Thanks Em and Hame and Hob Nob and everyone for all this....

Pan Euroepean - do you by any chance have a contact at Garmin who we could ask about sponsorship? As our trip is for the UK mental health charity Mind we are trying to get kit like GPS' sponsored...

Thanks again everyone - HUBB rocks!

Thanks Stephano - I Googled 'Outocom' and got more Gay references than I knew where to stuff them.....was well baffled 'til I saw your post!

I advocate going the PDA/phone route. I use an Orange SPVM2000 phone PDA combo running tomtom 5. All plugged into my Autocom system. The thing has a camera, a MP3 player, WiFi, Bluetooth, everything. I can go to a free WiFi zone and use SKYPE for free phone calls home! brilliant. Can send photos home, rec' EMails all in one unit! Got the thing free with a phone contract. Mounted in a Touratech PDA zipper bag on a vibe proof Touratech mount! Seems the best option to me!

Roger O

For laptops, also have a look at Panasonic Toughbooks 'the rugged version'... These are on ebay a lot...

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Amsterdam-Australia 2007-201x Amsterdam-Capetown 2002-2003

Yes the Toughbooks (used by US miltary amongst others) are good , i fact the original ones were even smaller than current models. Worth a look.

However I noted today a new product called EEE pc., from company ASUS.




It is a "simple PC" aimed at children . Its not Windows (uses Linux) but for email, notes and photograph storage and sending its 100% OK according to the reviews I've seen. PC Pro: Product Reviews: Asus Eee PC 900

It comes loaded with all software and get this, weighs 2lbs and measures 9X7 inches. Its a solid state drive so none of the hard drive issues to worry about and you can just use USB sticks for extra storage. Sounds like a great system for travellers!

I'm not off anywhere myself (although I have an idea for a round USA Trip based on a 1942 travelogue!) but If I was I think I would be checking this out . Google "ASUS EEE PC"

Disagree on the satphone being at the bottom of a list. This depends on where you are. I can think of many places without wifi and internet cafes and cell phones, most of which are travelled by the likes of HUBB types looking for the road/trail untravelled. Check where you are going to see if there will be 100% mobile coverage before finding out there isn't.

If you have a crash in the middle of no-where (ie no cell phone) and have a bone sticking out your leg, well I would certainly pay $400 to get myself out of that situation. As this is the cost of renting a sat phone for a few months, I've taken one in the past. It would suck to know that all around me were electrical signals yet I was too cheap to take the technology on the trip to use them.

And I would call my parents first, then someone with medical advice, then my insurance company.

There seems to be this bravado of not taking GPS and Satphones on travels, which for me makes no sense if they are readily available and cheap. You don't have to use them, but just having them in case is surely a sound idea. My 2 cents.

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http://bigben.to/ London to....? The big bike annual rally.
http://www.mongolbikers.com 125cc London -> Mongolia.

Fellas,
I'm no computer expert but I've done a fair bit of traveling. Laptops, notebooks, netbooks: get a Solid State Drive or SSD to replace your Hard drive or HDD. Here is the difference, a hard drive, which most computers come with have spinning parts that are prone to breakage when subject to jolts, falls, spills etc... But a SSD has zero moving parts and it is very difficult to break, its the same kind of processor in you cell phone, or IPod, just larger, faster and a bit more expensive. Granted, they are more expensive for the same amount of memory (32GB SSD=250-400GB HDD) but how many of us travel with 400GB of Metallica songs? My own 2 cents, best of luck.

Its been a while since I wrote my article on electronics on the road - and so much new stuff is happening on this front that a post every six months is really needed to be on track.

Its not often that I would reccomend going dirt cheap, but in terms of a travelling computer, with the changes in technology, quality and prices, this is exactly what I reccomend. I would actually reccomend a small portable netbook, type Asus Eee with a screen of plus minus 10 inches. They are more robust and capable than most people think. As many don't have the typical spinning hard drives or DVD player/burner, they have no moving parts, and are therefore less prone to break. Also, many netbook models have battery time of plus minus ten hours, which is very convenient when travelling. Even though the netbooks are extremely light and portable, the keyboard is close to full size and quite comfortable. You get very quickly used to the small screen, and the small compromise should not pose a problem for most.

I've got so many lap tops lying arround I've lost track how many I've gotn (Dell, IBM, Lenovo, Fujitsu, Asus, HP, Whitev\box hommemade, and more). Still, my tiny asus Eee is by far my all time favourite and the one I use 95% of the time (in fact, I'm using it right now even though I have a much larger, brand new, and much more expensive and capeable lying only two meeters away). I've used it for all types of office apps, uploading and downloading files, ftp, and even constructing entire websites on it, listening to music and watching movies in dvd quality (HD quality is a no-go), I've connected it to projectors for businesspresentations, carried out video chats accross the globe with the built in webcam, and much more. The only things I've not used it for is editing media (video/photo) and gaming - something I would not do while traveling anyways.

As for video editing, allmost all video these days is captured in HD. You will have a difficult time to edit this on any current laptop (there are a few haulable out there, but no portable, that can edit HD video). As for photo editing, I'm sure the basics could easilly be done on a Netbook. Still though, get as much memory as you can.

If reliability is absolutely cruicial, and massive ammounts of storage space is less so, then a Netbook with an SSD (Solide State Drive instead of a standard type harddrive that spins) ought to be conscidered. These have no moving parts and are less prone to breaking, and also improve the speed of the computer a bit. But, in terms of the ammount storage you get for your money, you get very little. Fortunately though, the costs are coming down every month and disk capacity is getting bigger. Personally I've not opted for the SSD as I've found a much betterway to secure my data - which I will explain in the following:

If you really want to secure both your data and your ability to "compute" while on the road, you should get yourself a smartphone in addition to your computer - these can do allmost everything your computer can, and they also serve as a great backup device for your files. In addition to using the phone to backup your files, you can even use it to write emails, browse the internet, write and read both documents and spreadsheets, watch movies, the list goes on and on. By now most people should be familiar with these types of phones, so I'm not going to go into detail of their capabilities. If you allready don't own one - then you rellay should get one regardless of what you conscider your needs to be - you don't know until you've tried...

With a phone as a backup device, if your computer is lost or broken, it will be inconvenient still, but atleast your files are backed up and you can access them on the phone or transfer to another computer. Personally I use an iPhone 4g with 32 GB of storage, which is more storage than i need on a trip. Unless you plan to capture a lot of HD quality video, there will no longer be a need for DVD/bluray burners to back up your files. But if you do plan to capture a lot of HD video, I would reccomend getting an external USB Blueray burner so that you can burn copies and ship a copy home and keep a second copy with you... alternatively a bunch of flash mememory sticks (it all depends on how much video you will capture). Economy set aside, the flash memory sticks is a better storage option than a portable burner and disks.

Since my first post in this thread, there are many new options to secure files and software. And there is one in particular that I can highly reccomed, the service is Dropbox. It comes as a free version with limited storage, or a paid version with unlimited storage. You might as well pay the few dollars a month that it will cost you to have a fully fledged service as once you implement it, you will quickly find that you will want to backup just about all your digital files on it.

Dropbox is a service that allows you to store your files in the "cloud". Basically you can mirror all your computers, and even your iPhone on it. This means that you at all time will have the same folders and same files on all your computers, and your files will be available both offline and online. You can access your file from any computer on any internetbrowser, or through your regular file hierarchy on any computer where you have installed the Dropbox client (like you are used to accessing your files). You can even access your file on your phone if need be, or upload files to your computers from your phone.

Every time you get an internetconnection you wil auto sync your local files on your computer/phone with all your other computers with the client installed, as well as having acopy stored on the internet in your secure Drop Box account. If your computer gets stolen, lost or broken, your files are secure if you have passwrod protected your computer. If this should happen you can access your account from another computer and disconnect the computer that was stolen, and even delete the files on it.

Dropbox also give you a public folder, i.e. for photos so that all who knows the address can access them. The public folder is also a convenient way to host photos that you want to publish on horizonsunlimited or other forums. And, with the drop box you can very easy share files or entire folders with other people who have a Dropbox account, easier than sending an email with an attachment. It is just like working in an offoce where many people share the same folders on a server.

With Dropbox you have a copy stored locally so that you can accesss them while offline, and you can choose under which conditions your computer is to sync (i.e. when idle, all the time, or when you tell it to do it).

Personally I use my dropbox on all my computers, and my wife and I share an account so we have access to eachother's files. And, on my iPhone 4 I've set it up so that the phone only stores the last 5gb of the last accessed files - this so I don't have to take up too much space on my phone and s that I don't have to download the most used files every time I need them - and remember, 5GB is a lot of files. The rest of the files on Dropbox is still available on my iPhone, but I will need to be online to access them. The only files I don't store in my Dropbox are movies and tv-series that can readily be replaced - I never watch a movie twice anyways.

In other words, a cheap computer paired with an iPhone or android based phone, plus Dropbox, is really the way to go if you can't live without computing capabilities or your files. If your computer is lost or broken you can still access your files from an internet cafe or your phone until you have replaced the computer with another dirt cheap one. Also, if you make copies of your software, then if your computer is stolen, it is not the end of the world. Remember though, your files will be useless if you don't have the right software to access them. Even though there are free software out there to handle most your needs quite adequately, chances are that your prefferred software is expensive, and that you will want it back. I won't discuss how you backup software here as it is a chapter in its own - I reccomend you talk to a fourteen year old computer geek - he will know the latest best means to do it. All I can say that it is a bit of a hazzle if you've never done it before, and sometimnes right down problematic. Personally though, I don't backup anything that can be replaced for money or found legally free on the internet, including software - I only backup my personal stuff.

For mail I use g-mail as I prefer it over Outlook for many reasons that I won't go into. Many documents and spreadsheets I also store/make in google docs as you can access them anywhere and allows for two people to collaborate in the same instant, something which can't be done on the microsoft alternatives.

In short, you can probably buy three or four Eee computers for the price of a good "rugged" computer, and paired up with Dropbox and an iPhone, you will be far more secure. You can take steps to secure yourself even further, but I'll leave it at this.

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Blog: www.bamakobyvespa.no
My Youtube Channel

Woow ,all my nagging questions answered in one thread.EXCEPT ONE. May be the most basic question of all.
When charging net book or lap top off ciggy charger on bike, do you have to upgrade the battery or altenator for more output.
My smart phone charges ,no problem but I ve been told that the net book will need more power to charge . I intend to charge up whilst riding and maybe the last hour of the days ride disconnect to fully recharge bike battery

I just took an EEEpc from canada to argentina and I swear by it. Small durable and cheap, so no big deal. It was in my tank bag (wolfman expedition) and didnt mind at all going down at 100kmh in peru...

Hostels have wifi everywhere but not always good pcs.

Netbook. Seriously.

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Latest blog: My Motorcycle Lift

Bravo, great post. Thanks for all the information.

For motorcycle travel my experience has been that Toshiba Laptops...Rock!

Ours has seen over 50,000 miles of travel in all conditions, been dropped, had coke spilled in it..it's beat up, but never fails.

Just my 2 cents

Cameron

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The Harley Dude and Beemerman Road Show

I am planing a trip next May runnning through next September 2007. The trip will either be the western US or Canada. I have been researching laptops because I will need to be connected because of the business I own and I expect to have a web page that will keep up with my travel - that is the plan anyway and you know how the best layed plans of mice and men oft go wrong.
I have found two companies that specialize in rugged laptops. They both maybe out of the price targets that some have posted here. The one company is GETAC (www.getac.com) and they only specialize in "rugged" laptops for the military and "hostile" environments. I found this company because a rider with the Iron Butt Ass. used one of their Tablet PCs on his BMW. You can read a brief discription in a resent issue of Motorcycle Consumer News. The other company is Panasonic. I saw their laptops for motorcycle police officers at a resent convention. That is all I know about Panasonic.
I will keep this forum posted on my research and purchase of a laptop. Sometime in the next week I will be sending emails to both Getac and Panasonic.

Whitney

Thanks for the post.

I will be curious

A. What is the cost differential between a "rugged" laptop and a conventional one.

AND

B. What conditions are you using it in?

My aforementioned Toshiba is in the shop right now, for a repair unrelated to motorcyling, and have been traveling with an older IBM think pad that I got as a refurb for a backup. I don't say this to be contentious in any way, just a matter of curiousity for ALL on this thread actually; unless you are going on Safari why all the fuss? A decent laptop inside a good case in a solid M/C trunk or saddlebag has always worked for me. If you are riding on the street in countries with good roads, etc. the environment just doesn't seem that hostile.

But my experience may not be typical.

Please keep us posted!

Thanks

Cameron

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The Harley Dude and Beemerman Road Show

I've travelled almost every day for three years with my laptop (Compaq Presario) in the top-case of my bike. Around ~8.000 km/year with the laptop. Normally only on good roads. I have had no problems with it. I carry the laptop in a commercial bag with some kind of foam in the back side. This seems enough ...

About photgraphic cameras, I have had some problems with a reflex camerathat I carried for 8.000 km in my tank bag (this august in Turkey). A couple of small screws on one of my lenses got loose, I suppose because of vibration. I had to periodically re-screw them. Next time I will use a custom made foam protection for the camera/lenses.
Another lens had some oil drops in the inside of the glass. I think the oil leaked from the diaphragm because of vibration or excessive heat. I have heard that excessive heat can also cause some fungus to grow inside your lenses. Protecting equipment/film from heat can be more difficult if travelling under the sun in warm countries.