Motorcycle Trip Equipment


This page is about the PHYSICAL stuff – what goes in the panniers, on the seat, and in the dry bag. The decisions (where, when, how far, where you sleep) are over on the Trip Planning page. The two go together: the plan tells you what equipment you need, and the equipment limits what plans are realistic.

Preparing for a trip won't guarantee that the trip will be perfect, but hopefully it will be less ... Adventurous. Every trip you learn a little more to make the next trip better. Take small trips, day trips, then make them longer. You will learn what you need (and more importantly) what you do NOT need. You don't have much for packing, so be careful in what you choose to take... Figure out what you can buy on the road.

There are as many trips as people that go on them. Below I describe packing for just two kinds of trips I take: staying in motels (easier) or motorcycle camping. The only difference between motel rooms and camping is that I ADD equipment when motorcycle camping. None of the below links are affiliate links, all of it is equipment that I bought and I use. I will tell you the good and bad below, or if you ask me.

Remember you can ALWAYS buy something on the road if you leave something behind. Also, I reference directions like they do on a plane or ship – looking forward from behind: Port (4 letters) is left, Starboard is right.

Also try to think about using the same thing in two different ways. My dry bag not only stores my clothes but also acts as a pillow, with the hoodie I carry adding a little extra padding. My gear sits at the bottom of the tent and acts as a leg rest if I need it or extra covers if it gets too cold. The tent is a backrest for me while I ride.

GPS / Navigation Hardware

Worst case you COULD travel with only a phone navigation system. But you are hoping that your phone will always have a signal – not guaranteed out in the middle of nowhere. My first navigation is a Garmin Zumo GPS for the motorcycle, VERY glad I got one. I bought one used 'just in case' but in the end it worked very nicely. This GPS has the LM (Lifetime Maps) designation – look for that and you won't have to worry about buying maps every few years. Two issues. First, as far as I know you cannot make a circular route (start and end at the same point) – you have to create two separate routes. Second, with mine, the glare. This one is mounted on the Harley.






My second Garmin is a Zumo XT2, Lifetime Maps and a much better screen. You can see the ball mount behind it that I bought to mount it on the Triumph. I mounted the GPS on the handlebars using a Handlebar Ball Mount. While I could probably clean up the wires a little better it works for now.

How to BUILD routes and get them onto the XT2 (including the Basecamp workaround) is on the Trip Planning page, Step 9.



Travel Light – Stay in Motels

The fastest and easiest way to travel is to stay in hotels / motels with a minimal amount of baggage. I would suggest, at a minimum, the GPS and the repair and maintenance kit. In fact I carry the maintenance kit with me on a regular basis.

Repair and Maintenance – Port Side (left), looking forward, Saddle Bag / Pannier

These are the items I put in my left side pannier, the pannier I only open rarely.

Luggage – Starboard Side, looking forward, Pannier / Saddle Bag

I usually carry the items I need quick access to in the right pannier. A long-sleeve hoodie and a rain jacket in case it gets cold or starts raining.

I also keep drinks / water in the saddle bag. When camping (see below) I keep the other loose items (JetBoil, bear spray, propane canister) in the pannier also.

Luggage – Top

It is VERY important when strapping bags or the tent to your motorcycle that you do NOT use bungee cords. They STREEEETCH when you go around corners and your load may start moving around. I use 1 inch straps with a buckle and tighten them so that they do not come loose.

Vendors make bags that fit your panniers perfectly so that you can pack everything in the bag then slide it into the panniers. I had these bags for the K1600 and they worked perfectly, but they were inside the top box and side panniers, protected from weather. The problem was that when I strapped that bag on the Harley pillion seat, since the bag was not waterproof, everything inside got wet. I bought a 65 Liter Big River Dry Bag at REI and that has worked perfectly for me. Note that I have 4 ea. 1 inch straps to hold just that bag on.









Inside the dry bag I put:

Luggage – Misc

I bring along my computer so that I can transfer each day's video over to a hard drive. I put the computer bag in either the dry bag or I put it in the right pannier if there is room and I am out camping.

I always run my camera on my shoulder, hence the need for the laptop.

In that large computer bag is:
Also a CamelBak backpack to hold 2L of water so that if anything happens I have water or if I am camping I have a water supply. In the west there are LOTS of long desolate lonely highways. Choose a color other than black, black absorbs the sun (I messed up when I chose mine). The other option (pictured below) is the Source Razor 3L Low Profile Hydration Pack. I like that one better, less dangling straps than the Camelback BUT not much for doubling as a small backpack like the CamelBak does.

Motorcycle Camping with a Copper Spur UL2 XL Tent

For motorcycle camping there are LOTS of resources online with lists of things to take. The key here is 'essentials', too much stuff and it may not all fit. Look at a few to see what you may want to bring along.

Add to the list:

Hiding smells on your bike – odor-barrier bags

A bear's nose is the best sensor in the forest – they can smell food from miles away, and "food" to a bear includes your toothpaste, sunscreen, and that honey-peanut-butter container. Abscent bags (activated-carbon lined, the same technology as OPSAK) seal the smell in, and I use them for food and anything scented that rides in the panniers or sits in camp. Two things to understand clearly: FIRST, an odor bag is a layer, not a vault – it lowers your scent signature so you attract less attention, but no bag survives a bear that already knows food is there. SECOND, in national parks the food storage RULES still apply – where the park requires a bear canister or a food locker (Yosemite and Sequoia / Kings Canyon among others), a smell-proof bag does NOT satisfy the regulation, because rangers cannot certify what a bag does and bears have learned what coolers and bags LOOK like. So the play is both: odor bag INSIDE the canister or locker. The bag keeps the bear from coming to look; the hard container is what wins if it looks anyway. A bear's nose beats a bloodhound's by roughly 7x, and can pick up a food smell from up to 20 miles downwind – which is why an odor bag reduces your scent but a canister is what actually stops the bear.


When putting it all together, the 65L Dry Bag holding my clothes gets strapped to the seat, the hydration pack and the 35L dry bag behind that. I have 2 ea. 1 inch straps to hold them on with a chain and lock around both of the dry bags to ensure someone doesn't try to make off with my equipment (it is easy and quick enough to pull the 1 inch strap off, chain not so much):


And everything all ready for the night:

When you get to the campsite

Setting up camp correctly is important. Ron Lieback has some hard-learned lessons about camping out in nature, summarized below but the article has TONS more detail, take some time and read his article:


Motorcycle Camping with the Toucan Tent

The other tent option:

Packing your tent

As you can see from the picture below, before I roll the tent up I have not drawn the ties as close together as I could. This is so that when I roll the tent it is a little wider. Remember, I have that extra Pendleton blanket inside the tent. With the ties situated like they are when I roll up the tent, I use the built-in tie straps to help keep the roll the size I want. I then use two additional 1 inch straps to hold it in place / tied to the motorcycle seat back. The tent now fits my back perfectly as a backrest. If I needed the tent to support my back more I would just tie the 4 ties a little closer making the tent a little rounder:

When putting it all together, as I said the tent goes right behind me where a passenger would go with straps holding the tent to the seat. The Dry Bag gets strapped to the seat and through the tent straps. The CamelBak is squeezed in between the dry bag and the seat, otherwise if you strap the CamelBak on top, the sun heats up the water. For the Triumph, I stack them with the water bag between the dry sack and the tent:


Panoramic Pictures

My panorama pictures are spliced together using Image Composite Editor, take at least 9 pictures and up to 20 pictures of the landscape and ICE splices them together:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/product/computational-photography-applications/image-composite-editor/

The GREAT things I like about these pictures are:

Untried But Interesting – YMMV

Everything above this line I own and use. Everything BELOW this line I have NOT tried – these are things that look interesting, that other riders vouch for, or that I am watching. Your Mileage May Vary, and if you have direct experience with any of them, send me e-mail (address at the bottom) and tell me the good and the bad:

Motorcycle Home


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