How to carry my laptop

[bendobe]

Kriega 20L bag fits in the frunk and carries my 15" laptop and shoes. Waterproof and has a strap for over the shoulder carry into the office.

 

[gboswellsac]

Kriega 20L bag fits in the frunk and carries my 15" laptop and shoes. Waterproof and has a strap for over the shoulder carry into the office.

That is a nice bag. Do you wear a waterproof riding outfit and then take off riding outfit and put on the shoes from the Kriega bag, or am I getting to personal? I'm wanting to leave the cage at home as much as I can and only use it when it really gets nasty where having a cage is the only safe defense. Thanks.

 

[bendobe]

That is a nice bag. Do you wear a waterproof riding outfit and then take off riding outfit and put on the shoes from the Kriega bag, or am I getting to personal? I'm wanting to leave the cage at home as much as I can and only use it when it really gets nasty where having a cage is the only safe defense. Thanks.

I have an some protective pants and a jacket that I wear over my work clothes along with riding boots. I generally throw my helmet and gloves in the funk and then change out my shoes/pants/jacket in my office.

 

[Deleted member 1183]

PLease NO backpack. Laptop and contents are heavy, they will only compress your lumbar discs (they did mine even back when I was 25 years old). It is very bad for daily commute.
You can use a laptopbag and then strap it to the rear seat. That's way better.
Trust me, I have been to traction therapy etc for years.

Tbh Happy, riding my motorcycles on Irish backroads over the years has done more damage to my lower back than any laptop in a backpack can ever do. Like many others I also carry mine in my backpack. The only time I ever carried a laptop on the bike was on my GL1800 on which there was no vibration. However there is still road vibration on all bikes and that can do real mischief to the hard drive on a laptop. Imho the only safe place is in a back pack or in the tankbag and even then it should be really well insulated from vibes.

 

[CobraJet]

I used to carry my work laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad) in a magnetic tank bag on my CBR all the time, and never had a hard drive issue. I'm planning on carrying my current work laptop in the frunk, along with the power supply, mouse, and a compact USB keyboard. I normally work from home, so I haven't had the opportunity to try this yet, but I think it will all fit. I just make sure there something on the bottom to absorb most of the vibration. I was shopping for a tail trunk, but all that hardware costs too much for one day every few months. I would just as soon stuff the laptop up under the front of my jacket.

 

[SergeantChuck]

I have not been following this thread so bare with my comment. I take my work laptop home everynight. My suit jacket with helmet is in the top case (pants in left pannier). Suit and helmet come out and laptop goes in. I do the reverse when I get to work. Works great for me. Been doing that for over a year.

 

[zirconx]

I ride with my laptop in a backpack. I wouldn't put it in the top box, too much vibration back there. But I would put it in the frunk if it would fit, and only inside a backpack or other well padded bag.

My next laptop will be smaller (Dell Ultrabook) and I plan to carry that in the frunk or maybe even in the topbox since it's so light. And has a solid state drive.

 

[StratTuner]

However there is still road vibration on all bikes and that can do real mischief to the hard drive on a laptop. Imho the only safe place is in a back pack or in the tankbag and even then it should be really well insulated from vibes.

Modern Hard drives self-park the read write heads when the power goes out. They are fairly secure when OFF.... Now you could make a case that you shouldn't ride with the HD powered up.... but what are you doing on FaceBook while riding your motorcycle anyway!

 

[bamamate]

Modern Hard drives self-park the read write heads when the power goes out. They are fairly secure when OFF.... Now you could make a case that you shouldn't ride with the HD powered up.... but what are you doing on FaceBook while riding your motorcycle anyway!

To add to that, laptop hard drives park the heads off the platters when powered off unlike desktop/server drives which park them on the platters. Some of the laptop drives, probably all by now, have some type of accelerometer in them and will park the heads when dropped. Former life I did failure analysis on hard drives.

 

[gboswellsac]

I used to carry my work laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad) in a magnetic tank bag on my CBR all the time, and never had a hard drive issue. I'm planning on carrying my current work laptop in the frunk, along with the power supply, mouse, and a compact USB keyboard. I normally work from home, so I haven't had the opportunity to try this yet, but I think it will all fit. I just make sure there something on the bottom to absorb most of the vibration. I was shopping for a tail trunk, but all that hardware costs too much for one day every few months. I would just as soon stuff the laptop up under the front of my jacket.

Be-aware the Frunk gets real warm in the summer ..... I've done it with an Acer touch but prefer in a top box i have plenty of soft items to keep the vibrations low. I did it daily with a K75RTA in the left side bag but often wondered about the vibrations. When I got the Wing the trunk was always where it went and no problems with several laptop/notebooks over 12 years. The X does vibrate more than the Wing but in comparison to the BMW it is non-existent . Since I've always bought my own laptop/notebooks (last 20 years as work machines less than I wanted) I've been careful and tried to have a real protective case and cover and I've not had one succumb to HD failure or vibration related failures. Now i have replaced a few due to dumping coffee in the keyboard and dropping off a desk on to the concrete floor but none due to vibrations. I'm a retired CS instructor and I had the discussion with a senior engineer with Dell one time about the very issues and he told me not to worry about the bike vibration if it was in a good protective cover and that was when I had the K75RTA and placing in side cases. I think we each need to be comfortable with our choices but I'm just more comfortable with the computer in a protective case in the locked trunk of the bike.

Of course now with the new MBP magenta costing $2800 I may need to rethink this but wait I'm retired it stays at home .... The Air is all semiconductor .... and smaller and can travel .... and < $900 ...

 

[mowcowbell]

I noticed a lot of talk in this thread about vibration. If you upgrade your laptop hard drive to a Solid State Drive (SSD), no more worries about vibration. Another advantage of SSD's, is they are fast. Windows boots in less than 15 secs on my Alienware laptop with a Samsung 256GB SSD.

 

[Old Can Ride]

I have carried my laptop in the top case, saddlebag, backpack, and on the rear rack in my travels. No problem in any of these places. I have to agree with gboswellsac there is a little extra heat in the frunk.

 

[DanH]

For my commute, mine goes in the Honda OEM top box and has survived two falls, one at 5 MPH one at around 20 MPH, without issue in a rather nondescript laptop bag. I don't care for backpacks unless they are necessary.

 

[L.B.S.]

Commuting all my life on a motorcycle (small bikes with no panniers, no top box, and tiny little tank bags) I'm always wearing a backpack. I hate wearing backpacks, lol.

I can't have very much weight in one, or it gets very uncomfortable on my back. The heaviness of a laptop, day in day out, would kill me. I went to a coffee shop once after I got my first laptop, and swore to never do it again.

 

[gboswellsac]

Commuting all my life on a motorcycle (small bikes with no panniers, no top box, and tiny little tank bags) I'm always wearing a backpack. I hate wearing backpacks, lol.

I can't have very much weight in one, or it gets very uncomfortable on my back. The heaviness of a laptop, day in day out, would kill me. I went to a coffee shop once after I got my first laptop, and swore to never do it again.

You need to look at some of the new notebooks... the Surface (and I'm not a fan of Windows) is < 2 lbs and many others < 3 lbs ... the Macbook Air is only 2.96 lbs and most tablets you can do most of what you need are < 12 oz. ... I carry a Aspire V5-122P with extra battery in a shoulder pac with an ipad2 + extras all day long ... do not even know it is there.. With the slash and grab mentality of the urban jungle I'm thinking about a thief deterrent bag that weighs 1+ lb by it self...but I'm also trying to convert to just an ipad < 11 oz but have too fat fingers for the screen keyboard .. :-( Heck my granddaughter's samsung galaxy 3 note phone is almost as powerful as my Aspire and she can do more with it than I can with my MBP that weighs in at 4.5 .... Not being critical but with the weight < 2lbs and tablets < 1lb you should have one on you at all times to answer all the dumb a** questions I post .... or maybe that is why you do not carry a computer with you ... :-( ... point is the X is smooth enough that we need not to worry about carrying a computer/notebook on the bike if in any reasonable protective cover.

 

[MAJikMARCer]

This is a great thread and some interesting answers from various angles. Personally I would go with the tail bag or box, but that's largely due to the size of laptop I work with. If I had a smaller one the frunk would probably be an option.

As it is I have a laptop backpack, but I don't wear it on the bike. I have the rear box platform, just no box. I can easily strap the bag there. I'm really not worried about vibration. The NC isn't a H-D after all.

I don't wear the backpack on my back on bike for two main reasons:
1) It's hot. Summers are hot enough here. Then tack on the gear AND a laptop. I have swamp back by the time I get home. As crappy as my skin is to start with. I don't need the back'ne thanks.
2) I used commute a lot on a bicycle wearing a backpack. I had a couple wreaks while wearing a loaded backpack. Having that rise over my head or be something to land on at 5-15 MPH is one thing. I wouldn't want that happening at higher speeds if I were to get into an accident on the NC. Because of this, if I had to do a backpack I would spend the extra money to get a quality one with front straps to help keep the pack in place so it wasn't a projectile.

Of course if you spend that kind of money for that kind of backpack, you might as well look at the top boxes. Just my two cents.

 

[Fuzzy]

...but I'm also trying to convert to just an ipad < 11 oz but have too fat fingers for the screen keyboard ..

Get one of the thin, light blue tooth keyboards for the apple.

I jus bought a Surface II to replace a Asus Transformer tablet. Was not happy with the Chrome O.S. on the tablet.

 

[L.B.S.]

For me nowadays, I just throw the Ipad in the frunk. I'm not a super fan of the whole weird Apple thing going on, but it was a very nice christmas present from my bro, so I'm trying to get his money's worth out of it.