Hi everyone,
I have not yet toured but when I do I plan to take my laptop or buy a tablet. I would like something waterproof & joltproof for my tour when I am finally able to hit the road with my bike. With that in mind, I found the following reviews of ruggedized laptops & tablets. See https://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b...ugged-pcs.aspx. I am curious to hear what experienced tourers think of the offerings.
Best,
Neil

I spend most of my working day at a computer. So for me, the idea of taking one with me on tour is frightening. This year on the family holiday, I even refused to turn on my mobile phone. The world was suddenly like it used to be before Bill Gates and Google got their hands on our souls. Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty, I'm free at last.
Of course, I'm back home now, and back on the chain gang.

Option two, carry one that did not cost very much. My most recent PC purchase was a used netbook on eBay for a bit under $200. Quite small and convenient. I carried it in a neoprene foam sleeve made from wetsuit material and carried that inside of a drybag. If you get one, you will need an external cd or dvd drive to install software, but you can leave that drive home when you travel.

I put a bit too much weight on top of it one day in the duffle, the weight depressed the top and the keys could touch the screen. The middle part of the screen showed a bit of wear from the key edges. So, be careful you don't pack any weight on top of it.

I used to work for a state natural resources agency. We had a lot of law enforcement personnel that used Toughbooks, but I do not know which models they used. I never asked them about their computers so I really know nothing about thier experiences with them. But, if they did not work I am sure that they would not have used them and they always seemed to have the funding needed to buy whatever they needed.

If you carry a laptop or netbook, you may be interested in using Google Talk and Google Voice. Where I have wi fi, I can use my netbook as if it was a speakerphone. But, I can only receive calls when I have the computer running the right software, so I only use it to call out, not receive calls. That software is supposed to be disabled when outside of the USA, but I did find that I could call my credit card company in the USA from Budapest Hungary last month when my credit card stopped working. I carry a separate mic and headphone unit that plugs into it for making phone calls.

I haven't gone on my first tour yet.... Still gearing up for it gonna go sometime in sept when the weather cools a bit. Anyway scored a Dell netbook for $100 last night. It is still under warranty until Dec 2011. The previous owner never registered it so I'm thinking about registering it and extending the warranty since I'm going to be taking it on the bike. Normally I would never extend a warranty, but since I got it so cheaply.... I'm going to check into it. Like the previous poster said... no CD or DVD drive but no biggie there. It does have a built in webcam and mic... Just need to find a case and a drybag for it..

Cheers.... Jay...

My choice. It is not like you are going to die if the computer goes down. Another thing to think about is getting a refurbished business class laptop. They are a bit better built than standard consumer versions. I routinely get 4-5 years out of Dell D-6XX in a field environment, and they aren't babied. Not abused, I keep them in a padded case for carrying. I would use a dry bag and a padded case for cycling. Look for something like the Dell D430 to get a compact model. FWIW I currently travel (not by bike) with a Dell Mini-10 and a Dell D630. The Mini-10 uses a SSD drive and can get close to 8 hours of battery life.

Aaron

For what its worth I'm the local computer guy here in my VERY small neck of the woods. So I run across quite a few deals. Last week a friend brought over a Dell D610 that he found in the garbage.. Hooked up the universal charger went to bios but the hard drive was bad. Got it for 15 bucks..... Thought about taking it on my tour.. but just tooooooo heavy.. It weighs more than my 17in laptop. But you are right they are pretty rugged. Another friend brought a similar model over that was in a car wreck with them they needed there info off of it. The screen was broke, it had a slight curve to the base.... But it still booted up...

Jay....

a solid state hard drive is available now in Netbooks. no spinning disc.

The Waterproof is in how you pack it, not the thing itself.

I can't see where it's necessary on a bike tour, unless you plan on a long off-road tour and want to just throw the thing around, leave it outside, or maybe tie a rope to it and drag it behind the bike.

I've toured with a $250 Acer Aspire One and have had no difficulties whatsoever. Like Tourist in MSN, I have one of those neoprene sleeves to keep it in, and I always pack it vertically in a pannier so there's nothing putting weight on it. I pack it in the middle of the (waterproof) pannier and pack soft things (like clothes or a towel) around it. Never had a problem. A couple of years ago my touring partner carried an identical one on our 1800-mile tour of Central America, including about 100 miles of rough dirt and gravel road riding. She packed it the same way, never had a single problem. And both of these have the traditional hard drives, not the solid-state ones.

Also, some of those rugged ones weigh a ton. One was over 8 pounds! One (forget which one) was quite light at 2.3 pounds, but definitely not cheap. Save the money and just get an inexpensive netbook.

Thanks everyone for your good advice!
Neil

What do you all think of using a Apple MacBook Air 11-inch MC968LL/A. It' 2.5 pounds and has superb ratings. Is it tough enough fortouring on pavement?

I have carried stock PCs on long bike trips for 20+ years:
- carried 286 Sharp across USA in '92
- carried HP Omnibook 800 across Canada in '97
- carried Sony Vaio around Australia in '01 and different one across Russia in '07
- carried these and other laptop PCs
I've has disk drives go bad (in Vaio in Australia) and broken screens not on bike trips.

However, in general reliability of stock laptops has been remarkably good. Given newer trends to solid state drives and different form factors like tablets, I don't see that I would carry the extra weight or pay extra cost for a specially rugged-ized PC. Instead, make sure everything is packed in waterproof casing and sometimes add some foam for shock. I also make sure my sensitive data is saved on USB or other secondary drive (sometimes on two such drives) and consider it good enough.