Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories Calling all Geeks

And by geeks I mean real IT geeks, not Trekkies.

I'm trying to decide if I want to take my laptop (for the first time) on my bike with me to California in September. Not sure I need it. Most hotels seem to have PCs available for guests in the lobby nowadays and when I get to my destination I can use my Dad's computer. All I need to do is check e-mail -- I ain't doing any work on vacation.

I'm thinking it's not worth the hassle. I'd have to get some sort of waterproof case. I'm pretty sure I'll hit rain at some point. Most cases cost more than I paid for the surplus Dell from my employer.

Opinions? Useful opinions, I mean. Experiences?

Go to the Public Library, leave the laptop at home. Besides, I'll be CA is crawling with internet cafes...

If it's not already, turn on web access on your cell phone for your trip. Just as easy to check email there.

Leave it home, safer for the puter too. Libraries are great for free internet along the way.

Funny you ask. I would be tempted had I a laptop to carry the laptop with me. One word: Maps. That said, I doubt I would succumb to said temptation. Leave it at home. Not all hotel lobby's have guest puters. If yours doesn't, the one right next to yours does. Ask Greg Hope. Caution Robinson, Will, two words: keystroke loggers
Space on sickles comes at a dear cost. Is your laptop worth that space occupation (No that is NOT a trek reference either).
Rain happens. No one can forecast rain either. Like hot air in August, rain is going to happen, will happen and then ten minutes after you slime out of your rain gear, you will roll into rain again. You'll ride all day and when you get 5 miles from where you think you'll bed down for the night, it will rain. Rain gumbo, rain fricassee, rain soup, fried rain, BBQ rain...

P.S.: Seriously, condensation will wreak havoc on your sensitive puter. Why? Water proof is watertight.

Get two of those huge double zipped zip lock plastic bags, and a thick towel. Sandwich the laptop in the towel place in one plastic bag. Place that in the second plastic bag and call dinqua in the morning.

If it's only email, and you're already thinkin it's not worth the hassle, it isn't.

I get this question a lot from staffers that think they need to be in touch during vacations (usually the Friday afternoon before they leave for 2 weeks ). About half the time, they never log in to check their mail...the loaner laptop is to provide the peace of mind that they could log in if they really needed to.

If you're worried about key loggers, you can sign up for a throw-away email account (like hotmail, gmail, etc.) and forward your real email to it. Then ditch the temp account after your trip.

If you are joined at the hip to IT, then there are solutions like PDAs, Smartphones, etc. that can satisfy even the most hardcore info jones. I used a PDA on a trip to Italy a few years back and had GPS with a full set of maps, email, web and remote server login all in my pocket. That was nice and they're easy to make waterproof.

another vote for cell phone if possible

Frank

If you are going to take the laptop my only option that I would consider is a Pelican laptop case. They are waterproof, dust proof, withstands temperature extremes, and crush proof. It could fall off your bike at 80 and survive no problems. I don't work for them in any way, but my company that I work for uses them all the time for some very sensitive government electronics equipment. I found one on ebay that isn't really that expensive either.

Ebay Item

There is my 2 cents.

If all you need to do is check TEXT email, then see if you can get it on your cellphone, it's a bit of a pain for typing, but it works pretty well for reading.

If you must surf the net, there are some small padded cases that work, look at the Mac section in the puter stores. I also have an aircard since I'm not otherwise connected even at home.

Decent hotels have puters, wireless or will loan you a Cat5 cable, but even a laptop is heavy relative to the small amount of stuff you can carry on a bike. It also takes up quite a bit of space when you add the power cable, mouse, small surge protector and the restore disks..OH, I was riding my Yamaha FJR 1300 sport touring bike, it had hard side bags and a rear trunk, way more space than my Speedy.

I had my laptop with me on several trips to Texas and Cali, some on the bike, others in my Jeep, last time down in the Jeep danged if I didn't get a blue screen and it wanted the restore disk.... I was in Texas, the disk was in Ohio. bit of a pain! <G>
My vote is for the cell phone.
Mary

Okay okay, you've all convinced me. I'll leave it at home.

A buddy sent me instructions on how to activate the internet on my new phone for simple airtime charges, without using the cell carrier's internet service plan. I'll have to try that out. It could be just the ticket, although mostly for reading, not so much for replying.

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A buddy sent me instructions on how to activate the internet on my new phone for simple airtime charges, without using the cell carrier's internet service plan. I'll have to try that out. It could be just the ticket, although mostly for reading, not so much for replying.

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Share??

This is what he sent me. I haven't tried it yet. Use at your own risk.

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Follow along here:

http://www.howardforums.com/archive/topic/1044784-1.html

You'll need to plug the phone in with your USB cable to run BitPim.

If you don't have / can't find a hex editor, email me the file it talks about and I'll make the change n' email back.

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At this point he gives me his proxy server IP address and port. I just called him and he said not to give it out, since he pays for the bandwidth.

But if you have access to an open proxy server or can set up your own, this is where you enter that IP address and port number.

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tagtag.com/flexia is another good idea for a home page - or better yet, build your own on your website and you can manage your "bookmarks"/links from there. That's how I have mine setup.

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Ya know, I had stashed away those instructions awhile ago and hadn't looked at the site until now. I guess it's just for my phone. But maybe it will give you some ideas.

Greetings
Depending on how big your laptop is, it would be worth it. They make a bunch of hard cases that you can use and you can load your maps and create a journal of your trip. If you really want to geek out you can get Maps and roads with the GPS and Track where you'll be going. If you have a digital camera with you you'd be able to send pictures of your trip while you relax at night.

Well, I'm sure that's what Bedouin is doing. I don't think I need to go to that extreme. I can upload photos once I get to my Dad's house and again when I get home.

When the wife and I went to Canada last year I must confess I took the laptop, but one purpose only to download the photos off my camera, it did come in handy at the hotel in Toronto (Free access) but that was all.

If I didn't have a couple computers at my disposal my family's homes, I would be much more likely to take the laptop, just for that reason.

local librarys also have a/c, drinking water fountains, Clean rest rooms, And best of all local culture.
Happy Tails
Scott

I bought a new BA in San Fran in July, and rode it (with laptop) to Anaconda, MT over a 3-4 day period. Of course, as others have said, it depends a lot on what you need the laptop for: with the laptop with me, I'm able to do bits and pieces of work which gives me the free time to ride.

I use a Thinkpad with the "airbag for drives" feature: it works very well. I left the computer in a padded bag in the EZ-mount bags and left it in the bags when I took them in at night. I also have a Cingular (now AT&T) wireless card to get me through places with no hotspots. I had no trouble getting connected even when lost looking for the Skalkaho pass!

Aside from work, I use it to download from the Garmin (so the tracks don't fill up), get the pics off the Camera, do email and web stuff, etc. etc. Dust can be a problem, but I've found the States on a bike is no worse than China or India just "walking around".

Get some waterproof bags, make sure there's no hard mechanical connection between the laptop and the America (so protect it from the bumps) and you'll be fine. Don't put it in a tankbag (I use one even though it obscures the speedo). It just bumps around too much in there.

Backup your drive before you go, ideally onto one of those Western Digital USB drives (the ones that don't need external power). Take that with you, and make sure you can boot an OS from it. If you're truly a beginner nerd (hunt'n'peck typist, don't know what most error messages mean etc. etc.), you might want to ask someone how to clone your internal drive and take a spare.

The worst that can happen is that you flex and break your motherboard - much more likely to happen because of some jerk on a plane than on the America.

As I said, it really depends on how much you need your laptop. But it's not much hassle, certainly no worse than a digital SLR for dust etc... I'll be taking the BA to Phoenix from MT next, then doing a Himalayas trip, both with laptop. I'm more concerned about the camera on both those trips.

Hope this helps! Happy Trails!

Off topic: What's your connection to Anaconda? Are you living there now?

John. No - I'm in Greece at the moment. My father-in-law lives in Anaconda, and I usually live in Boston. But I'm always up for a ride around Montana! (the bike's still there). Gotta be the best riding in the country if you're not a big "twisties" freak.
Great roads - beautiful scenery!

cheers - Dave.

You'll have to let me know when you're in the neighborhood again.

For major twisties I hit northern Idaho and British Columbia.

Thanks for the tip/invite John. I'll do that. Meanwhile, I'm doing battle with the roads in Crete on a crappy Suzuki rental (after last year's Harley rental). Boy, I miss my Triumphs! (you can't rent one on Crete):

http://www.upton.com/mccrete/

Now this UMPC could be just the ticket for motorcycle travel. It reportedly runs $400. Nice and compact. I wouldn't want to do a bunch of work on it but it would be a lot better than a smart phone or PDA for e-mail, posting photos or managing iTunes on the road.

http://event.asus.com/eeepc/

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Rumor has it that the cheapest version won’t be sold here in the states, but on the top end the Eee is reported to run around $400. You won’t get much in the way of performance for that amount of money with a small 7” LCD display, 512 MB of RAM, a small flash based hard drive rumored to be around 4GB and WiFi.

Asus would undoubtedly alloy users to upgrade their Eee system with more storage and perhaps more RAM as well. The notebook is planned to weigh around two pounds and be an inch thick or less. This won’t be a machine for ardent road warriors needing access to office applications, but for those who merely want to surf the net and chat, the Eee might be just the thing. Heck, bulk this think up a bit with enough RAM to run Windows decently and enough storage for Microsoft Office and I’d buy one for under $500.

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http://www.ohgizmo.com/2007/08/17/asus-eee-could-be-the-cheapest-umpc-around/

One of my biggest concerns is updating my iPod from any Windows computer while on the road. Well I found a program called Floola, which installs right on the iPod and acts as a replacement for iTunes. It seems to work pretty slick.

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biggest concerns is updating my iPod from any Windows computer

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Gah! What a geek!!

With pride, mammyrammer!

How big is your iPod? Not big enough for the whole trip?

Soren

I should've been more specific. Now I can update my podcasts from any Windows computer.

I lied. Neither Floola or the other option, YamiPod, work in managing Podcasts. I'll just install iTunes on my Pop's computer. MuwahahaHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!

Man, that's just evil.