Yesterday I bought a pair of InTransit waterproof panniers and am considering carrying my laptop. Anyone do anything similar and had any problems as far as damaging the laptop? A backpack is not an option for me because of back problems. Anyway I find a backpack makes me "top heavy" by raising the center of gravity.

I'd invest in a padded sleeve for the lappy before carrying it in anything on a bike.

I carry mine in a Trek grocery-bag style pannier, usually just throw it in with other miscellany. When it rains heavily I stick it in a trash bag. I ride with it this way every week day, have had no problems.

I VPN into work and use the machine there when I'm at home. I hate laptops; they are the worst of all worlds. I have a machine at work and one at home, I don't need one in between so why would I carry one around?
If VPN wasn't an option I'd carry just a hard drive. $100 and way less breakable than a laptop.

I'm with ItsJustMe.

Move the data, not the device. Flash drives are up to 8GB now and getting bigger all the time. Still, I prefer access over the wire, since flash drives are still a device and violate my rule.

That is what I do and I have strapped mine directly to the rack in a pinch. The sleeve I have came from Eagle Creek Luggage and they apparently don't make it any more. The closest I have seen recently are from LL Bean.

I carry my laptop to work in an Arkel commuter pannier. The Arkel pannier has a padded compartment for the laptop, and a separate compartment for clothes. It allows me to carry everything I need for the day in one bag.

I am still undecided on whether I would recommend this pannier to other people. It does carry everything I need, and it all fits in one bag so I have less to load and unload (I like getting the commute down to as few pieces of gear as possible).

However, it is pricey and very long...even though I commute on a touring bike (Trek 520) with long chainstays I still have some trouble with heelstrike.

I carry mine in a padded sleeve stuffed along with my clothes in a 32L messenger bag. It's fine when I'm on the bike, sheer death when I'm walking from lock-up to the classroom. I'm considering the pannier route, however, before this Groucho-like posture becomes permanent.

Can someone explain to me why strapping my laptop bag to my back rack would be a horrible, no good very bad idea? I understand that the jostling isn't great, but if the lappy isn't on?

It makes my back very sweaty.

Because things like the display can still break even when the lappy is powered down.

Gotcha.

Also, I wouldn't bet on the durability of things like the optical drive mechanism to take continual vibration and sudden shocks a whole lot of times, and there are probably a couple of dozen very tiny connectors inside most laptops, and they're just pressure fit on. Enough of just the right bumps and they could pop loose.

I still say, either access your work machine from home, or carry the work with you on a thumb drive (you can get 16GB thumb drives now pretty cheap) or a small hard drive (160G 2.5" externals will fit in a pocket and are around $100 and are very tough).

Regardless of where you hold your data, if it's on ANY kind of a device that you carry around, ENCRYPT IT. You have to assume that if it's on a portable device, it will be stolen at some point. Encryption is free, go get a copy of truecrypt.

I second the recommendation of truecrypt, and also will throw in a plug for Eraser as a good option for securely deleting your data. Anyway, I'm going to have to find a real laptop-lugging option because my job requires that I use a laptop at home, in the office, and in other places.

www.logmein.com

Been doing it for more than a year with no problems at all. I can't hook up any external devices to my work computer or my work network. That means no flash drives for my tunes or data. I can, however, use nearby free wireless from the library to access the Internet via my laptop, and have access to all I need. LogMeIn and other proxy services are banned. SSH and TOR Tunneling are banned and restricted by firewall policies, and if you try to circumvent those rules on your office computer, they have been known to terminate you.

Almost everyone brings in personal laptops where I'm at. My MacBook has encountered zero problems from being lugged the entire way to and from downtown almost 250 times last year.

Palm TIX. It does everything I need to do and it's small. That makes it easy to put in a well padded Pelican box. I can also charge it with my bicycle dynamo as I pedal along.

For those of you suggesting two desktops or logmein, flash drives, etc. Some of us HAVE to use laptops. I have no choice. My office is where ever I am on any given day. I can be in Apex, NC of Friday and by Monday I could be in Largo, FL or Claysburg, PA or Goose Creek, SC. Personally I prefer the laptop over a desktop for the portability. FWIW mine travels in a padded sleeve in a padded case. I am on my second laptop in 9 years and have never managed to break one using my packing method. I have had the bag dropped from 6' on to concrete (airline) fall off the tailgate of my truck, banged and kicked around. My original laptop is still functioning as a linux machine now and it was purchased new in 1999. If you shut them down properly and pad them they can survive quite well. For those that are really hard on a laptop...get a Panasonic ToughBook

Aaron

+1
Although I don't commute, I ride with my CF-18 laptop to a a good deal of places, in a kipling backpack. It's small and light enough to carry on my back. As mentioned, carrying an external HDD like the WD Passport 250 is the best alternative.

I had assumed that the OP was using the laptop for work purposes. At our location, personal laptops are, well, not banned, but not allowed to be hooked to the network, and there's no wireless within a mile, so there's really not much point in bringing one in.

Hooking up flash drives and other storage is OK though. And many people have work-provided laptops (lots of them travel with them).

So it depends on the purpose, and the rules at the employer.

Certainly, many people have to have a laptop, for travel or whatever. However, it's worth considering whether it's needed or not. If all you do with it is work in a couple of locations, especially if one of them is home and you already have a machine there, a laptop may not be the best solution.
Laptops are more expensive, much less expandable, have small screens and cruddy keyboards. Even the lightest ones are much heavier and bulkier than carrying around just a drive or flash drive. So if you don't NEED one, it's probably worth thinking about not having one.

I don't understand that product. WinXP has RDP built in, why do I need to go through another service (and possibly expose my data to intercept by some company)?

I prefer it to RDP.

Yep thats what I do. I have docking stations at home and work, so I only have to carry the laptop and none of the other stuff (power supplies, mouse, etc.) I got the smallest padded sleeve I could find that fit my laptop and a few other things (note book, pens, access card, token, etc.) I can fit it, a change of clothes and misc other stuff in one pannier (Rack Pack 1).

I wish I didn't have to carry it, but the security restrictions at work do not allow loading the VPN SW or company data on home personal computers, and they only provide one. I split time working from 2 locations, so I have to have it with me.

I've been dragging a laptop around on my bike for years. I normally use my Arkel Briefcase (more than worth the price since it's been serving me well for over 2 years of heavy commuting), but I've used backpacks and even a regular laptop bag I would throw into the Wald rear rack basket.

So long as it's dry, secure and decently padded it'll be fine.

My company says it's going to go the docking route, so people with laptops will have to take them to and from work every day and dock them to a thin client workstation there, and I admit I don't like that idea at all. Sure a pannier and padded cover ought to work, but I don't think even that would protect a laptop against any sort of crash. It's bad enough wrecking yourself in a bike-car argument. Do you really want the extra hassle of wrecking a laptop as well?