Home made Laptop Carrier

I have been commuting with a back pack on my cycle since I started 3 months back. Since my shoulders aren't in such a great shape, I have not been carrying my laptop along with me. It was a good excuse to keep it at work. Also, I have an HP laptop at work and a Dell one at home and the docking station at home suits only the Dell one.

The downside of buying a better cycle was that it doesn't come with a rack(carrier) or a bell which is needed for normal commuting. These come default on a normal cycle in India. These are designed for the pure thrill of cycling - nothing should come in between. It is not for the Copenhagen or Amsterdam or the normal Indian style or of cycling instead it is for lycra and helmet clad roadies and off-roadies. So carrying stuff on the cycle was indeed a problem while commuting and doing errands. And I am not cut out for long rides and off-roading and stuff, it is pure commute and a bit of loafing around. Hopefully things would become better with more of my ilk commuting along with the normal cycle guy on the road.

So I bought a rack from BOTS, Decathlon Modular System(DMS) carrier, at Rs.1599 was 10% of the bike cost - pretty expensive indeed. But the carrier remained useless because they don't provide a bungee chord with it - in fact they expect you to buy more modules to fit into the rack. I didn't want to spend any more money on this and was in fact looking for a rope to tie stuff around.

Then I stumbled on this great website where they listed some DIY panniers - neat stuff actually. The one that was really practical for me was the one that used a laptop bag as a pannier. Not being a DIY kind of guy myself(though I have a descent toolkit), this was the easiest one as well. While it is not so elegant, the laptop is smoothly shifted out from your shoulder to the rack with the original bag and the strap, nothing comes in between. You also get two hooks when you take the bag off that can be used for other purposes . But I still don't want to carry my laptop back home and hence I am just carrying around other stuff in it for a while, may be test it a bit before I lug the laptop along with it. I still needed some fine tuning to ensure that the bag doesn't come in between the pedal and doesn't touch the tires on the other side.

But I think I hurried in buying a rack without considering all aspects. This is too heavy and expensive one for my kind of usage. And I don't think I will buy another add on for this. It is expensive, not usable as it is, and also comes a bit short and narrow to use it as a general carrier. So I will not recommend it for anyone until the seller gives you some add-ons free with it, at least the bungee chord. I would recommend a cheaper Indian one and add your own stuff.