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Traveling with MBP

AzDesertTroll

AzDesertTroll

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 12, 2011
53
0
Show Low, Az
Next month I will be taking a week long motorcycle trip to visit family that I have not been able to see in several years. My question is what is the likely hood of causing damage to my Early 2011 15inch MBP if I was to take it along for the ride?

It would be packed in with my clothing either in a hard saddle bag or in a small backpack that will have jackets and rain gear (hope I don't need that but better safe than sorry) that will be strapped to the passenger seat. The trip will be 90% interstate and 10% State Route grade roads. I am concerned more about vibration that are normal to motorcycles than road impact. If a crash is involved the health of the computer is not a primary concern.

It is not a must have item on the trip and was going to be more for convenience of checking email and sharing pictures / videos documenting my travels over the past few years with family.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
I think you should be fine. My brother has brought his MBP on motorcycle rides and nothing bad has come from the vibrations. Just make sure you have proper padding around it.
 
Rather than sleeping it before traveling I'd say do a full shutdown. Otherwise, I'd be most concerned about heat but if it's insulated inside a bag with clothing packed around it, that may not be terrible but make sure it cools some before booting it up if it got too hot inside the pack.
 
Thanks guys, it for sure would be fully powered down when in transit. I was just unsure if the road and / or motor vibrations would cause problems with the HD.

Thanks again for your time and suggestions.
 
I fell asleep with my mac book pro on my lap in bed, I turned over and my mac went flying and slammed against the floor.

Damage? I had to snap the fan fin back in place.

AzDesertTroll said:
Next month I will be taking a week long motorcycle trip to visit family that I have not been able to see in several years. My question is what is the likely hood of causing damage to my Early 2011 15inch MBP if I was to take it along for the ride?

It would be packed in with my clothing either in a hard saddle bag or in a small backpack that will have jackets and rain gear (hope I don't need that but better safe than sorry) that will be strapped to the passenger seat. The trip will be 90% interstate and 10% State Route grade roads. I am concerned more about vibration that are normal to motorcycles than road impact. If a crash is involved the health of the computer is not a primary concern.

It is not a must have item on the trip and was going to be more for convenience of checking email and sharing pictures / videos documenting my travels over the past few years with family.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
 
I'm going on a long road trip this summer. I am very hesitant to bring the mbp. I will be camping and it is going to be very hot. I'll be driving in a car.
 
I have been taking my MBPs to work and back on a motorcycle every day for the last two and half years - never experienced a single problem. If your MBP does not have an SSD, probably its safer to turn it off, but I don't think I ever bothered.
 
I don't know about riding in motorcycles with a laptop, but you should be just fine, shut it down as recommended above.
 
Replace the harddisk with a ssd and you even do not have to shut the macbook down.
 
Thanks everyone for their input. I feel pretty comfortable now about packing the MacBookPro in with my clothes. As an added layer I may pick up one of the neoprene sleeves to slide it into from Walmart before I head out.

Thanks again everyone for their time. Have a great summer.
 
You should consider tossing it into a large zip lock bag as well just in case it rains. That's what I would do.
Have fun on your trip. I would love to do something like that. Not visit your family, just ride cross country. :D
 
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