Make sure you have some large bubble wrap for it. I took my laptop home one night and it was never the same. It cost me 150 to get it back up to par. I guess too much bumping and vibration.

 

+1 on the Asus! Picked one up a couple of months ago to replace my laptop for bike trips. Really compact, takes lots less space, runs on XP, built in wireless, does everything! The sales geek told me that the 1 gig memory was all it could handle. Took me about 30 minutes to find a 2 gig card that fit. Improved speed & performance. I can do my bill paying from the road, keep my PC-III maps at hand, plot my GPS routes on Mapquest, check email, surf the net, all the things I can do from here at home. Wouldn't travel without it!

 

Laptop is great for keeping in touch with folks back home while you're on a trip, uploading pictures to share with family or friends who didn't get to come on the trip, and, if necessary, getting some work done. Also, if you're taking more pictures than your camera's memory can hold, it's nice to be able to download them from the camera to the laptop. I only use mine when I get to the hotel for the evening.

The BlackBerry is much more handy for staying connected throughout the day, checking the weather ahead, etc. Both can take some of the adventure out of the ride, but like color, choice of pipes, handlebars, and seats, it's really about what you want out of the trip. Sometimes it's great to be connected, and sometimes it's great to be able to say, "sorry, I was out of the office."

I do think that the vibration was hard on my laptop when I toted it to and from work strapped to the luggage rack of my Dyna. I think it gets jostled much less in the saddlebag of my Road King.