Moto Camping In an effort to find things to do with my time now that my precious boys are both now out of the house I thought about what I like to do. Well we know riding, but what else? That’s hard. I have not had even a day when I was not responsible for a minor since 1994 what do I like to do? Last thing I remember doing that I liked was camping in religious version of boy scouts, I think they called it royal rangers or something like that. Anyway I wonder if anyone has put the two together. Motorcycling and camping. Off to YouTube and hours later watching my 150th video of people that like the same things I like.

If I know anything about rangers (scouts) it’s always be prepared.

I also know, not to spend too much money on something until you are fully committed.

So I set about preparing to try my hand at Moto Camping!

I pulled my tents from storage, then proceeded to tear the house apart looking for all my old camping stuff! I found I had a LOT of camping equipment saved up from small trips with friends over the years. But almost all of it was sized for 4 wheel camping. Enter the purge!

I spent days setting up a camp site to the level that I liked, with the least amount of items included.

Dropped the ‘favorite’ tent for the smaller, more practical tent. Found some cheap items that rounded out what I had and finally got it all done. The site is ready. I even made a test meal!

Time to pack! And first lesson! You have to pack incredibly tight. I had 4 bags and then smalls. Way too much for the bike. So everything came out and re-packed into 2 bags and then smalls.

Pulled down the saddlebags from storage for added room and packed the bike like I have never packed before!

Time for the first test ride!!!

Down the road about 5 miles and back, call it a shake out. I found some things I wanted to change. For instance I’ll increase the shocks on the bike, move some weight from the luggage rack to the back seat. Along with some things I forgot to add like a Pillow and off spray. Things you don’t think about until you are going down the road ransacking your mind!

Tomorrow I will be riding around the block then setting up the entire site at home as a test and then a few hours later field tear down, bike pack, small ride then (If no more changes) put things away till next week.

Next weekend I’m hoping to get my first test camping in for a night.