laptops

"andrew" <andrew [email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Does anyone carry a laptop to work on their bike What is
the best way, backpack or pannier

Andrew

Howdy Andrew,

I've tried both but still haven't settled on a preferred
option. I ride about 10km each way so any grumbling I may
make is not really justified as it's only a 20-30min trip
depending on how many weeties I have for breakfast.

Backpack: Good for the laptop, bad for my back, it actually
gets quite painful after a couple of trips. Pannier: Not so
good for the laptop, good for my back. I've had my pannier
fall off twice with my laptop in it. Didn't do any damage
but I pad it pretty well.

Cheers Gary

andrew said:

Does anyone carry a laptop to work on their bike What is
the best way, backpack or pannier

I've been carrying laptops to and from work every day for
about half a dozen years, usually in a saddlebag. I just
wrap the laptop in a plastic bag to keep the dust out. No
padding needed as the saddlebag is suspended from above.

Nick

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Nick Payne
andrew wrote:

I've been carrying laptops to and from work every day for
about half a dozen years, usually in a saddlebag. I just
wrap the laptop in a plastic bag to keep the dust out. No
padding needed as the saddlebag is suspended from above.

Nick

wow! that's impressive

lookin at gettin a TiPowerbook (eating into future bike expenditure 🙁 ) but am a bit scared of takin it on the bike

Does anyone take one in a courier-style bag?
im thinkun that lower on the back is friendlier...

Nick,

you need to explain what a saddlebag is to most people, very
few Aussies have ever seen one!

Me I'm a Carradice longflap man!

Nick Payne said:

andrew said:

Does anyone carry a laptop to work on their bike What is
the best way, backpack or pannier

I've been carrying laptops to and from work every day for
about half a dozen years, usually in a saddlebag. I just
wrap the laptop in a plastic bag to keep the dust out. No
padding needed as the saddlebag is suspended from above.

Nick

--
Remove norubbish to reply direct

Jack Russell

andrew' andrew said:

Does anyone carry a laptop to work on their bike What is
the best way, backpack or pannier

Andrew

I posted my solution on this to rec.bicycles.misc a few
weeks ago ...

------------------------------------
I made a nice detachable "box" that's worked out really well
- maybe it'll work for you too :-) It takes my laptop to
work, or sports gear, or with the lid off, it can take a
small load of groceries etc.

I got a sturdy plastic box, about 50cm (19"😉 wide and long
and 20 cm (8"😉 deep. The corners are rounded, making it seem
reasonably aerodynamic :-) The lid removes completely and
overlaps the sides so it's waterproof. I bought some
aluminium angle, drilled and screwed it to attach both
inside and outside the box, so the base of the box is
"sandwiched" into a rigid supporting frame.

The side rails of the bike rack slide between the aluminium
walls protruding from the bottom of the box, providing
excellent sideways stability. Additional aluminium "hooks"
on the bottom of the box slide under the cross-bars and side-
rails of the rack, stopping the box from coming off
vertically. I attached some shock cord (like a bungy but
better - see a boating shop) to the under-side of the box
that you stretch over the front of the rack, to stop the box
sliding off backwards. To secure the shock cord onto the
box, I bought special "u bolts" with attachment for gripping
cord/cable.

So, attaching or detaching the box only takes a few seconds
- just position it on the rack, slide it forward so the
"hooks" engage underneath the rack, and stretch the shock
cord in place.

When it's mounted, the box is about as wide as my hips, and
extends back off the edge of the rack a little, but not
beyond the rear wheel. The top of the box is below my
saddle, leaving room for a saddle bag with blinkies on. But
this general design would work for larger boxes too.

I stuck some velcro on the bottom of the box to position a
block of foam on the left and right sides. My laptop sits on
these, absorbing road shocks. It's still working after
several months of commuting! I also attached a shock cord
strap that loops over the top of the box to hold down the
lid (or the contents if too big for the lid). Stick on a
couple of reflectors and it's done!

The only tools required were a drill, saw, screwdrivers etc.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>> "Andrew" == andrew <andrew [email hidden]> writes:

Andrew> Does anyone carry a laptop to work on their bike
Andrew> What is the best way, backpack or pannier

Yep, been doing it for nine months now. I ride 50-55 km a
day depending whether I'm working in the city of Burwood.

I use a set f Ortleib panniers. One's big enough to fit the
laptop, bag and all. Food, clothes etc goes in the other.

The Ortleib's are bullet proof IMO. I've been through
torrential rain and everything inside's nice and dry. I went
skating down Swanston Street after getting my wheel caught
in a tram track and the pannier didn't come off. They've
never come close to coming off even when on one occasion I
only had one clop locked on to the top of the rack.

I wouldn't use anything else.
--
Regards Euan

"eb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>>> "Andrew" == andrew <andrew [email hidden]>
>>> writes:

Andrew> Does anyone carry a laptop to work on their
Andrew> bike What is the best way, backpack or pannier

I use a set f Ortleib panniers. One's big enough to
fit the laptop, bag and all. Food, clothes etc goes in
the other.

I don't know if you are in Melbourne, but if so, there's a
shop selling off their Ortleib stuff currently in the CBD. I
can't remember the name of the shop, but it's on Little
Bourke, near the corner of Elizabeth Street (opposite the
Crumpler shop). I think they have 20% off everything
currently.

Quoted message said:

I wouldn't use anything else.

I couldn't agree more. They're the mutt's.

Craigster

andrew said:

Does anyone carry a laptop to work on their bike What is
the best way, backpack or pannier

Andrew

Ummm... when I took a laptop home for work (as a chalky,
long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, etc) I just stuck
it in my back-pack. I guess both me and the school admin
folks, umm, LOOKED THE OTHER WAY when the possibility of me
crashing my bike (and possibly writing off the laptop
including all of 7A, 7B, 7C, 7E, 8A, 8E, and 8Fs' reports)
came up... 😉

Seriously, tho.

Thinking about the rough physics of what might happen in a
spill, I think it would probably be best to carry your
laptop in a rack-top bag.

If you carried it in a back-pack/courier bag, and if you had
a spill, your laptop would accelerate from ~1.2 metres above
the asphalt to 0.1 metres (or something) in a very short
time. This would probably make your laptop very unhappy.

If you carried your laptop in your panniers and you
had a spill,
- it might be severely f#ckin' bounced around, ripped to
[censored], and completely f?cked up if you came down on the
side the laptop was in, or
- it might be completly fine, if it was on the other side.

If I was carrying a laptop, I would put it in a padded rack-
top bag. Thereason for this is, if I had a spill, it
wouldn't be scraping along the ground like as if it were
panniers, or have the g-forcing physics-wise unhappiness of
a back-pack/courier bag.

My Euro 0.789 (=2 cents) is: carry your laptop in a
padded rack-top.

p (please feel free to disagree with me in 1000+ freestyle
ways) m d aka fred n

Friedrich Niemann <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

andrew said:

Does anyone carry a laptop to work on their bike What is
the best way, backpack or pannier

Andrew

Ummm... when I took a laptop home for work (as a chalky,
long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, etc) I just
stuck it in my back-pack. I guess both me and the school
admin folks, umm, LOOKED THE OTHER WAY when the
possibility of me crashing my bike (and possibly writing
off the laptop including all of 7A, 7B, 7C, 7E, 8A, 8E,
and 8Fs' reports) came up... 😉

[snip]

I thought you were a stockbroker for a minute, until I re-
read the paragraph!

Ritch

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

>> "Friedrich" == Friedrich Niemann <[email hidden]> writes:

Friedrich> andrew wrote:

Friedrich> If you carried your laptop in your panniers
Friedrich> and you had a spill, - it might be severely
Friedrich> f#ckin' bounced around, ripped to [censored], and
Friedrich> completely f?cked up if you came down on the
Friedrich> side the laptop was in, or - it might be
Friedrich> completly fine, if it was on the other side.

I went skating down Swanston when my wheel got stuck in the
tram track on a wet day (I was still new to commuting). Bike
went down laptop side, no damage whatsoever. I put that down
to the fact that the laptop was stuffed inside it's proper
carrying bag which was then stuffed in to the pannier. A lot
of shock absorption in those Dell carry bags :-)
--
Regards Euan

Andrew Reddaway said:

andrew' andrew said:

Does anyone carry a laptop to work on their bike What is
the best way, backpack or pannier

Andrew

I posted my solution on this to rec.bicycles.misc a few
weeks ago ...

------------------------------------
I made a nice detachable "box" that's worked out really
well - maybe it'll work for you too :-) It takes my laptop
to work, or sports gear, or with the lid off, it can take
a small load of groceries etc.

I got a sturdy plastic box, about 50cm (19"😉 wide and long
and 20 cm (8"😉 deep. The corners are rounded, making it
seem reasonably aerodynamic :-) The lid removes completely
and overlaps the sides so it's waterproof. I bought some
aluminium angle, drilled and screwed it to attach both
inside and outside the box, so the base of the box is
"sandwiched" into a rigid supporting frame.

The side rails of the bike rack slide between the
aluminium walls protruding from the bottom of the box,
providing excellent sideways stability. Additional
aluminium "hooks" on the bottom of the box slide under the
cross-bars and side-rails of the rack, stopping the box
from coming off vertically. I attached some shock cord
(like a bungy but better - see a boating shop) to the under-
side of the box that you stretch over the front of the
rack, to stop the box sliding off backwards. To secure the
shock cord onto the box, I bought special "u bolts" with
attachment for gripping cord/cable.

So, attaching or detaching the box only takes a few
seconds - just position it on the rack, slide it forward
so the "hooks" engage underneath the rack, and stretch the
shock cord in place.

When it's mounted, the box is about as wide as my hips,
and extends back off the edge of the rack a little, but
not beyond the rear wheel. The top of the box is below my
saddle, leaving room for a saddle bag with blinkies on.
But this general design would work for larger boxes too.

I stuck some velcro on the bottom of the box to position a
block of foam on the left and right sides. My laptop sits
on these, absorbing road shocks. It's still working after
several months of commuting! I also attached a shock cord
strap that loops over the top of the box to hold down the
lid (or the contents if too big for the lid). Stick on a
couple of reflectors and it's done!

The only tools required were a drill, saw,
screwdrivers etc.

That sounds like the option for me. I've been usign one
pannier but lately it's been really throwing my balance. Now
it may be because I've been working late but by the time I
get to the end of your description I feel like I'm listening
to the teacher on Charlie Brown (wah, wa-wah, wah wah).
Don't happen to have any pictures of this setup do you?

DaveB

"eb" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]

[...]

Quoted message said:

I went skating down Swanston when my wheel got stuck in
the tram track on a wet day (I was still new to
commuting). Bike went down laptop

Heh. I haven't done that since I was a kid. I was on Toorak
Road in Hartwell and glided across the tram tracks at too
shallow an angle. Fortunately I wasn't going very fast
because my front wheel dropped into the track and simply
jammed, throwing me over the handlebars. It was more
embarrassing than anything so I just got back on and rode
home before worrying about any damage I'd done to myself.

--

A: Top-posters.
B: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

I use one of my own manufacture. You can see it at
users.on.netbikestuffOpen ↗.

Nick

"Jack Russell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Nick,

you need to explain what a saddlebag is to most people,
very few Aussies have ever seen one!

Me I'm a Carradice longflap man!

--------------050908030807020606030705
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Nick,

Clever stuff, glad to see that you use a real saddle as
well.

Jack

Nick Payne said:

I use one of my own manufacture. You can see it at
users.on.netbikestuffOpen ↗.

Nick

"Jack Russell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Nick,

you need to explain what a saddlebag is to most people,
very few Aussies have ever seen one!

Me I'm a Carradice longflap man!

--
Remove norubbish to reply direct

Jack Russell

--------------050908030807020606030705 Content-Type:
text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01
Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <title></title> </head>
<body> Nick,<br> <br> Clever stuff, glad to see that you use
a real saddle as well.<br> <br> Jack<br> <br> <br> Nick
Payne wrote:<br> <blockquote type="cite"
cite="[email hidden]"> <pre wrap="">I
use one of my own manufacture. You can see it at <a class="moz-txt-link-
freetext" href="users.on.netusers.on.netOpen ↗
">users.on.netbikestuffOpen ↗</a>.

Nick

"Jack Russell" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailt-
o:[email hidden]"><[email hidden]&-
gt;</a> wrote in message <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href=""]news:[email hidden]">news:40B43-
[email hidden]</a>... </pre> <blockquote
type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Nick,

you need to explain what a saddlebag is to most people, very
few Aussies have ever seen one!

Me I'm a Carradice longflap man! </pre> </blockquote> <pre
wrap=""><!---->

</pre> </blockquote> <br> <pre class="moz-signature" cols="$mailwrapcol">--
Remove norubbish to reply direct

Jack Russell </pre> <br> </body> </html>

--------------050908030807020606030705--

DaveB said:

Quoted message said:

I made a nice detachable "box" ... SNIP

Quoted message said:

That sounds like the option for me. I've been usign one
pannier but lately it's been really throwing my balance.
Now it may be because I've been working late but by the
time I get to the end of your description I feel like
I'm listening to the teacher on Charlie Brown (wah, wa-
wah, wah wah). Don't happen to have any pictures of this
setup do you?

LOL! I never read/watched Charlie Brown, but I get the
idea...

I can easily take a few pictures. Haven't got a website
though, so how 'bout I email them to you?

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Drs


glided across the tram tracks at too
shallow an angle. Fortunately I wasn't going very fast
because my front wheel dropped into the track and simply
jammed, throwing me over the handlebars. It was more
embarrassing than anything so I just got back on and rode
home before worrying about any damage I'd done to myself.

I believe i patented that manouvre back in the summer of '84 to achieve broken arm number 2!

Only realised arm was broken when I went to pick up bike and hand was resting against my elbow (apologies to those eating lunch)

Andrew Reddaway said:

DaveB said:

Quoted message said:

I made a nice detachable "box" ... SNIP

Quoted message said:

That sounds like the option for me. I've been usign one
pannier but lately it's been really throwing my balance.
Now it may be because I've been working late but by the
time I get to the end of your description I feel like
I'm listening to the teacher on Charlie Brown (wah, wa-
wah, wah wah). Don't happen to have any pictures of this
setup do you?

LOL! I never read/watched Charlie Brown, but I get
the idea...

I can easily take a few pictures. Haven't got a website
though, so how 'bout I email them to you?

That'd be good, email me at [email hidden]

DaveB

Nick Payne said:

I use one of my own manufacture. You can see it at
users.on.netbikestuffOpen ↗.

Nick

I had a look at your setup and you mention a frame builder
built the setup. How do you find a frame builder to do
little jobs like that? Anyone know one in Melbourne?

DaveB

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by flyingdutch
wow! that's impressive

lookin at gettin a TiPowerbook (eating into future bike expenditure 🙁 ) but am a bit scared of takin it on the bike

Does anyone take one in a courier-style bag?
im thinkun that lower on the back is friendlier...

I take my 15" TiPowerbook in an STM Sport backpack. I bought mine from an Apple Centre. Great pack, comfortable, enough room for TiBook, clothes, shoes, some paperwork, keys, phone and a light rain jacket. Alos has a special compartment for my iPod:-)

A must for the digerati:-)