All the mapping in Himalaya by Bike was done by hand, using TPC 1:500,000 air charts, lots of notebooks and a Garmin eTrex Summit (three incarnations). 

All HBB maps have north, south, east and west clearly marked at each edge as well as a scale bar and any lines of latitude and longitude for those using a GPS.

Villages and towns are always marked as are any amenities en route (like a chai shop) or points of interest (like a Buddhist monastery or interesting view).

As well as geographical features such as rivers, there is also plenty of essential information for bikers: petrol stations (for refilling multifuel stoves), water sources (rivers / standing pipes) and most importantly where to find food, drink and a bed in A, B and everywhere inbetween. 

The altitude of most places is given, and lollipop markers give the distance between them.

Each chapter of HBB starts with an elevation profile of the whole route, like the one below for the Manali Leh Highway. The elevation is shown at a scale of 0m to 5500m, so you can compare routes at a glance and also get a feel for how much climbing will be involved (which is usually a lot).  

As well as an overview elevation profile at the beginning of each chapter, each route is also broken down into 100km profile chunks. Most are 100km across by 2000m high except the one below right (the first day out of Manali) and one in Bhutan which features a 2100m descent in less than 70km :-)

Himalaya by Bike was researched on a bicycle by Laura Stone over three years and published by Trailblazer Guides in August 2008.

In 2003 I had been working for a few years as a map buyer in London at Stanfords Map & Travel Bookshop. They gave me the summer off to go travelling so I took myself and my bike to India where I rode around the Spiti Valley loop and then up from Manali to Leh. I returned to India in 2004 to update all the Himalayan chapters for The Rough Guide to India.

Himalaya By Bike was dreamt up over a bowl of noodles with Kym McConnell, author of Trailblazer’s Tibet Overland, and I headed out first thing in the spring of 2005 with a one-way ticket to Pakistan. It took me two years to ride all the routes which feature in Himalaya by Bike (and quite a few besides). While cycling I usually found a good excuse to stop every 5km or so to make notes and add to a daily sketch map. It’s another world now but back then I was taking photos on slide film, didn’t bother taking many electronic devices as power was so intermittent and there was hardly an internet to speak of.

It was a fascinating time to be in the Himalayas, and in retrospect I was very lucky. Independent travellers were still allowed into Tibet, the Uighurs in Xinjiang Province in China enjoyed their freedom and although Pakistan and Kashmir were hardly safe they are more unstable now. China and India were in the ascendant, Bhutan was just discovering mountain biking and in Pakistan I had unwittingly (and safely) cycled past Osama Bin Laden’s lair in Abbottabad.

Several books and maps inspired and motivated me while I was writing Himalaya by Bike, especially John Callahan’s KKH map, Kym MocConnell’s Tibet Overland, Hugh Swift’s Trekking in the Himalaya and Mapping the Tibetan World by Yukiyasu Osada and Atsushi Kanamaru.

I absolutely loved researching and writing Himalaya by Bike and I owe a great deal to Bryn Thomas at Trailblazer Guides for commissioning the book and then waiting so patiently for it. Thank you, Bryn!