slcp

I tour with bikepacking (saddle, handlebar and partial frame) bags on road on a road bike, the one thing I would love be able to take with me is my macbook air. Unfortunately the shape of the bags don't permit it, I was wondering if anyone has heard of or can think of a way to attach a macbook air in a rugged, waterproof case to a chainstay?

Also is this a good idea? Total weight would be under 2kg and positioned correctly wouldn't interfere with my heels.

Any thoughts...

fietsbob

Ortlieb panniers are water proof their office bag is rectangular and mounts at an angle on the rear rack, so as to provide heel clearance.

https://www.ortlieb.com/en/produkt-d...=Office%20Bags

https://www.ortlieb.com/en/produkt-d...=Office%20Bags

Tubus Minimal rear rack .. tubus - Minimal QL3

djb

my first thought, from a photography background, is that even though it uses ssd instead of a hard drive, you're still talking a fricken lot of vibrations and bing-bing-boom going on all the time. Internal screws and bolts could very well come loose and mess up the whole shibang.
Transporting camera equipment regularly in cars and on dollies, once in a while we would find a loose screw in a med format camera, not very often, but I guess my gist is that no matter what you consider, you'd really be wise to figure out some heavy duty foam setup to absorb as much of the constant little and not so little vibrations that a frame is going to go through.
The main advantage of the macbook air is that it is so thin, so a multi layered foam setup would be fairly effective, depending on how its done and if you can make sure it stays in place and keeps the laptop from being in solid contact with the frame.

I dunno, seems to me a pannier would still be the best way to go, just because you could isolate the laptop from solid stuff and the give of the pannier itself (soft sides I mean) would help along with lots of loose padding to absorb the vibrations.

fietsbob

Yea think 90% padding 10% lap top .


I could think of a way to mount an Air Tight - Pelican case to the top of a rear rack.

Marcus_Ti

My thought...if you have to ask, "is this a good idea?" then the answer is almost certainly "No".

Tourist in MSN

I like 7 inch Android tablets for bike trips. Put in my handlebar bag. Terrible for typing, but where I have wifi (usually restaurants) it gives me e-mail, weather forecasts and radar, ability to make motel or bus or train reservations, find grocery stores, transfer funds from savings into a debit card account, etc. My first tour I carried a netbook but since then have used Android based tablets. My most recent tablet purchase cost about $65, so if it do something stupid with it, not a huge loss. Some but not all tablets can also be used to backup photos in internal memory in case your camera is stolen.

skimaxpower

When on tour, I like being able to lock my loaded bike to a rack outside a grocery store. I'm not really worried about someone stealing my stinky jacket or dirty sleeping bag. I would be worried about them stealing a laptop. Carrying things you can't afford to lose adds stress to your vacation.

Dave Cutter

Everything can be accomplished with a smartphone now.

mdilthey

Very few people in here seem to be interested in answering the question. Most want to tell OP why he's wrong.

I bikepack and I tried to think of just about every way to carry an 11-inch Macbook Air. I use a hydration pack with a foam sit pad in front of the computer in case I go down (not that that'll "save" it).

The kind folks at Gypsy By Trade keep a macbook air in a custom seat pack from Revelate Designs. I believe they're friends with Eric, but maybe he'd whip up another for you:



Another bikepacker, Logan at PedalingNowhere.com, used a Carradice to carry an 11-inch Macbook Air on a tour of Africa via Surly ECR:

staehpj1 

Personally, I am happy with a large smartphone, but if I were to take a Macbook Air, I would use a small light backpack. I think that the vibration would be greatly reduced as compared to putting it anywhere on the bike frame. The backpack could be pretty light. Maybe 2.4 pounds for the Air, 12 ounces for the backpack, and a bit of clothing as padding. It should be comfortably under 5 pounds total, a weight which I have found to be fairly comfortable for a backpack.

indyfabz

Since you went there...He asks two questions:

"1. I was wondering if anyone has heard of or can think of a way to attach a macbook air in a rugged, waterproof case to a chainstay? (Emphasis added.)

"2. Also is this a good idea?"

How does your comment answer either?

mdilthey

He wants to carry a Macbook Air. "My phone does what I need" does not answer the question. Some of us tour while working, running websites, posting photography, and doing other tasks that are not accomplished using a phone. That's irrelevant to the trigger-happy posters that can't wait to tell someone what they want to do is wrong because it's not the way they personally do it.

So, to answer OP's question, I let others tell him the chainstay was a bad idea. djb's post very eloquently accomplishes that. I'm moving on to offering bikepacking-relevant methods for carrying Macbook Air 11-inch laptops using real-world testers from bikepacking blogs.

indyfabz

...attached to his chainstay. "Putting in a bag on a rack is one solution" doesn't address his question.

mdilthey

Did you read djb's post? OP has been pretty eloquently told this was a bad idea. I doubt he's wearing a "Chainstays or Bust!" t-shirt, so it's likely he still wants to carry a Macbook Air. Maybe he can correct me if my post isn't answering the main question here. OP is looking for a solution to a problem - if you can't see to that end, you get to be technically correct and win your internet fight.

You can PM me if you want to go deeper, this is even more irrelevant to this thread.

erig007

My system allows to carry up to 4, 18in laptops safely even if you fall and allows to attach them to the frame with no trouble, it's also waterproof, impact-resistant and theft-resistant (for under a minute, useful for quick stop).

Just for the sake of knowing
(It also allows to carry boxes of different size including big ones, 6 feet long lamps, backpacks....packs the size of milk or vinegar packs with no fixation required, allows to carry up to 20 rear lights + reflective tapes for incoming cars, allows to carry several suits and to attach bags able to carry more groceries than most bags on the market and increase the load than most racks alone allow.
All this into the same system that you attach to a rear rack)
It's not for sale though

mijome07

This came to mind: