Commuting with a Laptop

[mjr]

Leave locks at work?

Not all of them. The bigger the workplace, the more chance someone thinks it's funny/advantageous/restoritative to superglue "abandoned" locks.

 

[fossyant]

The Ashton Canal isn't that well paved! Some tricky/narrow/very low bridges too. I use it as a scenic ride home some days. If you've not been on it for a while they've fiddled about with some building works at the Manchester end, may be worth a weekend recce ride before finding yourself late for a meeting.

Can you leave the heaviest lock at work ? Laptop and clothes should be fine in a rucksack.

Yes been on it twice as far as Etihad recently. It's well paved compared to the Peak canal and doesn't have the 1 in 2 hump back bridges

I'll be coming off near Dakota Hotel on Ducie St.

Pannier's found covered in dust in garage roof, along with the MTB's pannier rack.

 

[fossyant]

How's about leave (a) PC/Laptop at work and citrix onto your works laptop?

Job jobbed.

We don't have citrix etc, has to be your own work laptop (fairly backwards I know). We only just got VPN about 4 months before the pandemic, before that, near on impossible to work from home.

 

[fossyant]

Leave locks at work?

I have enough spares to do that !

 

[vickster]

I have enough spares to do that !

Then you don't have to carry them as you mentioned

 

[fossyant]

Then you don't have to carry them as you mentioned

I used to use the NY FAGH for taking out trucks and cars if they got in my way. Only need them for yoofs on the canal

 

[vickster]

I used to use the NY FAGH for taking out trucks and cars if they got in my way. Only need them for yoofs on the canal

ok 🤷‍♀️

 

[Bazzer]

I 'may' be getting back into some cycle commuting back into the dirty smoke of Manchester. As you know I was a regular commuter, fixed gear, panniers etc until I got a bit broken one day. Packed the commutes in as Manchester's drivers are terrible.

Now given covid, I'm going to be hybrid working going forward, not seen the office since March 2020. I'l likely be driving most times I'm in, as I'll be car sharing with my wife as she's going to be back three days a week, and I get parking due to bits of my spine missing (only benefit of getting run over).

Now, it's likely I'll have to be a bit more flexible about the days I'm in to fit around meetings. On those days I plan to commute, but down the canal on my 90's MTB - it's already used as my regular training bike on such paths, and has full guards - saves the FS getting filthy, and the road bikes are used other times.

Now, what I haven't done is commuted with a laptop. I would need to fit the rack if I planned to use the panniers - might be a better idea TBH, or revert to a rucksack for laptop, but then I'd have the weight of locks and clothes. How well would a laptop stand up to rough off road commute ? One canal is rough (Peak Canal), the other mainly paved/tarmac with 'speed bumps' (Ashton). Or do I go Panniers for locks and clothes, and a small rucksack for the laptop ?

At most this would be a day a week.

I would also check what the position is, should it be stolen or damaged on route.
I have a similar issue coming in from the west of the city. I used to commute with a rucksack containing a basic change of clothes, glasses & phone and a spare pair of shoes were left at work. Because of changes during the pandemic, work will be expecting me to commute with my Surface Pro, rather than leaving it in work. But with the charger it comes in at over a kilo, which I don't want on my back.
Having had various offs on my commute, my fault, black ice, or being hit, although nothing like what you suffered, I wondered what the situation was with the laptop, if it came off badly in an incident, or was stolen while commuting. Also in my case, if it was stolen it would also raise an internal security incident.
Now I'm sure that if I could demonstrate a loss or damage was unavoidable I would be in the clear, but when our internal guidance about damaged or stolen laptops, starts quite literally with, "We will not be pleased....", it is not something I am looking forward to testing.

 

[lazybloke]

Consider if your panniers are up to the task.
Many were too small to fit my old work laptop. I had to think bigger and bought a huge "Lomo" pannier : very waterproof and unashamedly garish, but not really up to the weight of what I carried.

I had to upgrade some of the plastic fixing nuts to stainless after it parted company with the mounting points a few times. It also leapt clean off the rack a few times due to very bumpy offroad surfaces and hooks that didn't lock. Even with a bungee cord it occasionally worked loose.

The laptop inside had a mechanical drive and a large HD screen; it was a big heavy beast with only a thin neoprene sleeve for protection - but it survived all these incidents just fine; those things are maybe tougher than they look.

When the laptop went end of life, my IT dept offered a smaller model (11.5 inch Thinkpad). This is noticeable lighter and far more convenient for commuting; either in a pannier or in a rucksack depending on which bike I'm using on any given day.

I've since had a pannier hook snap despite carrying a lighter load - so the most recent pannier upgrade is to replace the hooks with a decent twist-locking set from Rixen & Kaul. These seem good but haven't been tested offroad yet.

 

[Specialeyes]

I commute 11 miles e/w on a gravel bike with a laptop, and on warm summer evenings I sometimes go home via either the Olympic MTB trails in Hadleigh Park or the offroad route across the marshes, always with a Dell 13" XPS (SSD) laptop in a padded case inside a backpack. At most there's also that day's shirt/trousers/underwear in the rucksack too. The way I figure it, is that the laptop will have a smoother ride strapped to me than strapped to the bike. My most recent off was toppling sideways at Hadleigh and the cargo was absolutely fine.

 

[fossyant]

14" Thinkpad = robust - it will fit in the Ortlieb front roller. I'll ensure it's got clothes packed in front of it. They are damn good pannier bags TBH - survived quite a number of 'knock offs' and actually prevented a lot of damage to the bike. Just got them out, and noticed the side of one of the alloy rear lights I had fitted to the bags has been crushed (from my accident). Bags are fine.

They lose loads of laptops through damage at work - some really silly stuff.

I used to commute off road in winter before, but not with a laptop. The only issue I had was one of the first commutes I did on the MTB and the lower rack arm bolt on the seat stay came loose and bounced off down the track. Found it !

 

[vickster]

I used to commute with my laptop in the fold out pannier of a Topeak rack bag

 

[si_c]

I have a Lenovo T470 laptop from work, it's pretty robust, keeping it in a padded sleeve (Sandstrom) it's survived three crashes on the bike whilst in my rucksack, the first a 30mph hit with a BT openreach engineer who decided to run out from behind his van, the second a guy pulled out of a farm gate causing me to spill to avoid the side of the land rover and the third I'm not sure exactly what happened but I landed on my back pretty hard.

It's got a couple of small cracks and a tiny bit of the fascia missing around the screen hinge on the left, but otherwise works perfectly. Pretty tough. The lack of mechanical storage is a definite game changer.

Edit to add that I weigh over 100kg so it's taken a definite beating with me landing on it.

 

[biking_fox]

Yes been on it twice as far as Etihad recently. It's well paved compared to the Peak canal and doesn't have the 1 in 2 hump back bridges

I'll be coming off near Dakota Hotel on Ducie St.

Crossing the Alan Turing way is the most interesting bridge.

You'll be kicked off the canal before Ducie street while some more construction work takes place - at least I was a couple of weeks ago - somewhere around the Islington bit. It's only a short stretch before you can rejoin.

 

[fossyant]

Crossing the Alan Turing way is the most interesting bridge.

You'll be kicked off the canal before Ducie street while some more construction work takes place - at least I was a couple of weeks ago - somewhere around the Islington bit. It's only a short stretch before you can rejoin.

Looks tricky at Alan Turing way - somewhat 'tight' - I'll check the route around Islington thanks