Motorcycle Misadventures

Combo jacket-tent a great idea for motorcycle camping

Mike Werner posted news of a concept jacket/tent combo on this blog: Ideal Adventure Motorcycling Jacket from Bikes in the Fast Lane. I hope they make this thing a reality too, it's just too good! (Mike, where do you find this stuff?)

 

Long Dual-Sport Ride: What I packed; what worked; what didn't...

 I love reading other bikers' packing lists. Here's on for a long dual-sport ride in Mexico, posted on the Adventure Rider site: Long D/S Ride: What I took, What worked, What didn't.

And here's a DVD on dual-sport riding techniques, posted, perhaps developed by the same author?

Here's my list of personal items and gear for a sport touring ride around the Adriatic Sea, some of it camping.

Here's the poster's loaded bike: (Oh, don't forget to get loaded properly! Here's how.)

The Perfect Camp Lantern: Lightweight, rechargeable, adjustable LED

If it's good enough for a backpacker it's good enough for a motorcycle camper. Bright, light, and rechargeable--the perfect camp lantern is here. Backpacker Magazine's Green Editor Berne Broudy breaks down why the Black Diamond Orbit lamp made the cut. See it in action in this short video:  2009 Editors' Choice Award Winner: Black Diamond Orbit Lantern.

Motorcycle Camping in Bear Country?

Motorcycle camping in Alaska, Yellowstone, or other bear-infested regions? Hopefully you have very sturdy metal saddlebags and aren't too attached to your paint job. Hopefully you aren't sleeping with your food. What to do to keep bears away from your food and, more importantly, from attacking you? (Not an unknown scenario; see this article.) Carry a bear canister, or even rent one from ranger stations or in nearby towns. Here's an informative video that shows you how a bear canister works, what to put in it, and how far away it needs to be from your campsite. Backpacker Magazine - How to Use a Bear Canister.

Here's more good advice from a member of trailspace.com on the gear selection forum: . . . contact the rangers or land managers for the area . . . to see what works there. If, like much of the Rockies in Colorado and New Mexico, you can get along with just a bag and some parachute cord or counterbalancing, then save your money. Or, as in Yosemite, if you can just rent the container or only have to come up with a refundable deposit, again save your money. But if you are going to Denali NP, you may have to spring for a BearIKade.

The best resource I could find for more information is the Get Bear Smart Society. They've got tons of info on containers, spray, food storage, differences between kinds of bears, and "in case of attack" advice, and lots more.

Budget Motorcycle Travel

I just found a good document on the Adventure Travel forum by Jamie Z on very budget motorcycle travel. It includes advice on motorcycle camping, eating, transport, gear, entertainment, planning. He says that, "The ideas in this document are often US-centric. I have traveled for cheap in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, but the majority of my time on the road is in the United States." Read it here.

Motorcycle Rentals in France

I just saw that Mike Werner of Bikes in the Fast Lane keeps an updated list of motorcycle rental companies in France. Thanks Mike! I love riding in France--it's got tons of quaint villages, huge mountainous areas, the food is great, the weather is great (especially down south), and the locals are very friendly. Really. And France has the most campgrounds per capita of any country in the world. Take your tent. They're nice campgrounds, too (which is good, because motorcycle rentals aren't cheap!), and you're likely to make lifelong friends with people vacationing here from all over the world. Hey, the Euro is going down now and we Americans are thinking of traveling again. Here are some tips for camping in France.

Another Fabulous Motorcycle Adventure Travel-Worthy Tent

I love motorcycle camping and I love my Bibler Awahnee tent (at left, over $600), and some people love the Sierra Designs Sirius 2 (at right, under $200), and some of us sleep under a tarp and others are just tent geeks and lust after every new tent that comes along. For those of us who fit that description there is a new tent and a new tent-technology that is just amazingly thrilling. (Okay, so it's been a slow summer.) I want one, but having spent over $600 on my Bibler about a decade ago (it's got a lifetime warranty that looks like it's going to last), I am simply not in the market.

I haven't lusted after any other tent for such a long time that the Nemo Morpho AR ($400ish) took me by surprise. You laugh, but resistance is futile. It has inflatable air beams (their technical term) instead of bendy poles (my technical term) to hold it up. Yes, it comes with a foot pump, so don't forget it or you're going to have to blow. If it's raining you can get inside it and pump it up without getting wet. I can do that with my Bibler, with bendy poles. And I love my Bibler's two huge windows. (So there.) Anyway, like my Bibler, the Nemo tent is breathable and waterproof and doesn't need a rainfly. If you get the BMW Owners News you can read more about it in September 2008's Kit J. Vercella's Kit and Caboodle column.

Sidecar on the Darian Gap? Give it a miss.

In July I blogged about Scott Schidler's idea to tour on a Ural sidecar motorcycle from Prudhoe Bay to Tierra del Fuego. Some old sidecar hands replied with some wise advice, and everyone agreed that, dreams or no dreams, giving the Darian Gap a miss is the best idea.

But Scott hadn't even tried the Ural yet. Once he did, he wrote: "Although I knew that it would be different, I never imagined it would have been what it was! . . . turning was a monster effort! I had to dig deep within myself to understand why I would consider driving such a piece of machinery at all, let alone for a long trip."

Alan Karl wrote, "from what I can tell Eric Cleveland opted to fly over the gap to Bogata as I did a couple years back. It's a treacherous piece of real estate and not for the tame of heart. There are primitive tribes, drug runners, terrorists and who knows what else. Why didn't I do it? Well I was alone and if you see the pics in Helge's book, it doesn't look like a lot of fun."

I thought the toe-in might have been a bit off, and suggested getting advice from a sidecar forum. James Barnwell wrote in to advise reading the manual Driving A Sidecar Outfit and to practice the exersises suggested in the manual, and to take a sidecar safety course. "The pullin-drifting on acceleration/deceleration is normal," says James. "You will get used to it. Thank goodness you have not flown the chair-yet! Good luck! Urals are the most fun you can have on three wheels."

I agree. It doesn't handle like a motorcycle -- there's none of that leaning, flying feeling. It's more like driving a handicapped sportscar, one with three wheels and handlebars instead of four wheels and a steering wheel. Why do I love it, then? Well, that's a complex question. For now let's just say it's that je ne sais quoi.

Campsite Reviews

Thanks to BluePoof for spotting this great site on campsite reviews. She loves motorcycle camping, and so do I! I'm going to contribute a couple of favorites to this forum--there's a nice one in Brookings, Oregon, right over the California border. I think it was Harris Park, but I'm not sure. Description fits the bill -- lots of tree shelter, 1/4 mile trail to a nice beach, fab at sunset, haystack rocks scattered out in the sea. Tent camping sites well separated from RVs, and hot showers. It's featured in a chapter of American Borders, Distant Fires.