I find that laminating my routesheets works well, ...
From watching others and the problems they have with laminated routesheets in tricky conditions, I'll be sticking with waterproof paper.
What's the failure mode? Water getting into the laminate and turning the instructions to "R SP [chromatography blob]"? That sounds more like a problem with inkjet printing, which is a work of Stan. Laser printing tends to stay readable until the paper disintegrates, which laminate (or a map holder) should put off for long enough for audax purposes.
Three things strike me as disadvantageous with laminating route sheets:
• To maintain the laminate to the edges, the routesheet has to be cut down to A6 pieces before lamination (if you use at A6-size, which I do)
• The stack of laminated postcards is bulky, especially for the longer riders
• Laminate sheet against laminate sheet is quite slippery
• The laminate is reflective when using a headtorch
• The laminate's reflectivity gets worse in the wet
Five things.
What I've seen is that laminated sheets take a long time to prepare, they are bulky, and I've seen riders fumbling a stack of them, sending them spilling over the road.
I've settled on artists' waterproof paper, which feels like a heavy normal paper, but doesn't disintegrate when wet. The laser-toner binds really well into the fibres, and there's almost no reflection at all, as it's a rough, matt surface. My first box of waterproof paper was the polyester-sheet type and that DID suffer from mild reflection at night, but horrific reflections when wet!
FWIW, at night I often unclip the A4-folded-to-A6 route sheet and hold it up, so I can read looking forwards and keep an eye on the road, too. I can also control the amount of light falling on it — enough light without blinding myself.
Just my experience and observations of others.
