Laptop bag for back of bike

[terkans]

I normally take my bike to the station to catch the train to work, and tie my bag on top of the luggage carrier. This means that the main force acting on a laptop in there would tend to try and bend the laptop, and I don't trust a laptop to stand up to that sort of abuse by itself. Especially since the streets and bike paths tend to be somewhat bumpy.

I am wondering if the hard sides in the Brain Cell will protect my laptop from bending forces and stand up to this type of pounding for an hour or so each day. I would use the Brain Cell inside another bag, so there is some extra padding.

Or should I give up on this idea, and look for some bags to attach to the sides of my luggage carrier?

Thanks in advance.

[sunga]

Hi there,

So I'm going to go on the assumption that we are talking bicycle and not motorcycle. I'm hoping some other folks will post regarding this, but I will put in my 2 cents. I wouldn't be so worried about bending as I would about bumping. The hard drive doesn't like to be shaken up like that. For the least amount of bumping, the best solution is to wear your laptop on your body (backpack or messenger bag) rather than on your bike rack.

The Brain Cell is more about drop and puncture protection. It will certainly cushion your laptop, but it won't protect it completely from all of that rough terrain. This is one of the things that has kept me from bike-commuting to work. I need to carry my laptop and I don't like to have to wear a bag when I ride. It's a quandary.

Hey all of you bike-commuter Tom Bihn bag users - Got any stories or words of wisdom? Bring it on!

Sunga

[Cobos]

Personally my worst nightmare would be if the entire laptop/braincell somehow slipped free during travel and then hit a rock at the wrong angle would be the worst problem for your laptop.
When it comes to bending the screen portion of your laptop is usually the weakest link, so check out carefully with your hands how much bending it can take without distorting the picture.
When it comes to harddrive I would say you are safe against non-operating problems. Looking at the biggest HDD manufacture's website:

http://www.seagate.com/products/notebook/notebook_applications.html

You can see that their Momentus series can take 900G of shock. That's a BIG lot of force, I'm pretty sure if you are riding a bike taking 900G of shock the state of your HDD is not your primary concern... But don't get my wrong I can understand HDD angst, as I suffer from that myself

Cobos