Hi,
On a recent trip through France & Spain I found myself carrying too many chargers for all sorts of stuff: mobile, AA batteries for the flashgun, camera battery,... you know the game. Most of them were useless on the bike and I needed 220V mains anyway. This is fine in towns, but not out in the sticks.
In my old camper-van I used to have an inverter fitted, which could run a laptop, external hard-drive and chargers for at least 6-7 hours no probs.
So I had this mad thought of fitting an inverter into my F650 Dakar's boot. I know the bike's battery is nothing compared to a full blown diesel-car battery. But better than nothing, and obviously I could run a cable and charge a laptop whilst riding.
Now, apart from being a boy who likes his toys: Why would I want to do that? Well, here's a few excuses. I could...
...fit the laptop-charger into the boot and leave all other chargers at home and charge all devices through USB via the laptop, meaning: at the most, I'll only carry a few USB cables or "USB-2-device" adaptors
...avoid buying those expensive 12v-chargers for non-standard/lithium batteries (ever seen how much Nikon/Canon want for a 12v-charger? Daylight robbery that is!)
...(being a photographer): I could download/edit/work on images on the laptop completely independently & out in the sticks, without the need for hotels
I'm not totally convinced how practical an inverter is on a bike – on the other hand: what else would I use the bike's boot for anyway? (In case you're wondering about size: this inverter is 5 x 5 x 2.3 inches (
VOLTAGECONVERTERS.COM - Item Description Page - PBI200E-12)
What's your thoughts on this one? Am I going mad, or have you seen/though of this yourself before? How long do you think onoe could power a 50W laptop before the bike's battery goes down?