Data, data everywhere -- but how to sip it?

I was going to go look at a Blackberry Pearl today and decide if I was going to get one before going on the trip, but the roads here in Toronto were so bad after freezing rain and then snow that I decided to wait until tomorrow. The news reported 200 accidents by mid-day today.

I've also decided to look at the HP iPAQ hw6955, which, unlike the Pearl, has WiFi. The HP uses a trimmed-down version of a Microsoft OS so, combined with a real-sized keyboard, it would act much as a tiny laptop would.

The HP is a pint-sized dynamo that would allow me to test for free WiFi access in Europe without the bulk of a laptop. But I won't have enough time to chase down a holographic keyboard I've been lusting after.

It would have a better chance of surviving the trip intact, though. As a friend pointed out very early this morning, the vibrations from more than 1,400 kilometres of bike travel might not be very healthy for my laptop's hard drive, even if I pad it carefully with foam and bubblewrap.

The HP, unfortunately, is $650 with a three-year plan, and the Pearl is only $249. That's a pretty big difference.

The moon must have been in klutz yesterday. I was so upset over Passport Canada's redial queue hell and conflicting information from Passport Canada employees that I forgot to mention the weirdness that resulted in reserving the bike I'm renting by fax and phone.

About half a dozen emails I sent to Frederick at Business-bikes.com went into a black hole instead of his In box. They failed to reach him at either of the email addresses posted on their website.

So yesterday I faxed Frederick a printout of the most recent of those emails, along with the instructions for installing the Gerbing's battery harness.

Not long after noon, their technician read the description of the installation and confirmed that he will attach the harness, so I booked a Honda CBF600 for the Amsterdam leg of the trip.

I've always owned cruisers and this will be the first time I've driven a sport bike. My son Shawn has been trying to convince me I should try a sport bike for my next bike, so this will be a good test to see if I like them.

From the information I've found on the Web, it doesn't look like Honda sells this bike in North America. It and the Yamaha FZ6 Fazer are the two 600cc bikes Business.com rents in the size and seat height that I want. The Fazer seems to be a popular offering with some of the other motorcycle touring companies, as well.

Apparently the Fazer and the CBF600 were designed for riders who, like me, are transitioning from cruisers. I've been told that the torque on sport bikes make them twitchier than cruisers, but the riding position is probably the biggest difference.

On a cruiser, the sitting and foot peg positions allow you to sit straight up and place your feet in front, much the same as if you were sitting in a chair. The pegs, brakes and clutch shifter on most sports bikes are positioned further back and you have to lean forward over the gas tank to reach the handlebars.

This is a more aerodynamic position than sitting straight up, as you do on a cruiser, but it changes the centre of gravity and your legs end up angled toward the back of the bike. The peg position on both the CBF600 and the Fazer is not as extreme as on most sport bikes, so although you still have to lean over the tank a bit to reach the handlebars, there isn't as big a change in the foot position to adjust to..

I want to get past my skittishness about sport bikes. This, I think, is a confidence issue that should resolve itself (or not) by the time I've gone a few dozen kilometres. Kind of like driving a three--tonne truck for the first time instead of a car. It takes a little while to wrap your brain around the size and how you fit in traffic (and parking spots) but you accommodate and your body memory soon adopts the different handling.

And if 20 kilometres down the road from the rental agency I'm still freakin' out over the bike's weird ergonomics, I can always turn around and drop another $200 on the weekend by renting a Honda Scrambler, an antique cruiser they have in their fleet.

The only other cruiser alternative is a Harley 1450 Roadking, which weighs in the neighbourhood of a honking 700 pounds and will cost more than $800 for three days. Ouch.