Go Back  Bike Forums > Bike Forums > Touring
Reload this Page >

Keep tablet at home or take with?

Notices
Touring Have a dream to ride a bike across your state, across the country, or around the world? Self-contained or fully supported? Trade ideas, adventures, and more in our bicycle touring forum.

Keep tablet at home or take with?

Old 07-02-19, 10:32 AM
  #26  
fietsbob
Banned
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: NW,Oregon Coast
Posts: 43,598

Bikes: 8

Mentioned: 197 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 7607 Post(s)
Liked 1,354 Times in 861 Posts
Bring a Banjo.. a soprano Uke-Banjo would be compact..

fietsbob is offline  
Old 07-02-19, 11:45 AM
  #27  
Happy Feet
Senior Member
 
Happy Feet's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Left Coast, Canada
Posts: 5,126
Mentioned: 24 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2236 Post(s)
Liked 1,313 Times in 706 Posts
Originally Posted by 3speed
I’m certain I will forget things from my trips. I already have. For me, I’d rather experience more things than worry about forgetting the details of some of the things I’ve done. And I certainly don’t think so much of myself to think others want to sit around and read about me riding my bike. I take pictures while on my trips, but even those are basically just for me to look back on. No one wants to sit around and scroll through 100 pictures of trees, etc. I’m not hating on journaling at all. Obviously it’s a great thing that our world has lots of great writers. If that’s what you like to do, by all means do what makes you happy. Writing about my trip, and certainly sitting in my tent surfing the web for hours while on tour, doesn’t make me happy.
Not picking on you but the subject is of interest to me.

I work in an extended care facility and talk to many older people on the edge of death. They are often bored and one thing I ask them is: "Have they written their memoirs yet"? No is the answer and when I ask why they most likely say they have never done anything interesting in their lives. To put that in perspective, most of these people are from a cultural group that faced religious persecution in the soviet union, WW2 in Eastern Europe, post war flight or emigration to other countries but they still think they have nothing worth remembering.

It makes me sad for them and their families because both my mother and father passed away early without relating much of their history and we were left more or less guessing to fill in the blanks about their lives before we came into the picture. I was fortunate that I collected photographs and some geneology before my mothers passing or we, and all the grandkids etc.. would have no connection to our past. The only thing we have to pass on is our stories and when we die, the totality of our experience dies with us unless we pass that along in some form or another. I plan to fill in those gaps for my kids. The other day I attended a Scandinavian festival with my 19 YO son and he apparently did not even realize he was 1/4 Norwegian. Both grandparents on that side are dead so he only really has a living history of the maternal side. I spent the day relating what I knew from my research but again, if I were not a collector of stories that would be lost to him and his siblings and their children.

There is also a large portion of my life that occured before I met and married my wife of which my children either a. don't know about or b. don't believe I really did. When they are ready I mean to have a record available to them. Not just of what I did but of what I thought at the time and how my perceptions of life developed and evolved. I hope this will help them to understand me better and guide their own outlook on life. The written record is important in that sense because their lifestyle and mine are very different at the moment (computers vs outdoor pursuits) and there isn't the ability to share experiences in real life in a way that I'd like but accept.

I also think we gain inspiration from others, especially in the small things where we feel we are the only ones who are going through a process like a spouse or child dying, job loss, etc... We all have a wealth of experience but most feel theirs is not important. One may say they don't believe in journaling or memoirs or collecting and transmitting experiences but that's the entire premise this sub forum is based on and what other sites like CGOAB are about.

Lastly, who's to say what is important to relate and whats not. If one looks at Walden by Henry Thoreau it's just a story about some dude that lived in a cabin by a lake and grew beans for a stretch. He didn't do anything really interesting but it is considered a seminal work for those of a naturalist bent because he recorded his thoughts and feelings while doing so. History made it important but at the time it was just a journal.
Happy Feet is offline  
Likes For Happy Feet:
Old 07-02-19, 01:42 PM
  #28  
djb
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Montreal Canada
Posts: 13,191
Mentioned: 33 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2731 Post(s)
Liked 952 Times in 783 Posts
happy, Ive mentioned this before, but my work experience is similar, and I share your interest, enthusiasm and importance of recording life history stuff.
And as a caregiver, talking of life and family history stuff is always fascinating to me, and an important part of my sharing/bonding/interaction with folks, and one that I really enjoy.
djb is online now  
Likes For djb:
Old 07-02-19, 07:26 PM
  #29  
Happy Feet
Senior Member
 
Happy Feet's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Left Coast, Canada
Posts: 5,126
Mentioned: 24 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2236 Post(s)
Liked 1,313 Times in 706 Posts
I get that it's not for everyone and hence the note that I wasn't speaking directly about 3speed.

I can also see two reasons that someone might not find value in recording stuff. One good, one not so good.

If someone actually shares the majority of their adventures with others whom they value then there is really no need to copy what has already been shared. I think of our fellow member Doug who tours with his wife and daughters. In my case no one else wants to do what I do, at the moment, so if I ever want them to understand what I feel is valuable then I need to record it in some way for them. I could depend on just verbally retelling it but through life experience I am too aware of my mortality to leave it to fate. Both my parents died by the time I was in my mid 30's, I engage in several potentially risky activities and I work with a population struck down by diseases like Parkinsons and Alzheimer's. It's akin to people who think having a will makes sense but don't have one themselves because there is always time for that down the road. After telling so many residents they should record their life experience I decided I should do the same myself.

The second reason is that people don't think their lives are something worth writing about. I myself have fallen prey to that thinking and put off doing so until I had "achieved" something noteworthy but then had an epiphany when I realized it was not the one great thing I might do but the arc of my collective experience that was important... to someone maybe. In some ways it's kind of sad to put off or think we have nothing worth relating. I do believe we create our own realities and if we think our lives are nothing notable - then they are.

Yet literature is full of ordinary people recording ordinary lives that add to the collective whole of life. I mentioned Walden earlier, but also was influenced by Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire and William Beebe's journals as a zoologist. Dick Proenneke did nothing more than record his day to day life by film in Alone in the Wilderness. What was On the Road by Jack Kerouac but a rambling disjointed road journal. More to the topic is a great story about early bicycle touring called The Lost Cyclist which relies on the journal writings of Frank Lenz and a secondary figure in the story William Sachtleben, who no one remembers as the first person to circumnavigate the world by bicycle but is key n this stry as the guy who sets off in search of Lenz. If not for Sachtleben's daily reports no one would remember Lenz who lies in an unmarked grave somewhere in Turkey.

It is also a natural part of development and the aging process noted by many psychologists like Erikson as a period of reflection and culmination of life accomplishment. That can either be done by some notable feat or legacy or by mentorship through the recounting of lessons learned. This usually happens at the end of life but can be accelerated if one has a terminal disease (for example) or exposure to death - which I think is the motivation in my case. I see journal writing as a mental savings account for retirement in that way. Unfortunately, if one puts off recording life events until their 70-90's they may be hampered by neurological deficits by then.

Last edited by Happy Feet; 07-02-19 at 07:33 PM.
Happy Feet is offline  
Old 07-03-19, 01:16 AM
  #30  
3speed
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 3,473
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 363 Post(s)
Liked 28 Times in 22 Posts
That is honestly all really interesting to me. I would have probably been really into the psychological aspects, the psychological things in relation to age, etc, earlier in my life. And I probably will be again, hopefully sooner rather than later in my life. Due to life circumstances, I just haven't been as intellectual and into reading for the past decade or so. But no matter what, I'm glad you feel that way, and glad you express it. It's our differences, and respecting each other and our differences, that make the world such an interesting and potentially great place. Of course I don't feel exactly the same way as you, but I'm glad you feel the way you do. I'm glad for what our different opinions can add to the world.

Bikeforums has never gotten so "heavy"... Old age, mortality, psychology... Who'd have thought the question of taking a tablet on tour would be so monumental?
3speed is offline  
Old 07-03-19, 07:34 AM
  #31  
mev
bicycle tourist
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Austin, Texas, USA
Posts: 2,278

Bikes: Trek 520, Lightfoot Ranger, Trek 4500

Mentioned: 13 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 461 Post(s)
Liked 249 Times in 171 Posts
A few related thoughts on recording trips, memoirs, blogs, etc - getting a little afield from tablets per se...

* Length of the trip also matters. I've kept a web page/blog for most of my trips longer than a week. At least half of the one-week trips I recorded I did after the trip. Downloaded photos and wrote up an chronological accounting but not during the trip itself. There are also a number of one-week trips that I intended to write down that never quite made it to paper... But particularly on a trip of a month or more - I see it a bit different. A one week trip can be a quick vacation, a six-month or year trip it becomes a different lifestyle change. In addition to recording long trip - writing/recording is something I enjoy doing and it also becomes an indirect way to be on the trip while also maintaining contact with people on a more fixed basis.

* On my last long trip, 18-months in total, I actually used time in the trip to write a book, my "Bike Trip Memoirs". Recounting things in a memoir form is also a different approach for me. On a blog, I'll mostly write down what happened and some interesting photos or things that caught my attention. I don't worry as much about how it is written or whether it is particularly repetitious. In writing the book, I worried more about a particular audience and how the account could be told. I went back to my previous journals to jog my memories - and was happy I had them written down. On the whole, I am glad I wrote things down at least as much for myself.

* One thing that has intrigued me is also reading and looking at some journals. I find it intriguing to see how different people on the same trip often pick up very different aspects in what they write and what they notice. In that sense they sometimes also serve different purposes. Some are thoughts and feelings, some are descriptions of services/events and even data of distances/speeds/rates. That is partially what makes some of this interesting to observe.
mev is offline  
Old 07-03-19, 07:41 AM
  #32  
indyfabz
Senior Member
 
indyfabz's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 39,051
Mentioned: 210 Post(s)
Tagged: 1 Thread(s)
Quoted: 18318 Post(s)
Liked 15,276 Times in 7,225 Posts
Originally Posted by 3speed
Bikeforums has never gotten so "heavy"... Old age, mortality, psychology... Who'd have thought the question of taking a tablet on tour would be so monumental?
+1.

If you want to take a tablet to write, take a tablet to write. If you don't, don't.

If you want to take a book/eReader to read, take a book/eReader to read. (I read 1 1/3 books during my recent trip.) If you don't, don't.

Lather, rinse, repeat.
indyfabz is offline  
Old 07-03-19, 08:36 AM
  #33  
Happy Feet
Senior Member
 
Happy Feet's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Left Coast, Canada
Posts: 5,126
Mentioned: 24 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2236 Post(s)
Liked 1,313 Times in 706 Posts
Originally Posted by 3speed
...Bikeforums has never gotten so "heavy"... Old age, mortality, psychology... Who'd have thought the question of taking a tablet on tour would be so monumental?
Next up - incontinence products on tour!

At least this sub forum gets into the experienrial side of its topics more than some others so it isn't just a consumer review site. If I see one more "what's the best gravel tire to buy..." I'll SNAP
Happy Feet is offline  
Old 07-03-19, 02:58 PM
  #34  
3speed
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 3,473
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 363 Post(s)
Liked 28 Times in 22 Posts
Originally Posted by Happy Feet
Next up - incontinence products on tour!
lol Well when it goes there, I'm out! I'm not That old yet.
3speed is offline  
Old 07-10-19, 10:02 PM
  #35  
Carbonfiberboy 
just another gosling
 
Carbonfiberboy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Everett, WA
Posts: 19,500

Bikes: CoMo Speedster 2003, Trek 5200, CAAD 9, Fred 2004

Mentioned: 115 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3872 Post(s)
Liked 1,920 Times in 1,369 Posts
Originally Posted by fietsbob
how old were you in 1976?
31. The last long tour I took, I wished I had a tablet with USB port, so I could plot courses and move the TCX file into my Garmin. And I really wanted a halfway decent map screen. I haven't used paper maps in a long time.
__________________
Results matter
Carbonfiberboy is offline  
Old 07-11-19, 03:33 AM
  #36  
gauvins
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: QC Canada
Posts: 1,950

Bikes: Custom built LHT & Troll

Mentioned: 12 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 832 Post(s)
Liked 141 Times in 100 Posts
Originally Posted by Carbonfiberboy
31. The last long tour I took, I wished I had a tablet with USB port, so I could plot courses and move the TCX file into my Garmin. And I really wanted a halfway decent map screen. I haven't used paper maps in a long time.
Interesting. What is your setup? On which platform do you plan your route? To which device do you want to push it?

I've faced this problem years ago. Ended up using a phone instead of a bike computer.

I have a Forerunner 910 that requires physical connection to upload courses. I "think" that it would be possible to use an OTG USB adapter and appropriate software to upload courses, but never bothered as I could access a computer often enough.

I "think" that Bluetooth or wifi enabled Garmin devices can get courses via Garmin's Connect app. You'd generate a gpx file from whatever routing app on your phone, import into Connect and sync with your device.
gauvins is offline  
Old 07-11-19, 11:03 AM
  #37  
Carbonfiberboy 
just another gosling
 
Carbonfiberboy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Everett, WA
Posts: 19,500

Bikes: CoMo Speedster 2003, Trek 5200, CAAD 9, Fred 2004

Mentioned: 115 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3872 Post(s)
Liked 1,920 Times in 1,369 Posts
Originally Posted by gauvins
Interesting. What is your setup? On which platform do you plan your route? To which device do you want to push it?

I've faced this problem years ago. Ended up using a phone instead of a bike computer.

I have a Forerunner 910 that requires physical connection to upload courses. I "think" that it would be possible to use an OTG USB adapter and appropriate software to upload courses, but never bothered as I could access a computer often enough.

I "think" that Bluetooth or wifi enabled Garmin devices can get courses via Garmin's Connect app. You'd generate a gpx file from whatever routing app on your phone, import into Connect and sync with your device.
For platform, I use RidewithGPS.com, premium account. I have hundreds of routes saved there. I move the route(s) to my Garmin 800, purchased in '10. The Garmin Edge 830 is the newest in that line. On a long tour, I break the route down to sections of under 400k. I usually pre-plan the whole tour, but sometimes things don't work out that way. Being able to create and upload new routes at a WiFi hotspot would be wonderful.
__________________
Results matter
Carbonfiberboy is offline  
Old 07-13-19, 04:49 AM
  #38  
gauvins
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: QC Canada
Posts: 1,950

Bikes: Custom built LHT & Troll

Mentioned: 12 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 832 Post(s)
Liked 141 Times in 100 Posts
Originally Posted by Carbonfiberboy
For platform, I use RidewithGPS.com, premium account. I have hundreds of routes saved there. I move the route(s) to my Garmin 800, purchased in '10. The Garmin Edge 830 is the newest in that line. On a long tour, I break the route down to sections of under 400k. I usually pre-plan the whole tour, but sometimes things don't work out that way. Being able to create and upload new routes at a WiFi hotspot would be wonderful.
You may want to investigate the possibility of uploading a course via Garmin Connect. AFAIK, Connect, on a phone, can import a locally generated GPX file and add it to your courses collection. It can also push a course to a connected device. I'd like to be more specific but am currently travelling... will update when I get hold of a more recent watch (Fenix 5) and let you know if generating a course on a phone and pushing it to this device works well or not (on/offline). You may also want to explore Garmin's IQ store. There are hundreds of apps and add-ons for fitness watches. Might be something for bike computers as well.

This being said, I'd suggest that you consider a Forerunner 935/945 or something from the Fenix 5 family instead of a bike computer. The only drawback that I can think of is their smallish screens. OTOH, bike computers are useless for running. A smartwatch + smartphone covers most use cases. Assuming network availability, you could generate a route on rideWithGPS, export to your phone, import with Connect and push it to your device.
gauvins is offline  
Old 07-13-19, 07:26 AM
  #39  
Tourist in MSN
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 11,112

Bikes: 1961 Ideor, 1966 Perfekt 3 Speed AB Hub, 1994 Bridgestone MB-6, 2006 Airnimal Joey, 2009 Thorn Sherpa, 2013 Thorn Nomad MkII, 2015 VO Pass Hunter, 2017 Lynskey Backroad, 2017 Raleigh Gran Prix, 1980s Bianchi Mixte on a trainer. Others are now gone.

Mentioned: 47 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3426 Post(s)
Liked 1,441 Times in 1,122 Posts
I also carried a 7 inch tablet before using a smart phone. But my phone with 5.5 inch screen is big enough that with some extra strong reading glasses I can see detail on it as well as I could on the tablet with weaker reading glasses. Both my tablet and phone were Android so the apps were the same.

A side note - I think my tablet with larger screen consumes power faster than my phone, if you have much screen time that is another factor.
Tourist in MSN is offline  
Old 07-27-19, 12:23 PM
  #40  
Brett A
Word.
 
Brett A's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Rural New England
Posts: 232

Bikes: Surly Disc Trucker, Orbea Oiz XCountry Bike, Specialized Roubaix, Borealis Echo Fat Bike for Winter, many others out in the barn.

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 64 Post(s)
Liked 99 Times in 51 Posts
If you feel your tablet offers you functionality that your phone doesn't in every day life, the question of bringing it on tour comes down to whether or not you want to carry the weight, deal with keeping it charged and keep it from getting broken. The reason not to take it wold be simplicity.

It really comes down to a personal choice. My rule of thumb is to take as few things that need batteries as possible. I've got it down to three: my smart phone, my rechargeable blinky and my basic cycle computer.

But there's no wrong way to do it. You could always mail the tablet home if you decide you didn't want it with you any longer.
Brett A is offline  
Old 07-28-19, 06:56 PM
  #41  
Bike Jedi
Banned.
 
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 195
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 87 Post(s)
Liked 8 Times in 8 Posts
Originally Posted by staehpj1
I'll probably never go much over 20# base again though....
What does this mean?
Bike Jedi is offline  
Old 07-29-19, 04:43 AM
  #42  
staehpj1
Senior Member
 
staehpj1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Tallahassee, FL
Posts: 11,837
Mentioned: 7 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1236 Post(s)
Liked 744 Times in 554 Posts
Originally Posted by Bike Jedi
What does this mean?
People have different ideas of weight accounting depending on what they are trying to track and what their goals are. I won't knock their methods if they suit their goals, but think my method makes sense for me.

When I say gear weight I am looking at packing choices so my body weight, bike weight, food weight, and so on while important are not part of those basic choices so not relevant to me in those choices. So for me, base weight is packed gear weight including bags, clothing, tent, and all camping/cooking gear, but not consumables (food or water). I generally also exclude the one set of clothing that I have on at all times while riding.

I don't include consumables because they vary too much during the trip or even during the day in the case of water. Food doesn't generally amount to much on most trips since I try to shop daily where possible, but for backcountry bike packing, like backpacking food adds 2.5 pounds per day or so. For "normal" touring food choices are a daily choice for backcountry trips where you may be away from resupply for longish periods food packing can take on some of the same challenges. I guess that could be true for very rural back road touring as well, but I have not found that to be the case on my tours.
staehpj1 is online now  
Likes For staehpj1:
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Cyclist0094
Touring
18
06-30-17 08:34 AM
Tandem Tom
Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets
11
08-19-14 03:29 AM
Spld cyclist
Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets
71
05-29-14 05:33 AM
Ridefreemc
Touring
35
05-17-12 11:28 AM
Tende
Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets
25
03-31-12 09:29 AM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.