cyccommute,

Respectfully, you're misinterpreting my posts. (I'll acknowledge they may also be worded badly) It's fine that your solutions work for you. They don't work for me, which is why I shared my opinion. I stick my my original contention - I said "If you want a *meal*, then cast-iron is a good investment for the road". I can understand why you would infer I was being exclusive, but I didn't imply it. I said "a good investment", not "the only investment".


fuzz2050,

I had an issue with my Garmin at the time which required a Windows machine (not a VM) and I was in Missoula when I bought the netbook. I could have shipped one of them back, but as it turned out, later in the tour I ended up frequently using both systems. I wouldn't do the same now, and I plan to upgrade to a less weighty Macbook later this year.

njkayaker,

The name comes from when I started riding, at 256 pounds. I broke 11 spokes on the rear wheel over a 6-month period - gave me a lot of maintenance experience. I switched to hand-built 36-spoke wheels and haven't broken a spoke since. Now I crack rims.