Thinkpads Forum

I wondering if anyone here has any experience or knowledge about the safe vibration threshold of a laptop. I commute to school on a bike, but need to use my T60 at the library. What to do?

Ideally, I'd like to put it in a rear pannier bag but I'm worried about the vibration and bumps from the road. I cycle pretty far as well -- about 10 miles a day so that is potentially a lot of vibration. Naturally, putting the laptop in a backpack would be easier on on it since my body would be acting as a shock absorber but those extra 6 lbs get heavy after a while.

Any thoughts?

I'm biking daily with my 15" T60p in an Ortlieb Office Bag medium pannier. It fits nicely in the pannier together with another 600 paged book and a notepad with no problems. You must use a sleeve with it however, this is recommended by ortlieb too - they even sell a sleeve for the office bag, but it had too many features i didn't want.
A thinkpad neoprene sleeve does it's job quite nicely. For a total per day i bike about 8 miles on larger roads. It can take a lot of chock - no problems as of yet after 4 months of daily biking. Before i used it with a T42 and that worked out well for the 8 months i had the bag with it, but i sold the T42.
So unless you've got racing width tires and tubes, i don't think there will be any problem. But still be a little careful when you're hitting curbs or getting off them. Better be safe than sorry.

If you are very worried you could get a solid-state hard disk and also remove your optical drive. Those are the 2 things that are most sensitive to damage from vibration.

chris123 wrote:
Ideally, I'd like to put it in a rear pannier bag but I'm worried about the vibration and bumps from the road. I cycle pretty far as well -- about 10 miles a day so that is potentially a lot of vibration. Naturally, putting the laptop in a backpack would be easier on on it since my body would be acting as a shock absorber but those extra 6 lbs get heavy after a while.

The machine is going to see far less vibration when carried on your back, as you've already noted.

OTOH, if you fall, the machine is going to travel a lot farther when carried on your back vs. falling from the bike. Personally, I'd be carrying on my back.

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions.

Troel -- yes, I've been looking at the neoprene sleeves. They're pretty thin though and I wonder if they're any better than just regular old bubble wrap which I have on hand.

If you want maximum protection in a sleeve, you have to look at the "Zeroshock III" sleeves.

They are on Ebay if you don't find them anywhere else.

Way better than neoprene!

I have a ZeroShock (the first edition that they made) and it has turned into a very hard shell even when it is heated up a little. I'm not sure why. It rubbed off the rubber of the edges of my T42 when i used it in a backpack too.
The neoprene is permanently deformable, but has a better grip on the notebook. I wouldn't want to drop my laptop in either though

Chris, Bubblewrap is also ok i think, but easy to destroy, and a reel sleeve just lasts longer than warrping and unwrapping bubblewrap.
Yes, some of the neoprene sleeves are pretty thin. The IBM "fake" sleeve i use is made from neoprene about the thickness of the regular grey or blue cloth neoprene mousemats.

I'll check out the Zeroshock then. Thanks.

In the meantime, I may give the bubblewrap a try. If I double it up and maybe fashion a case out of it using a cardboard shell, then it might last a while longer than it otherwise would have. Or it will just look like crap and fall apart after two days.

Another thought comes to me. I ride in the winter time here in balmy Toronto. I imagine there would be a risk of condensation build up after being outside for a while in the freezing weather with the computer and then coming indoors. I should let the machine acclimatise to the indoor air temperature.

Any ideas how long this normally takes without risking the problem of condensation?

i use a neoprene sleeve and then put it in a 15in handbag for double insulation while traveling; i use the neoprene sleeves sold at the apple store from incase and my 15in handbag is from swiss gear

i have a 14in so it fits perfectly in the 15in with sleeve

I have no formal evidence for this, but I'm an experienced bicyclist and I have a strong feeling that the backpack with really good padding is the way to go. (I use a TimBuk2 Ace backpack, which had the heaviest padding of any model I've looked at.)

I think there will be far less vibration in a backpack. On a bike your main shock absorber is your body... and something in a backpack hanging off your shoulders gets approximately 1.5 meters of your body as a damper. Meanwhile a pannier is directly connected to the frame of the bike, so (unless a suspension system is involved) there is only the cushioning of the air in the wheels to protect it.

Plus I think a backpack just gives you more possibilities in terms of protecting yourself or your equipment if you have a crash. If you need to jump off the bike and let it slide under a garbage truck wheel you've still got your precious thinkpad. Or, god forbid, you might need to test the strength of your thinkpad by using it as an improvised "jaws of life."

I was browsing about the 'net, and came across this laptop compatible pannier:

http://www.arkel-od.com/panniers/commut ... fl=1&site=#

It looks to be pretty well designed, and I assume would fit a 14" T60 quite well. (Tempted to pick one up, as the pannier's laptop pouch is a near perfect fit for an X60 inside a Zeroshock sleeve .. double protection!)

Cannondale also make a pannier with a padded laptop insert called "Cypod", but have heard that its retention mechanism leaves something to be desired.

rek wrote:I was browsing about the 'net, and came across this laptop compatible pannier:

http://www.arkel-od.com/panniers/commut ... fl=1&site=#

One thing that might be a problem with this is your foot on the pedal might interfere with the pannier. The pannier does not seems to be mountable at other angles than 0 deg. horizontal. It very much depends on your bike though.

chowderhead1000, I agree, but i grew tired of the size and weight of these bags with a laptop and two books inside of them. I had damaged my T42 screen slightly because the back of the bag didn't have much ruggedness or padding to it, so the notebook has been "bent" a little this way. Indeed the well padded bags are a better solution.
Most pannier laptop bags have padding at the bottom, made of the same material used for the sleeping bag pads/mats (don't know the word for them)

I also commute with an Ortlieb Medium Office Bag pannier to hold my T61p (14"). I put it in a Victorinox CS2 cross-suspension sleeve. Besides the sleeve being slightly big for the bag, it's been working great. Prior to that, I had my T60 (15" - tight fit) in that same setup, and prior to that, a T42 (14"). I'm riding a road bike with 700x25c tires. No problems so far, and sure is more comfortable than having the laptop on my back. (I did the laptop in backpack thing for a year)

I agree with chowderhead1000 (and I'm also an experienced bicycle rider) that the way to go is to carry your laptop on your back.

One thing that comes up to my head is that HDD are rated to tolerate very high impacts (rated at G's), but I don't know if the vibration on little bumps along a bike ride could damage the HDD/optical drive.

Carrying on the back is the way to go (IMO)

chris123 wrote:Another thought comes to me. I ride in the winter time here in balmy Toronto. I imagine there would be a risk of condensation build up after being outside for a while in the freezing weather with the computer and then coming indoors. I should let the machine acclimatise to the indoor air temperature.

Any ideas how long this normally takes without risking the problem of condensation?

Length of time required depends on the temperature of the laptop.

I would seriously consider finding a ziploc type bag big enough to hold the laptop and sleeve. Also, look in to some "rechargeable" desiccants. We use them at work to preserve IC's for shelf storage.

Without controlling the moisture, you WILL have condensation inside the laptop. You will need to leave the laptop sealed inside the bag until it warms up.
More consideration:
Static electricity? I lost a CPU in a laptop to static electricity while exiting a car in the winter. The laptop was completely inside a closed laptop bag at the time, but I also got the biggest jolt I ever have received from the car door...

Joe