I’ll spare you the whys and wherefores, but I want to:

– carry a laptop (and basically nothing else) on the bike, not on my back,

– in all weathers,

– for about 30 miles,

– mostly on tarmac but with a bit of potholed bridleway (actually the tarmac’s quite potholed too),

– without it ending up knackered. Obviously.

I’m thinking some sort of waterproof pannier bag, with the laptop in a sturdy neoprene sleeve to absorb some vibration (it’s a 15″ MBP with an SSD, so not too fragile but also not terribly lightweight). But I’m not finding it easy to spot waterproof panniers the right sort of size with compression straps to keep the contents nice and flat against the rack. I know I could use a normal pannier and stick the sleeved laptop in a bin bag (this is my fallback option), but I can’t help thinking there’s a tidier solution.

Anyone do something similar? What’s your arrangement?

I would go for a drybag or similar to keep the laptop in. Wouldnt trust a binbag for anything important.

I use a crumpler courier bag and did use it actively for a couple of years everyday before I started working mostly from home. For something like a MBP I would consider it as an option depending on length of commute. My laptop is damn heavy since its a workstation replacement but okay for 30-40mins ride with a good courier bag.

Vibration with an ssd shouldnt count. Even with an old fashioned hd as far as I aware its only a serious problem if its active at the time you give it some bad news (there might be long term ill effects but I never noticed them).

If it was my own as opposed to work laptop I would have probably stuck it in a drybag but to be honest even with some seriously heavy rain it never got all the way through.

Be interested to see what people suggest … I use a rack and waterproof pannier (for laptop, diary, notebook and other miscellaneous chattel) but don’t like bikes with racks and the pannier is too big for 95% of the time so stuff clatters about when I take the off road options home. Wondering about a seatpost qr rack and rack top bag …

For your use, a full frame bag?

Sadly not: even on my size of frame, the MBP is too big to fit inside the front triangle.

I’ve commuted with most combinations from panniers to saddle bag to courier bag to backpack depending on the bike and route combination.

Evenwhen I had paniers I used a small rucksack if I carried a laptop. I put power supply + accessories in panniers or saddle bag so rucksack can be very minimal in weight and size. Might be excessive but it felt safer.

I know you said no backpack but at least this is minimal backpack!

Yeah, but I said no backpack 🙂

Yeah, but I said no backpack

Is there a reason why and how long is your commute? A good bag for a relatively light laptop is surprisingly wearable.

Is the laptop yours?

If it was mine and I didnt want to use a backpack I would just choose any old pannier bag with more space the better (the ortlieb bags look good but wouldnt rely on them) and choose a decent kayaking drybag then pad out the pannier with a ton of sound absorbing foam. Might double up on the foam to allow one set to be drying out.

I used a laptop for a several years without bothering about that although admittedly if it had failed I would have just handed it back to IT support and let them deal with 2-4k bill.

My laptop lifespan has been much the same as my colleagues who just had it in their cars but obviously thats anecdote.

If it was my own money invested I would go for the approach of padding it out to the nth degree although from my limited knowledge of hardware it probably wont make much difference over a sensible timespan.

Buy a handlebar zwift mount . JOB done.

I cart my work laptop to and from the office in a neoprene sleeve in a big Carradice saddle bag on one of their saddle bag racks.

I’ve been carrying a laptop in a pannier for years in nothing more than a neoprene sleeve. Ortlieb roll top takes care of waterproofing. SSD removes the obvious weak point from the laptop.

I do always have other stuff with me so the laptop can’t move around inside the pannier. The pannier itself would be pretty rattly off road.

Carradice sqr slim might be worth a look.

I’d get a good waterproof pannier, a neoprene sleeve, a waterproof bag or satchel to put it in and then cut out foam to fill the pannier so the laptop could just drop into the slot and be well insulated from vibration and water.

Or you could just wrap it in a blanket.

SQR slim looks like it wouldn’t compress flat, though. Or am I wrong?

That’s kind of my issue: finding something big enough is easy, but I’d like to flatten the bag right down so the laptop’s not flapping around. My current panniers (which are old and crappy and I’d like to replace) have straps to compress them, but I can’t find any waterproof ones that do.

I guess I may be looking for non-waterproof Ines which can be pulled flat.

Make sure you have soft something between the keyboard and the screen, otherwise eventually the screen accumulates scratches. This has happened to my last two work laptops (admittedly after commuting every weekday with it in a backpack over two years).

Ortlieb Downtown on a QL3 Tubus rack. Or Deuter Race XPX for when on non racked bike. Either have been commuted and trained on for rides up to 100km. The rack feels nicer, but isn’t faster. The rucksack limits getting onto the drops a little.

I occasionally have to take laptops home from work, and just stick them in my standard Ortlieb pannier. It has an internal sleeve that the laptop fits into quite nicely. I usually stick my notepad behind it to give some protection from the internal fasteners for the pannier mounting points.

Maybe a Garmin would be more suitable?

😁

Carradice bike bureau has a sleeve inside to hold the laptop so it doesn’t flap about. There are loads of laptop specific panniers that have the same thing.

I have the onerous task of commuting with a 17” HP Z-book which weighs about as much as the desktop it’s supposed to replace.  I couldn’t find a suitable 17” pannier for laptops so bought a Thule Pack n Pedal.  Tha laptop fits, but not by much and is a tight enough fit that it doesn’t jiggle around. I’ve been doing this on and off for around 2 years and 80 miles a week.

I rarely carry a laptop on my bike these days, when I did I used an Altura Morph backpack. I still use it as my bag at work, even though it rarely goes on the bike.

It has a waterproof cover but it’s not waterproof, I’ve not really used the cover as it’s already pretty water resistant. The real strength is how good the laptop protection is (the laptop is in a padded sleeve inside the bag but it doesn’t sit on the base of bag) and how robust it is. You could crash with it in the bag and I’d be confident it would be OK. You can compress the bag, and also put it on your back if you need to

the pannier mount is pretty good too

(I also have two panniers, rucksacks, rackpacks etc but the above would be my chosen regular laptop carrying approach)

Used a Carradice SQR Slim for 10 years when commuted with laptop. Fantastic bit of kit. Bought it little used second hand off here and it still looks as good as when bought. I like that you can unclip in seconds. Room for laptop, papers, change clothes. Or just a laptop. Just brilliant

I’ve got one of the briefcase style Ortleib’s – it has a divider/insert for a laptop and mine happily lives in there with no other padding (and no damage). The QL3.1 mounting is particularly great IME, as it doesn’t rattle about as much as your standard rixen & kaul type hooks – the pannier is always in the same place:

https://www.ortlieb.com/en/technisches/quick-lock/quick-lock31-system/