Hi Kudi:

Interesting idea, but it sure seems like a great deal of work - in other words, a major pain in the ass.

In past years, I have used a Garmin SP III, and needed to carry a small laptop computer with me to allow me to upload new map segments to the data chip on the GPS as I move around (I mostly tour in Central and Western Europe). This year, I have a new Garmin SP 2650, and have a 1 gig CF (compact flash) card in it. I can upload the entire contents of the CityNavigator Europe 6.0 CD onto the Compact Flash card - so, no need to carry a computer to load maps.

This still does not address the need to download tracks, though. Personally, downloading tracks is not that important to me, but I suppose if I just carried around a CD that had the MapSource application on it (this means, any recent Garmin map CD), then I could install MapSource to a computer in an internet cafe (without needing to install maps, just the program) and then get the tracks out of my GPS using the MapSource application. I could then save them to a floppy disk - tracks alone don't take up much space.

However, it does seem to me that it would probably be cheaper and simpler for the average touring rider to buy a very small (meaning, small physical size) laptop, and carry the laptop around with them, for the purpose of loading maps and downloading tracks. IBM made a computer called a "ThinkPad 240" - this is a tiny little thing, would fit in a tankbag, but it runs the full Windows OS (anything up to XP). To buy one of these things on eBay now costs about USD 300, which might, in the long run, be the cheapest and simplest fix.

PanEuropean
(Zürich)