Packing for a Motorcycle Tour

What will we be taking?

Our thoughts are starting to turn to our packing list, what will we be taking indeed. This is always tricky deciding what you need to take with with you on a two week motorcycle tour of somewhere new.

The best advice I can remember reading was to place everything you think you’ll need on the floor in front of you. Then split it into two piles “essentials” and “extras” then go through the “essentials” pile again to wheedle out any other “extras”, then disregard everything in the “extras” pile🤣.

 

Obviously we’ll need our armoured, protective riding gear – helmets, jackets, bike jeans, boots, gloves, etc. We did initially think that we would be taking our Knox Urban Pro mesh riding shirts with layers over for the cooler days as it had been suggested to us that temperatures would be above 20 degrees Celsius most days.  But after watching Vet & Beanies Canadian Rockies Tour on YouTube – this is pretty much the tour we are doing – we have had second thoughts. They encountered conditions from 30 degrees Celsius down to 2 degrees, heavy rain, thunderstorms and snow in June! 😮.

So rather than summer mesh jackets we will be taking our all year round adventure jackets (Kate will take her Triumph Ladies Navigator jacket and I will take my Klim jacket) that are designed for all weathers. Waterproof, windproof and breathable Goretex with opening vents to allow some air flow if required.  We’ll have two pairs of armoured riding jeans and our riding boots. Added to the list will be two pairs of gloves each and thanks to the advice from Vet & Beanie in their videos a good set of waterproofs for added protection from the elements.

Dress codes are fairly relaxed in the USA, so I assume it is also fairly relaxed in Canada too. I imagine a few upmarket city restaurants will require a higher dress code, but typically, any clothing is acceptable – T-shirts and jeans\shorts. Which suits me fine…

The main items in our “off the bike” casual wear will predominantly  be made up of lightweight, breathable, washable, quick drying sports technical  materials. Moisture wicking T-shirts roll up into really compact little cylinders, zip off walking trousers are comfortable and don’t take up a lot of room either. A pair of lightweight shoes for the evening too to give our feet a break from our bike boots. I also want to do some wild swimming in the lakes so swimming shorts are on my list. Though I have been advised that the lakes are fed from glaciers and melting snow so are “bloody freezing”. So, perhaps the swimming shorts will go unworn, unless the hotels have pools.

Our Rukka base layers I suspect will be worn most days on the bikes too. I also feel that we’ll need some warmer mid layers too as we will be riding in the mountains more often than not. So, fleeces and jumpers will probably be most welcome additions some days.

On top of clothing there will be all of the gadgets that we can’t seem to live without these days. Having said that, modern mobile phones are more than capable these days of providing additional functionality such as Sat Nav, HD video and pictures, music, TV, etc. I will be taking my laptop on tour so I can keep up with this blog. Kate will probably want to take her iPad too.

We will taking our own intercoms and action cameras to record some of the amazing roads and scenery we’ll encounter.

Orange & Black are providing us with a Sat Nav for each of the bikes pre-programmed with the days riding routes and any Points of Interest.

All of these gadgets will require charging overnight of course. So a selection of cables and chargers, along with adapter plugs will also be added to our luggage. And spare cables as we do have a bit of a habit of leaving cables in hotel rooms😖.

All of this will have to be carried with us everyday in four side panniers, a top box and our textile Oxford tail pack.

 

The hard panniers\side cases supplied on the bikes do not come with inner liner bags so I have purchased some holdalls that should fit the side cases provided on Kate’s Tiger Sport 660, and a set of BMW Vario pannier liner bags. This is a bit annoying because we had bought a set of these previously when Kate had her BMW F750GS with BMW Vario side cases and let them go with the bike when we sold it😡.

 

These inner liner bags make life so much easier when we arrive at our hotels for the night. Simply unlock the side cases and lift out all of the liner bags containing all of your gear and carry them into the hotel. No removing the fitted heavy side cases and heaving them to your room, or trying to carry armfuls of loose items in as few trips as possible from the bikes to your room for the night either. Our Oxford tail pack also simply unzips from its base and can be carried or worn like a rucksack – a nifty piece of motorcycle luggage.

This set up will also save a great deal of time loading the bikes each morning. Just pack the liner bags in the hotel room and fit them into the side cases when you’re ready to leave – after a hearty breakfast of course!

So for the fifteen day road trip, and the three days pre-tour to acclimatise, all of our clothing, gadgets and other items will have to fit in to two cabin baggage sized holdalls, two side bags and one rucksack in the bike top box. We will have to leave some space for souvenirs and souvenir T-shirts too of course.

There will be no need to take too many toiletries as the hotels will provide these, and you can always get complimentary items from the reception desk if you’ve forgotten anything. Wal-Mart and CVS will probably be available in most towns and cities.

One thing I am planning on carrying on the bike is my small tool-kit which has come in useful a couple of times. One example being when I needed the cutters to snip, wire-by-wire, through a bike lock when a certain someone – you know who you are😁 – brought the wrong lock keys with them. The long weekend road trip nearly ended at the first rest stop.🤣

So, basically, for the duration of the road trip the two of us will be living out of four very small suitcases. Packing light is an art form, and packing for a motorcycle trip more so. I’m not 100% sure we’ve fully mastered it yet, but were pretty damn close. We’ll pack ourselves enough clothes for seven days and either use the hotel laundry facilities or wash the quick drying stuff in the shower – sorted!

There will be a number of documents that we will have to carry too. Orange & Black will supply us with a Road Book which will contain route details, hotel bookings, emergency information, etc. We will need to have our Passports, UK Driving Licences and travel insurance documentation on us at all times. Plus, I’m one of those people who likes to have everything printed out and placed in a folder in the order that it will be required. Things like flight details, ESTA\ETAs, bike rental agreements, etc. Plus having it all saved to online storage😁.

So, that’s that… our rough packing list. So, until the next post.. Take care everyone!