tornado60

For those of you who have to carry a large Laptop what do you use? Being water tight is important. Want to get back into commuting but now I have a good size laptop to carry. Unfortunately it won't fit in my panniers. Also back pack is not an option for me. I would prefer to keep the load at the rear of my bike.

flangehead

I use a Rhinowalk, which is lower-cost knockoff of an Ortlieb. I carry 1 or 2 smaller laptops and they fit with room to spare. You'd want to check dimensions, but I would be surprised if you can't find one big enough.

I got caught in a thunderstorm this last Tuesday for about 10 minutes and I had 2 laptops inside. No leakage. I've had the Rhinowalk for about two years now.


Rhinowalk relatively full.

scottfsmith

My 16” laptop fits easily in the Tailfin side bag. It is extremely waterproof. Everything is fantastic except price..

DiabloScott

Mine's not that big but it fits in my panniers nicely.

alloo

Pannier or Messenger Bag.

BobbyG

I have often put my laptop in a padded laptop bag or case and put it in a Wald folding basket. The wires of the basket give a little, and more padding can be put at the bottom and sides. Make sure to put a bungee or strap over the top.



That's the laptop in the right basket, and some audio equipment in the left. That's my commute bag in the middle.

BikeLite

When I commuted, I carried it in a backpack covered by a big ziplock bag.

Darth Lefty 

I'm not that gentle of a rider, so I want to carry my laptop on my back and not the chassis.

My work laptop is a real tank, a Dell Precision 7520 "mobile workstation." Six pounds and more than an inch thick. I carry it in a Jansport laptop backpack donated by my wife when she downsized. A modern looking bag, not the iconic Jansport book bag format. Looking online I think it's an Odyssey, or Agave, a few years back. But it barely fits the giant laptop.

I have two other bags intended for carrying it overnight, and both are backpacks, but they are big awkward things to be carrying on a bike. One came with the laptop from IT, and it's goofy, pockets on pockets on pockets. The other is a really nice North Face suitcase style my wife got me but the big Dell wouldn't even fit in the laptop sleeve.

My employer was doing upgrades last year. I anticipated getting a new smaller laptop this year and still look forward to it. But it's on hold due to M&A. No one wants to buy anything new until the dust settles. They are barely tolerating requests for computers for new hires and interns.

sam21fire

When I need to carry my work computer and radio back and forth I use a small towel to wrap my computer and tablet inside Ortlieb panniers. The radio gets tucked in with my socks/tshirt/undies. No damage after 2 years of commuting 10-20 miles most days on beat up snow-country roads.

BobbyG

That is the most shock-absorbing way. Your body acts as an additional shock absorber.

ThermionicScott 

Carry a computer? What is this, the 20th century?

pdlamb

I was thinking something similar: "Use a thumb drive!"

Then I remembered neither my customer nor my payroll processing company allows USB devices any more. I wonder why they can't set their antivirus to scan the device while I take a shower and get some coffee.

prj71

Why is a back pack not an option? Simplest and easiest.

Phil_gretz

1) Tucked into a padded sleeve and then into a pannier.

2) Tucked into a padded slot within my backpack.

I prefer #1, but have used #2 on occasion.

RoadKill

My recommendation is just find a water-proof pannier it will fit in. When I was commuting pre-pandemic I just put my laptop in a pannier, no additional padding. My work laptops for the last 10 years have used SSD instead of a spinning platter HDD, but from what I understand even spinning HDD now have a power off mode where you don't have to worry about heads crashing into the disks. After many thousands of miles on the road and hundreds of miles on extremely rocky MTB trails I've never had a laptop hardware failure.

tornado60

Very True. However my back would never forgive me. So unfortunately this is just not an option.

Gresp15C

Oddly enough a reprogrammed thumb drive that mimics a keyboard and starts injecting code into your PC through a shell terminal is a thing.

Daniel4

How big is your laptop?
When I used to work, I had a Thinkpad. It would fit nicely into my Arkel combination pannier/backpack that I used as a pannier. Towels and spare clothing were wrapped around it to absorb any impact. In case of a fall, the distance hanging off a bike is much less than from your back.

But if that's not an option, consider getting a small trailer.

Darth Lefty 

You calling me fat? :-p

In my industry it will be the 20th century forever. Did you hear NASA is going to the Moon? Well, near it. Manned flight in '23 and landing in '24. Set a reminder. In Outlook, of course.

noobinsf 

When I was commuting on a bike (currently commuting upstairs to my kitchen table), I put a Wald basket on the front and used the same backpack that I use off the bike.

tornado60

In its protective sleeve it is about 17 inches by 13 inches by 3.5 inches. 15.5 by 10.5 by 1.5 without it. But I would prefer to keep the sleeve.

Inisfallen

I've got a backpack, made by Wenger, that's got a built-in padded laptop compartment. It's waterproof (well, waxed cotton, it has to be touched up once in a while).

Mostly I just put it in the front basket on my bike, but sometimes it goes on my back.

I use it for everything. Walking around, biking, wherever I go when I need to carry a laptop (which is every day, for work). Or anything else, for that matter. It's my all-purpose bag.

Hypno Toad

If you want to go without a rack, I've used a Chrome Citizen and laptop padded sleeve for many years in a wide pouring rain and blizzards and never had an issue ... OK one time I had an issue when my buddy at work asked what 'that button' does, and click the seatbelt buckle (under the "I VOTED" sticker in the pic below); and as my bag hit the grounds I said "that button breaks my laptop"

xnito

Agreed, backpacks are a great option

Hypno Toad

How heavy is this laptop? I rode 6 miles home from the store with two bottles of wine, two 6-packs of beer, and random groceries .... NBD. Maybe I'm a freak with a steel I-beam spine?