Powering a Laptop while riding...

[drew231506]

If I get a small laptop can I have it plugged in while riding?? I remember reading about some dude who built a cpu for his trip. I am thinking about getting a small laptop to use for gps routing and being able to blog throughout my trip with pictures and text. Just wanted to see what everyone thought about this before I start.

Thanks!!!

 

[Ignacio]

If I get a small laptop can I have it plugged in while riding?? I remember reading about some dude who built a cpu for his trip. I am thinking about getting a small laptop to use for gps routing and being able to blog throughout my trip with pictures and text. Just wanted to see what everyone thought about this before I start.
Thanks!!!

And we think cages with cell phones are a problem. Put down that mouse!

Seriously though, the amount of draw a laptop or charger is going to use would be very small and shouldn't be a problem. Bigger issue would be getting the voltage right. The standard charger is going to be 110 AC and the bike is 12DC. You'd need an inverter or something unless you figured out to direct wire it via the battery source.

The guy you're probably thinking of is Peter Hoogeveen had some 12V adapter for his ruggedized tablet.

 

[bramfrank]

Most laptops draw on the order of 50-100 watts when running (depends on screen size, processor power, backlighting settings and so on). If your bike is an '06 you have the cigarette lighter socket in the glove box and Targus (and others) sell adapters to run laptops - or you can just buy an inverter at your friendly Best Buy or Circuit City.

Hard drives are sensitive to vibration, displays tend to wash out in direct sunlight and laptops (with a couple of exceptions) aren't waterproof. Keep that in mind when mounting your computer.

 

[Windjammer]

You can buy a cigarette adapter (female) with an inline fuse, then connect to the battery on your '05. Lots of places to buy the adapter kit for plugging into the cig adapter, as others have mentioned. The 12VDC adapter I have includes a small but fairly heavy box, so you'd need to find a mounting point for that as well.