mtalinm

If you carry your laptop to and from work like I do, then maybe you dislike the extra weight on your shoulders. if there's one place I hate weight it's on my shoulders

turns out that the battery is a significant % of the weight in many laptops. for my Thinkpad it's about 1/3 of the total weight. I save 1.25# this way. doesn't sound like a lot, but every little bit helps

so I got a backup battery, and I leave one at home one at work. I hibernate the machine before leaving (saves state to disk) and just reinsert the battery whenever I get to my destination.

won't help obviously if you have a "third place" like Starbucks

Fizzaly

or just throw it all in a pannier and all is done

AdamDZ

Yup, use a pannier. Problem solved.

tjspiel

Until you want stop somewhere in between work and home. Now you're faced with leaving the laptop on the bike, taking it out of the pannier, or taking the pannier along with you. With a backpack or mess bag, the laptop comes with you by default.

For me a fairly lightweight laptop and a backpack designed for cycling has solved the problem.

Andy_K 

Or you could leave it at work.

mtalinm

Also, my roadie commuter won't take a rack and my folder is sensitive to a lot of weight at the rear

kh777

If all you do is go between two places, get an extra AC adapter and leave it at one of the places. That's another half a pound. Obviously, that won't work too well if you make an unexpected stop and need AC power.

Fizzaly

Sounds like it works for ya I never knew the terms weight weenie and commuter went hand in hand, man i must be you're worst enemy

AdamDZ

It takes like 10 seconds to take the pannier off and many have shoulder straps.

mtalinm

some of us work more than 9-5. plus, how would I access BF from home???

mtalinm

great poin t- i never carry an a/c adapter

corkscrew

I was discussing this with a friend/co-worker the other day. She works from home, and only has to come to the office once or twice a week. The laptop is her only comp for work, so she needs it wherever she is. However the battery weighs 9ish lbs, (they give out top notch equipment here lemme tell ya). Her solution is exactly that. Two batteries.

Andy_K 

Yeah, I know, but I'm against that. It's worse than riding on the sidewalk.

Maxxxie

For the last 12 months, I've commuted with my laptop in a cycling backpack. It's been fine, but I've finally made the move to panniers. Now, I put the backpack (complete with laptop etc) inside the pannier. This way, I can leave the pannier attached to the bike, then grab the backpack complete and go wherever I need to go. The advantage for me is that I don't need to transfer stuff out of my normal backpack into the pannier. On days that I don't ride to work, I know that everything is in my backpack and don't need to worry about having left something behind in the pannier. It's a solution that works well for me

Max

no1mad 

During my most recent attempt at school, I started out lugging my laptop. By the time I was done, I was down to a USB thumb drive and Google Docs.

fietsbob

Yea, Just load stuff that you need in both places on a thumbdrive ,
or any removable memory card that will run on both ends of the trip.
and just move with that in your pocket.

Seattle Forrest

How far is your commute, and how many foot-pounds do you save this way? Sorry. It's actually a great tip.

HardyWeinberg

I fried my 1st laptop's motherboard by leaving the battery out of it, apparently it was an important resistor when plugged in, as well as a source of power when unplugged. This was like 15 years ago, they probably make them better now. But you aren't putting any power in at all while the battery is out. That is pretty cool.

HardyWeinberg

(I am enough of a weight weenie to have multiple chargers, but not enough to pop open the case and pull the battery at each end of a trip)

3speedslow

I have the IBM thinkpad too. It goes into the backpack and then fits nicely into the plastic crate on the backrack.

Weight not a problem.

oban_kobi

What about a netbook? You could sync it with your other laptop. I got mine for $299 on tigerdirect, a Toshiba. I have a HP HDX laptop, but after two trips I saw that wasn't going to work. The netbook is about 3 pounds including the battery.

Timber_8

well I have a Carradise Bike beuro pannier for my 17 inch laptop when I need to take it into work but I have moved to my netbook that fits into the top compartment of topeak trunk bag. an external hard drive is a great option too

mtalinm

netbook is too slow for me. but I am thinking of a second machine, either a Lenovo Thinkpad x200s or a 11" Macbook Air. I just hate the idea of syncing - heard all the hype about Dropbox etc but not impressed

ptle

This is one reason why I got a netbook with a solid state drive. Carrying my 15" Dell laptop was a pain not only because it was heavy, but it was also bulky and wasn't a comfortable shape to put in the messenger bag.

My netbook is plenty fast and it's over a year old (HP mini 110 xp) The combination of the solid state drive and some tweaks I've done has made it pretty good at performance. I've done some video editing, HD video, playing WoW, etc. It's not bad... they're definitely getting better.

mtalinm

+1 on the SSD. my laptop screams with one, and I won't go back anytime soon. i need the quick chip for statistical calculations, otherwise I might think of a netbook.

seems though that the Thinkpad x200(s) and 11" macbook air are full powered laptops at the form factor and weight of a netbook. so I'll grab one of those