Beware your tank bag

[jcbell1007]

If its magnetic, it will kill stuff.

I was talking with Groovemonkey last week at bikenight in VT when the topic of tank bags came up. the magnets in his wiped out all of his credit/debit cards in his wallet while he was on a ride a couple of years ago.

About a week and a half ago, i was on a ride with my tank bag. Had both my wallet and my phone in it. I had shut my phone off for the ride because in some parts of VT you still don't get reception. When I turned it back on later that day, it was all screwed up.

Took it to Verizon to get it fixed and found out there was no hardware problem. The software/memory had been damaged and I had to get a new phone. My wallet and cards thankfully were ok though. They were far enough away from the magnets.

It was a $50 lesson but it came through to me loud and clear. No more phone/wallet/mp3 player in the tank bag. I have the joe rocket manta bag with 4 magnets, just so you know.

[Evil_Weasel]

wow, i had no idea. good heads up

[nt650hawk]

No problems in 15+ years.

[DucDave]

Interesting....I have a Tourmaster tank bag that I used for years. 6 magnets held it to the tank and it worked awesome...BUT...the magnets were in 'wings' that extended down on the sides of the gas tank and NOT under the bag itself. Never had a problem like those described above!

(Unfortunately, the Strada has a plastic tank and it won't work on my new bike!)

[nt650hawk]

Interesting....I have a Tourmaster tank bag that I used for years. 6 magnets held it to the tank and it worked awesome...BUT...the magnets were in 'wings' that extended down on the sides of the gas tank and NOT under the bag itself. Never had a problem like those described above!

(Unfortunately, the Strada has a plastic tank and it won't work on my new bike!)

I must have the some one you mentioned Dave. Mine have 6 magnets under the bag section along with the wings. Maybe it has to do with the lead lining.

[Honclfibr]

Solid state memory like that found in a cell phone should not be adversely affected by a small permanent magnet.

I think your phone just borked.

[MissTwisties]

Im with DucDave...I also have a Tour Master magnetic tank bag with the flaps on the side and if I'm correct, magnets also under the bag. Never had issues and I always carry my cell and my wallet in there.

[hammadown]

These kinds of things are weird sometimes. I used to work in a lab that had high magnetic fields. I used to carry my wallet and cell in there all the time (when I forgot to take them out). I never had any issues with cards or cell (except the phone screen went blank when I got really close to the magnet). Other people would come in once and lose credit cards. I guess my wallet is more shielded than theirs.

[jcbell1007]

Maybe it was just my phone. I'm not that familiar with phone technology and how magnets affect it. It was the only thing out of the ordinary that day so I deduced that was the culprit.

I do however know for a fact that stronger magnets can wipe data off the mag strips on cards, I've seen it first hand.

other than that, it was just my experience, do with it what you will.

[The Snowman]

Hmmm, I have a Fieldsheer mag bag. It has 3 in each wing and one under the main bag compartment. I put my wallet and Blackberry in the side pockets, which are directly over the wing magnets and not an issue.

[snowborder]

Solid state memory like that found in a cell phone should not be adversely affected by a small permanent magnet.

I think your phone just borked.

Many decent phones now use the sim card.... ie magnetic media....so when you change providers you don't bork your phone.

[Mad Max]

Many decent phones now use the sim card.... ie magnetic media....so when you change providers you don't bork your phone.

What do you mean by magnetic media?

If there is a hard drive disk, then yes, it could be affected by magnets, but if it is a solid state (flash memory), like honclfibr mentioned, it should not be affected. I am not an expert, but that is my understanding of it.

[Vix]

I have a Joe Rocket manta tank bag and used to carry my cell phone in the inside, instead of the top section for the phone. Coincidence or not, I started to have a lot of problems with the phone. Called Joe Rocket (superb customer service, by the way). When phones are kept in the top part there haven't been any issues.

I got a replacement phone and keep it in the top part now. I wonder if vibrations in the bottom of the tank bag might have had something to do with it, too?

Anyway, have heard about credit cards before but not many issues with phones. Even in my small bag the magnets are pretty strong and there is a fourth that is tucked up under that I never use, so it's right under the contents of the inside of the bag.

[Honclfibr]

Magnetic stripes come in high-coercivity and low-coercivity. The low-coercivity are cheaper to create but are more susceptible to magnetic fields. You'll typically see these types of stripes on disposable cards like gift cards, subway tickets, etc etc. The magnets on a tankbag would fuck their day up.

High coercivity would be used for things like credit cards, making them much harder to fubar with a magnetic but the magnets on the tankbags are pretty strong so it's best to keep them at a reasonable distance (i.e. in the map pocket).

Laptops, ipods, and other devices with large capacity storage have hard drives in them so you should keep them away from the big magnets too, though modern drives are a lot better at resisting erasure. Solid state stuff like cell phone, digital cameras, GPS, are all fine, but as mentioned there's a lot of vibration in a tankbag so don't just let it bounce around in there.

[KillBill]

No issue with Nelson Riggs or J/R Manta bags in the past.

[ChrisNoF4i]

One time I stayed at a nice hotel. I forget if it was 4 stars or 5, but it was nice. They had a nice outdoor pool with a nice outdoor bar that served nice cold beverages. The nice lady at the front desk told me not to keep the hotel key to my nice room in the same pocket as my cellular telephone because it WOULD deactivate the key to my nice room. Low and behold, a few nice hours go by at the pool and... let's just say that I was feeling "nice" so I forgot all about the nice lady's warning. Well it wasn't very nice when I got up to my room on the 8th floor only to find that I couldn't enter my nice hotel room. We all had a nice chuckle when I showed up in the lobby wearing a wet bathing suit with no identification. I just as easily could have had that key in a tank bag.

[evile]

Hard drive in my Acer tablet PC got zorched from a tank bag. Cortech Sport IIRC...those magnets were pretty strong.

[Nikon]

I posted something about this a couple of years ago because my TourMaster tankbag wiped out all my cards. The magnets in them aren't very strong but they went through my leather wallet and killed my cards so def watch out for em.

[ZX-12R]

Many decent phones now use the sim card.... ie magnetic media....so when you change providers you don't bork your phone.

What do you mean by magnetic media?

If there is a hard drive disk, then yes, it could be affected by magnets, but if it is a solid state (flash memory), like honclfibr mentioned, it should not be affected. I am not an expert, but that is my understanding of it.

SIM cards are flash based which are not affected by magnetic fields.

[TIMMYDUCK]

I guess just like this one, that it will just stick to about anything....




Purchased of course at your local CycleGear store........


"Where you get to try it , before you buy it " ........

P.S. to Kurtz.....

You should submit that to HQ as your new Co. logo .....

I bet you get promoted to regional GM..........

[TIMMYDUCK]

Said tank bag holding up frozen OJ.