Episode 002 – Packing for a Motorcycle Trip

Transcript:

(00:03) in this episode we’ll find out how to get a new phone after a motorcycle [Music] trip hello and welcome to best motorcycle roads I’m Tom and I’m Todd and we have over 30 years of motorcycling experience and 15 years of planning and riding motorcycle trips we’re here to share with you what we’ve learned our goal at best motorcycle roads is simple make your next motorcycle trip the best it can be we’ll dive into technology planning packing the roots other tips and everything in between from essential prep to

(00:45) Unforgettable routes we’ve got you covered before we Kickstart today’s Journey we ask you to sign up for BMR Rider alerts it’s our way of keeping you in the loop with the latest rides tips and stories we promise no spam only the essentials to enhance your motorcycling Adventure join the BMR road crew today we’ll put you we’ll put a link in the show notes the toolkit is our next segment about motorcycle gear reviews and tips and that’s why we call it the toolkit let’s talk rain gear today Todd

(01:14) um there’s a big difference in rain gear um let’s I guess we can start with the size right like and when I think of size I just think the size that it packs down the packs down to right I mean there’s a ton of options and you can save money by buying cheap ring gear um the negative is generally the cheaper the ring gear the bigger it is and you’re probably going to get a little wet but um as long as you have enough room in your bags it’s not that big of a deal and if you’re not using it that much there’s

(01:47) you can find ways to pack it down um but I guess the better rain gear definitely packs much smaller um and I think it does probably a I feel like it does a better job of the rain production um when you think about buying some of the nicer rain gear use that waterproofing once a year on it as well I think you want to hit the seams you want to hit the zippers I think that’s one of the things that um a lot of people talk about um especially multiple days in the rain I think that saturation of those areas is what probably causes the to

(02:20) fail slightly so um we’ve got a really a great gr on rain gear we’ve got that in the show notes it’s called the Riders guide selecting the perfect motorcycle R suit but I think that like I guess the top three for me and you tell me what you think but I think somewhere between frog tugs Tour Master and then Harley-Davidson might have the best rain gear that I’ve seen um what say you yeah I’m currently using uh Nelson rig the solo storm suit um the jacket and pants um I I have some booties left over from

(02:54) a previous um rain suit but uh what I really like about it’s very lightweight and it really packs down well and uh the jacket wraps wraps up into its own pouch that’s on the inside of the jacket so uh you know it makes a pretty small storage bag when you’re done uh that jacket is 100% waterproof uh it’s got a nice thin hoodie in the in the neck roll so that when it does start to rain um you can pull that hoodie up over your head put your helmet on and that way you don’t get the water dripping down your back

(03:27) and that’s that’s really one of the easiest ways to get it runs down your back you know comes off your helmet down into your collar and then down your back with that hood on um there’s no place for the water to go yeah so uh that’s one I have it was a little more expensive than some of the previous rain gear I have but uh Nelson rigs uh Nelson rig I should say uh makes a great product um you it’s available on their website it’s available on RevZilla yeah uh I would I would take a look at that

(03:55) one as well I like it and we’ve talked about buying stuff you know most of the stuff is available on Amazon um but you know like a RevZilla it’s a great site um they do a lot of work on that site and they’re for motorcyclist buy motorcyclist so I mean that’s just another one of those things I think really um if we can support those you know go buy it at your local place if you want to Nelson rigs.

(04:18) com or whatever their rig.com it’s good to support those people Amazon is supporting Amazon and it’s great when you need it quick but it is nice to support some of these motorcycle Centric places too um another kind of side note you made me think of when you’re talking about that is the other thing that motor uh rain gear is good for is when it gets super cold I know you have a road when it’s crazy cold but if you put your motorcycle or if you put your rain gear on underneath your other it does help like cut that

(04:44) wind off and that will help in a in a pinch as well so yeah for sure anything to block that wind from coming through is Big Plus on the website we also have there’s some um more expensive premium premium like rain gear um I know uh climb mix some really nice gear um if you want to go really nuts Aros Stitch is probably the topnotch writing coat pants they also have writing one piece suit the professionals the really serious guys get Arrow Stitch it’s custom made for you you know everything’s built in and it’s pretty

(05:18) awesome stuff it comes with a good a price tag but it’s worth it so yeah y um ridewise is the section where we focus on planning and safety tips um in today will talk about safety as far as uh when it’s raining um I think you really want to find some gloves uh I mean on most trips you want to carry several different pairs of gloves and one pair of gloves should be for rain um but you know I I often ride with uh fingerless uh gloves so my fingertips are available to touch my phone uh I mean my GPS is motorcycle GPS so it

(05:55) works with you know with fingers in gloves but um I would bring multiple pairs of gloves because at night if you if you had gotten wet during the day it’s nice to you know kind of let those dry overnight and put on a dry pair in the morning uh the other uh thing I’d like to suggest is and you can buy these by the you know the dozens or by aund pack is those uh it’s like a latex or a rubber glove that’s made for medical or food certain food you know those thin those are waterproof and if you have

(06:23) gloves that aren’t waterproof just put a pair of those on and then slip them into your gloves and then you’re waterproof because hack yeah wet wet hands all day is terrible the gloves help you grip the you know your your bars um that’s why I suggest gloves even if it’s not raining I mean just you know it helps your grip but yeah I think uh you know those those surgical style gloves they pack so small I mean you can have 10 pairs and not even know it um yeah that’s a great tip like I say there’s nothing worse than

(06:52) wet gloves well except wet boots wet boots um and you I was going to ask you about that earlier but the booty talk about the booties cuz what are what what are those for yeah well the booties are just to shed the water you know when you’re riding in the rain to keep the water from you know going on the laces or going up your legs um you know they generally strap underneath your boot they cover the tip of your toe and then they’ll go you know like a cruck you know up your legs so uh yeah if you can get some booties too to keep your feet

(07:20) dry that’s a that’s a huge plus yeah and they do sell some small pack boot dryers too which are nice even if it doesn’t rain um you know some days it’s really hot sweat all that never bad thing to have a dry boot the next morning so yeah I haven’t tried those but I think you have a set yeah I do they’re great um and uh yeah so but what about uh riding in the rain Todd like I mean so we’re all you know you talked um you you know talked to me before about like just the pattern writing but um spread things out

(07:53) a little bit in the rain yeah give yourself some extra extra distance for sure um you know having those communicators on is so helpful uh hitting a puddle at 50 m hour you know can cause you to to hydr plane so you know the person who’s leading the group needs to let everyone know hey watch there’s a big puddle on the right side of the road um and you know sometimes in the rain you don’t want to stop because the more you stop sometimes you just get more wet so uh but you know just be really careful um keep Communications

(08:26) you got to slow down a little bit keep your Comm Communications going and and just be careful ride with a little more space just be smart yeah I have um also on the new bike I have some I don’t know what you would call them lasers maybe on the front but um yeah I noticed my first ride with that bike I flew down to Nashville rode the bike home um half that ride was in the rain what I was really shocked at was I have some white lights but I can put yellow covers on them wow what is that difference that makes I mean it’s hard

(09:00) to see motorcycles in the daytime in the regular everything’s normal when it’s raining it’s worse people can’t see as well and everything else and having a nice set of Lights to me is another uh really nice thing extra lighting when it’s raining um something that you don’t want to forget about and what do you think about um treating your windshields yeah prior to your trip A lot of people do that um you know we don’t have windshield wipers I actually I’ve seen one in cold wing with it but

(09:28) different story for different day but yeah you know you want that to fly off there A lot of times you’re having to get down under that windshield or you’re bringing your windshield up so that the rain isn’t just pounding you in the face so yeah that’s a good point there’s some treatments for that yeah so awesome we’re on to the mile marker it’s our story segment of of the show here um yeah I thought this kind of ties in great with our trip recently to Minnesota um do you want to talk about

(09:58) that we had a good plan we we had good roads we may have forgotten one bit of due diligence yeah well luckily we didn’t um but Tom in general you take charge of planning the route and all that kind of I think maybe Brad yeah I didn’t do anything this one but you know he planned a Great Loop route for us all the way uh up through Northern Minnesota um did we go into where else did we go was it just just Minnesota Minnesota okay I was thinking we hit Wisconsin as well but um so had this route planned and just a couple of days before we left

(10:33) I thought you know I’m going to go ahead and make a couple of reservations cuz I knew where we were going to stop and the first night was going to be in duth and we were like duth is a huge City there’ll be plenty of hotel rooms problems but I thought I’d check and when I got calling around there was nothing available like what is going on here well as it turned out there was a big event in town I think it was Taylor Swift maybe was in town or something so um so what do you do it’s a good thing

(11:01) we weren’t winging it it’s a good thing we didn’t just go ahead and ride and try and get there because I couldn’t find a place to stay within an hour of duth so uh what we decided to do was just take the loop we had and just run it in the reverse Direction yeah and so we wouldn’t get to duth until our fourth night and uh sties were gone the swifties were gone and there was plenty of room so uh that’s part of being flexible and you know planning ahead sometimes you can’t just flip the coin

(11:28) and and go wherever the road takes you because um you know you pull into town at 7 8:00 and all of a sudden there’s no place to stay within you know an hour or two that that’s rough right and we needed the suits we needed the rain suits oh gosh we needed the rain suits bad we uh I think out of the five days it rained three of those days and rained hard a couple of times oh man and uh I don’t have the hood on mine so like I can you can just imagine where the rain was running yeah it was running right

(11:56) down your back I know yeah you know we had some great stops there too but I think one of my favorite was the Viking statue is that in Alexandria Minnesota yeah that’s cool yeah you know the other thing to I I learned my lesson for the second time I don’t know why I didn’t learn it after the first time but um you know aside to having my GPS on the motorcycle which is rain proof and you know everything proof you know I could touch it with my gloves on I always have my phone there as well and I don’t know

(12:26) why I do this but you know I have it plugged in you know cuz I’m Sometimes using it for GPS Sometimes using it for music or whatever and to start to sprinkle and I go and put a a Ziploc bag over it you know and maybe put a twist tie at the bottom well when it’s raining really hard and that rain and mist and everything’s just blowing um and then you’re going to stop you know and I got to take the phone off or something and make a call and you go to stick it back in there while that wire now has been

(12:51) sitting out in the rain I’ve burned up two phones now on motorcycle trips because I was trying to use Ziploc baggies to protect my phone it just doesn’t work because as soon as you P pull the the plug out you got to it’s wet and you know Wind Blows the rain up in there so um keep the phone in your pocket because i’ I’ve ruined two phones doing this yeah I mean it’s so handy to have that phone there changing music doing this doing that but man uh when it rains yeah yeah well and now you’ve

(13:24) shown me a couple different things where you can actually buy a like a car PL what do they call it yeah yeah motor like mounted like a carplay Android auto so it’s totally the way yeah and then keep your phone in your pocket right right yeah um so from that I guess also just essential items checklist as you’re starting to uh to plan this trip packing for a motorcycle trip we’ve we’ve done a pretty good job of starting to build out a checklist um it’s you know because I what I do is I don’t keep all the things

(13:54) that we take on our long trips on the bike all the time and so I think uh we we’ve started to build out some checklists we’ve got these on best motorcycl roads.com again we’ll we’ll put a note in the show notes but not only is it just uh you know the Gear helmets jackets gloves tools um appropriate clothing for the weather and then don’t forget at night you know you got to bring those clothes because you don’t probably want to wear the same clothes you’re wearing all day all night

(14:21) um so just you know post ride relaxing clothes um I think just based on those needs will change based on how long you’re going to ride but you know you and I have both been victims of overpacking pretty much every time we go so it doesn’t seem like I’ve ever had not quite enough clothes so and then sometimes you do forget things I think I have three pairs of exact same swimsuit from Walmart um uh yeah and I think you’ve had some issues on the road too yeah one of the things uh that I I’ve

(14:52) learned is uh headlights will go out um at at you know non opportune times you know and and without a headlight if you only have one headlight on your motor it’s like you’re in big trouble but um I have two so luckily you know I had one on but um carry an extra light bulb with you you know headlight bulb you know they’re they’re cheap they’re small they’re light um because if you’re you know getting into dusk in in nighttime and you lose a headlight um it it can be pretty serious so for sure yeah carry

(15:22) one of those yep so we’ll share that list too um and then kind of that ties this two things back together as we like to talk about just efficiently packing like you know on a motorcycle you’re on two wheels so the lower that you can keep weight the better just helps balance the bike it’s a big deal um when you get the end of the day you’re tired you’re riding in the rain if your bike is a little topheavy you know you get tipsy at times you stick that foot out oily Road you just don’t want to lay

(15:49) that bike down so um I think that’s always a good one um you’ve used packing cubes I think before haven’t you yeah I still do and the other thing with packing cub cubes is I I’ll put the packing cubes inside a kind of a duffel bag that’s shaped for my my motorcycle bags so when I get to the hotel I can open up my my side luggage and my trunk and just grab two handles and pull those bags out and you know strap my U which one died oh that was the uh yeah that was damn it just the GoPro okay GoPro died um um I can pull those

(16:26) two bags out those handles and just on into the hotel um so I would you know if you can get some bags that fit inside your your motorcycle luggage um that makes it a lot easier when you get to your destination yeah um there’s also some dry bags out there that you can get I like buying two dry bags put them both in the same bag put all your clean clothes in one and nothing in the other and then as you start to go through the trip you can move your clean clothes to your dirty clothes and the nice thing about using a small thin dry bag for

(16:55) that is it doesn’t transfer that musty smell over from the from from uh close to close yeah um so yeah so I think again as we’ve talked about less is more when you’re packing um so you know it’s just being careful and and then don’t forget you got to pack all the Chargers for your phones and I think we got cpaps maybe a bunch of cpaps that come in so there’s a lot of extra stuff that you might not necessarily be bringing always so yeah yeah yeah we’re always packing laptops and tablets and cameras and

(17:25) everything else with this too yeah okay the podcast can be found at motorcycleroads.com podcast all the information you need will be there uh but you can subscribe on Amazon Spotify um apple pocketcast and YouTube and roadside Q&A in this segment uh we’ll be looking to answer your questions and take any suggestions that you have for topics and we’ll provide insights and advice uh based on our years of planning trips and our writing experiences let’s let’s close out with the last mile Todd you want to

(18:02) start yeah so number one rain suits are essential uh on multi-a trips if you’re taking a one day trip and you’re right you know it’s not going to rain fine but U rain suits essential gloves uh something waterproof uh on your gloves keep your boots dry or bring a boot dryer um pack your heavy stuff low like you said and keep that rain suit really up at the top of your luggage make it easily accessible because when it starts to rain you just got to pull off quick make that change and uh get back on the

(18:34) road yeah I like to pack the rain suit in the right saddle bag too because sometimes you’re going to pull off to the side of the road so you’re open up the right saddle bag you’re protected from the road you’re not trying to step half out into traffic I like that and the same um you know pack that extra pair of gloves and the rain suit together um other than that I think just pack lighter than you want to um it’s probably not going to kill you to wear those jeans or something for that extra

(19:01) day yeah you know um you know you can dry off you can rinse a shirt a shirt at a hotel and we almost a lot of the hotels we go to have laundry too so you know you can find laundry um almost every time so yeah the next episode we’ll have is called pre-trip Motorcycle Maintenance 101 um if this episode revved up your day don’t just keep it to yourself like subscribe and share it with your crew we’re all about the th the ride and the bond it creates keep the spirit of Adventure alive and remember bikes

(19:33) friends and endless roads the stories ride forever take [Music] care