Taking It With You

Taking it with you

Motorcycle Camping Techniques for Touring Riders

Steve Kimball

Motorcycles and camping have enough in common, i.e., low cost, to make the combination just about unbeatable. If a motorcyclist could put aside a dollar a day, he could save up enough money in a year to pay for a three week, 7000 mi. trip across country and back.

Provided, of course, he camped along the way.

There’s more to motorcycle camping than low cost. A motorcycle can take you places a car or truck can’t go, off road or along trails. A motorcycle will get you closer to what you want to see in a busy city and solve parking and traffic problems. A motorcycle will allow you to smell sage brush in Arizona, corn fields in Iowa, and bluegrass in Kentucky. At the same time, you can go farther, faster and with more fun than you could with any other means of travel.

Everyone involved in motorcycle camping has his own idea of the correct way to camp. As in any other motorcycling activity, those who participate in one way sometimes find it difficult to understand that people participating in other ways are enjoying themselves just as much. Having tried all types of motorcycle camping, from the most primitive to the most lavish. I can say that all can be enjoyable.

Take the Bohemian style, for instance. Bohemians can be identified by the complete and total lack of any camping equipment on their motorcycles. At night they camp in all-night theaters and under park benches. Camp cooking consists of Vienna sausages and fig newtons.

Not to be confused with the Bohemian is the Spartan, who, as the title implies, keeps things to a minimum. He can be distinguished from the Bohemian by the addition of at least an army surplus sleeping bag and sometimes a tiny pup tent, but nothing else. Eschewing conventional campgrounds, Spartans prefer to set up camp behind truck stops and in roadside rests.

Although the Sports Touring motorcycle camper looks much the same as the Spartan, there are important differences. The Sports Tourer must have a tank bag mounted on his RD400 or CB400F. In the tank bag is a folding stove no bigger than a pack of cigarettes, an 8-oz. can of Right Guard, 20-in-1 knife, first aid kit, two changes of underwear, an extra shirt, 35mm camera, pocket-size nylon rainsuit, and a notebook with the words, “great American novel” scrawled on the cover. His tent is the latest 3-lb. quonset-style mountain tent from Stephenson Warmlite and his sleeping bag has 8 in. loft from the 6 lb. of prime northern Swedish goose down. He camps in state parks and national forest campgrounds.

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The Well Equipped Camper is easy to recognize. On the front of his BMW R80 is a Windjammer fairing and on the back there are Krauser saddlebags. There is no top box on the rack which, instead, holds a Eureka Timberline four-man tent and a Dacron Il-filled sleeping bag. Inside the saddlebags are two complete changes of clothes, two-burner propane-powered stove, cooking kit, wash basin, soap, cleanup kit, sweater, air mattress, food for the next two meals, a collapsible water carrier, lighter, collapsible saw, and enough room to carry a six-pack of Billy Beer back to his brother in Wisconsin. In the fairing are the first aid kit, rain suit, ground cloth, camera and film. The Well Equipped Camper can be found in any kind of campground, primitive or developed.

Finally, there's the Kitchen Sink Camper who carries everything but, in, on, or behind his Gold Wing equipped with custom-painted fairing. California Fats saddlebags. Scoot Boot, Mallots light-bar, and pulling a 400-lb. camping trailer. The floor boards are almost scraping when he pulls into the Shady Rest Trailer Park and Campground, sets up the six-sleeper tent trailer, connects the electric air compressor for the air mattresses to the cigar lighter in the fairing and turns on the Scenic Sound stereo radio/eight-track tape deck on his bike. Within an hour he has set up the folding table, lawn chairs, four-burner Coleman stove, awning, and double mantle gas lantern. Then he sits back and watches his neighbor in Space 29 park his Winnebago, thinking how he will answer the obligatory “Say there, you’ve got all the comforts of home.”

Any style of motorcycle camper, from Bohemian to Kitchen Sinker, could take a three week, 7000 mi. tour of the country for the same cost, once equipment is purchased. What’s more, any style of motorcycle camper could enjoy himself on the trip.

However a motorcyclist chooses to go camping, there are easy ways and hard ways to do the same thing, expensive and inexpensive ways.

For the most primitive motorcycle campers, there isn’t much technique, one flophouse being about as bad as another. Once past that stage, the most basic of camping gear is a sleeping bag, and even then an army surplus wool blanket or two will suffice for most parts of the world during reasonable weather. Considering that a usable sleeping bag can be purchased at a discount store for $20 or less, it's hardly worth considering the wool blanket alternative.

Purists and mountain climbers will argue the various merits of different sleeping bags, but their reference points are different than those of motorcyclists. Unless a motorcycle camper will be using a sleeping bag for other uses, in which he needs protection down to —40°, it doesn’t make sense to spend the extra money on a top notch bag. There are reasons for buying a down filled sleeping bag, which is more expensive.

Down filled sleeping bags provide more warmth (actually insulation) than any other kind of bag and the best grades of goose down do a better job than duck down. They do this by yielding the greatest loft, or in other words, they expand when the sleeping bag is unstuffed more than a bag with less loft. That means a sleeping bag with about 2 lb. of down filling can be stuffed into a much smaller package than a 4 lb. Dacron bag which would offer about the same warmth. Two points against the down bag are the price, about $100 for a basic one and two-three times that for a good one, and its lack of insulation when wet. For $20-$30 you can get a 3 lb. Dacron Il-filled bag which will be bulky but, if it gets wet, still offer protection.

Whatever kind of sleeping bag you have, just make sure it is carried in a waterproof wrapper of some kind. It's possible to wrap a sleeping bag in the tent groundcloth, but that means it has to be unwrapped before the tent can be set up. If your sleeping bag didn’t come with a waterproof stuff sack, you can buy one. And don’t keep a sleeping bag tightly packed when not in use. That can decrease the loft, particularly with natural fibers.

That stuff sack can be particularly valuable for the campers who learned in the Boy Scouts that all one’s worldly goods can be carried in a rolled up sleeping bag. All those things, particularly clothing, carries better inside a stuff sack.

Once equipped with a sleeping bag, the next order of business is a tent. Any tent from a $20 two-man A-frame tent to expedition-quality mountain tents costing several hundred dollars, can suffice.

The kind of tent for you depends on what you’ll be using it for. For occasional use on motorcycle trips for one person, a small, light two-man tent works fine. Most roll into an easily carried log shape and weigh about 5 lb. I’ve carried such a tent for six years and used it camping in a dozen states and provinces, from Mexico to Alaska, and been quite satisfied.

There are reasons for other tents, however, If more than one person will be sleeping in the tent, the basic two-man tent just isn’t big enough for convenience. If the tent will also be used for mountaineering, a sturdier design makes sense. Even if a solo motorcyclist"will be spending more than just nights in the tent, a larger tent is worthwhile.

Consider, for instance, the differences between a two-man and four-man Aframe tent like the Eureka Timberline. The two-man has only enough headroom for sitting. Getting into or out of the two-man tent requires a person to crawl in on all fours, a muddy mess when it’s raining. Even changing clothes in a two-man tent is a two-man job, but there’s not room for two people. There’s less volume in the twoman tent so more moisture collects on the walls, if the tent is a waterproof type.

The four-man tent has enough headroom for a person to stand slightly hunched over, but it’s high enough to make entry-exit and clothes changing a much easier task. There is room for all extra gear to be stored inside the tent. The sacrifice for the difference is an additional 5 lb. and a slightly larger log-shaped package to carry. Considering the differences, the larger tent can be one of the most valuable extra 5 lb. that can be carried.

Although books have been written about tents, there are a couple of important points to note. A tent can be either a mountain tent (intended for high winds, generally) or a forest tent (made for less rigorous conditions), the forest tent being adequate for most motorcycle camping. Tents are either waterproof, which means they are not porous and collect condensation on the insides, or water repellant, in which case there will be a tent fly, or outer covering, which keeps rain off the actual tent and allows perspiration to pass through the tent walls. Under the widest variety of conditions, the double wall, or tents with flies, will provide more comfort.

A sleeping bag and tent will provide overnight protection for the basic motorcycle campers, but pit stops at roadside restaurants will be required to keep the tapeworms at bay. To be self-contained requires equipment for preparing food.

Done properly, it’s possible to buy ready-to-eat food that requires no stove or cooking utensils, but that adds little to the enjoyment of motorcycle camping and hardly satisfies the T-worms.

No, it takes warm food to make a campsite a home. This can be done without carrying a stove, provided you are careful to find primitive campsites with firewood available. That requires staying away from the campsites listed in the Sunset or Rand McNally campground guides as the Winnebago crowd frequents those.

It's much easier to carry your own stove, and even necessary for cooking in many campsites. Simplest and smallest stoves for motorcycle campers are the single burner, gas operated models like the Svea and its cheap Taiwanese copy, the Firelight. For occasional use, the tiny one-burners will provide enough heat to warm a can of stew either in the can or in the flimsy aluminum camp cooking set which seemed like a good idea at the time.

Better yet is a two-burner, propaneoperated stove and cast aluminum or stainless steel cooking utensils. One burner will be taken up with a coffee pot all evening and morning, while the other burner cooks the meal. Propane is much easier to start and regulate than gas and the cost is within reason. Better quality cooking equipment will last longer, heat food more evenly, not get smashed in the bottom of a saddlebag and in general provide more satisfaction for the additional 2 lb. Again, sometimes it’s worthwhile to carry extra weight, particularly if you will be spending much time in camp or camping with several people.

Once the basics are taken care of, it’s time to begin thinking of the extra equipment, the comforts of home.

A few items are especially important. Matches or a reliable lighter are needed to start the fire or stove. Matches are best kept in a waterproof plastic container. Just because you never crash is no reason to not carry a first aid kit. If you will be camping in a primitive campsite, make sure you have something along to carry in water. Collapsible containers are great for this and take up little space and practically no weight. Most places on our continent are frequented by mosquitos, gnats, flies, etc. which aren’t welcome and can be kept away with the aid of insect repellant. A sleeping bag doesn’t provide much cushion on hard ground. An Ensolite pad, half-an-inch thick and 48 in. long, will not only soften most of the little rocks but insulate the sleeping bag and contents from the cold, cold ground below. The foam pad can wrap around the tent and be carried easily, adding little bulk and only a few ounces. An air mattress which will last more than a couple of times will be heavy and bulky. Alternatives are the self-inflating air mattress, bulky but light, and the separate-tube air mattress which inflates easily, is compact, and has easy-to-fill individual vinyl tubes housed in a nylon wrapper. Both work very well.

Travel light fanatics are probably shaking in horror at the thought of all the weight and bulk mentioned here, but it’s possible to carry enough camping supplies for comfort and two people on a normal touring motorcycle and not exceed the manufacturer’s recommended gross vehicle weight.

The sport-tourer can carry it all in a pack on the back seat of his motorcycle, but there are other techniques. A tank bag is the best carrying device yet created. It carries the weight up forward instead of overloading the rear wheel of the motorcycle, and the tank bag can be removed from the motorcycle easily. Don’t like big fiberglass saddlebags? Relax, there are small, easily removable, nylon saddlebags which can be thrown over the seat and which can carry more than a large tank bag. Such saddlebags are available through camping stores or bicycle shops, as the throw-over saddlebags are popular with the 10-speed set.

If you’re a saddlebag-and-fairing rider, the problems are more easily solved. Remember the description of the Well Equippad motorcycle camper? His fairing carried all equipment needed for traveling and for setting up the tent so the saddlebags needn’t be opened to set up camp. Once the tent is set up the saddlebags can be carried into the tent and unpacked.

Is it really as cheap to travel by motorcycle as mentioned at the beginning? Yes, figuring a motorcycle will average 40 mpg and gas costs an average of 75 cents per gallon, the motorcyclist rides an average of 400 mi. per day and spends $ 10 per day for food and an average of $3 per night for a campsite, the cost of the trip across country and back would be $365. It works out to $20 per day, 20 mi. per dollar, or 5.2 cents per mile.

Motorcycle camping is certainly more than just a penny-pincher’s life or an aberration. There’s even a club for motorcycle campers, the Brotherhood of Motorcycle Campers, founded half a dozen years ago by Cliff Boswell, a retired school teacher and long-time motorcyclist. The organization was intended to promote correspondence among campers, keep a register of recommended campsites and hold regional group campouts. Members volunteer camping space, where possible, for other members to camp during trips, although this is intended to be a courtesy, not an excuse for freeloading.

Anyone interested in the Brotherhood can contact President Bill Poteet, 9049 Ferndale Ave., Fontana, Calif. 92335.