Folks who follow this blog know I’m a transportation geek. What folks may not know is that I’m also a geek geek, i.e., my day job is doing Internet technology.
So sometimes my travels around the region require that I carry a laptop with me.
I have yet to find a way to do this on a bicycle where I feel confident about the integrity and safety of my laptop.
So what do you other bike commuters do when you need to carry a laptop? How do you protect it in case of a crash? Do you worry about (or have a way to mitigate) the affects of vibration during the ride?
17 responses to “A Geeky but Practical Bicycle Question”
Chris,
I don’t have a laptop, so I don’t carry one. But, I do know that Timbuk2 offers a laptop messenger bag with seemingly adequate padding. I use their classic messenger bag and it’s sufficient for moderate commutes. Have you considered something like that?
Michelle
I actually have a Road Warrior bag that has good padding, but I (1) don’t like having a bag on my shoulder when I ride (I stick it in my panier now – without the laptop in it) and (2) worry about what would happen to the laptop if I fell or crashed.
I guess my ideal would be some kind of storage that was both vibration dampening and positioned so that if the bike went over there was little chance the laptop would bear the brunt of the fall.
I have a ebags firewall laptop bag ebags.com house brand) which I stuff into a fairly large Marmot day pack. Once I get to work the ebags brief comes out of the backpack nice and clean and dry and the backpack gets hung on my door until the return.
I’ve tried carrying my laptop bag slung over my shoulder but it doesn’t stay put well with a single shoulder strap. I thought about just getting a backpack style laptop bag but then it would be wet and grimy at work. But putting the laptop bag into the backpack I get double protection from the elements and from shock and I also have a top-quality backpack harness which is very comfortable to ride with.
I’ve tried putting my laptop brief into a pannier but that was never very satisfactory and would make the bike sway more with weight just on one side.
I have put my whole laptop bag into a shopping bag style panier. I haven’t fallen, so I don’t know whether it is really safe or not.
Ross, I assume you haven’t had any problems with vibration?
Chris,
As I said before, I don’t have a laptop, but I do carry an Ortleib panier (just one) every day. I don’t have any problems with tipsy-ness. Maybe my friend gave me a sturdy rack (trail-blazer) though? A laptop weighs about 8 lbs? I carry a change of clothes, shoes, sometimes a notebook, and food because I’m ravenous after biking to work. I think my bag weighs about 10 or 11 lbs.
Maybe that will help more?
Michelle
The bag I’ve heard nothing but raves about is the Carradice Bike Bureau pannier. However, it comes from the UK and seem impossible to actually buy. I saw just one left-hand bag at City Bike Co-op once upon a time, but no right-hand ones. (The rack hooks are angled to get the lower front corner away from your heel resulting in different models for different sides, and being made in the UK they make more left-handed than right.)
You can buy many Carradice bags at Rivendell Bicycles.
I just have a good, padded laptop sleeve, and then I make sure that it is firmly tucked up against the back (bike side) of my pannier or bike bucket. I just do that by putting things in front of it (my purse, clothes for the day, etc.), but I’m sure there’s a way to jimmy together some kind of strap. That way it’s insulated by padding, it’s not rattling around in my bag, and in case of a fall it wouldn’t be hitting the ground directly.
I don’t know anyone who’s had any problems with the vibrations…but then, my friends all have Mac laptops, which are much better made than your average PC laptop. Maybe finicky computers like that would have problems.
Also, ask Rex…I seem to remember that he has some kind of European pannier made for laptops?
If you want to go the pannier route then I would recommend against the grocery bag style pannier as they don’t provide much rain protection. Before I started using a backpack I carried my briefcase (usually without but sometimes with laptop) inside a regular pannier. I don’t remember the brand but it had a drawstring closure on the top with a cover that flipped down and was secured by a fastex buckle. Pretty much any pannier that is large enough to hold your laptop brief will do fine.
What I did was permanently attach the pannier to my commuting bike by feeding the rack stay through the pannier webbing and then re-attaching the rack stay to the bike frame. That way it is impossible to remove the pannier from the bike without unbolting the rack so the pannier can be left on the bike empty without getting stolen. The back of the pannier had some webbing straps that acted as guides for the bungie cord that is supposed to clip to the bottom of the rack stay.
Using this method you’ll always have a waterproof storage compartment on your bike in which you can stash your laptop case or groceries or whatever else you might want to carry.
I’ve had good luck with over the shoulder bags that have a padded laptop sleeve (currently a Timbuk2 Commute Bag) that rest on your lower back when you ride. The location gets good shock absorbtion and generally is safe during forced dismounts. My work Dell Latitude has survived four years of daily trips, crashes on ice, and one trip over the handle bars. I will wrap it in small garbage bag on rainy days. (Those extra bags they have inside of the waste bins at the office work great).
My biggest problem is leaving food in my bag, and getting ants in the computer.
A plain old Timbuk2 messenger bag with an Eagle Creek laptop sleeve works great for me. Been bonked around a little with no ill effect but I doubt it would survive a full-on yard sail. I used to put the sleeve in a trash bag until I noticed the trash bag never got wet as long as I carefully closed and fastened the Timbuk2.
Arkel makes a cycling brirfcase with a special pouch for a laptop. It is kind of expensive, but it sounds like it will protect your laptop very well.
Thanks for all the great advice. Shortly going to make the leap from a polluter to a commuter, but need to carry a laptop. The Timbuk2 bags look great (going to ask for one for my birthday).
I’ve used the Timbuk 2 commuter bag for 2 years and love it! It’s much better balanced then a regular back pack. As another blogger writes, you can adjust it to sit lower on your back which provides better balance on the bike. I’ve crashed once and the bag and laptop cushioned my fall… laptop was perfectly protected. This summer I recently increased the mileage I’ve been biking to work and found the weight of the laptop a bit too much to bear 2x 30 min each way day after day, so I’ve been looking for a rack mounted option. This has been challenging since I ride a 20″ dahon folding bike and find the clearance between my heel and most panneirs which fit a liptop to be problematic. Any suggestions?
Am I the only one who is more concerned about what will happen to me in a wreck than my computer? If worse comes to worse, I’ve got hourly backups (thanks to Time Machine) to cover me if my MacBook laptop dies in a wreck, or the hard drive goes bad from the jarring motion. I don’t get hourly backups for my legs, arms, and other important body parts.
That said, to date, I’ve been riding with a Targus backpack laptop bag. Nothing fancy. I did modify the backpack with a make-shift strap across the chest, connecting the two shoulder-straps, to distribute the weight instead of having it all hand on my shoulders which can be exhausting.
One upside to the backpack strategy is my legs and body absorb most of the jarring motions, insulating and protecting my laptop. The downside it the backpack sits up high, which is not only a balance issue, but it also prevents me from using a helmet mounted mirror because it blocks the view. It also leaves a giant sweat mark on my back where the pack was, so I have to bring a fresh shirt for when I get to work.
The straps are starting to tear though from the anchor points which gives me some motivation to move on. That said, I’m going to try switching over top a padded sleeve stowed away inside a standard, hard-backed pannier bag. I’ll try and avoid the particularly jarring potholes (I’ve been running the same route for a while, so I know where they are) since I won’t have my legs to absorb the shock. However, I’ve spoken to two computer people who seem to think that as long as the hard drive is spun down, the jarring motions should not be a big issue. We’ll see.
Thanks for all the good thoughts and discussion.
I have an Ortlieb Bike Packer Plus, and I ride extensively with my laptop. I have a protective sleeve that I first put my computer in (Macbook), and then I put the computer/sleeve closest to the bike in my pannier. I live and commute in Vancouver, BC, rain or shine, and the set up is fully rain proof. As far as shock issues, I haven’t had any and I’m fairly hard on my bike when I ride. They are expensive bags but their ease of use (the easiest mount/dismount system I’ve ever used) and their durability are worth every penny!
I’ve been cycling to work for the past three years, including two four week-long cycling trips in Europe, with a 12″ Lenovo Think Pad laptop in a padded sleeve in an Ortlieb panier (water/rain proof). Last month the hard drive gave out – a number of surface imperfections were detected. I’m thinking of switching from the panier carrier to a backpack to prevent what I assume were damages to the hard drive from road vibrations (lots of potholes where I live). Any suggestions for a cycling backpack?