Motorcycle Camping
 Who's that wus
in the motel
Will this be the year you get out and do some
motorcycle camping?
Here’s my confession: In my younger years I used to
backpack, hike and car camp like a maniac. But as the years went on I found
sleeping on the ground uncomfortable and always had enough money in my pocket to
get a hotel room, rather than rough it. I swore I would never camp again. I
lied.
With the economy in the state that it’s in and my
increasing desire to spend weekends out on my bike, this is the year I’m going
back on my word and once again falling asleep under the stars.
The good news is it won’t be as uncomfortable or as
expensive to put together a rig. The bad news is some hotel bank account is
gonna suffer.
A lot has been written on motorcycle camping and in a
minute I’ll be tuning you into a few spots on the web that are LOADED with
information written by wise men, list keepers and outdoor enthusiasts who will
reveal to you the secrets of motorcycle camping in the 21st century.
You’re getting my take here and you need to understand a
few things about my style before you read on. I’m a Taoist at heart. Simple,
simple, simple. I’m not getting into the details of what stove or cookware to
carry, because in my world I pick up some food along the way that’s already
pre-made and leave the cooking chores for others who want to get into the
machinations of preparing meals in the outdoors. We’re not traversing Mt.
Everest, or hiking the Pacific Crest Trail here folks, we’re riding our
motorcycles and we’d rather be riding than washing dirty pots and futzing with
freeze dried bags of glock.
So it boils down to a good tent and sleeping bag
essentially.
A good tent is important because in the Northwest it tends
to rain when you least expect it. Depending on how often you plan to camp in the
coming years you might be able to get away with a $37 tent from Kmart, or you
might spring the $100 for a tent that will last you for years.
A good sleeping bag is important too. It can chill down at
night around here. I personally have no plans to be out in freezing weather, but
I opted for a bag that was comfortable down to 20 degrees just in case. It only
cost me $70 and it works very well. The other good news is that sleeping bags
today pack up about twice as small as they did 15 years ago.
In the world of backpacking weight is the major issue. Not
so much with motorcycling. A three pound sleeping bag is nary different from a
two pound bag. You’ve got a throttle in your hand, not a backpack on your
shoulder. One pound ain’t gonna make a difference. What is key here is space. Do
you really need a tent for four people when it’s just you and maybe your
significant other hitting the road? A four person tent is gonna eat up a lot of
packing space on your bike, so think twice. Space is the precious commodity
here.
In terms of just how much storage space you need, figure
on 100 – 150 liters of packing space. A good set of saddle bags and a tail pack
will provide that.
Packing a sleeping bag and/or tent on the outside of the
bike can be a problem unless you’re totally waterproof, so you might consider
packing them into saddle bags or hard luggage units. And this is where space
becomes the issue.
Bill Johns is a local rider and member of WetLeather. He,
along with a few others created a 12 page document that is loaded with wisdom
about sleeping bags, tents, stuff sacks and much more. It was nice of Bill to do
this because now I don’t have to write about it myself. Check it out at:
http://www.wetleather.com/reference/camping.html
You might not own a BMW and in case you don’t, don’t think
for a minute that they’re the only guys who get to go bike camping cause they
own "adventure" bikes or something. It doesn’t really matter what you ride as
long as you configure your bike to carry what you need on the trip. But…history
shows us that there are a lot of BMW owners who do camp, and the BMWMOA site has
an entire section about motorcycle camping that is also loaded with some very
useful tips. You can read it at your leisure at:
http://www.bmwmoa.org/camping/
Of course a good list is something everyone needs. Instead
of sitting around trying to decide what you need to bring, Marc Lewis at
Micapeak has created a wonderful list that you can customize to yourself. When
you get to the list page you simply remove the checkmarks from the items you
won’t be taking with you, tell the form what font you want it to print in, then
hit submit and viola, your list is ready. Lord knows what possessed Marc to make
life so easy for the rest of us, but we’re glad he did. Check it out at:
http://www.micapeak.com/info/mclist.html
For more Motorcycle Camping Tips, check out Bob
Woofter's Motorcycle Camping Made Easy.
For lightweight Motorcycle Camping gear
click here.
PT/Spring 03
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