Considering the idea of dailying the GS this summer...

[J_Walker]

5 gallon buckets make best water proof containers.. http://imgur.com/a/vZMTm

[Watcher]

The problem then is that the base of the bag is not rigid enough to allow it to be firmly fixed to the seat... it flexes because it's wider than the seat so the inside of the bag has a sort of curved "floor". But it was $39. What can I say? It performs way better than I expected it to. I do need to rethink my method of attaching it.

You could always make it permanent by bolting it through the seat.

Unless you frequently have a passenger...

[mr72]

You could always make it permanent by bolting it through the seat.

Unless you frequently have a passenger...

I never have a passenger. But I frequently don't want holes in my seat

[Watcher]

You could always make it permanent by bolting it through the seat.

Unless you frequently have a passenger...

I never have a passenger. But I frequently don't want holes in my seat

Well, to each his own.

You might then consider cutting a piece of Plexi to fit in the bottom of the bag to just give it more rigidity.  Or affixing the bag to a base somehow and bungee the base, not the bag, to the pillion.

[qcbaker]

Well, to each his own.

You might then consider cutting a piece of Plexi to fit in the bottom of the bag to just give it more rigidity.  Or affixing the bag to a base somehow and bungee the base, not the bag, to the pillion.

That is a pretty cool idea. My gym bag has a piece of plastic at the bottom that serves this purpose, and it works pretty well. I haven't bungied it to my bike though lol.

[lefty1615]

That is a pretty cool idea. My gym bag has a piece of plastic at the bottom that serves this purpose, and it works pretty well. I haven't bungied it to my bike though lol.

You need something quite a bit stiffer than that flimsy plastic in your gym bag to avoid a bag sagging, I speak form experience. That being said I have bungied my gym bag to my bike a few times and if its even like half full it doesn't droop so far that its in danger of anything. Unless your carrying something fragile or something I wouldn't worry about it.

[Big Rich]

Scott, I haven't read the entire thread so pardon me if I repeat what has been already said.

Rain gear can be kind of problematic. I have a nice Joe Rocket 2 pc suit, but it packs kinda large when not in use. So I started looking at waterproof  (or highly resistant) riding gear. End up with ARC Battle Born pants & jacket from Rocky Mountain ATV. The pants have been waterproof so far, but the jacket leaks occasionally from the bicep vents. My boots are waterproof TCX (can't remember the model), and I don't have waterproof gloves - I do have however, some waterproof glove covers. Wet hands don't bother me too much unless it's cold.... and if it's cold the glove cover add a layer of wind blocking material.

I did see that Showbiz mentioned the tank bag from Nelson Rigg.  I use mine on every ride and love it. The included rain cover is kind of bulky, so it doesn't get stored in the tank bag itself - I either keep it in a saddle bag full time or leave it at home and take my chances.

I can't help with any kind of tail bag since I made a rack for my saddle bags (and it has a spot on top for whatever roll bag I use). Unless you want to make a trip from Cincinnati to New Castle, PA to fab up some type of rack...... I can help with that.

[qcbaker]

You need something quite a bit stiffer than that flimsy plastic in your gym bag to avoid a bag sagging, I speak form experience. That being said I have bungied my gym bag to my bike a few times and if its even like half full it doesn't droop so far that its in danger of anything. Unless your carrying something fragile or something I wouldn't worry about it.

I meant that it works well at keeping the bottom of my gym bag rigid lol. I didn't mean to imply it could be used for the same purpose when strapped to a bike. Yeah, you'd want something more robust than that

[rscottlow]

Thanks Rich. I'm pretty much sold on the Nelson Rigg. I'm starting a kitchen remodel tomorrow, and I expect to come in well under budget. As long as there are no big hiccups, I'm going to spend some of the leftover cash on the stuff for the GS. I think between that and my existing backpack, I'll be okay. If everything else fits nicely inside the tank bag, I can fit my laptop in my backpack and I'll get something waterproof (probably a plastic bag) to put the laptop inside to keep dry if it rains. I'm thinking of holding off on buying any rain gear, and just using my waterproof jacket liner if necessary. At least for the first part of the summer, I'm not going to ride to work if it's raining in the morning. Getting wet on the way home doesn't so much bother me.

[ShowBizWolf]

I have always been afraid to put my laptop in my tank bag because of the magnets. Does anyone know if they would mess anything up on a computer 

I'm with ya scott, it's always good to have a backpack too. I have a nice Red Cross one I got from work but I also have one of those drawstring backpack things... you know, the kind that are just fabric with the stings to pull it closed at the top... that I keep folded up in one of the side pockets of the tank bag. Got it on ebay for like $5 and the material is waterproof or water resistant, can't remember which... but it's got a coating on it and if it gets wet the water beads up and you can wipe it off. Just in case I'm at the store or something and find that I need a little bit extra storage omw home.

Ooooh also, Rich is right about the rain cover for the Nelson Rigg... it truly is a bit bulky to keep with ya at all times. One night while I was at work it started to rain earlier than I thought it would and so I grabbed a big clear plastic bag we usually use for inside the payload boxes. Anyway, I just put my tank bag inside of that and attached it to the tank like I normally do. Not the bestest ever solution of course but it kept the tank bag dry on my ride home and now I keep the plastic bag folded up in the side compartment as well.

[Big Rich]

Scott, I hate (and I mean HATE) those waterproof jacket liners. To me it feels like I'm wearing a garbage bag, and I get just as wet under the liner from sweating. And to top it off, your jacket still gets soaked from the rain. You know what might work better? A cheap set of Frogg Toggs from walmart worn under your riding clothes. I know if you wear them over your riding gear, they get shredded from the wind....

Showbiz - I wondered the same thing. A Google search said that name brand tank bags "should" have shielded magnets, so any electronic equipment would be protected. I'd hate to experiment with anything that I couldn't afford to replace. So.... try it with a work laptop first!  Haha....

[mr72]

I have always been afraid to put my laptop in my tank bag because of the magnets. Does anyone know if they would mess anything up on a computer 

If you have a traditional magnetic hard drive (old-school, spinny-platter type) then it could potentially screw that up.

But I should note those hard drives have a pretty freakin strong neodymium magnet in them anyway. So I don't think it's really that much of a problem. You'd likely not have any problem.

[Watcher]

But I should note those hard drives have a pretty freakin strong neodymium magnet in them anyway. So I don't think it's really that much of a problem.

Magnets will not affect memory as we no longer use magnetic tape as storage.

I don't think it will have that profound of an effect on the screen, either.  Typically CRT monitors will have issues but not LCD/LED.

The whole magnet vs computer is more or less a myth.  Hell, the electric FAN even works on a magnetic field!



But most modern laptops are quite a bit large to be fitting in an average tank bag, unless it's like a netbook or something.

Expensive, but Pelican makes backpacks!  Basically just one of their hard cases with straps and an additional storage area made of canvas.  If I got a job where I needed to bring a laptop around I'd definitely pick one of those up.

[qcbaker]

I work in IT and my degree is in computer science so I can weigh in a bit here re: magnets and computers.

Showbiz - I wondered the same thing. A Google search said that name brand tank bags "should" have shielded magnets, so any electronic equipment would be protected. I'd hate to experiment with anything that I couldn't afford to replace. So.... try it with a work laptop first!  Haha....

If the magnets are "shielded" to protect anything in the bag, how do they attach the bag to the tank? Not saying what you read isn't true, I'm just confused as to how that works, as you cant "shield" a magnet, but then also have it still be magnetic enough to securely fasten it to the tank.

If you have a traditional magnetic hard drive (old-school, spinny-platter type) then it could potentially screw that up.

But I should note those hard drives have a pretty freakin strong neodymium magnet in them anyway. So I don't think it's really that much of a problem. You'd likely not have any problem.

Magnets will not affect memory as we no longer use magnetic tape as storage.

While Watcher is correct in that almost no computers use magnetic tape anymore, many computers still use traditional spinning hard disk drives (HDDs) which are a type of magnetic storage media. They are slowly being replaced by solid state drives (SSDs), but most mid-range priced laptops still use HDDs instead of SSDs, since SSDs are still rather expensive.

Anyway, any magnetic storage media can be affected by a strong enough magnet. That being said, the risk is very minimal unless you're actively trying to mess up the HDD. You would have to take the magnet and swipe it directly over the HDD to do any real damage, and it would have to be a pretty powerful magnet (like the neodymium ones actually in the HDD itself, which is how data gets written to the drive). Probably not going to cause any issues in a bag.

I don't think it will have that profound of an effect on the screen, either.  Typically CRT monitors will have issues but not LCD/LED.

This is correct. Magnets should have no visible effect on LCD displays. CRT monitors are affected by magnets, but I've never heard of a laptop with a CRT monitor lol.

Overly Technical Explanation^TM:

Magnets affect electrons only when they are moving. The force on an electron in a magnetic field is proportional to its speed. If it is stationary, the force is zero. In LCD screens there are no moving electrons, except when the image changes, so there cannot be any effect with a steady display. Any effect during a moving display will be very small (because the electrons in an LCD cannot drift as they can in a CRT), and will disappear once the display is steady again. The way CRTs display images is dependent on electrons being shot at the phosphor sheets behind the glass, so there are electrons constantly flying around (which is why there's an electric field around the screen, which is what makes your arm hair stand up if you get close to a CRT screen). If you put a magnet up to a CRT screen, those moving electrons are very easily affected by the magnet and the image will be distorted.

The other problem with CRTs is that they can become permanently magnetized, and thus always affect electrons as they fly to the screen, permanently distorting the color or warping the image. Behind the glass, there are the phosphor sheets that emit the colored light when hit by the electrons, and something called the shadow mask. A shadow mask is a metal plate punched with tiny holes that separates the colored phosphor sheets from the front glass of the screen. If the shadow mask becomes magnetized, its magnetic field deflects the electron beams passing through it, causing color purity distortion as the beams bend through the mask holes and hit some phosphors of a color other than that which they are intended to strike; e.g. some electrons from the red beam may hit blue phosphors, giving pure red parts of the image a magenta tint. This is why CRTs sometimes need to be degaussed. When activated, the degaussing circuit produces a brief, alternating current through the degaussing coil which smoothly decays in strength (fades out) to zero over a period of a few seconds, producing a decaying alternating magnetic field from the coil. This degaussing field is strong enough to remove shadow mask magnetization in most cases.

In LCDs there are no electrons flying around, and there is no shadow mask to magnetize, so the effect is negligible. So, in a very technical sense, yes magnets can "affect" an LCD but the effect is too small to be noticeable or cause any sort of issue.

The whole magnet vs computer is more or less a myth.  Hell, the electric FAN even works on a magnetic field!

Yes, and no. It used to be more of an issue when floppy disks were very common, since they are very easily ruined by contact with a magnet. The basic rule nowadays is just "dont rub a big magnet directly on your hard drive and you'll be fine."

But most modern laptops are quite a bit large to be fitting in an average tank bag, unless it's like a netbook or something.

Expensive, but Pelican makes backpacks!  Basically just one of their hard cases with straps and an additional storage area made of canvas.  If I got a job where I needed to bring a laptop around I'd definitely pick one of those up.

I've been kind of looking at getting a hard shell backpack that would protect my laptop. I'll have to check out Pelican's offerings.

[mr72]

There's a little bit of misinformation here regarding magnetic fields, electrons, and magnets relationship to hard drives but it generally doesn't matter for this discussion.

A magnet's field intensity decays in proportion to the cube of distance, which basically means very small distances make a very big difference in field intensity. That's why you'd almost be guaranteed to have to remove a traditional hard drive from the laptop and intentionally expose it directly to a strong magnetic field in order to screw it up. Very unlikely any effect will be had from magnets in a tank bag but it is still possible.

If your laptop has SSD then it won't be affected by the tank bag magnets. Virtually all NEW laptops have SSDs but in my house I have about five of them that have traditional hard drives that are not totally immune to magnetic fields.

BTW my 13" MacBook Pro fits fine in my Moto-Centric tail bag but it's a bit of a squeeze to get it to fit through the opening in the first place. A 15" wouldn't fit. Really the only downside to this particular bag is the size of the opening. You can fit a lot of big stuff in there if you can get it in there to begin with.

In over a decade of commuting on a bicycle I've never worried about protecting my laptop with something like a hard case or anything more solid than a typical padded laptop bag or sleeve because I always figured if I had a wreck, the least of my worries was going to be whether my laptop survived. That said, I wouldn't mind having a top case instead of the tail bag mostly because it would be much easier to get the laptop in and out of it without having to cram it through the small tail bag opening.

[qcbaker]

There's a little bit of misinformation here regarding magnetic fields, electrons, and magnets relationship to hard drives but it generally doesn't matter for this discussion.

What did I post that was misinformation? If I'm incorrect about something, let me know. Maybe PM me though so we don't derail another thread lol.

I guess, looking back, I can see how one part may be misconstrued. The big neodymium magnet doesn't directly write data to the drive. Its used to actuate the read-write arm, which has another, much smaller magnet on the head of the arm which writes the data.

A magnet's field intensity decays in proportion to the cube of distance, which basically means very small distances make a very big difference in field intensity. That's why you'd almost be guaranteed to have to remove a traditional hard drive from the laptop and intentionally expose it directly to a strong magnetic field in order to screw it up. Very unlikely any effect will be had from magnets in a tank bag but it is still possible.

If your laptop has SSD then it won't be affected by the tank bag magnets. Virtually all NEW laptops have SSDs but in my house I have about five of them that have traditional hard drives that are not totally immune to magnetic fields.

Right... I don't think I implied that it was impossible, just that it was pretty unlikely that a laptop would be adversely affected by a tank bag magnet. The magnets holding the bag to the tank would have to be ridiculously powerful for them to affect the HDD with enough force to flip bits.

In over a decade of commuting on a bicycle I've never worried about protecting my laptop with something like a hard case or anything more solid than a typical padded laptop bag or sleeve because I always figured if I had a wreck, the least of my worries was going to be whether my laptop survived. That said, I wouldn't mind having a top case instead of the tail bag mostly because it would be much easier to get the laptop in and out of it without having to cram it through the small tail bag opening.

While I agree about the laptop being the least of your worries in a wreck, I don't think it means it wouldn't be worth it to invest in something to protect your laptop if you do wreck. Obviously, if you're prioritizing gear, purchase stuff for protecting your body well before anything like that, but I don't think it would be a waste of money to protect my laptop with a hard shell backpack.

[mr72]

What did I post that was misinformation? If I'm incorrect about something, let me know. Maybe PM me though so we don't derail another thread lol.

I didn't mean specifically you were posting misinformation We can PM it if you want to talk about it because it's irrelevant to the thread.

In short, SBW had a reasonable concern about magnets affecting a laptop hard drive but the risk is negligible.

I guess, looking back, I can see how one part may be misconstrued. The big neodymium magnet doesn't directly write data to the drive. Its used to actuate the read-write arm, which has another, much smaller magnet on the head of the arm which writes the data.

Point being, this magnet is at least as strong as the tank bag magnets (trust me, take apart a HD and stick that magnet to your refrigerator... then try to get it back off), and it's actually inside the HD's RF enclosure way closer to the platter than the tank bag's magnets could ever get so if it doesn't rearrange the HD then the tank bag likely won't either.

Right... I don't think I implied that it was impossible,

...didn't say you did

While I agree about the laptop being the least of your worries in a wreck, ...I don't think it would be a waste of money to protect my laptop with a hard shell backpack.

Right on.

However, the insurance settlement will replace your busted laptop in a wreck, and you can get it set back up lickety-split as long as you didn't erase your old laptop's hard drive with your super-duper tank bag magnet 

kidding... kidding...

[qcbaker]

I didn't mean specifically you were posting misinformation We can PM it if you want to talk about it because it's irrelevant to the thread.

In short, SBW had a reasonable concern about magnets affecting a laptop hard drive but the risk is negligible.

Ahh, gotcha. You mentioned electrons and stuff, which I was talking about re: CRTs/magnets so I thought that was directed at me lol.

Point being, this magnet is at least as strong as the tank bag magnets (trust me, take apart a HD and stick that magnet to your refrigerator... then try to get it back off), and it's actually inside the HD's RF enclosure way closer to the platter than the tank bag's magnets could ever get so if it doesn't rearrange the HD then the tank bag likely won't either.

Like I said, I work in IT. I know all about how strong HDD magnets are. When I worked at a PC repair shop a few years ago, we used to take apart old hard drives to get the magnets for various uses. We would snap the thinner magnets from broken laptop HDDs in half using clamps and pliers (wear goggles if you ever do this, FYI), and stick the magnet fragments onto screwdrivers to make them magnetic when we were taking stuff apart. We would tape the bigger ones to the front of our vacuum so we wouldn't accidentally vacuum up any screws we dropped. They're super useful lol

But yeah, the tank bag magnets probably aren't anywhere near close enough or powerful enough to affect the HDD in any meaningful way.

Right on.

However, the insurance settlement will replace your busted laptop in a wreck, and you can get it set back up lickety-split as long as you didn't erase your old laptop's hard drive with your super-duper tank bag magnet 

kidding... kidding...

1. My laptop has an SSD, so magnets are the least of my concerns lol 

2. Insurance wont replace squat if the accident was my fault lol.

[rscottlow]

I've got a RAM mount on my GS. Anyone have experience with compatible phone mounts? The tank bag isn't going to be in the budget for a little while, but I'm going to need to be able to see the time and to be aware of any important calls coming in. That seems like a reasonable solution for now.


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[Watcher]

I've always just used the RAM X-grip systems.  No issues whatsoever.

Right now my local Cycle Gear has these really basic strap-mount tank-bags for under $20, they're on closeout.  Might wanna go see for yourself if you need something just to get you by.