Cycle Sense

Gadgets, Mail and Money
Opinions vary widely, and with passion

By John Schubert

will break you of keeping a telephone stuck in your ear, wrote Bikeskisg2@aol.com. Cellular Telephone Pro I'll be packing one on all of my future tours, especially when I'm the leader of a tour, wrote Frank Moritz. The leader of a long-distance tour in the US can no longer take for granted the availability of pay phones in remote areas. This is a serious problem when you need to make advance campground reservations, etc. Check out www.mobile911.com. We're taking one this summer on our TransAmerica ride, wrote Jim and Celeste Parsons. On large tours (GOBA, RAGBRAI, etc.) having your own phone is essential since the lines at the pay phones are endless, noted Dave Bialosky. One other benefit: if you are being harassed by a motorist or a car full of teenagers, pulling out the cell phone is a nearly sure-fire way to scare them off. By the way, dont carry the phone in your jersey pocket. In a fall, the phone could injure you. Sure, bring it; obvious safety benefit but leave the damned thing turned OFF, wrote Ken Crossman. I got mine 5 years ago specifically to carry while mountain biking by myself in the local boondocks, wrote Don Burrell, a solo transcontinental tourist. I figured if I crashed, I'd be buzzard-chow before anyone found me. I got to carrying it with me on my road rides too. Electronic Speedometer/Odometer all comments were Pro Although I know that these devices can become a distraction, I wouldn't tour without one, wrote Frank Moritz. I enjoy being absorbed in my surroundings while touring, and the odometer can serve as a valuable reference to where I am. Also, the Adventure Cycling maps are almost designed to be used with an odometer. My only gripe: few people calibrate their odometer correctly, so the various tour participants' mileage readings vary by many miles! It's part of my bike; I feel naked without it, wrote the anti-cell-phoner William Taffe. I don't obsess about speed but I do like to know what I hit on the last downhill, how pokey I am on an uphill, or how far into the ride I am. I am a numbers freak and I NEVER ride anywhere without one, wrote Dave Bialosky. On tour with a map or cue sheet, it is an essential navigation tool. I'm partial to the Cat-Eye Enduro/Mity twins for their reliability, waterproofness, long battery life and reasonable cost. An altimeter function would be nice but I've never seen one I trust. Even the cell phone hater Stuart Baird came down on the positive side of speedometers, albeit without much enthusiasm. Yea, I suppose. Not essential, but helps answer people who ask how many miles you've gone. And Alan Horwitz said, Definitely include. I'm not dependent on it, nor obsessed with it, but it is invaluable as a navigation aid. Also good for embellishing war stories (That head wind was so strong I could only make 5mph in my lowest gear.). Palmtop Computer: Con It's not needed for biking. If a trip has another purpose
ver since I asked for your opinions on taking along gadgets, receiving mail, and handling money for touring, insightful comments have been coming in droves. Consensus, however, appears unlikely. Yall disagree on the suitability of most gadgets with great passion. The very first person to write to me foresaw this. John Higham wrote, Everyone is right and wrong at the same time. If you are riding with folks you don't know well, don't ask and don't tell. I've learned that it is a bit like reli-

PHOTO BY DAN DAMBROSIO

Why let a weather radio ruin a perfectly fine morning?
gion and politics -- you don't mention it in polite company. May the disagreements begin: Cellular Telephone Con Please leave it home, for the sake of the other rider, wrote William Taffe. If a person has to carry an electronic chain, hopefully s/he will turn it off and leave it in his/her panniers Nay. Besides the fact that most of us are usually within spitting distance of house or car with a phone anyway, too many cyclists use a cell phone as an excuse not to learn how to do emergency bike service on their own, opined Stuart Baird. Cellar telephone touring? Use a telephone card. This
Adventure Cyclist August 2001
then it might be useful, wrote William Taffe. Ken Crossman:I went touring with a friend a few years ago who brought his Palm Pilot, and I was less than thrilled at his feeling compelled to periodically chase down a telephone for his "download fix", while I was seeking to avoid telephones like the plague while touring / vacationing in that lovely rural area. Crossmans comments were echoed by Alan Horwitz: It's helpful in my work, but maybe too much a reminder of what I'm trying to leave behind. There are enough other ways to communicate while on tour. Now heres a shock: Stuart Baird doesnt like them either! Like most computers, a very expensive way to do something you can do just as well with pencil and paper. Palmtop Computer: Pro While not as noble, reliable, or simple as pen and paper; for those folks who are not practiced in the discipline of keeping a journal, an electronic email device offers a valuable incentive to routinely communicate your experiences to your less fortunate friends you left behind, wrote Alwin Dieffenbach. Pocketmail: Pro I didnt specifically mention the Pocketmail in my original article, but it has ardent fans who compensated for my omission. The Pocketmail is the greatest advance in touring cycling since the invention of multiple gearing! Thus wrote John M. Mueller from his Pocketmail.com account. On a trip last summer from Florida to Washington, DC, I used my Pocketmail a couple of times a day to update family and friends. The only downside is that it does not contain a spell check editor. This causes constant embarrassment and continuous corrective e-mails from my mother. (Schubert: I solved a similar problem by letting mom complain about my miserable handwriting. There was no way she could discern my spelling.) Solo TransAm and Northern Tier veteran Christopher Reed is another Pocketmail fan: Instead of a cellular telephone, which won't work in remote locations, or a palmtop computer, which won't communicate without a telephone jack or cellular modem, take a Sharp TM-20 with pocketmail on your trip for two-way E-mail communication, Reed wrote. The Sharp TM-20 has an audio coupling and will send and receive E-mail from nearly all telephones (like a pay phone in the middle of nowhere). See page 28 of the September/October 1999 Adventure Cyclist for more information. Pager: Pro A messaging beeper is an even more convenient device for those whose needs

can be met with the ability simply to receive brief, incoming messages. A service such as Metrocall (www.metrocall.com) allows you to get numeric messages (i.e., phone numbers) and will also display brief e-mail messages sent via Metrocall's website. It runs on triple-A batteries, noted Moritz. Global Positioning System: Con Frank Moritz, who has led both Northern Tier and Great Divide tours, says no. Oh, please! I wouldn't even take such a device on the Great Divide route. A good set of mapping software from DeLorme Co. is a great asset for trip planning, and I use it extensively in conjunction with Adventure Cycling's great maps. Once you're on the road, however, I think GPS devices are a waste of time. Bill Taffe: Odometer and map are much better. A GPS is a wonderful toy but unnecessary while riding. Perhaps on some long, remote area trips it might be useful but for road riding it's not needed. Frankly there seem to be two groups of people: those who know how to read a map/compass/odometer and those who don't know how to use a map/ compass/odometer and can't find their way with the GPS either. Stuart retrogrouch Baird: Just returned from a tour with a guy who used to spend ten minutes every morning balancing the weights of his panniers. Now he spends that time acquiring satellites instead. Lots of entertainment value, if little real navigational help, and needs new batteries every two days. For off road touring use a topo map and a compass. They won't fail, wrote bikeskisg2@aol.com. In doubt take a map course. Asking directions you will meet people. Global Positioning System: Pro No-last-Name Robert wrote: You don't need a map to find a GPS useful. You create your own map. You can mark the location of the start, trail head etc. and then return along the same route. Also where you parked the car and your hotel. Helps to have a compass to get you started in the right direction Weather Radio: All comments were Con Nay. So you find out the forecast. What can you do about it? What else did you expect Stuart Baird to write? Digital Camera: Con Pass. Don't have one. I did take 500 slides on my cross-country tour. From my limited exposure to digital, I think I'd stay with film and a camera I didn't have to charge, wrote Don Burrell. Digital Camera: Pro
I will take a digital camera on my next trip. No more dumb pictures, wrote Bikeskisg2@aol.com. Personal Stereo: Con For those who can't handle solitude they are essential. For me, part of riding is to escape news broadcasts and talk show hosts, wrote William Taffe. NO WAY. If I want news, I don't need my own radio to get it. One of my favorite tour stories is going into a store in Idaho to buy groceries only to find out that they were being affected by a 5-state blackout. I thought, gee, that's tough, but it doesn't really affect me. I was no worse off for not knowing about it until then, wrote Alan Horwitz. Personal Stereo: Pro It, combined with a paperback book, comprise my home entertainment system when I am on the road and my tent is my home. In addition, it serves as my "weather radio" as I monitor the nightly news, wrote Tony Marley. Don't leave home without it, wrote Don Burrell. Condition: I made a decision to buy a radio only. No decisions about what tapes to take along. I listened to it nightly for the weather and local programming. I particularly enjoyed the programming of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. while touring the Northern Tier. How to handle money on tour: I carry and use credit cards whenever possible and try not to lose my cash. Using credit cards is handy in Canada or elsewhere outside the U.S., since the card issuer does all of the currency conversion math before the bill arrives. I've never bothered with traveler's checks. Ken Crossman wrote. Alan Horwitz: I usually take traveler's checks; for long tours I make sure there's enough funds in the account tied to my ATM card; the machines are more and more commonplace, even if you have to pay a fee to get the cash. Christopher Reed: Traveler's checks are obsolete. You can now get local currency about anywhere with an ATM card. I carry an ATM card and a credit card for all my financial needs on bike tours (just be sure someone back home is watching the account balance and paying the bills if you will be gone more than a month). Receiving mail on tour: Frank Moritz: Despite your apparent misgivings about the general delivery service of the US Postal Service, my one experience on my Northern Tier trip suggests that it generally works quite well. And on one tour, when one of my participants needed to have a new bike part FedEx'ed to a rural location, he arranged with the police

department in that small town to accept delivery for him! Alan Horwitz: I usually do without. Though I was able to pick up a package of my wife's home-baked cookies at the postoffice in Oxbow, Idaho. If you can predict where you will be with some accuracy, getting general delivery is not too tough. I also knew I'd be staying at certain friend's homes at differrent times, and was able to get mail at their addresses. And finally: Horwitz suggests bringing a microcassette recorder and dictating your experiences while riding. He recorded a live farm auction in North Dakota and replayed it at a slide show for his bike club. His wife enjoyed transcribing the tapes. (Schubert: Not all spouses would care to share in the experience this way. But at six ounces, its a nice lightweight accessory.) There you have it: holy wars on gadgets to bring touring. Make your own choices, and be diplomatic when others disagree.
The target of your abuse, Technical Editor John Schubert, is only a few keystrokes away at Schubley@aol.com.