Disclaimer: this is not a thread about whether you should take a laptop bikepacking – I'm aware of the arguments for/against and I'm not interested in discussing it here.
I am planning a longer trip, bikepacking over several months. The route will likely cover a lot of off-road terrain and I'll be riding something like a gravel bike or drop-bar mountain bike.
I am considering taking a laptop along with me for a combination of reasons – logistics, planning, work, photo editing, etc. I can see some good options for carrying laptops, e.g. the tailfin laptop holster for their 16L mini pannier.
I am concerned about whether the vibrations from cycling (especially offroad) will cause damage to a laptop. I am aware of issues with the non-dampened quad locks where the lenses in phone cameras can get messed up. Saying that, I would be considering something like a Macbook Air that has very few (if any) moving parts, not even a fan. Obviously damage to the camera lens could still be an issue but that wouldn't be the end of the world.
I would love if people would share their experiences bikepacking with laptops, both good and bad.
by Starky04
3 Comments
take one for the team and report back!!
It all depends on how you pack it. For sure there are some elements like HDD that may be more vulnerable to shocks, but you still have lots of elements soldered to the PCBs inside the computer. Mechanical overstress failures and solder joints fatigue are a topic of tons of scientific papers discussing the models, simulations and measurement data. A few-sec search with the google yields some papers that present results collected from the bike (axle more precisely) with no suspension showing up to 40G accelerations in peak. The question is, how much do they get damped before they reach the PCBs and how many ‘shock cycles’ can you approximately expect during a trip.
https://preview.redd.it/etedfqhpfq8d1.png?width=1204&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b2664c3f495e4c99cf47b42a5f2c47d18ad27f0
[https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Title-%3A-The-Effect-of-Mountain-Bicycle-Suspension-Smith-Orendurff/ff405e45897dca63dffd9332ba067bddfb66adc3](https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Title-%3A-The-Effect-of-Mountain-Bicycle-Suspension-Smith-Orendurff/ff405e45897dca63dffd9332ba067bddfb66adc3)
Just put it in good padded case, nothing is going to happen to it. Hard drives are safe when they are not running (turned on).