GPS track online anyway so why not offering the other info about the tracks as well. So to answer your initial question: would I buy a guidebook? my answer is 'no if I could find that info on the internet , I would prefer to download the tracks as well as the info . If I would go biking to Sardinïe and there exists a website which describes 70 routes in Sardinië the way your guidebook does, I would read the info , try to find the routes that suite me the most taking into account my physical fitness, the duration of my stay,..., and I would download those paying for instance 1 € per route. If that website does not exist, I would probably give Wickiloc a shot with the risk that the quality of the routes is not top notch.
Buying a guidebook (probably through the internet because there are not so many shops where this book would be sold) and at the end having to turn to internet again to download the tracks, doesn't seem the easiest way . But that's just my 2 cents

[Peter Herold]

The best info you can get to MTB in Sardinia will be in this guide. There are already plenty of online sites with route descriptions, such as the main Italian forum mtb-forum.it, with 93 routes in Sardinia but with these sites you have
1. few descriptions translated into English, except for the ones I did
2. no guarantee of homogeneous assessment between routes of quality, difficulty, even definition of what sort of riding it is
3. summary descriptions
4. no photos
5. no quality control

I would pay €30 to overcome these issues, but that's my personal choice. We run a guesthouse for outdoor sports people where we've had guests going out to an internet cafe to try and download climbing topos rather than spend €14 to buy a guide, and then waste a day because they couldn't find the crag, but if that's how they want to spend their time on holiday, it's up to them.

ciao

[NENRJ]

Gosh, is my english so bad or are you intentionnally taking my words in the wrong way? What I'm saying is: if I could buy your book in an online version, I would do that rather than in a printed version. I just seems to mee more economical (and ecological) to sell it in a digital version ( with perhaps the possiblity of buying only parts of it). Why asking the question, if you don't want to take the answers into account

[Peter Herold]

The publishers have noew decided to make an English translation of this guide to Sardinia, should be out around Christmas 2011. cheers Peter

[Peter Herold]

Well, some good news for you guys: the guide will be published around Xmas 2011 in an English edition as well as an Italian edition. I am doing the translation, and people who come to stay at The Lemon House can borrow plastified copies of the pdf drafts. Peter

[Beny]

Nice to read something on my favorite MTB forum about Sardegna
I will be there from December 23 till January 2
Next year, I will be many times in Sardegna, normally I will have a bike there, but maybe not now Christmas
Is there a possibility to rent a "good" mountainbike in size XL
I stay in Oristano
Grtz
Beny

[Peter Herold]

Is there a possibility to rent a "good" mountainbike in size XL
I stay in Oristano

Contact info@anfibia.it they are based in nearby Bosa. In our guide we haven't covered Oristano, since it's one of the flatter areas of the island, with onlynearby Monte Arci. ciao Peter[/quote]

[flupke73]

Nice to read something on my favorite MTB forum about Sardegna
I will be there from December 23 till January 2
Next year, I will be many times in Sardegna, normally I will have a bike there, but maybe not now Christmas
Is there a possibility to rent a "good" mountainbike in size XL
I stay in Oristano
Grtz
Beny

will you be reisleider for flemish organisatie?