hal9e3

I've toured before using panniers but always end up carrying way too much stuff, would like to go lighter this time just carrying my laptop and a few clothes + toiletries. Not even enough to fill one of my panniers.

I was looking forward to just using a frame bag since I'll be staying in guesthouses every night, but I also absolutely have to carry my laptop with me for work. Sadly I can't fit the laptop in my Winspace G2 frame hole


Some options from the frustrating research I've done are:

1. Trunk Bag
Ortlieb Trunk Bag RC (seems to be one of the only good looking ones that can actually fit the MBP?)

I don't see many people use trunk bags, does having the weight higher feel ok for touring?

2. Handlebar Bag
Here I'm at a total loss for what handlebar bag I can actually use though, most of them seem too small to fit a laptop, or aren't waterproof.

Have any of you toured with a laptop before? Interested in hearing your experiences! Thanks!

I'm up for any advice or product recommendations, thanks!
Done too many hours of research without finding a great solution :|

Tourist in MSN

If you have less than you would need to fill one pannier, use one pannier. The weight on one side should not impair handling if on a rear rack, I often use one pannier to go to the grocery store and have often used one pannier as my gym bag to go to the gym after a multi-hour exercise ride near home. I do not feel the weight off to one side.

At the total weight of what you are carrying, putting it on top of a rear rack also would not impair the ride.

I carried a netbook on my second tour, that was over a decade ago, carried in a pannier, but I was camping and had four panniers.

I do not like a backpack when I am biking, but there are some that do not seem to mind them. A backpack for just the laptop and nothing else (other than plenty of padding) might be an option. I personally do not like backpacks when riding, but I have seen lots of bikepackers use backpacks because they do not have enough luggage room on the bike. There are several options for waterproof backpacks that have a roll top.

rivers

A carradice-style saddlebag might do the trick

saddlesores

nobody can answer that for how YOU would feel. why not bungee a solid cinderblock to your rear rack and find out for yourself?


yep. was moving from thailand to china. sent most of my household goods by post, but couldn't send the laptop. put it in a sealed bag, bubble wrapped, into a light plastic box, wrapped and sealed. put on a packing material pad on the rear rack, and crossed laos during monsoon season. once in china, mailed to destination city from first available post office. obviously no need to open/seal for daily use, or bother with recharging.

Tourist in MSN

The Carradice bag mentioned above by Rivers could be a good option, something like the Nelson Longflap or Camper. But, for those bags the height of your bag hanging points above the rear wheel is important to check first, as riders that are below average height can have difficulty getting the bags high enough for wheel clearance.

Another option might be one of the Racktime rack top bags. Those bags have a quick release mechanism to attach to a Racktime rear rack. They are less waterproof than the Ortlieb, but my Racktime bag (a semi-hard bag) includes a rain cover. That said, I would be inclined to put a laptop in another waterproof bag for those downpour days where you are stuck in a downpour. I think Racktime quality is good, they are part of the Tubus company but Racktime racks are aluminum where Tubus is steel or titanium.

staehpj1

I know that most folks here hate backpacks and I have bad mouthed them in the past myself, but.I after using a very lightly loaded one am a convert. A very light backpack with your macbook and not much else might be pretty comfortable IME. I'd also put my ID, and debit/credit cards, and phone in there, but not much else. What does your macbook weigh?

I have found that I actually enjoy wearing a backpack on tour, but have usually tried to keep it to 3-4 pounds. I have carried a lot more for short distances when there were no services and I needed to carry extra food and water and it wasn't so bad, but I would prefer to keep it light other than those rare days. I am guessing that with a light pack (under a pound empty and maybe well under), your macbook (3 pounds?), and a few small items you could probably keep it to 5 pounds pretty easily. That way all your theft worthy stuff stays with you when you go anywhere off bike.

BTW, not saying it would work for your work, but I am amazed how much can be done using a small chromebook. Just using the Google docs stuff and web apps you can do a lot and then there is the option of remote desktop. If that would work you could go a little smaller and quite a bit lighter.

I am happy to have never needed to deal with taking my work with me. I worried that it might be career suicide when I took off the time for the TA, but it turned out to be the opposite. I think that they realized that I had an oddly mixed skillset that would be hard to replace and would be missed. They were happy to have me back, but I also had some leverage to negotiate future long trips. That lasted until a downturn in the industry when they decided that it was time to force out as many older higher paid employees as they could and to cut future retirement perks for all future retirees. They offered incentives to leave before years end and cuts in future perks for those didn't. I decided to get out while the getting was good.

hal9e3

Haha thanks man. For me I want to take the laptop since it's my own business and I'd like to just work a few hours a day on tour or when I take break days. Planning on just biking from small town to small town and staying longer in places that catch my fancy.

adamrice 

I have not toured with a laptop, but I have commuted with one. I've used a pannier and a couple of backpacks. I wound up preferring to use a backpack. One of the backpacks I've used, the Camelbak Blowfish, is no longer available, but was just barely big enough for a 13" laptop and a change of clothes. Their Mule looks like it might be a decent alternative. There are of course commuter backpacks, which are nice because they have laptop sleeves, but they tend to be considerably larger.

I'd be a little concerned about using a trunk bag, Carradice-style bag, or handlebar bag (and I agree, I can't think of a handlebar bag that would fit a laptop), simply because these usually have dimensions that would force you to store the laptop at an awkward angle, so packing would be a little more of a hassle and you might have jutting corners. There are commuter panniers that have laptop sleeves, but even a touring pannier would let you put your laptop in a sleeve and pack it flat against the interior wall.

fourfa

I toured with a 15" macbook pro in a standard Ortlieb pannier (Back Roller City?), with an additional padded waterproof sleeve for the laptop inside the pannier. Basically the laptop and very light fluffy things (down jacket etc) on one side, bulkier and heavier things on the other side. The laptop held up just fine over upwards of 5000 miles.

If you're dead set against a traditional rear rack and panniers that are geometrically suited for something like a laptop - how about a front basket rack or pizza rack big enough for the laptop? Perhaps the laptop can be separate from the rest of the luggage in a waterproof padded sleeve like this: https://www.amazon.com/Aqua-Quest-St...07VGMWZ5Z?th=1

mev

I have toured with laptops, starting with a 286 Sharp back in 1992 on first trip across the US. I generally put them in a pannier inside waterproof sleeve and sometime with a foam liner if I didn't have clothes or other soft stuff to wrap around.

I like newer solid state drives, but still carry as bootable USB so I can save away documents and also have an alternate OS/disc if for some reason things got corrupted on the root drive. I have been fairly fortunate in that regard, though did have to rebuild/replace my disk on 2001/2 trip across Australia. That one was a Sony laptop that we a precursor to netbooks that appeared later in the decade.

Given your choices, I'd probably also chime in favor of a light backback as way of keeping things both safe and not as likely to be damaged.

indyfabz

I see a wonderful opportunity to use a pannier and develop packing discipline.

Tourist in MSN

If you decide to go with a backpack, I agree with Staehpj1, put your ID, phone, money, ID papers, etc, in the backpack too.

I am assuming for the hardware that provides your income, you want waterproof. Ortlieb makes a nice waterproof one, roll top. Sealline makes a few too. I have a couple daypack sized ones by Seattle Sports, but the ones I have I think are out of production.

That said, I would use a pannier on a good rack.

gauvins

Yes. Two summer-long tours and several 3 week-long trips. Carried the MacBooks (my wife and I) in panniers.

​​​​​1. I have no experience with a bike packing setup. My feeling is that it'll be awkward at best

2. I do not use laptops anymore. Workstations with large monitors when not traveling, and smartphone + small portable LCD display and BT keyboard while traveling. I do not know what tasks you must accomplish while traveling, but if they can be done in a browser (to access a cloud service such as gDrive), you may want to ditch the computer and use a phone instead. Samsung Dex provides a desktop-like environment where one can reasonably do text editing and spreadsheet work. I can connect to my workstations remotely if needed and heavy lifting can be done via cloud services.

So basically, I think that I am saying that traveling with a laptop in certainly possible if you have panniers, but probably not so much if you bike pack, and that laptops are no longer the tool of choice in many scenarios, anyway. Many options are viable alternatives. I use Dex for now. Works very well
[EDIT]

I should add that many people use DeX to connect their phone to a TV (ex: in their hotel room). Just carry a dock to connect your phone via HDMI, or even simpler/lighter, a USB-C to HDMI adapter. So, a cable and a decent BT keyboard might be all you need.

hal9e3

That's actually not a bad idea if I know the hotel is going to have some type of screen, thanks! Might work for some future tours I have planned!

staehpj1

I have often connected my either my phone or my chromebook to a large TV. A motel TV can be a decent dislpay. They are not in the best position for long hours of work, but you can get a some work done. The chromebook is a pretty good option if going that route because you are going to want a keyboard and touchpad and once you are carrying them a small chromebook isn't much more weight or bulk. Also most (pretty much all?) chromebooks have an HDMI port so connecting is pretty easy. If you are somewhere that you have a fast connection you could run a remote computer at home or at your workplace if that isn't home. Otherwise Google Docs is a decent suite of office tools. Since I retired I found it adequate and abandoned MS Office entirely. Initially I missed a few functions, but generally found that there were workarounds to any missing functions in the doc or spreadsheet apps.

Also I have a little mini pc that works great with a tv. It would fit in a handlebar bag, seat bag, or frame bag. It will run windows or Linux just fine. Not sure if there is a similar mac, last time I looked the mac mini was a little bigger and quite a bit heavier. My mini pc is 5"x5"x2" and weighs just over a pound (some are smaller). I've seen pictures of some that look like a big thumb drive and plug into a hdmi port on a tv. You need a keyboard and mouse with a mini pc though (same for a phone to really do any work). That said there are some small, thin, light keyboards some with touchpads. I use my chromebook to run my mini pc using chrome remote desktop so I never use a dedicated keyboard or mouse.

To be clear I have not toured with the mini pc. It has been used only at home so far, but it would work fine based on what I have seen. Personally I am unlikely to feel the need to carry it on tour, but will likely take it on other travel.

BTW, depending on the kind of places you stay, they may have PCs that guests can use. How useable that is varies greatly with the motel. Those that cater to business folks may be pretty good, but it can range to very poor or none.

djb

From years of experience traveling with photo equipment on location, the n main concern is to keep the laptop isolated from vibrations as much as you can, and if you aren't keen on using a knapsack (I wouldn't want to ride with one) then using your other pannier is easy using light puffy foam or bubble wrap around a liner case or whatever.

The big added bonus with using a second pannier is that when bike touring, its just really handy to have some extra room to put your supper and breakfast groceries into at the end of the day when hitting a store before camping, or even going to a motel.
At the end of a days ride, being able to easily throw stuff into a pannier, even some overly bulky stuff that you feel like having with supper, or breakfast, or for snacks the next day, just makes your end of day procedure go faster and easier.
I feel this aspect of having more packing space than absolutely minimally needed is overlooked, and just makes for a nicer traveling experience, easier anyway.

but yes, you'd have to bring the laptop pannier with you into stores and such, but really no bigee and takes 2 seconds to take it off the bike and carry in with you. No different that a handlebar bag.

staehpj1

On the backpack comfort thing...
I'd like to underscore that I found a real light pack to actually be a joy on tour. I was one of those who said no way, bad idea. Then I took one along. The idea was to use it for hikes and to carry loads when extra capacity was needed on special ocasions like if there was no resupply for over 24 hours or something.

Then I wore it with a pound or two of stuff that I liked or needed to keep with me. I wound up keeping it on for the rest of the tour. I have used two different packs this way the little sea2summit ultrasil pack at 2.5 ounces and the REI Flash 18 at 12 ounces if memory serves. The sea2summit is probably a bit light duty for day after day of carrying something as heavy as you are considering, but the Flash may be about right if you find it comfortable. I have carried a lot more in the sea2summit for a day or so at a clip, but at 2.5 ounces doubt it would hold up long term carrying more than 2 or 3 pounds at most.and that might be pushing it. Otherwise maybe one of the UL running or hiking packs might work out.

adamrice 

Something I have not tried yet, but might be worth exploring, is using a Chromecast dongle (or Airplay dongle if you use Apple products) to send your gadget's screen to a hotel's TV. These should be lighter and more compact than most cables.

staehpj1

Yes, probably lighter and more compact than a long cable. I have not used them, any performance issues or resolution limitations that are troublesome?

I have used casting from various devices dirrectly to a smart TV without a dongle and had good success in some cases, but compatibility was spotty. Is the dongle more universally compatible? I guess if your apps and devices work with the dongle they wiill work on any TV that has an hdmi pot to plug it in to.

adamrice 

Like I said, I haven't tried this myself. I've been thinking of buying one to use when I travel (not necessarily by bike) so that I can stream Netflix from my laptop or phone to a hotel TV. I already carry a long HDMI cable for that purpose, but it's a little bulky.

That's my thinking. You have no way of knowing what kind of TV you'll encounter on the road, but it will most likely have an HDMI port. In any case, you'd be able to test whether your dongle works at home, and there's no reason to think it would be incompatible with a TV on the road.

staehpj1

The thin little cable I have used for streaming movies isn't very bulky.

My hdmi cable has always worked so I guess the dongle should as well as long as you don't run into a tv too old to have hdmi.

djb

while I certainly agree on the light backpacks, the one thing I would have misgivings with is the shape of a laptop, ie flat and hard, up against my spine and whatnot.
Nope, I've never tried it, certainly not on a bike trip, so I guess this fellow would just have to try riding with his laptop in some sort of knapsack and see how it is.

the one time I used a chromecast that was borrowed, I found it to be rather annoying to use. But this was a bunch of years ago and I didnt have a lot of patience with it, they may be easy to use, or newer ones better....who knows, this was three years ago and I was trying to set up stuff for a talk and found it annoying and didnt want to deal with this aspect of it when doing the talk I was giving.

staehpj1

I haven't tried it either. Definitely something to work out ahead of time. Maybe a light puffy vest as padding?

Yeah, I have no experience with that. The cable was trouble free though and not all that bulky in a short length. The short length was fine streaming movies. Doing real work may have required a bit longer cable than I carried.

Cyclist0108

I've not toured with it, but my Macbook Air fits perfectly into my LonePeak pannier. I put a protective sleeve on it in case I have an accident or something.

A nice alternative, if you can get away with using iOS (I cannot) is an iPad mini and a keyboard. Get one with a cellular radio in it and you have a true touring device.

jkbrooks

I'm sure this thread is well and truly dead but figured I'd add my wealth of ignorance;

I roll with an Ortlieb handlebar bag (7L is biggest I can fit) and an Ortlieb Large (I think 14L?) saddle back (attaches to seat post & saddle rails. I add a frame pack if I'm doing gravel touring. I tried rolling without a computer but got a bit stuck when I needed to redo my route and couldn't work Ride With GPS effectively on my iphone. I figured it out but it was a drag. My macbook is too big & heavy so I ended up buying a Surface Go 3 and it's rockin'. Fits in the Ortlieb 7L front bag I put a link to below and lets me carry my cpap up front as well. It's not a super fast machine but works fine for route planning, email, watching video, doing zoom meetings, & almost small enough to use as a kindle to read on . . . it's fine for that but it's a tad big to be my daily driver for kindle books although it works great for that on the bike. I try to load my heavy stuff up front and lighter stuff in back. I roll pretty light for a two week trip. If it would be helpful, I'd be happy to share my packing list which I've sorta refined over the last couple years.

Surface Go 3 (gotta buy the mouse and & keyboard . . . buy an ms arc mouse & the ms keyboard . . . i tried cheaper stuff and it was a drag)
https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Sur...s%2C494&sr=8-3

Here's the handlebar bag. I like the mount system. I've got extra mounts on my other bikes so I can move bags or use different Ortlieb backs. The Rix & Kaul ClickFix is a better mount but the ones that come with the Ortlieb are totally serviceable.
https://www.ortlieb.com/en_us/ultima...sibility+F3461

Also, I find these light, reusuable mesh produce bags I buy on amazon to be killer for touring. Great, light weight way to divide up your stuff (tools etc, toiletries, "evening wear", CPAP kit, etc)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1