| Category | Topics |
|---|---|
| RAGBRAI XL | 436 |
| RAGBRAI XXXIX | 1,849 |
| Clubs, Teams & Charters | 206 |
| Gatherings & Meetings | 16 |
| Training | 31 |
| Miscellaneous | 263 |
And just before someone like the Princess jumps down my throat, I just want to make it clear that I am not insinuating that there are no attractive women in Iowa. I just wanted to make it clear that what you see is not necessarily what you get.
-”BB”-
Yes beer goggles are unisex. As are laptops. I’d suggest using your phone to upload whatever you need to. But at least you’re looking at a netbook that transports a lot easier. If well packed in a water proof pannier you’d probably be fine unless you wrecked. But either way, connectivity is a challenge when there’s 10,000+ people rolling into a town that usually has a population half of that. I find it frustrating to get on line during the ride, but if you can get into the Iowa Telecom trailer you shouldn’t have any problems.
I took one last year (we had a dedicated driver for our car) – never once used it! The intention was to log into email (I have a 6 year old LG phone that makes telephone calls and you can barely text on it……so there!) and maybe check a few things in the evening hours.
I was just too darned tired – and there was too much else going on. Won’t take it this year. My brother however took his smart phone and emailed himself logs of each day – which ended up being quite cool later on. We have all the logs and good memories – good thing he was doing that.
I bring my netbook. Mine rides in the cab of one of our trucks. So I haven’t had to worry to much about it. But my day job is an engineer at a TV station. So I know about protecting electronics on the road. About the only case I know of. That is fairly inexpensive and handles gorilla beatings, is Pelican. Even with it in the case. As mentioned above. The hard drive can be damaged from high G forces. This can be easily prevented be locking the heads on the drive. You can replace the drive with new solid sate drive too. The best thing to do. Is not bring a laptop at all. I would highly suggest journalist to bring tablets and a wireless keyboard. Much more convenient. It packs smaller too. I would still recommend getting a Pelican case.
I’m still planning on bringing my netbook. I’m going to need it to update the journal over on CGOAB, but I don’t think I’m going to trust it to the baggage truck. I’ll do what I’ve done on my other tours, padded foam case, that goes inside a plastic zip-lock bag, which goes in a second zip-lock bag. All this goes in a pannier on my bike. Many trips and tours later, I haven’t had a problem with it. I find that it is a nice way to end the day, reflect on the ride, post some pic. (I know what happens when you get that many people in one area,so I’m not expecting the best on connectivity).
Only takes me about an hour to do everything, and I know what works for me won’t work for others.
Steve
giantron:
Mentor, what netbook are you using? I’m doing a self supported ride this summer (not RAGBRAI) and will probably just use my phone, but will log it on CGOAB as well. I’ll have to see if I can do it from my phone, which I think I can.
I’ve got an Asus 1005 netbook. Had it for quite a while now, very pleased with it. I use it for my journal, photo touch ups / edits, store any video I shot that day. I’ve got the larger battery pack for it, can easily get 8 hours out of a single charge when I set the CPU to low speed. The charger isn’t much bigger than a small motel bar of soap, and the whole package is a very tolerable weight.
There is a way to email an entry into CGOAB, I’ve read on it, but haven’t given it a try. From what I read, it’s really designed mainly to get a quick entry up onto the system, with the idea you’d come in later an edit it.
One of the things I do is write my journal entry for the day, pick out the pics, edit those, put the tags in the entry all in notepad. Then, when I log into CGOAB, I just have to paste the text into my journal, upload the pics and I’m done.
Hope this helps,
Steve
Wow, quite a few responses, everything from beer goggles to pictures! Thanks for your advice, I appreciate it! I should have been clear in my original post, my intent is not to use a computer for work, but rather to upload the data from my Garmin GPS watch. I have a Forerunner 405CX (great GPS watch when paired with heart rate monitor and bike sensor, BTW) and it can only hold a limited amount of data.
I’m planning on tracking my route across Iowa just like I do all my rides, not so anyone can see them but simply because I’m a bit of a nerd 
If any of you use similar GPS watches on RAGBRAI, how do you deal with the limited data storage? Are you able to track the entire week without uploading data?
Cheers!
-Chris
Chris, I’m right there with you. I have a Sigma Rox 9 Cycle Computer. It does not have GPS, but does collect a ton of data. I have a small Asus EEE PC laptop similar to what Mentor58 has above. I plan on downloading the data every other day and make a backup copy to an SD card for protection. Then import everything after I get home on my regular PC.
I think your challenge depends on who is carrying your baggage. We have our own support vehicle, so I’m not too worried about the laptop getting abused. If your using the RAGBRAI buses, I would make sure the laptop has an SSD hard drive. And then it may not survive.
Look on ebay for a cheap used Netbook running Win XP. There are a bunch for around $150. Then if it gets trashed on RAGBRAI, your not out a lot of money.
I have learned to un-plug. Take in what’s around you and disconnect from what is not around you right now. I have found when I return to “civilization” I am much more refreshed and ready to dive back in the rut.
It’s funny, I seem to have no problem focusing on work so much that I forget the rest of the world, but, I really had to learn how to get away from work.
Last year my huband wanted to be able to update his blog each day. He has an iPhone and the iPhone isn’t very easy and fast to type with. So he packed an apple wireless keyboard. The keyboard stayed in its original cardboard package (12 X 5.5″) and we jut wrapped it with some clothes and a ziploc within our bag. It didn’t get damaged. And even if it did we were willing to take the loss (the keyboard was not too expensive). We were with a charter. Almost every night, the keyboard connected wirelessly to the phone and away he typed.
Most of the overnight towns had wireless available – in the middle school fields, the library, the Y or near the portable winstream van. Winstream was also set up each day in the meeting town.
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