Where do you carry your laptop?
 

Hi All,

My job as a writer requires a laptop, so I carry a small 11-inch Macbook Air when I tour.

It fits in an Ortlieb front roller with a neoprene case and a foam wrap, but I am nervous about vibration. I read an anecdote from one world traveler that vibration had claimed 3 digital cameras.

It has an SSD hard drive, so no moving parts. Anyone here carry a laptop in panniers for long, long distances with no damage? How do you pack it?

Thanks,
Max

Your scheme sounds fine .. why do you need the survey?

Worried ? add more padding .. cut up foam Sleeping pads ..

the camera anecdotes were likely in Handlebar bags .. could be moisture as well as vibration.



e-mail Backup your work to an online storage site so if your computer craps out

the contents will still be there . You can always buy a new laptop..

You're the Young computer expert .

that seems obvious thing to do, to me, & I dont even own a lap top.

I'm rather sure you'll be fine with it stored in the pannier . You may wish to post your question at crazyguyonabike.com as there are many tourist/writers there.

In the car. If it were personally owned by me I might be more inclined to carry it on the bike, but since it's company owned I really don't like carrying it on the bike. I don't want to find out what kind of trouble I get in if I damage it.

Without seeing the stories about the digital cameras, it's hard to tell if the electronic part was damaged (doubtful) or the lens (very likely).

Camera lenses are filled with springs and a whole other collection of bits and bobs which with enough vibration I'm sure can cause issues. Not to mention the random sand particle that could work it's way into the bag and get into the lens.

The only problems I would expect would be:
1) Vibration causing rubbing between the keyboard and screen....maybe. For this you could just get a piece of foam and stick it between the keyboard and screen.
2) Water and other stuff getting in the laptop. Keeping it somewhat isolated from the rest of your gear and in a waterproof section should solve this one though.

As mentioned above, whatever you do, back everything up before you go.

You may also consider an iPad + bluetooth keyboard combo as well.

Ha! Do you want to buy it for me? :)

Thanks for the suggestions, looking forward to some reports from people who have carried a netbook in a pannier on longer trips too.

I have everything backed up! No worries there.

The alternative to the pannier is a backpack, which I've already done several times, with the idea being that my body absorbs the shock. I would rather not tour with a backpack on, though, for obvious reasons. Waterproofing and dustproofing will be handled either by a drybag or by the Ortlieb pannier.

Thanks again for the ongoing suggestions!

You aint selling your writing?
the lap top replacement is a tax deduction if you file as a freelance professional writer ..

Its a tool needed to do your Business ..

Get a scheduled deduction at a depreciation rate over a few years ..

Maybe there should be a different depreciation rate on rapidly superceded,
replaced by upgrades on that stuff.

a Moore's Law depreciation schedule?

You know Macs cost a lot more than The other stuff, right .. It's a choice you made

I received a $300 tax deduction on my laptop this year as an expense for freelance writing, but the tax deduction is a fraction of the total cost of the laptop.

I might've been able to get away with a cheaper laptop than the Macbook Air, but the extra processing power and interface lets me work faster, so I end up making a bit more money and ease-of-use has it's own "cost" depending on who you ask. For me, it's more than zero.

I bought a Macbook Air with a SSD to "future-proof" myself a bit so I won't have to reinvest in a laptop for several years. The Mac desktop I bought when I was 17 in 2007 is still being used daily (I gave it to my parents as a gift). This laptop NEEDS to live a long time because I can only afford to invest in a laptop every once in a while.

It's worth a sweaty back to know that the laptop is safe from vibration, but if someone else out there has already taken a chance with a pannier over a few thousand miles with no issues, my paranoia will be dissuaded and I can make myself more comfortable on tour.

Worth the survey.

I carried a netbook across the country, does that count as long? It was always packed in the clothes pannier, in a neoprene case wrapped up in a plastic bag (clothes weren't always as dry as I'd like). That one has a spinning disk drive. After the trip was over, my daughter took it to grad school (too cheap to buy a real laptop, since she has access to a nice desktop in her lab). It's still working five years later, although the OS is no longer supported.

Thanks, pdlamb!

My wife carries our netbook in her rear pannier protected by a neoprene sleeve. It has the standard hard drive, and has survived over 10,000 miles on the back of her bike. Prior to our current netbook, we had an Acer netbook with the solid hard drive, but it had limited memory, and was very slow. We do a lot of photo work on trips including Photoshop, and needed more horse power; so we switched to the conventional drive and have had no problems. She has Ortlieb Packer Plus bags, and just slides the netbook in with her clothes.

The same with cameras. My wife's Nikon has been hauled in her bar bag for at least 12,000 miles with no issues. The same with mine. However, it it has less mileage, but gets harder use, and still no problems.

I have commuted for years with a standard laptop and not had any problems. Therefore, I really doubt you will have a problem with the small Air. I have a 13" Air. and it is built like a tanks, and as you mentioned it has no moving parts. I would put it in a really lightweight skin and throw it in the pannier. I think it will be find. I take iPads and laptops backpacking, camping, touring, never had a problem. I would just be careful of water. If they get wet... do not open (since a macbook automatically turns on), make sure it air dries, and it will probably work fine. I have dumped a glass of soda on my keyboard and I wiped it up and when it dried it worked fine.

The only suggestion I have is to try something like a $250 Chromebook for travelling. 16GB SSD in the laptop but the majority of the storage in online in Google Drive so its accessible anywhere even if the laptop explodes. They also have about 6 hours real work hours battery life and are fairly lightweight.

I haven't done any touring but I picked it up for that purpose. I carry mine about 60 miles a week to and from class and am really happy with the performance but you should educate yourself on the quirks of using a laptop that runs Google's Chrome OS.

My friend got a Windows Surface 3 .. As seen on TV ,,

I carried a Toshiba netbook on my last trip, which was 500 miles and about two weeks. I had lots of things to charge at that time. The netbook, phone, front and rear lights, a battery for a cool system (1.5 pounds), and a little mp3 player. I just checked in about every 3 days at a coffee shop or if I was someplace camping with 110 volts, that took care of charging. The netbook was 3lbs and carried in one of my panniers.

This next time I'll have lights (charge off a USB), a Nexus 7 (really like this tablet!), and a phone to charge. I want to see about either buying or making a solar panel that would be just like a USB port. 5volt and 2 amp output. If I could do that, then no need for 110volt outlet. Oh and the tablet is practically weighless!

Any recommendations on a solar panel you've seen?

We also have a Toshiba Netbook. We'd also go for a tablet, if only they had USB ports.

Well, I don't carry a laptop for long distances, but I do carry mine frequently, inside a back on the top of my rack. I've got a 6 year old Thinkpad with an ordinary (spinning) hard drive, and haven't had any issues. I tried to avoid big bumps, but sometimes ride off of a curb.

As a full time commuter, I carried my laptop back and forth daily in my rear panniers for three years and had a lot of problems with the HDD becoming unset due to the vibration and shocks. Due to this, I switched to messenger bag only for the last two years and have had no problems at all.

For touring, I will carry iPad at maximum.

I've been using a Ortlieb Office Bag plus a REI padded notebook sleeve for 3 years with my dell laptop. this setup is good enough for commuting over cobbles and stuff.


My laptop even survive to 3 accidents with cars (traffic i'ts very rough here in south america).

PD: I'm still alive too.

That's not a problem. On my tablet there's just a micro USB port and a port for ear plugs. All I need is a micro USB port in order to get a female USB port. It cost ~$1.00. You can look at a cable here on ebay. I'm getting this cable and also a cable for micro USB to HDML. Slimport seems to be a good one to get on that.

The tablet is really a great way to go. Mine has 32GB of onboard memory and 2GB of memory for processing with. It's rated almost always as tops or one of two.

I've used a Toshiba netbook (with spinning HDD) on 3 tours (about 1700 miles). It goes in a DVD player case in a rear pannier. Anything important is stored on the cloud.

Hi Max,

Last year I completed a 12,000 km tour of Australia - Darwin to Hobart via the western coast. I carried my HP laptop in my front pannier without padding or a case and had no problem at all. I went over some god-awful roads (Gibb River Road, etc.), but the added vibrations didn't seem to hurt my computer in the least. I hope that helps put your mind at ease.

Safe travels to you.

[HR][/HR]
mike on bike | cycling around the world | 2009-2014

Does an iPad count? :) I carry my iPad on my bike and the only time I smashed the screen was when I dropped on to a concrete floor at a YHA ... ouch. The iPad had survived in excess of 3,000 kilometres till that point. I write up my approach to touring with the iPad here.

Andrew

It seems to depend on how well the machine is assembled, some use threadlocker on those tiny screws, and some don't.

If it were up to me, I'd get a bargain Chromebook and either replace the OS with a fully functioning Linux installation that doesn't depend on the cloud for everything, or set it up to boot with a persistent Linux Live USB on a 16-32 GB flash drive. This runs off of and saves data to a USB flash drive, leaving the stock Chrome OS untouched. It's also portable, so if the Chromebook get stolen or smashed in a crash, you can simply boot another machine off your USB, and there's your desktop and all your work. (This of course depends on how Linux-compatible this other machine is...I've helped with the development of MX-14 Linux, and the other developers have made creating and using a persistent USB very simple and easy with this distro)