How to you pack for extended trips?

2621 Views 8 Replies 6 Participants Last post by tonyjuliano, Jul 1, 2015

tonyjuliano

Discussion Starter · Jun 30, 2015

Traveling extensively on a smaller bike like the Scrambler can be a challenge.

What's your preferred system? What gear do you bring, which luggage do you use?

Years if roaming the back roads on "little" bikes has taught me a thing or two - read all about my method HERE.

How about yours?

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outofthebox

· #2 · Jun 30, 2015

Very inspirational and eminently helpful. Thank you for sharing.

Even before I hit the road, I need to go and find some Mazel coffee sticks right away - I am a bit of a caffeine & nicotine addict myself and availability of decent coffee while on the road has always bothered me. I'm very curious to try your recommendation.

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TC3

· #3 · Jun 30, 2015

My trips are very different. For example if I take a week trip from the UK to the lovely mountains of Alsace, France I pack a 30L Givi bag with clothes, casual shoes, small medi kit, small tool kit and spare bulbs and hygiene stuff. All fits in the bag easy enough with waterproof over jacket attach to outside of bag. No shortage of good coffee on my routes as every service area has decent Italian brand coffee as well as the many small cafes in towns. I never camp and no doubt my set up would be a bit different if I did

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tonyjuliano

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jun 30, 2015

TC3 said:
My trips are very different.

Hey - it's all good.

In the end, it's the "journey" that matters most. Not "how" you take - just as long as you "do" take it.

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silverluxe

· #5 · Jun 30, 2015

The last time I went on a long ride (to the grand canyon) I ended up with viral meningitis and stuck in a hospital for a week in the middle of Nebraska. So I'm kind of a homebody now, and I have a baby so I probably won't ride far for the next several years. I mostly ride to the nearby city on the weekends and screw around. I'm a credit card and Motel 6 kind of guy when it comes to roughing it. I'm all for keeping it as simple as possible though. The amount of thought and curating that TonyJuliano has put in is impressive.

I remember when I did take my last long trip I had a Rev Pak bag FULL of crap. Probably 100 pounds of stuff and I used maybe 10 pounds of it. I encountered a guy on a Triumph Bonneville in Arizona who had only a wool army blanket rolled up on the back. He said he was just staying at reservations and the side of the road. I was really jealous that he had figured out how to survive with just a blanket and some social skills.

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PeteI

· #6 · Jun 30, 2015

silverluxe said:
The last time I went on a long ride (to the grand canyon) I ended up with viral meningitis and stuck in a hospital for a week in the middle of Nebraska. So I'm kind of a homebody now, and I have a baby so I probably won't ride far for the next several years. I mostly ride to the nearby city on the weekends and screw around. I'm a credit card and Motel 6 kind of guy when it comes to roughing it. I'm all for keeping it as simple as possible though. The amount of thought and curating that TonyJuliano has put in is impressive.

I remember when I did take my last long trip I had a Rev Pak bag FULL of crap. Probably 100 pounds of stuff and I used maybe 10 pounds of it. I encountered a guy on a Triumph Bonneville in Arizona who had only a wool army blanket rolled up on the back. He said he was just staying at reservations and the side of the road. I was really jealous that he had figured out how to survive with just a blanket and some social skills.

no tooth floss??

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tonyjuliano

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jun 30, 2015

silverluxe said:
I remember when I did take my last long trip I had a Rev Pak bag FULL of crap. Probably 100 pounds of stuff and I used maybe 10 pounds of it.

Hah! I learned much in the same way - definitely "been there, done that".

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DJKham

· #8 · Jun 30, 2015

Between my wife and I, we have 2 x Kriega US 20L's and 4 x Kriega US 10L's. They are modular and work with pretty much any motorcycle so you don't need any mounting hardware on the bike [which is great if you are anal about aesthetics like I am]. I have found the easiest way is just to remove the seat and run a strap underneath it then strap the bags to the pillion portion of the seat.

You can strap the Kriega 20L to one or two of the 10 L's and that gives you a lot of options depending on how long your trip is. If you just want to bring your rain gear, for a day trip, strapping one of the 10L 's to your seat is a quick solution. We used a 20L and 2 x 10L's each for a 2 week trip from Toronto, Canada to Boothbay Harbor, Maine and back on a Diavel and M696. Can't say enough about those bags.

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tonyjuliano

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jul 1, 2015

DJKham said:
Between my wife and I, we have 2 x Kriega US 20L's and 4 x Kriega US 10L's. They are modular and work with pretty much any motorcycle so you don't need any mounting hardware on the bike [which is great if you are anal about aesthetics like I am]. I have found the easiest way is just to remove the seat and run a strap underneath it then strap the bags to the pillion portion of the seat.

You can strap the Kriega 20L to one or two of the 10 L's and that gives you a lot of options depending on how long your trip is. If you just want to bring your rain gear, for a day trip, strapping one of the 10L 's to your seat is a quick solution. We used a 20L and 2 x 10L's each for a 2 week trip from Toronto, Canada to Boothbay Harbor, Maine and back on a Diavel and M696. Can't say enough about those bags.

I have a set of Kreigas - 1 20L plus 2 10L - but I really don't like them, especially for this bike.

The 20L bag is too long when full - hangs off the end of the seat, and they are really hard to organize. Unless you are filling all of them, they do not hold any of their shape, resulting in a sloppy looking pack job, and because of the location of the opening (front the bags, instead of top) it means that anything you pack towards the back is only accessible by removing the entire contents.

They are very well made, though, and extremely waterproof.

The only bike they really work for me on is my CX500 - because of it's ginormous seat (The most comfortable seat ever put on a MC, though - do you hear me Ducati?)

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