Originally Posted by
Redhatter
Well, I haven't tried doing any touring yet, but I have a 40W panel that I bought some time back. Probably a bit big and heavy to carry on the bike, but I'm thinking it'd make a nice top cover for a trailer.
I have to say that I have a hard time imagining a 40w solar panel making much sense for most touring unless they have gotten a lot lighter in recent years. Aren't the flexible ones something like 2-4 pounds and the rigid ones more like 8-10 pounds? You could carry a lot of batteries or a pretty big battery pack for less weight than even the flexible ones.
I guess if you will be away from civilization for weeks on end and need to use electronics a lot it might possibly make sense, but it seems like it would have to be a pretty unusual set of conditions and requirements.