Even if you need to use an inverter for some stuff, it is much easier to use the bike's charging system for your doodad's charging needs. The bike has plenty of capacity. I kept a Nook, a phone, a camera and a Stinger flashlight charged in my tank bag on the Colorado trip last Summer. I wouldn't have hesitated to plug into the inverter for a lap top charge if I'd brought one. The small panels need ten hours of sunshine to fully charge an iphone. Works fine if that's all you need, like hiking. But to charge your bigger items up, like a lap top, you'll need far higher capacity/surface area. I had a 15 watt panel on the lid of my home built trailer, that's 1.5 amps at 12 volts. Not even enough to charge a deep cycle battery for a cpap. I needed two or three times the capacity if I wanted to bring back a discharged battery.
There are dash board panels out there, you plug them into a hardwired lighter, they put out mili-amps (fractions of an amp), they're smart enough to shut off when things are full, and with just a little daily light they'll maintain a long term storage situation. They will not recharge anything. Solar just hasn't gotten powerful enough in a small enough package yet to do big stuff fast, little stuff long term sure. Perhaps something in some lab somewhere is doing crazy great, but it's far outside most folks budget.
Some of the slickest stuff I was looking at the other day are those flexable roll up panels. They charge an internal battery, you then plug your usb cables into that battery to drain off a charge for the device. Some larger panels can do a few device recharges on one solar filled charge. One of those larger ones could do several devices for you, charge the pack during the day, discharge into your doodads at night. No lap tops again though. With the way things have gone here lately, nobody needs a lap top any more anyway.
Sorry for the length, I was real enthusiastic about solar travel a while back.
