mini bike laptops

Soldiers use laptops in battle, even police use laptops in their desire to serve and protect. So why couldn't I strap a laptop to my Mini Bike to hunting down free WiFi spots? Yeah I know, it does sound a bit crazy, but you gotta use what you got. Know what I mean?

The main problem with strapping a laptop to the handle bars of a Mini Bike is the vibration. Hard drives are a bit funny about being shaken like that and refuse to work properly. But I think I have worked out the problem with the hard drive, I will come to that later.

The problem isn't really in the use of the laptop. Along flat ground I can quite easily steer with my knees if I wanted both hands free. I use a throttle clip to maintain speed, but mostly I just need the one hand.

Another problem is reading text on the monitor. You have to turn the font size up to huge else the vibrations make it unreadable. Browsing the web is tricky, but can be done. The best way to do it is to surf sites designed for mobile phones, as they are made for titchy screens.

So lets talk vibration. A Mini Bike produces a lot of vibration, a lot more than a full sized bike. I think it's due to the smaller wheels, less air in them to dampen down the bumps or something. I solved most of the vibrational problems by taping a thick piece of foam to the handle bars of the bike and sticking the lap top on that. You can buy it from furniture shops. I would say you can get rid of 80% of vibration.

One problem is not being able to read the gauges, speed was not a concern, but reading the gas gauge is, as my Mini Bike drinks like an alcoholic in a Budweiser brewery.

The main reason to fix a laptop on my Mini Bike was to scout out free WiFi spots in the neighborhood. I know you can buy a gadget to hunt out WiFi spots, but I am on a limited budget and thought using my old laptop would be the best solution.

Using the touch pad was tricky whilst moving, even at a slow speed. I don't suggest trying out some intricate Photoshop procedure.

I was in luck, I had found three overlapping WiFi connections and so was able to browse the web whilst doing 25mph in the fresh air.

I think using a flash drive is the best solution to the hard drive problem. It will be cool when the prices come down enough so that every laptop will have a flash drive rather than a hard drive. A hard drive will not work if vibrated past a certain point.

Things went slightly nuts when I hit a pot hole left from last years snow. I was mostly using the dirt lanes at the back of our street. The front wheel of the bike jammed into the hole and I took a tumble.

The great thing about crashing on a Mini Bike is you don't have far to fall and if the bike lands on you get bruises rather than broken bones.

But a laptop is more fragile than the human body, in fact it can take quite a beating and still function.

My laptop which was on the way out anyway, got pretty much smashed up, the screen was cracked and now I cannot get it to power up.

The Mini Bike is fine though, a great machine. And now I have all the free WiFi spots in my neighborhood mapped out.

Haven't told my Dad I smashed the laptop yet though.