A few tips and tricks for my next, long motorcyle trip.
Notes
Of course, all of this is optional: in the end, the most fun rides are the least practical ones: e.g., crunched over for >5 hours on a V4S, scorching heat, on your way to Yosemite!
The weather
- Getting rain protection right is important
- Need waterproof shoes
- Upper body protection tends to be fine with a leather jacket
- Covering pants with protective layer?
- Unfortunately, typically not long enough to cover shoes when your knees are bent over. Water seeps in.
- Worst case, you can use hotel / motel’s hairdryer to dry everything.
- But it will take an hour or two.
- Temperatures can drop from 66F to 36F within 2 hours of riding
- e.g., Bakersfield (hot) to Lake Isabella (blizzard) to Barstow (normal)
- Heated jacket liner: good! Stop, take jacket off, put liner on, put jacket back on!
- Underpants: bad. They require a changing room (or exhibitionism).
- Overpants: better. But can be clumsy. Or they may be good for warmth but bad for rain. Or good for rain but bad for warmth.
- Crucial to stay warm
- Being cold on the bike will mess with your posture. + You may crunch over which may make other parts of your body cold (e.g., lower back)
- You may be in pain
- Wear a tank top underneath for more protection
- Heated grips don’t do much below 44F, or so.
- Thicker gloves don’t work either, even if the heated grips are on.
- Need heated gloves for emergency situations.
- Unclear how to deal with an unplanned winter storm (e.g., 36F weather and light snow)
Stopping to smell the roses
- Riding ~250 miles daily from motel to motel is too fast paced
- You don’t really get to enjoy the scenery much because you have to make sure you get there at a reasonable time
- You don’t get to enjoy a morning coffee or an evening dinner anywhere (e.g., Sedona)
- Ideally, you’d wanna spend an extra day in a place
- Booking two days in advance also does not seem to lead to good prices
- Stopping to take pictures should be as painless as possible
- Ideally, gloves can stay on
- Ideally, no backpack that you must bring with you
- Ideally, only heated liner must be unplugged and replugged
- In general, parking the bike and going for a small bite or a walk is problematic if all valuables are in the bike, especially laptop
- Need an easily removable laptop & documents pouch
- Similarly, going for a small hike in a pretty area is hard & discouraging if you have too much gear and/or heavy valuables with you
- So maybe leave the drone and the DSLR in the store
- Having to stop to use phone is annoying
- Furthermore, having to take gloves on and off to use phone adds to the annoyance
- On the other hand, using the phone while riding is asking for a lot of trouble
- Configuring Apple’s Face ID with the helmet on would be amazing
Videos
- Mounting a camera on your bike that you can quickly use to take a picture or a short video is pretty nice
- Even a phone for selfies can be sweet
- GoPro sucks
- Buttons are hard to use
- Battery drains super fast
- 30% battery and it just shuts off
- Cannot open battery when attached to helmet
- Opening battery is impossible with fingers; need tool
- GoPro remote will make some of these better
Packing
- Pack such that you can stop at any point and go for a 30 minute walk anywhere.
- Don’t bring anything too valuable
- Don’t bring anything that can’t be lost or stolen
- Don’t bring a heavy backpack; you will have to take it with you and will make walking around more miserable.
Others
- You need good earplugs for the wind noise
- You need a smooth ride if you’re gonna be on the bike for 5hrs a day
- You need a windshield: you may have to ride in strong winds for hours
- BMW R1250GS handlebars are too far forward
- The airhawk seat cover is pretty solid, but the straps suck.
- Plus, there is nothing to cover it with, so you have to pray it doesn’t rain. Or, add the seat cover to the list of things you must carry.