Motorcycle Camping Gear: Why Ordinary Camping Gear Isn’t Enough

Motorcycle Camping Gear: Why Ordinary Camping Gear Isn’t Enough Adventure Rider Radio – Motorcycle Podcast · Jun 26, 2026

Annotations will appear as you listen

0:00

113:05

Term

hugger

A hugger is an add-on piece that covers part of the rear wheel area. It helps stop water, dirt, and mud from getting thrown up onto you and your stuff.

Brand

moto camp nerd

Moto Camp Nerd is a shop that sells camping gear specifically for motorcycle riders. The idea is that the gear is easier to pack and works better when you’re traveling on a bike.

Concept

“Smart mods” is the hosts’ term for aftermarket upgrades chosen for functional benefits—like improved control, ergonomics, or usability—rather than just looks. The segment contrasts these with “flashy” modifications that may not make the bike work better.

Brand

ims products

IMS Products makes aftermarket parts for motorcycles. In this segment, they’re talking about foot pegs that are designed to improve how the bike feels and how your feet sit on the controls.

Part

foot pegs

Foot pegs are where your boots rest on the motorcycle. Better foot pegs can make it easier and more comfortable to stand up and control the bike.

Term

multifuel

A “multifuel” stove can use different kinds of fuel instead of just one. That’s useful on long trips because you might not find the exact fuel you planned to use.

Term

LED light

An LED light is a camping lamp that uses a modern, efficient bulb. The important part for camping is whether it lasts a long time and whether you can recharge or replace the batteries.

Term

usb

USB charging means you can recharge the device using a common USB cable. That’s handy on trips because you can often charge it from a power bank or the bike’s charging setup.

Car

Dodge Charger

The Dodge Charger is a car made by Dodge. It’s known for being a powerful, sporty sedan, and people may mention it in everyday talk because the name “Charger” is also used in other contexts. If someone says it “doesn’t work” or is “on a charger,” they’re usually talking about a specific situation with a car or device, not the car’s basic purpose.

Term

camping stove

A camping stove is a small portable cooker you bring on trips. The point is that it can also work as a backup way to cook if you lose power.

Term

tarp

A tarp is a lightweight sheet of waterproof or water-resistant material used as a flexible shelter. In motorcycle camping, it can be pitched quickly as a rain cover or as an overhead “roof” to protect the tent and create a drier setup area.

Term

tent fly

A tent fly is the extra waterproof cover that goes on top of your tent. It helps keep rain off the tent so you stay drier inside.

Term

footprint

A footprint is a protective sheet that goes under your tent. It helps keep the tent floor cleaner and can make more of the ground around you stay dry.

Term

multi tool

A multi tool is a small pocket tool that has several different functions in one. Instead of bringing lots of separate gadgets, you carry one thing that can do many small jobs.

Brand

Leatherman

Leatherman is a company that makes multi tools—small pocket tools with multiple features. The hosts mention it as the brand of the multi tool they carry.

Brand

Opinel

Opinel (likely Opinel/Opinel brand) is a French knife brand known for simple designs, typically with a wooden handle and a stainless blade. The hosts mention it as an inexpensive, comfortable option—especially for camping-style use.

Term

flat water pack pouches

These are water bags that can flatten down when you’re not using them, so they take up less space on a trip. They expand when filled, and here they’re used as part of the camping setup.

Brand

tweretic

Tweretic is mentioned as another company that makes similar water storage pouches. The hosts are basically saying “other brands make these too.”

Term

centralized

“Centralized” means putting your gear closer to the middle of the bike. That helps the motorcycle feel more balanced and easier to control when you’re carrying camping stuff.

Term

tail

Here “tail” means the back end of the motorcycle. The advice is to avoid loading too much stuff at the very back so the bike handles better and you can reach what you need more easily.

Concept

quick access

Quick access means keeping important stuff where you can grab it fast. On a motorcycle trip, that prevents you from having to unpack all your luggage just to get something simple.

Term

first aid kits

A first aid kit is a small bag of medical supplies for injuries. The advice is to keep it easy to reach so you don’t have to dig through bags in an emergency.

Term

saddlebags

Saddlebags are bags that mount on the sides of a motorcycle. Riders use them to carry gear like tools or camping items without having to load everything into a backpack.

Term

pannier

A pannier is a side storage case or bag that attaches to a motorcycle. People use them for heavier gear because they’re mounted securely and help keep the bike balanced.

LIVE

Checking specifications and chasing down other people's must have lists for

motorcycle camping gear is starting at the wrong end of the problem and it's

easy to do because you start looking at tents or sleeping bags or stoves

whatever and they have all the little details with it you compare them with

other ones then you find someone's list online of must-haves or a recommendation

where they're telling you this is the one for motorcycle camping and you can't

help but think well maybe I need that one too but before any of that there are

more important questions to answer you're gonna find out what they are

today because the way you think about camping from a motorcycle is going to

change the way you think about what gear you need to buy so rather than handing

out a must buy list this episode is about the thinking behind a better

motorcycle camping setup first we're gonna talk with Ben Williams from Moto

Camp Nerd about a simple way to look at your camping setup before you start

buying gear that's going to point you in the right direction it's going to show

you what you need for you specifically not someone else's list then we're going

to talk with Miknis and LCP from Peaky Peaky Overland and Turkana Gear they've

spent years many years camping from their motorcycles in different countries

with different climates and different conditions they've done it all they've

overpacked they've changed systems replaced gear retired gear given things

away and they've learned a lot along the way we're going to get some of that

today so today we're talking about motorcycle camping gear with a purpose

not necessarily the lightest gear or the most expensive gear or the gear that

everybody says you need but how to figure out a setup that fits your

motorcycle your trip and the kind of experience you want when the day's ride

is done I'm Jim Martin this is Adventure Rider Radio stay with us we get a good

one for you

Hi this is Charlie Bourbon

Simon Mannicum

Grant Johnson

Jocelyn Snow

Ted Simons

Simon Patey

Jimmy Lewis

Lyndon Pusket

Tiffany Cates

Chris Birch

Simon Thomas

Lisa Chalvis

Graham Jarvis

Clayton Smote and you're listening to Adventure Rider Radio

And green chili adventure gear offers American made heavy-duty luggage systems

for all types of motorcycles you can turn any dry bag into luggage using their

strapping system and of course green chili adventure gear is tested in extreme

weather and terrain to withstand the abuse that adventure riding gives it

tough reliable gear green chili adv dot com experienced riders choose the cycle

pump tire inflator made by best rest products for one reason because they

can count on it when they pull that out of their pannier no matter what

they're so tough they're warrantied for life best rest has loads of other

motor specific products like the hex wrench which is a combination tire iron

slash wrench and they're known for their top quality tire plugs and patch kits

more at cycle pump dot com

My name is Benjamin Williams. I'm the owner at MotoCamp Nerd and I'm from

Archdale North Carolina.

Then welcome back to Adventure Rider Radio.

Thanks Jim, man. It's good to be back.

For those who don't know what is MotoCamp Nerd and what do you do there?

So MotoCamp Nerd is the motorcycle camping store. Everything that we stock

and kind of put on the website and in our store is handpicked mostly by me.

But then we also have a bunch of riders we work with and kind of go through

and make sure the gear is actually fit for the job at hand for pretty much

any type of rider which that does mean that there's a plethora of gear out

there that works for different scenarios that some some gear works better for

other types of riders and some gear doesn't. So we have a pretty big

selection. We've grown over the past few years and it's still still very

niche and small compared to a big box store.

And of course that's the reason we're talking because you specialize in

motorcycle camping and what I want to talk about right now was something

you told me that I found extremely interesting and I think it was very

revealing for a lot of us and will certainly help us sort through our

wants and needs. You came up with an observation I guess I could say of two

different camping styles that people kind of fall into or somewhere between

people who ride to camp and people who camp to ride.

Can you talk about these these camp styles what they are and what that means

to the person looking for camping gear?

Yeah, so I can't remember who we were working with the time that kind of

helped us come up with this this sort of theory of camp to ride and ride to

camp but breaking it down in the simplest form especially for new riders

trying to figure out what gear works best for them and kind of being realistic

with themselves. So a lot of people who are doing like I'm going to go do the

Smoky Mountain 500 which is a little adventure loop in Western North

Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia and that is more this trip is going to be more

of a camp to ride kind of trip because we're camping to facilitate the riding.

Camping is just the way to make sure we're staying on track and keeping up

with the trail and it's just going to be kind of more of a fast pace so we're

going to be riding a lot so we're not going to focus on really packing a bunch

of food or packing a bunch of just luxuries for camp. It's going to keep

the bikes light so your core essentials, your bag, your pad, your tent, I am

going to take a little stove just because if it does drop down in colder

weather it's nice to boil some water. It's that way you kind of got like a hot

water bottle to throw in the bag with you maybe but also if you see a situation

if you are stranded and it's you know you want to make some food or even if we

just get in really late and there's no food available I'll have like one

dehydrated meal that I keep with me but I keep it really simple on this kind of

setup and that's just you know again anybody who's doing more focused on

doing a long trip or a long route or like a BDR or anything like that and

their focus is just getting from one end to the other or one place to the other

you know the goal is going to be kind of keep it simple and lighter. And for

those people that are traveling if they're only camping to save money that

might also be that type of person. Yes yes absolutely yeah we you know I see a

lot of people come to the store that say hey it's just cheaper I don't really

like camping but it's cheaper so I'm just gonna do it you know. I just asked

somebody the other day about camping and she said well if I had more money I

wouldn't camp I'd like a good bed so hey you know we all have our preferences.

Exactly so yeah so yeah that would be you know camp to go ride. Now ride to camp

is more on the other side of just going out and enjoying the outdoors. I've also

kind of included people who are doing like cross-country even world travel into

this just because you are packing almost your entire life on a motorcycle and

going and it's usually not that that method of hey I'm gonna you know go from

one end of the country to the other as fast as I can but those who are traveling

from one end to the other and just wanting to sightsee and enjoy the

outdoors so you're gonna take more kitchen gear to cook at camp so that way

you know save money could be one option or people with dietary restrictions or

whatever else but they're gonna take the time to just enjoy the outdoors and

enjoy going out sitting at camp you know maybe have enough campfire and all

that and then just enjoy the luxuries of it. So camp to ride is more like your

your Spartan setup and ride to camp is more like your gourmet setup. There you

go. Okay so when you said this I thought that's like an aha moment because that

category those categories rather those categories instantly help you sort out

what sort of gear you be looking for I mean because it's really easy to get

caught up with just saying camping motorcycle camping and then start

looking at all the different things that people get oh you know here's a

popcorn cooker well maybe we'll have popcorn one night but if you sort out

what you're doing what your point of actual your camping on this particular

trip is then it helps you sort out the gear and I just thought that to me is

priceless so it makes sense because this is what you're doing at the store is

you're helping a lot of people sort this out for them. Let's start with the camp

to ride. What does a good setup look like for that kind of rider? So camp to

ride keeping it very simple sleeping bag sleeping pad tent me a pillow is

non-negotiable now you're going to talk to some people who say you know you can

stuff your jacket in a bag or something like that and I've done that before and

I slept terrible and I had sinus headaches and pressure points and it was

just miserable so I don't recommend it because pillows are small enough you

can you can kind of get away with it but those core essentials and then pretty

much depending on how self-rescue you want to be you know if you're going out

and doing more backcountry stuff and you're gonna be way out there obviously

take you know rescue gear a Garmin Enreach or some kind of SOS device so

that way you can message people if you need to get pulled out your own kind of

recovery gear if you get down a ravine or something you know or down a hill that

you just need to pull yourself back out of you know within reason people who

are doing more front country camping you can get away with the less because if

you're just doing a lot of kind of curvy roads within the city or you know

within a couple miles of the city it's not so bad because you know you can

probably call up a tow truck and it'd be there in a couple hours versus like I

said in the backcountry it's gonna be you know not just one or two hours it

may be eight hours before somebody can get out to you especially with the

terrain and everything so keeping that in mind could vary your kit so if I'm

thinking of camp to ride you know I might only be interested in just finding a

place to sleep at the end of the day having a good sleep and then get going

the next day I might be interested in just ripping open a food package sort of

thing and eating dinner rather than cooking exactly and most of the time you

know it's not backpacking right so you're you're traveling several miles a

day and you're going to be going through at least some sort of town to get gas so

even if you're stopping at a gas station there's gonna be snacks and food there

you could pick up along the way so it's not you're gonna starve yeah and most

people that's that's what they do you know they hit the gas stations or some

kind of restaurant in town they pick up their breakfast their lunch and then

dinner before they get to camp set up camp go to bed wake up go to breakfast

they're good to go so with the essentially essential being the your

tent your or whatever you're gonna sleep in maybe you want to have a hammock I

like a hammock a sleeping pad a sleeping bag or you mentioned a quilt we'll

talk about that in a few minutes because I want to talk about the whole quilt

thing that's a very basic setup but but you did mention also about the

importance of sleep and this something that's come up on raw a lot that we we

found ourselves talking about is that how important is it have a comfortable

sleep you just mentioned the pillow that's another point towards having a

comfortable sleep because especially when we're riding the bike you got to be

on the next day and sleep is everything oh yeah absolutely and I kind of go

back to the pillow be just because you know a lot of people sacrifice the pillow

because I don't need it you're gonna save you know half a pound you really

do and it's I think it's very underrated because I mean I can't sleep with my

head you know cock sideways or downhill you know you got to have a little bit

elevation for me I got to have a little bit of elevation I got a little

have a little bit of cushion there because again I get sinus headaches or

you know all that fluid and your nose and your your pressure builds up in your

head and you just feel like crap the next day yeah yeah for sure and that's

funny because we're talking about camp to ride being that sort of like as I

described this is a Spartan setup but you you're still taking that pillow so

again it's that sliding scale thing you got to find what works for you I agree

with you with a pillow I don't always take a pillow because I use a hammock so

the hammock I can get away with it but in a tent nothing beats a pillow and

again it goes back to that thing is it really worth the few ounces you're

gonna save not taking something like that if you're gonna wake up with a headache

if you're up against those sorts of things just not worth it yeah absolutely

yeah I mean like you said balancing it out what's really I mean I do know people

who could sleep flat on the ground on concrete without a pillow and they just

that's how they sleep but they're sleeping on their back you know or

something like that right for most people that's not practical you know so

definitely way the options and is it really gonna be worth sacrificing and

that kind of goes towards the gear you pick you know if you're picking super

ultra light gear that's really small and lightweight or you're picking a little

bit more comfort focused you know one's gonna pack a little bit bigger than the

other but in the end of the day you can still keep a really small condensed

packing kit or camp kit for your ride but still be comfortable so in the ride

to camp category the other end of the scale rather the ride to camp what's

the limits here that we can do on a motorcycle as far as ride to camp

everything and the kitchen sink they actually do make a

collapsible kitchen sink yeah yeah so yeah we'll get back to the core of it so

yeah same thing you know you could probably get a bigger tent if you so

desire more comfortable pad you know more comfortable sleeping bag that maybe

not be may not be as tight or small you know a little bit more luxurious your

chair we're going into like a hatchet a string line for hanging up your clothes

to dry multiple lights oh man I'm trying to think of what else you know

multiple sets of clothing you know one thing we didn't talk about in the other

one was clothing but you know you're gonna probably bring not more more sets

of clothes with you because you want to be more comfortable probably more

layers especially if you're doing cross-country kind of stuff and you're

going through different climates so what else can we can we talk about that's

you know you're going to start a fire we kind of talked about hatchet so you

get your fire starters and you have your kitchen set so you know you got to bring

a pan so you can fry your food or saute or whatever you got you have a pot so

you can make your rice you can you could even go the full extent of having a

kettle just so you have a dedicated source to boil water so that way it's not

contaminated with your rice or your your pasta water yeah we can keep going with

this no I get it but and all this is possible on a motorcycle you can get

all this on the motorcycle yeah and all that's still relatively small packing

because it's again it's a lot of crossover backpacking and car camping

gear that you just kind of pile up on the bike mm-hmm you said that that

sometimes motorcyclists copy backpackers too blindly talk about that yes I

see it all the time and a lot of people are just you know their suggestion on

the internet and even at rallies and events there's like oh yeah whatever

backpackers wear use or take with them just just copy that and I say that's

bad advice because one because everybody's different and you go look at

some kind of backpacker set up and it's not really ideal but then also the way

that they're focusing on what they're taking with them a lot of it's super

ultra light stuff that isn't comfortable or isn't as durable and for a motorcycle

you can actually take a little bit extra and still keep your weight and your

size down without having to make the sacrifices they are you know you think

about people doing the Appalachian trail they're not gonna take a air pad with

them because if they get a hole in the pad in the middle of the trail what's

gonna be maybe a day or two before they get to town so instead most of them

you'll see taking their the dense foam pads you don't worry about air you don't

worry about leaks it's just a foam pad and then they'll dig out like a little

spot in the ground for their hip to sink in and then they kind of you know make

that work for it through the night exactly you know so you know the the

air pads you know they're way more comfortable than just a foam pad a lot

thicker especially for side sleepers you know your hips aren't gonna touch the

ground but there is that inevitable fact that it is full of air and there's a

chance that it could get a hole or it could leak at the seams and then you'll

be on the ground in the morning but on a motorcycle you can run to town and get

something else or you could you know pick something else or pick up a

repair kit or something at your next stop or you could take a repair kit with

you I mean I don't know the seam you're not gonna do much with but if you puncture

a hole in it you can have a repair kit with you they're fairly lightweight just

a bit of glue in a patch oh yeah most of the pads come with the repair kit with

them too so you know something obvious you know you can see it oh yeah that's

where the leak is you know if you got some water you can make some soapy water

or something and find some bubbles worst-case scenario you can't and then

you go submerge it in the creek or something to kind of find some holes

or something like that yeah because you're talking about you know people

following advice and I know that the quilt this is where I want to talk about

the quilt that's an example of what's trendy now isn't it a lot of people are

talking about quilts yes quilts are like the hottest thing and they are they're

better because there is less materials so there there's a good reason why it's

taking on and the one thing that I always joke around with people is that

quilts are just a mummy bag in disguise because all they did was cut off the

hood and split open the back and said here you go here's this fancy new design

we came up with it's way better and I mean like I said you are losing a little

bit of weight in pack size but I found a lot of people who just get into a

regular backpacking quilt the footbox is too small that's a big one for a lot of

people and they don't realize it until they get it and if you think about it

again it's like a mummy bag you're kind of tight in there the quilt does not

wrap around as much as as relaxed as it is it doesn't wrap around you all the way

around to give you room to kind of roll around or like I say alligator death

roll inside what does the quilt look like I mean I literally it's like a

sleeping bag they just cut the back open on and and split it open and then you

just attach it around you it's a blanket basically yeah yeah I blank it with a

footbox that you can stick your feet inside and the way they're designed most

of the backpacking quilts they do have a strap that goes around the sleeping pad

and then it hooks to that strap so that way you can tuck it around yourself and

then that creates your little pocket so again we're getting back to sealing this

now open blanket back around you into this shape of a sleeping bag that's not a

sleeping bag you said saving material so it's saving the material that's under

your back yeah you get you cutting out a little bit of material there because

that's not as much to make it go fully around you and then you're losing the

hood on most quilts they don't have a hood but they do have other brands out

there I know that because we carry up and see the summit and thermal rest they

actually do have a wide relaxed quilt in the footbox is a is a almost as wide

as the sleeping pad about 25 inches wide and so it's not your stereotypical

backpacking quilt and it will have enough room for it to wrap fully around you and

the sleeping pad so it kind of rolls over the sides of the sleeping pad and

that gives you plenty of room to be able to toss and turn in the middle of the

night without it lifting and causing a draft underneath of you and you can do

your your alligator death roll all night without getting tangled up where do

you think people should be putting their money for for motorcycle camping gear I

tell everybody if you're on a budget put your money towards a sleep system first

before anything else because really that's what's gonna make or break your

experience in camping so if you've only got a limited budget go for a good pad

and go for a good sleeping bag or whatever you can get a quilt or blanket that

is properly rated so that way one you're comfortable sleeping on the ground and

two you're warm because if you're cold and uncomfortable or laying on a hard

ground that's gonna be the fastest way for you to say nope I'm never gonna do

this again or I'm sick and tired of it tense you know you can get a tent even

and I hate to advertise it this way but you can get a tent from a big box store

you know one of the online big carriers that can get to you really cheap yeah

but nobody that you know it's gonna be cheap and it's gonna save you you know

for the first couple of nights right you know it may work a few times without

leaking but it's some sort of shelter I mean hell even throwing a tarp up over

the top of you you know and do it that way is enough to keep it all keep you

know some of the weather off of you mm-hmm so we're next so we've

got the sleeping bag and the pad that's the most important that's where you're

thinking you're good money where do we go after that sleeping bag sleeping pad

pillows I mean they're so subjective to each individual I just kind of let

people figure that one out for themselves as far as what what works for

them because you're talking camping pillows not home pillows correct yeah

yes like inflatable pillows there's some foam pillows out there there's some

that are foam and air there's some that are just down I mean there's a there's

a huge selection out there but then off after that that the tent the tent or you

know like you said you're a hammock camper so if you're you're getting a

good hammock set up even with the hammock set up a lot of people think

okay it's great because you know you're saving all this space but reality is

once you get down below I'd say 60 maybe 55 and you get that draft coming

underneath of you you're gonna get cold pretty quick and maybe you can speak

more to this because I'm not a hammock camper I just have friends that are and

I use their advice as much as I can on that yeah you're absolutely right it's

cold in your back and it doesn't take much of a cool I mean just a bit of a

breeze it will be cold in your back I always use a pad that there's a and

there's a bit of a like a technique to getting the pad underneath you I find

that you know I reach up with one hand and I grab the top of the hammock inside

while I'm laying in there and I sort of pull myself up and grab the pad with

the other hand and pull it up at the same time to get it positioned I do have

another hammock now that has a slot for it where you can either put the pad

underneath or you can put insulation underneath but I always use a pad I

kind of think they need it have you tried the under quilt yeah you can use the

under quilt yeah I tried that yep and that works too so it's the same sort of

thing right it's you just want some insulation underneath you the under

quilt being that that little envelope that's underneath that your hammock

has to be set up for it you either have either have an envelope where you stick

it in or one that you you've put up to the bottom of the hammock and fasten it

on that's what you're talking about yeah yeah yeah essentially the blanket for

your bottom instead of your top yeah yeah exactly yeah yeah so the hammocks

that one solution and then getting a really good refined hammock set up and

then I would say if you're not a hammock hamper go with the tent and then

getting the really good tent set up that really works for you and getting

something that's going to last you a while that's really well designed

there's a lot to go into I know that people say oh it's a tent a tent it's

doesn't really matter but if you're spending you know 100 to 200 nights

you know every couple years outside you know that that tent's gonna make a big

difference especially when you get into the smaller packing tents that'll

actually fit in the luggage a little bit easier

that's more of a convenience for packing and loading out and getting out there

versus actually using it at camp besides all the little you know

bells and whistles of you know pockets and features often a tent doesn't

really matter until you get into weather and then you really regret it at that

point yeah yeah exactly especially people who are going out west and that's

super windy or super dusty and yeah I want to ask you about new products so

are there any sort of new inventions new products I mean you talked about the

quilt being a trend now or trends that have come up now that that we would want

to know about as a motorcycle camper

I'm not gear specific that I'm up and up on that I've seen and somebody actually

asked me about this the other day and I told them I said it's very hard to

impress me now because once you're in the outdoor space and you've seen it all

it's kind of like okay well there's another version of this or there's another

version of that but there's nothing that's like you know so innovative that

it's just oh man you have to have this especially in our small niche of what

we're doing and what I'm focusing on for the store and what we're trying to

carry and try to get people to be aware of there's always new fabrics and

there's new materials coming out you know a lot of that the forever chemicals

the PFAS stuff that all got pushed through last year so a lot of the

manufacturers were in a huge rush to make sure all of their sleeping bags and

tents and everything else was free of all these chemicals so there's a lot of

new products that came out in the past couple of years

that were updated with materials oh yeah it doesn't really mean anything to the

end user though as far as usability though it's all the same feels the same

yeah but for the most part it's all the same the biggest difference you'll see

in is the tents a lot of the tents and then soon riding gear with Gore-Tex and

all that that's coming in the next I think year or two

they've got extended deadline for their updates I didn't even know there were

forever chemicals in that for those who don't know forever chemicals are

are chemicals that are that are synthesized that will never break down

they stay in our environment and the the offshoot of it is nobody knows

yeah yeah and I think probably one of the most

notable one is Teflon and and DuPont and all that kind of stuff

I think that has a lot of the do with the a lot of the originality that's

where it originally came from and then over time everything else got developed

and there's a lot with the Gore-Tex and a lot of the

the rain weather which is falls under an extreme weather gear

and so they got an extended date I want to say it's 2028

is when they have to be fully compliant but as far as like outdoor gear and

clothing that had to be compliant by this year anything else Ben that we have

here that you do you want to mention or talk about

there's so much we could talk about

try to keep it on topic here mainly I just make sure everybody understands

that everybody rides differently everybody camps differently there's no

right or wrong way I mean well I guess it could be a wrong way but

there's no way better than the other and and your way is not always going to be

better than somebody else's and you know trial and error

even I have to give recommendations to people and tell them you know there's

going to be a little bit of trial and error because a lot of people will come

in and say hey I'm going to go ride and I'm going to do the

the tat I'm going to do the the trans-american trail and I'm going to

take all this stuff with me and I'll talk a mouth the ledge and say well you

don't need all that stuff because think about it in reality are you really

going to be stopping and cooking a meal every single night at camp

because I guarantee you there's going to be a few nights that you get in late

and most people and you see it all over the place most people talk about how

they ship half the stuff back home because they never used it you know so

starting small starting with your core stuff your bag your pad your you know

sleep system in your shelter whatever it may be and water and at least get that

overnight in and then developing you know coming up with an

idea of what you feel is the best solution for you or what you fantasize

about you know riding to and how your riding style is to develop your camp

set up and your camp set up to match your riding style and what you're going to do

that was ben williams from moto camp nerd speaking to us from the moto camp nerd

headquarters in archdale north carolina you can find them at moto camp nerd

dot com we've got some photographs of what we're talking about and various

camping things all in the show notes you can find that at our website

adventurerideradio.com for this episode

so i really like the way ben is looking at this ride to camp or camp to ride

those are two very different trips if you're riding to camp then the camp is

part of the reason at least that you're going you want to be there you want to

cook and sit and relax and maybe spend a couple of nights in one spot you want

to make yourself comfortable while you're there so your gear needs to reflect

that thought process now if you're camping to ride it's different the ride is

the point the tent is kind of there so you can avoid a hotel or maybe just stay

on route get some sleep and get moving again so your gear can be a lot simpler

for that and it should reflect that sort of that thought process that's why

ben's point is so useful because it helps you think past the gear itself and

ask what job the gear is actually doing for you on this trip

and one of his other points is is really important as well

start simple so get the basics try them and let your setup grow from experience

you don't really know what matters until you get out there and you use it and

there's no point buying a whole bunch of gear that you end up trying once and

finding out that you don't like it now coming up next we're going to talk

with mcness and lcp uluvir from peeky peeky overland

they're also the founders of turcan a gear they've spent many years

camping off the backs of their motorcycles in all different parts of

the world they've overpacked chain systems replaced gear

repaired gear given things away they've learned a lot on the road

so now we'll get into what actually holds up for them and the things that

they've learned and some surprises too that i didn't expect all that coming

out stay with us

you know i actually classify my pearly's hugger sweater as gear

because a regular sweater is something you just throw on when it's cold right

the hugger the hugger is something that i carry because

i know exactly what it's going to do now it's made from 20 percent new zealand

possum for 70 marino wool and 10 silk and those

natural fibers are the whole story they wick moisture

they regulate temperature they keep you warm without bulk

and why the hugger works so well for us riders for riding

is because it's made for it it's knitted in one piece no seams under your

jacket tall collar partial zip and weighs only

about 10 ounces which means you can take it anytime you ride

the name actually came from one of the prototypes they sent me to try

every time somebody hugged me goodbye they would run their hands down my arm

and comment on how soft it was and it is that like the thing is

it's unlike anything else i carry mine all the time because it performs

it packs small and after years of wear i i still have trouble wearing these

things out pearly's possum socks dot com

anytime you're dealing with them make sure you let them know you heard them

here at adventure rider radio pearly's possum socks dot com

and it's called the hugger

if you camp off your motorcycle then you already know the problem

a lot of camping gear is good gear but that doesn't mean that it makes sense on

a bike space is tight your gear gets bounced around

a lot and trial and error gets real expensive

that's where moto camp nerd comes in moto camp nerd is the motorcycle camping

store ben and mary williams are riders themselves

they built their whole store around gear that makes sense for motorcycle travel

gear that packs small holds up and works in the real world

so instead of guessing your way through tents and sleeping bags and pads and all

the rest of it you can deal with people who actually understand motorcycle camping

they've got a brick and mortar store in archdale north carolina

and a full online store at moto camp nerd dot com

pack small camp easy that's moto camp nerd

moto camp nerd dot com and make sure that you mention you heard them here on

adventure rider radio moto camp nerd dot com

you know some mods are flashy we like to look at them

others make your bike work better they're smart mods

ims products are one of those smart mods better platform better connection better

control and they do it without making your feet

feel awkward around the controls that's engineering

it's one of those changes that you feel the first time you stand up on those new

ims products foot pegs imsproducts.com anytime you deal with them

make sure you tell them you heard them here on adventure rider radio

imsproducts.com

hi i'm elsa beat will you fear and i'm one of the two people in picky picky

overland i'm measures will you fear under the

bollocks of doing nothing at picky picky overland

mcdistan elsa beat welcome back to adventure rider radio

thank you thanks so where are you guys right now

we're in capetown back back home for for a while after 15 years we had to do some

homework you can't just not do homework the paper

works got to be done so we came back here doing homework for it for a little while

taking some time off yeah we're experiencing the start of

winter here in capetown and as a lot of people know capetown can get quite

chilly for africa because it's one of our only

regions that gets winter rain here so what's winter rain

so raining in winter it's cold it's wet i was i was looking for a little bit more

of a description so how cold when you say cold

keep in mind here i live in the north not canada cold no but south african cold

i can i can tell you this we've got german german overlanders that we've

met and they told us that they've never got so cold in their life

as in capetown because our houses are not insulated for

for that kind of uh cold yeah we don't have double pain windows

and heat blowing when you walk into a shop and i think

i think snow it's snow is the insulator so you guys you do sort of go

outside you can sort of i don't know that's true because i've never

been in snow yeah but it gets bloody it gets

go to your bones in this place well snow is insulative

there's no doubt and i think there's actually some some research proposed

now that in the arctic that some of the frost thawing has to do with snowpack

because it has snowpack and it never used to it was actually too cold to get

snow while now they're getting a lot of snow in some of these areas and that's

actually insulating the ground and allowing the ground to warm and melt the

perm frost interesting so it is insulative but

having said that it's still cold it's so the reason i wanted to get you

guys back on this episode because we're talking about camping gear

is because you've actually lived with this stuff as you said like 15 years

on the road living off the backs of motorcycles so i want to talk about

what years of motorcycle camping has taught you guys what matters what

doesn't sort of what's changed and really importantly how someone can

make better choices when they're actually looking at gear to get for

themselves so i thought what we would do to start off with

is i kind of like to talk about that first trip that you guys did

and what you were packed like compared to maybe how you pack now

oh man we were totally over back you have to go back to 1994

1994 yes yes so yeah i was i was 22 23 24 i can't remember

let's leave it to that and we decided to begin a tour in Namibia

with a single cab four by four my brother-in-law my sister's going to go

in the r6 Land Rover we had no money we literally

we were just finished studying out of school finished studying

we had no money and we we hanged with all the public holidays we

hanged together a month that we were able to go away to Namibia from South Africa

but we had no money so everything else was a was

by just just because the car was the

important thing it had to be four by four and then

the rest of the stuff was just whatever so we

got tents bought stuff that was ludicrously not

supposed to be on a trip like that you lie in a tent you can see this the

staff starts through the stitching it was not water

it was a single thing we winged that thing to such an extent that

lucky lucky for us it was a country that that didn't get a lot of rain and

didn't get a lot of cold so we were okay but we we had cooler boxes in the back

of the van that if you go in a dirt road they they break up everything that the

bottles glass bottles gets gets broken there was no

Stanley flasks there was no none of that

yeah but saying that even even starting on the motorcycles looking back at the

trip at 94 we still didn't really learn because i think every trip you prepare

for you prepare differently and i mean from a four by four to to a

motorcycle is totally totally different that's

yeah that's a really good point you just said you you can you prepare for every

trip differently but if but if you're going out on a trip um

well let's let's say you're going out on like weekends or you know a week at a

time or something like that you're going to use the same gear over and over

like i guess what i'm saying is not every trip is going to be like a month

long trip that you will prepare for so you might just be using the gear that

you have yeah i think after all the years of

travel what you're saying is correct now we do

think to pack exactly the same even if we go from the motorcycles to a

four by four vehicle we we tend to still pack the same stuff because we're

comfortable with it but it was definitely not like that when we started

um our first motorcycle trip into South Africa i i think we mentioned before

we left uh South Africa and just before we crossed the border into Namibia

we posted almost or sent almost eight kilogram

worth of camping stuff back home and then once we were in Namibia and we got to

the first big town we gave a lot of stuff away and that was not even two

weeks into our trip um we quickly realized that we

we packed way too many things and we packed the wrong stuff

um but again that has changed when we started

traveling the Americas because in in Africa you sort of have

generally warm weather you don't need thick or too many layers for sleeping

gear and for clothing but it started changing when we went to the

Americas but you also you pack when you start off

you pack for what might happen and as you grow older

well as you go into the thing you start to pack for

what actually i will use it will i actually use it

and then there's the thing that every piece of

equipment must justify use every single day otherwise you're out of there and

preferably have more than one function and preferably

they preferably have more than one function so

there is there is three key things that we that we sort of evolved into

and quality that first trip if you can think back to that and if you can

remember what did you send back or give away do you remember

anything in particular that you sent back or gave away

tools i've clothing pots and pans i mean

why we thought we need a pot a pan a kettle you know there are two multiple

stoves because maybe the one back up sleeping bags it was

way overrated for wherever the hell we're going to travel

the way we sleep the mattresses we use those intakes thick

what was a 10 inch PVC stuff that you blow up

that was that wasn't necessary we took we took chairs that was like

borderline i don't know way too heavy we actually carried on the

first trip we took because we at that stage through our company was selling

a little camping cots so like a little stretcher

so we actually had a stretcher each we had a chair each

and we had a mattress each so yes we over did it look if you can take all

that if you would actually fit on a bike which i don't

think it would fit on any bike but if you could that's pretty comfortable

it is but maybe for a four by four not for too much

you also get to a point like where we travel now if we you know in a four by

four the stuff that's in the back of the car is no

more than what we had on the bikes yeah now the bar is empty yeah

but i have to say if you have space you're gonna fill it up

well and it goes to what you said earlier there you know you're always

thinking what if i need it right as if there's nowhere else to get it

when you get on the road to go somewhere

but um so back to that that that first packing that the first stuff you were

packing so how has that changed from the style that you used to pack

then to now we definitely went a lot more

minimalist what's the word minimalist minimalist yeah

so we we only carry we don't carry a pot a pan and a kettle we we now just carry

a pop up kettle that doubles up as a pot

we don't carry a pan also we've got one item in the kitchen to actually cook

with and then we barbecue a lot so we now have a very small

grit to be South Africans we love to barbecue

as we say why yeah so very very lightweight

literally a grit that's for two people um so that that was the first thing we

realized very quickly the the the cheese and the the stuff that packs bulky

you need to if you want to carry chairs we actually found one where you can pack

two chairs in one packet so yeah we we learned to pack a lot more compact

but also also what what happens is that we you started to use packing cubes and

stuff so everything needs to go yeah i must have its space

i must have its space so when you when you pack out and you throw everything

around or in a hostel that you can actually still find if you don't you're

not 200 kilometers away your little bluetooth speaker got left behind or

something so we we started to organize the pack

stuff into small little packing cubes that's easy to remove and color

you know that it just makes stuff easier and then extremely compact so but

the relationship works like this the more compact the more quality

the more expensive it gets right that's a that's a straight up line

that would run the more compact the more the more quality

it goes the price goes to the roof and that's where you have to decide

and we've been there because we bought we didn't add the money we bought the cheap

stuff the all that you know what you can afford versus what we were supposed to

just close our eyes invest in really good equipment because they last a lifetime

in most cases but if you and then we buy the the really compact stuff but then

there is a bit of a problem so South America or maybe if you in Canada for

example you guys that might have two tents you might have a tent that's a three

summer tent you might have a ten that's a four summer tent which if you travel

or depending on where you stay or the way you travel you only need one tent

you know you don't need two of them we we don't carry

minus 30 degree sleeping bags with us maybe you guys need to do that so that's

a bit of a you can travel you can choose what you what you travel when

you travel but i think that comes in with when you you prepare to go into a

certain continent or a country then you have to take that into account and it

comes back to to what you said when you started is that following a packing

list from somebody else isn't necessarily going to make your life easier

because when your needs is very different to the next person i might get a lot

colder than the next person so i have to pack a couple of extra layers

and vice versa for somebody else so i think what what we learned very quickly is whatever

works for you and what you know you're going to really intensively use get good quality

lightweight stuff when that brings me to the next topic that i want to discuss which is comfort

versus compactness you know versus size i guess and you've sort of alluded that to to that already

that you have to spend a lot more money um but but that also um like it's it's it's a personal

thing as well in other words another reason you can't go to a list because i might be comfortable

sitting on a mat for my for sitting around the campfire right or sitting around my camp

whereas you might want to chair yes and we've and we've seen that with people back

and i've offered a list when picky picky for people to tick down lists that i can just

when they i mean because you do forget stuff but the list became so long that if you take

everything that's on that list you could also just stay at home but but it is like so and we've

seen people travel like that that that got stuff from a list or recommendations from friends that

no you know you you need to have chairs no no you know and then eventually they it's just stuff

that they don't use or they don't carry it or the bike it's too too heavy and then they get into

trouble with the bike but it's just coming back for instance to the chair um to be quite honest

if we travel now in uh let's say the usa we wouldn't necessarily take chairs because most of the camp

sites has got a picnic table or a place for you to sit um so to carry the chair for the

few times that you might be wild camping you know then you start saying no i can maybe

carry another luxury instead of that and it is nice having chairs but a chair is 900 grams

is two kilos if it's two people but yet in in africa we would definitely travel with chairs

because yeah yeah yeah because you know you're gonna be you won't have a place to sit as much

especially if you if you're away a long time and you love camping and you normally because

we like to set up camp and stay at least minimum two nights which then makes it just comfortable to

have a comfortable place to sit but then again the the technology has also changed before before

10 30 years ago they were kermit what does that brand is an american brand of wooden chairs very

very nice that was available and then a t7 aluminium came came to about and and um

carbon fiber and helinox started that that small little chair of theirs and suddenly it just changed

yeah it's no no at least it is different if you really want to when i have a little camping chair

it's it's possible to take one it doesn't yeah and it's the same with teens if i remember the

first team we took um we we totally over packed on it and and as we started traveling we realized

but hold on for this weight and this size we can actually find something way different so now we know

like what we find very important and it's always on top of the list is a good team

and again the choice of team that we did for our africa trip versus the americas is two different

ones for sure but definitely it came back to searching doing a lot of research on how compact

it can pack and how long the team pulls for instance do you have some sort of idea for

intermediate choices because you're saying stuff is very expensive and we all know this with

motorcycling man you know you start to accessorize your bike and then you start to buy camping here

it adds up really fast so if you don't have the big bucks to spend on the best you know most compact

chair what do you do with that do you have an intermediate chair that you would choose or

we just know no chair at all or how would you do that i think on a chair it's uh we could all

actually say it's a luxury i mean you could just sit you know on the ground you could sit on a

little mattress um well i i would sorry i would personally go and buy on facebook

a second and good one yeah honestly i you can you can get so such good gear second and um

from facebook marketplace or from friends or from from anybody that if you if you really cannot

take out some money that that you know and especially a thing like a chair i mean that you

know if you can see if the thing is used it'll be bent but other than that you know even even

good quality gear you can find them um you can most of the time find rather buy them second and

good good good one so for anything you're saying so like i just use the chair as an example but i'm

thinking for any expensive gear with this chair the tent yeah that's a really good tip yeah yeah

i mean even things you can find there's a lot of people um uh maybe not they don't travel anymore

they they they sell their stuff on on the market places for after price or for you know stuff like

that so my my go to is always just to go look for if i really need if i know i need this specific

brand or specific item and it's really expensive and i can't afford to take it i'll rather go and

look if and see if i can't find a second and at a at a good price low you know not not overuse or

something rather than going buy a cheaper less quality version of that thing because you're

going to be sorry first um that you didn't buy the thing in the first place when it falls you

and you probably know that that the low quality thing is not going to last no in then you spend

your first first set of money on that thing so then you're going to start buying the second set of

we can actually pull this through to an example of mattresses um so before we started traveling

mechness that quite a lot of research and he asked quite a lot of long-term travelers what

mattresses they use and we ended up ordering a expat from expi it's a european brand

it actually sell it in the usa as well and then we left all of that camping stuff in storage in

in europe and when we got to um texas we decided okay well here's more choices we can actually

you know look further and find a similar thing and maybe you know it was a rii brand instead of a

small company that you know specializes in it and we have to be honest we actually had the rii mattress

is only for about three months and we had to replace it again with the expat so so we have

learned a couple of lessons along the way as well as they say look what what is important stuff that

you use every day is like water and snacks and use a camera maybe or something like that

but when you sleep in if you ever have a bad sleep man it makes everything bad if you only

have a week or a week and a half to travel and you get a bit of time off and you want to do it now

now you you have a rubbish thing rubbish thing to sleep on your gear is not waterproof or not

waterproof enough or something like that that's just man that the second day you time to get

this is not fun anymore yeah that that's a really good point we just sort of talked a

little bit about this or just mentioned it on rod recently um if you know sleep can really bag you

for the next day and for riding a motorcycle we need to be you know on so so that brings me to

a question of then so what are some and that's one of them the obviously things that you won't

but what are other things that you won't compromise on anymore that you may have tried to before

10s definitely 10s for sure because if that damn thing leaks it's not fun yeah and and

they if they if we like for like we've got a three-man tank with a vestibule two inches

so it's the also bang it weighs two and a half or two point nine kilograms it's really good

I cannot I will not sacrifice in there a really good sleeping bag as well because we thought you

know as we travel you know we can buy sleeping stuff as we go but we found it very very difficult

even when we were down in Patagonia we found okay now maybe our sleeping bag isn't as warm enough

anymore and we struggled to find we ended up with more volume on our motorcycle because we had to

add more layers instead of just having a very good sleeping bag and then cooking gear for

like a multifuel stove get a good brand because if it falls you and preferably a brand

that's got more than one way that you can because a lot of people would take the little gas bottles

then they can't find it or they take a multifuel but they don't always realize that you might not

be able to get all the multifuel and you might be might be forced to use fuel out of your motorcycle

and use your bike setup for that and use your multifuel stove setup for that right what do you

think the difference is between gear that you're going to buy for like a weekend trip as opposed to

gear that you're going to be living for weeks months years on the road with I would I would

still a quality wise I would still still buy it because if you buy something let's say you buy a

really good led light I know there's a million of them out there and everybody says you know

whatever yeah but if you buy a really good brand where the the batteries

last and you can replace the batteries and it's charged by usb and all this kind of stuff I rather

spend I rather pay a little bit of a premium now for a really good brand one and last and it can

last me for 20 years rather than than be oh yeah it's only for a weekend but the next weekend and

the weekend you know so in the end you're just buying more for stuff and clutter that you don't

you know it's it's no it's no value of you and it's and there's probabilities there

that if you only buy it for a for a week or for a weekend ride that the next time you use it the

battery's gone down you didn't realize that I mean it's on a charger thing it doesn't work

yes I think a lot of people don't realize that your camping gear can actually become your backup

gear for your home as well you know so we always need a light you know around your house so if you've

bought a really good LED lamp for your for your camping it can double up for you to use at home

as well and the same in South Africa unfortunately we do get a lot of power out so our camping stove

has worked a couple of times for us as a backup yeah so when you buy don't only buy for thinking

you're going to use it you're only going to camp one weekend no if you love your camping and if

you've camp comfortably you're going to do it again yeah yeah that's another very valuable

gear that fails you I mean you can look at some of the wilderness campsites and unfortunately

you'll see gear that's failed people broken chairs broken stoves you know where people

leave this junk behind and unfortunately for instance the headlamps a prime example you hear

of people and I've seen it myself where somebody will have a cheap light that they've brought because

they just didn't want to spend a lot of money on it and then the one time where they have a breakdown

then they go to use a thing they're fiddling with it to try and keep the thing on or or it doesn't

work or it doesn't they can't mount it on their head I mean all those type of things

whereas uh yeah if you if you have something quality quality like if it's not guaranteed but

but you can sort of depend on it you tend to lean on quality more than what you will you know on a

cheap product and it'll be as you can say the the thing that you just mentioned there as well

like the experience is completely different from a lousy like for anything that you buy but I'm

thinking like imagine a lousy sleeping attempt on a crappy mattress and a tent that leaks because

you got a freak rainstorm as opposed to a good sleep on a good mattress and you got rain in the

night and boy wasn't that lucky that we have a good tent you know totally different experiences

correct now the goal of camping gear is not it's not for well sometimes it's for survival when you

get into a prison but it's more of more for freedom um you have less stress you can stay out longer

you can disappear into places where you normally don't even plan to go to it simplifies your life

you have no stress on worrying about this stuff so the the the gear must be dependable it must be

something that that and I understand I I do get it that we I do get it people sometimes you get

these people they just don't want to spend because they only use it for for a weekend I do get it

but then built in the fact that if that you might have to to rebuy it and it's going to be miserable

when you try and camp and you and you have tools or a pot that isn't fireproof enough or

something like that from else yeah yeah well let's talk a little bit more about the tent

and sleep system because I think this is really important for the even for the reason you just

said about having a good sleep and waking up but also for you know wasting your money etc so what

makes an in for you what you guys have found what makes a good tent for motorcycle travel

or lightweight first of all yeah it must be lightweight dual engines

vegetable must be must be removable it must be freestanding it must have a good water column

and it must be really um um livable inside so the so the area the way the tent is is um designed

must give you livability in the in the tent meaning that you can sit properly upright you

can stand on your knees maybe pull your pants up you know stuff like that it there must be and if

it rains that you can be comfortable sitting for all day the tent if it really sits in rain

you're standing for me is important yeah and it must weigh I mean we talk about three maintenance

but so even a two-man tent if you're a single person go always go one up so if you're a single

person use a two-man tent it allows you to put your luggage inside if it rains okay so hang on

you're going too fast you're looking because I want to talk about this so so lightweight that's

obvious right just for for the lightweight um removable vestibule why because sometimes you

stay up in a really nice place that's not it's not hot but like in Mexico when you want a store

guys yeah you're in bar there's no ways you want to even fit a vestibule over a tank you want so

some of the tents the mesh that they use is is um is very very fine mesh and it allows very little

airflow through it which is bad but then they also have panels on it that's not mesh and that restrict

airflow even more so when you have a nice tent a good medium where the mesh is not too fine

it allows enough air through it then you can camp in really odd places like like Colombia and

in the desert where you don't use the vestibule and there's no moisture what do you call it

condensation condensation all right that goes you don't use the so the new thing that we've got

now I don't know what's the brand you can even use the vestibule on its own with the tent peg

with it with the with the poles so when you just want to make it shade and throw a

top on the on the ground you can use that you don't even have to pitch the tent uh below it oh so

when you're saying vest I thought you meant vestibules and just the end of it so the vestibules

you're talking about is the is that the whole top of it the whole top of it worth the two

entrances the the the rest of the that little patio yeah so that way you can the end we often

talk about is a vestibule and the others is fly the tent fly going over it but so you're saying

a fly that you can take off that isn't connected to it what about assembly do you think about

assembly in the in the effort of assembly when you're buying one oh absolutely yeah but most of

this these things that we use I mean I can I can pitch it probably in about two minutes I think

else we can also pitch it alone in about two minutes but that is not as you I'm glad you said

two minutes but if I drink beer then she obviously takes a little bit less time because it's more

joining me but but I think for us with the the loose standing tent and the the the fact that the

fly she can be used separate or with the thing one of the most important things we always look for

is that you can pitch the tent without anchoring it down so it must be able to be a loose standing

stand if you uh you are camping in a very rocky area you don't want to worry that you can't get

your teeth pecs pecs in so that's very important for us and then also if we want to if we pitch

the tent and we decided no man there's a better campsite just a couple of meters down that we

can actually just move our campsite if we want to but that's luxury that's that we're going but

coming back to just the overall when we look at a tent one of the things that we we learned when

we did our first long trip is that you have to have a tinned aluminium poles that if they break

that you can actually fix it you can sort them off yeah you can make it maybe a little bit shorter

your tink might stand a little bit skew but you can still utilize the tink yeah coven poles

coven poles you cannot really fix while you're traveling it's it's a lot more difficult and

especially at the tink poles that's got the elastic on the inside it wears actually a lot

quicker than what people realize so then you end up trying to source shoe laces or elastic in the

middle of nowhere to try and fix your tink so we quite love the the one that just you know you it

does have in but if the elastic goes or if it breaks that you can still use it or repair it

right no with the aluminum poles quite often tents will come with a little cylinder that slides

over the pole for breaking it but i'm gathering that with carbon fiber i think it would split

like sort of long ways does it lengthways it does yeah yeah no we've we found coven coven

for and they're not lighter than they're not really lighter than an aluminium t76

t67001 aluminium they're not really lighter than them oh yeah so it's not and the aluminium

also doesn't rust so that's also not a bit so this i would rather i would any day rather go

with aluminium than with carbon fiber poles right yeah and then the other thing we we also

quite religiously look at is the the bottom of the thing you know how yeah the footprint how

thick is the material really is it i mean for one it has to be a ripstock type of material

um we do carry a tarp for instance and we utilize that if we're in an area that we are

really worried there's too many thorns or the rocks look very sharp then we'll put that down

but we also use that tarp as a rain cover as a bike cover etc so again making sure that we've

got a dual purpose at least out of every product that we carry along but the footprint of the thing

long term is very important because if it's too thin it actually quite wears out very quickly

and you don't realize how much moist actually comes from the bottom of the taint up yeah so when

you're saying the footprint you're talking about the bottom the tent bottom itself the bottom of the

thing here at the bottom too yeah yeah so it's tough you want all these things but you want

lightweight too with him exactly okay so so what about sleeping system we talked a little bit

about the mattress what do you look for in a mattress anyway what do you find works the best

for you guys long term so a seven centimeter blow up mattress the threes the three centimeters

blow up mattresses i know just no don't forget it we don't sleep comfortable the seven centimeter

blow up mattresses is probably the best stuff i've ever slept on and i can use it permanently now

if i need to um but there again you get the really really lightweight stuff the like it's

super lightweight but it's like you're sleeping on cellophane cellophane that that um it's noise

it's so noisy fabric stuff yeah and and a guy can sleep a mile away from you can hear him when he

turns around so um that that definitely not too to the normal the expense also for example is

is more of a rectangular shape it doesn't have this mummy shape thing the rectangular shapes

work for us better than the mummy shape because you you know it just gives you a bit more freedom

on it and it still backs up very very small like things about the size of what is it

22 coca-cola bottles or something i mean it is really compact what do you see though it gives

you a little bit more freedom of movement in a in a tank you know if you if you're a

mummy sleeper one of those dead dead people sleepers and you sleep on your back you never move

that's a different story but like most of us it moves around and the leg is hanging off the

off the thing it just there's a little bit more also what we do is we put our two mattresses together

and we actually found a local brand here in South Africa that actually have little stuts where you

can connect the two mattresses together um but what we normally do is if if we don't have that luxury

is we would put our two mattresses down and i'll use either just a normal small double bed

fit the cheat and put it over the two and it actually keeps the mattresses together

oh right and what you're saying about the the difference between the the rectangular mattress

and the the mummy one is it's kind of a false economy i think you see this with a lot of stuff

like this well i'll bring it this one up because i talk about a lot that cutting the handle off

the toothbrush like to me those are one of those false economy things i mean you know the idea it

sounds like it it could do something but really you don't get anything from it for what you lose

and i suspect that's what you're finding with the and it's not practical yeah yeah exactly yeah so

so mattress is different and again there's the there's the the key career either you get a good

one or you're gonna stand up one morning four o'clock and one of those tubes is popped or

your steamer's pop or the the valve is popped and you cannot fix it so you make what would i say

choose your poison but that's not that's not one of them to rather take out the box if you're

going to buy one from team who buy five of them be happy to carry all of them kills your weight

in bulk situation it's definitely important to actually look at the actual material they're

using on a mattress you don't want ripstop because ripstop you're not going to really drag your

mattress through a bush but you need a material that you can actually fix yourself if there's

really a problem you need to patch your mattress it must be able to be patched so we have found that

the material mechness was talking about that makes a lot of noise it's normally also very slippery

and even if you try the best glue that you want to try and fix that mattress it's not

always possible so we we tend to go and look for a material that's a little bit thicker than

parachute material um and that you can actually with even bicycle patches be or motorcycle tire

patches be able to fix it right most of them could would have a they sell patch kits for them right

yes they they do and even with us we we did get it but we did find that with some of them

the glue they gave us absolutely or the same feeling on the edges um uh pops and yeah then that

you can't fix yeah that's that's a killer right there or when the when the inflation valve is

it inflating valve what about inflating the mattress what style do you have we love using that bag

that you just put air in and you push it down instead of um the mattress with the self inflating

bit takes forever and it it's a lot more bulky because they build in that extra little foam patch

there so we found that with the little extra bulk that we lose we just carry one of those inflation

inflating that it's a it's a bag it looks like a roll top um it looks like a roll top bag let's say

one and with a little nozzle and it looks like an elephant trunk and you plug into the into the

mattress and you shake it get some air in that starts rolling it and just shove the push the air

into the into the mattress that thing backs up like oh it's it weighs nothing back flat and i will

not carry uh inflatable um what is that oh yeah or the self inflation oh yeah it's not necessary

right and that works and you can you can pump it up with the bag fairly quickly oh yeah i think

mechanisms counted five bags per uh sleeping mattress yeah no it's quick quick yeah and you

don't have to i'm assuming you're not you don't have to get the mattress hard like firm no no no

then that's very uncomfortable yeah the mattress actually mustn't be too stiff yeah yeah that's

really neat that that that little bag it's it's incredible it's a really nice whoever

um figure that out this uh it's a genius they use their logic science

well so we we talked a little bit about um about the bottom of the tent but do you use

ground sheets or or tarps do you use that tarps we we buy the and i'm sorry to say that then you

know we're also part of the the throwaway culture in that little bit we buy the normal tarp that you

buy it at DIY shop it's a weave there's a type of weave tarp that you buy do you do at yourself

shops the plastic they've got i it's like a plastic one but it's a um it's woven a

woven fabric it's the common cheap tarp that you find every cheap tarp yes it's got little

eyelets on it we normally buy three meter by three meter or a four by five meter um we've got two of

them we we use one for the for the bikes to cover it with or if we have to make a little

tent tent cover thing when it rains and one of them we always use on the ground where we put the

tent and again it's got more than one function so we place our tops under our bags that we put on

the back of the bike so one it protects the bag from shaving through on your bike frame if you

don't if you don't if you're set up is a little bit different it is a normal top that you can use

for shade if mechness works on the bike you can sit on it you can put it under the bike when we do

an oil change it's a bike cover if we stop at a place and we want to make the bikes disappear

it's a sun cover and then of course if we camp in the area and we and we mostly do it anyway to

protect or to make the life of our tent a little bit longer we would put a top underneath it and

this and sometimes if it if it's a little bit bigger than the tent profile you get a bit of

that little veranda that you might with a vestibule stick you don't get into a tent

so there's a little bit of clean surface area I subscribe to this as well like I'd like to

take a cheap tarp with me but I also have an expensive like nylon sill or still nylon what

they call it um tarp which is a lightweight tarp that you can tie up because it has so many uses

and and the cheap plastic one you can use it to work on you could use it to cover something if you

put over the bikes it makes the bikes look junky which is just what you want right this junky tarp

over it but yeah so why do you guys not spend the extra because your your mantra with everything is

to spend more money to get a not spend more money but get a better quality at the at the

expensive money um why not that with the tarp so the top is now part of our tint remember we

said our flysheet um can actually be used separately as a tarp as well so that seems

to be oil not well you can use it in the same sense but for the top itself to be quite honest

it's it's rarely that you actually find this we've been in development uh for Turkana gear for instance

with a similar product and it's it's just amazing that we actually have to have a special material

made to cover all of these areas we want to cover so to be quite honest one we haven't

found what we really looked for and then also we have given away so many of our tops as we

traveling if we see I mean once in Peru there was a thunderstorm and we came across three little

kids on the side of the road and we actually just donated one of the tops to them and say

stay dry and get a home um so we we tend to you know use it for other things but there's other

thing um the top you talk about Jim is that the flat square rectangular piece of fabric or is it

one of those you know not one of the ones that are cut like I don't like the custom cut ones that

you gotta you gotta string up the certain way because they're asymmetrical no mine is a just a

rectangular tarp I mean I have a few of them but just a rectangular tarp that and it's very you know

you can use it for so many different things yeah now the one that you talk about yes we've got one

that we tested um about three years ago it was a really really it managed it was compact but we

didn't like the fabric on it and we just ah you know we walk into it do it yourself shop

you buy a 3x31 and it just costs nothing and so we we got into this habit of just buying that

but I agree with you if we can find a nice fabric and I mean like really strong abrasive

resistant wear resistant tear resistant it packs compact um that that's a big plus absolutely

yeah but obviously again the price goes up yeah definitely you do pay for it and unfortunately

they're they're they're sort of wear right well they are they're wear items aren't they

particularly a tarp because a tarp does take a fair bit of abuse whether it's tied up in

by the wind or whatever but with that still nylon one you definitely don't put that on the ground

and kneel on it ever because you'll put holes in it immediately and you certainly can't have

near a fire or anything like that and that's one advantage of your cheap tarp is you could put it

up and if it got a couple of burn holes in it from the fire or you had to use it for it yeah you

don't care right that's uh yeah so I mean I think that's I think that type of thing is a real asset

for any camping setup whether you're going for a long time or a short time I mean if I really

want to pack light and I mean like super super light then I'd rather take one of those that you

mentioned rather than a than a store board you know do it yourself tarp because that they're still

bulky yeah way more bulky and they they they do weigh something so if I really want to go

lightweight I'd rather use a small um those more of those compact type of um super lightweight

tarps but the ones that you that they cut that's a form they cost they cost the arm and a leg and

and they can only be used for one purpose yeah you can't even throw them over the bike or something

yeah no but but also be there was a really good point though you're making like you've

already got the tent fly so if you really needed it you could use the tent fly as a quick cover

the one advantage of the of the tarp is that um you could it's just so easy to string up whereas

with the fly it's shaped around the tent and everything and with uh if you live in an area

if you're traveling in an area where it's you get a lot of rain and you want to keep dry

and you have to set up your tent and it's raining you can put your tarp up first and set up your

tent underneath your tarp yeah yeah yeah on some some places we had you know our tent is waterproof

we actually we knew it was going to rain for two days we couldn't or three days we couldn't move so

what we did was we took the one big top and made a roof over the tent to keep it and to give us a

bigger footprint yeah and the bigger footprint dry so the tent is dry and the ground around us

yeah and i think that's why we both carry one um is that we especially if we camp a little bit

longer it does come in quite handy so with the thought process of that cheap tarp that you guys

buy are there are there any other simple cheap pieces of gear that you buy that sort of that are

more useful than an expensive piece um no i can't think of something immediately i think we we tend

to i mean even if i just think of of our kitchen one of my most handy little tools i've got is a

little foldable egg lifter i mean who would have ever thought i would have loved that thing as much

egg lifter like so it's got the handle that folds over yes it folds over and it's so lightweight

but it but again it was for that piece of plastic i think it was so expensive but because it is made

and it's such a small market i can understand why you know you won't find a cheap

only because we're manufacturing ourselves but yeah i i think a lot of the stuff we have used

that we've replaced that we thought is a cheap item we can use the stuff like backing cubes we

walked into a chinese shop and we bought all these backing cubes well all of those has long left our

luggage we've we've actually had to invest in in in proper backing cubes that can handle a bit

of misuse um but then but then again you know we if you look if you walk into a store you see all

the stuff that's there and what you really need like really need man you need nothing you need

you need you need a little stove you need a mattress you need something to keep you warm you

need a you need you know so the stuff that you really need is not you can spend a bit of money

on it and keep it but this you really don't need a lot of stuff i mean we we carried each

letter into the multi-tube we use that on the for the kitchen as well so it's a two and a and that

but coming to cheek you maybe what i can think of is we love to carry a little cheap fleece

type blanket with us because we don't always use our sleeping bags because we we don't do most of

the time yeah we don't travel in areas that's so so cold so we will have the the two mattresses

together with a fitted sheet i'll have a light sheet over us and then just this little blanket

and because it's something that um if we go into area and i really know oh no we now just going to

use the sleeping bags and i don't feel too sorry for this blanket and we've missed used a bit i don't

feel sad to give it away or to leave it behind um yeah but then but then sorry then again we are a

bit naughty in that thing as well especially in places like South America Mexico and in Central

America where they hand make stuff you know yeah we love to buy that so i would i would carry i've

got my camera and i could let's say four lenses and i've got a super duper designed stuff that was

you know that came with the lenses lenses and all this stuff and they're very expensive and they're

nice but then i walk into a shop and i see this little lady making some padded little pocket that

could do the same thing yeah and it's it's a it's a nice fabric that they make locally and it's

colorful stuff and in booth i buy one of them and then when i go back home i take the i take

the other stuff with and i leave it at home and i just never use them again i use this little ladies

bag um or little pouch i leave that because it's now it's good and it's a story yeah or little

little bags the one day we had a we had uh for our stainless flask i wanted to try and insulate

it a little bit more and um i went to this guy in Bolivia and i said can you make me a leather

sleeve for this and he says yes and two days later we made us a thick leather sleeve for this um thing

which was completely over overkill but it lasted and it's a nice thing and so yes we keep it

when you say packing cube you mean like a stuff sack what we would call stuff sack

so different so yes stuff sacks work very very well for bulky stuff like sleeping bags and

compression bags yeah compression bags that so so we use two styles we use the compression bags

one tube that you yeah the traditional like sleeping bags stuff bag that you

didn't pull tighter yeah you you compress yeah yeah so we we use compression bags and then we

use the packing cubes where we for instance put our clothing in uh but we use ones with

really really good zips so that you can actually overfill it push it down and then compact them

by that way yeah yeah rectangular shapes and different sizes yeah and

colors so i know if i for instance we've got one gear bag where all our clothing is in with our

laptop so if i open it up laptops they stand up straight between the packing cubes and i know

exactly what packing cubes has got mechnus's clothing and what is mine in because it's all color

coded and then i've got different sizes so i will have a bigish one for t-shirts and a smaller one

for underwear so it's just quick access and a lot more organized and then of course if you if you

close your bag when you're leaving an area and it closes too quickly then you know you forgot

something so far you've mentioned mentioned a leatherman and a thermos and i'm just thinking

is there any other like small bits like that that you guys have found um really useful over the

years that you don't do without and you can talk about the thermos maybe like why do you have a

thermos well the thermos is not only for hot stuff but it's also for keeping ice and we've

tasted it now in in Namibia well it started like this thermos is an expensive brand and we

didn't want to spend expensive money but one of our friends is a dealer and said epic and we went

to help them on a show the one time with Stanley Stanley yeah and he said uh we'll give you one

of the stands he was like extremely happy that that he did and i must say it's whatever money is

worth it's worth it because that you we can chuck ice in it close it and it will stay for two almost

two days yeah it will stay ice in there so we can have a cold whisk you and we get

two games that yeah that's important and no i find the same thing it's it's worth spending the money

like the stand Stanley does make it's funny cuz Stanley's been around for so long but they do

make a nice stainless steel thermos that's the one that we've got is i think it's 11 point five

no i don't know 22 liters something but they're good quality you know we bought other two little

mac cups thermal mac cups and we were cheap skates we bought cheaper ones and now they don't

lost and and they don't function the way the ice doesn't last half yeah they just they lose their

heat or lose their cold do you use it for coffee is it or something like that hot drinks as well

coffee we depending on where we travel so yes in Patagonia we Patagonia we used to make a full

flask of coffee in the morning and then while we travel we will have that but in colder areas we

tend to not do the coffee during the day but then we will carry ice in it or if we bought too much

milk because in some countries you can't buy just a little small thing of milk then we will use

that for the milk yeah so multifunction yeah it is one of those things that could seem like you

know a luxury or a waste taking but i've also found that i think it's very useful it's really

really handy it's a nice luxury is a convenience yeah for sure so anything else like that that you

take that you guys always say with you i found something a couple of years ago well actually

a friend of mine bought it as a gift for me and it was little sandwich toaster bags so it's a little

flat bag a little bit bigger than what the sandwich would be but it's a it can handle a very high

heat so you would do a toasted cheese sandwich and you can actually put it inside a toaster

but i realized i put it on a fire i realized that it actually works very well on a barbecue as well

so i carry two of these little flat cubes and we make sandwiches on the fire with it

i have done chicken if i don't want the chicken to dry out i will put chicken and veggies in it

and you can actually put it over i have done some patties in them so it actually becomes like a

yo eaters or a the tool that you can use on the fire and if we then in a hostel and there's a

toaster that works too but they weigh nothing they weigh less than a piece of paper and how do you

clean them oh no just with normal dish soap just with water yeah so this is like a non-burnable

fabric that is so cool wow it's like a woven fabric that they also use when i think it

traditionally came from electrician background where they cover the wires if they start burning

that it yeah it's something like that but yes they work you buy them at any um

like i've seen it at some of our even our chinese shops has got them or our home and

decor places has got it oh i love i gotta get one of those that's that's me i haven't i haven't seen

these before that sounds great okay anything else like that that long spoon of your my long spoon

yes i've got a what is it made of titanium titanium spoon what is a brand to see to summit

summit we have no relationship to see the summer that's one thing so you're not gonna get kicked

back this is not an ad for a sea to summer but you just see the summit well i've actually got two

i've got a sea to summit titanium one and then i've got one that somebody in bolivia made for me out

of wood and all it is is that the spoon has got a very long handle that if you then stir something

on the fire or on your camp stove your hand doesn't burn and and we've had that it's such a handy tool

you use it anywhere so because it's got a long stem it's got more you actually

use it more than just a normal and you can stir inside your flask as well because it's long yeah

especially in the stand you feel if we make stuff i've seen the sea to summit where the folds

in half but for some reason when i've looked at it them in the store before to me

it seems like so what's the point like i mean do i not have space for the full length of the handle

oh no no this one is not even it doesn't fold up it's just a very long spoon oh i think that's very

flat and very lightweight i don't know why they make stuff from titanium i think it's more that if

you cook over a fire that you have a little bit of distance away from the that makes sense yeah yeah

so it's more that but it's become one of our things that if we start packing up where's our

spoon we must just not leave our spoon because we use it so often anything else well the multi

tool that we've got so mechniz and i shopped and we were working at a show uh one day and we started

talking about multi tools and what is the the optimal tool you want and i said well i need scissors

and i need tweezers a bottle opener and i need and i actually found one that's a multi

tool with a good knife as well so yeah that's something that i i really use and mechniz is one

is now obviously got more orientated to being a good knife and a tool for working on the motorcycle

so between the two of us we like got each a multi tool that that we can use in more than one area

what's the brand of multi tool you found this one is the leatherman yeah the one with the bottle

opener is the leatherman model it is well it's a wine cork opener yeah it's a small it's one of

the smaller ones i don't know it's no i don't know what brand it was yeah yeah you know beer

mechanic but there's another brand opinel is a french brand it's it's old it's it's cheap it's

a wooden handle with either a stainless steel plate or a carbon blade i know that's good that that

thing and and mine again has got a cork opener in what is it about open alive like people love them

for for picnicking and for camping and for your kitchen even yeah there's just such i don't know

it's because the handle is comfortable in your hand so even with the leatherman if i want to use

that to cut vegetables it's very uncomfortable yeah um so you tend to if i have a little extra space

the long spoon and the open else go with open oh do you have a model in particular that you like

it's i'll have to go and look up it's a wooden it's wood it's got a wood stem and i think it's

a eight the eight is for the blade length or something number eight inches yeah right yeah

and then and another tool that we actually use a lot more than what we thought we would we thought

it it might just be a i don't know a luxury or something to have but it's the flat water pack

pouches we've got so yeah so you get to you i think tweretic also makes them um how many liters

are three liters so we carry two of those so when when we don't use them and we pack them in our space

that we don't use often it's a bit of annoyance because the the lid of it is a little bit high

but when we use it it's just so comfortable because the bag you can put your your water in and it can

hang on your handlebar it can hang in the tree um and then it's got two sprouts you can just open one

and it makes like a very thin you want to brush your teeth yeah you'll just want to use a little

bit of water so you save a lot of water or if you want to now do a cooking and you can actually take

over and make it use the big hole so so that we tend to like if we pack we make sure we pack the

i don't know what would you call it flat pack water bags so yeah it's a it's a dromedary dromedary yeah

and dromedary bag yeah yeah and the nice thing is if you want to do a shower when you wild camping

the bag is black so if you leave it in the sun for a little bit you've got warmish water right

right and then just hang it up and put the the spout on you just don't even have little adapters

with the shower heads that you put on yeah that we won't carry but you could but but but it's a it's

a standard thing if we go yeah if we rather the we know we're going to into an area where this this

this um we might run out of water or it's going to be a really odd day or something we we fill

up one of them or in worse too because you might happen it might happen that you just fall something

happens you break a leg whatever you you cannot get stuck there without water you have to have

water so that thing we that that always it goes with us um it's not something that we leave

leave with yeah i had water as a separate category i was going to ask you about because water is so

difficult to carry so the bag makes perfect says how much water are you are you carrying though

it's it's three liters back and i would say it depends on how much page i have then i will take

the bag and and put it on top of the inside a luggage the soft luggage so we carry six liters

in these pouches if so if we know we're going into area where we need water we will roughly work out

how many days of water but generally even if we're traveling and we know we're going to go camping it's

the six liters that we carry on in the luggage and then we each have got a tripper bag on the back of

uh well that we carry in a rucksack but we only only use them yeah when it when we need to we don't

carry yeah six liters of always yeah right so the good thing about the bag is you could just roll it

up and stow it yeah that's right they're really small back and even if they're full they sort of

because they flat bags if you even tied on top of your luggage and the footprint is is comfortable

enough you know and it's better than putting a five liter on top which is quite bulky and

right yeah yeah so what else um what else do we still have in gear um yeah i mean obviously the

basic stuff is something that i do always carry as proper ziploc bags plastic ziploc bags because

you know in you have to what we found even if you have got the best waterproof bags

condensation forms especially if you go from hot to cold or cold to hot um so i think to carry quite

a few ziploc good quality ones that i can put some paperwork in or something that i don't want to

get wet or sometimes i even put our laptops into a bag before i put it into the luggage

um so that's something we we found quite a handy that's one of the great big ziplocs that you can

get yeah yeah and even those big ones if your shoes is the shoes got wet you can put on your socks

put over a wet bag and put your foot in your boot and you can dry your boot later and so

multifunction the other thing that we had was a was a um opaque plastic oh the pop-up lamp

pop-up lamp thing with a solar uh panel thing panel um and i leave it i pack it on my luggage in

the back and it will charge you in the day and at night and then you just pop it up pop it open

hang it in it it's a softer light that what you you would use like a torch or a uh a heat lamp

but i don't remember the the brands are very they started it and it was actually very well made

that thing last i was probably about seven it's not a loosey light is it no i can't remember the

brand all i know it's it's a little if it's it's like a concertina um tube that falls flat flat

and with this little solar thing on the top and when you when you want to use it you just pop it

open your concertina to to be oh i see what you mean i was thinking of the because there's

inflatable i mean there's so many different ones out there now but there's an inflatable one that

you can get that has a little solar panel on it yes yeah we had the inflatable one but it

it because the the plastic is is a lot thinner it didn't last that long so the the pop-up one

sort of the plastic they use is a little bit thicker and that lasted but it's nice because it

it's not a heat lamp that is it's got a beam yeah you just want lighting the thing you don't want

you don't need to have a beam but look you don't need it it's not something that you you can probably

oh it's like my fairy lights i carry fairy lights are they solar fairy lights is that what it is

yeah it's solar fairy lights it's not so bad this is something but it's about the size of

of iphone if i um iPods it's about the size of that yeah and it's more just if we camp in a beautiful

area that uh sometimes just romantic thing i've seen that that's pretty neat

no but and i don't i don't like if it doesn't mean that you need this stuff but i mean it's nice to

know what you guys have sort of played with and found that it's handy because i think that camp

light you can certainly see the value of it in the tent for sure but even at the table because the

headlight tends to be harsh and we every time we look at somebody we tend to blind them and it's

kind of nice when you're making your dinner to have a soft light over everything that you can

just go ahead and work yeah we would we would sit late at night outside and you have cards or

cards or something we sit there with headlights and and stuff like that and you can probably put it

a little bit to the side for um critters and stuff and that's maybe one thing that we do carry is

a bit of a i wouldn't say a hobby but um something that you like to do so mechnus and i love i mean

it's good when you're in a campsite and you can just be disconnected and there's no wi-fi and there's

no phones and um to just take out a pack of cards or i love to draw a bit or paint a bit so i i think

to have a little hobby bag that goes with us i thought that's what the whiskey was for oh no

that's true that's why you do the other hobby that's right the one thing that we also that

some places but depending on on how we travel how much gear we have to take or not so if we have

space like a last trip now in america that we did the appellations there was a lot of stuff like the

the the chairs we didn't need to carry chairs because most of the campsites that we that we

stayed with had towels or whatever but then we'll carry a one of those small compact hammocks

um you get one it's a that's a double hammock and we've just wrote um it'll carry one of them

because that's nice if you if you stay in the campsite to chill out and yeah if there's enough

trees yeah they're very very small lightweight things yeah and then um yeah that's

about it there might be other stuff i'm just for after the meeting probably tomorrow when i open the

the bags like oh yeah i forgot to tell you about this so well you did mention that you use a list

so even as experienced as you guys are with camping from your motorcycle you still use a list

but we but we use our list so we already know now what goes so i might we've got a short quick

tick list for the camera the batteries the lenses where are they doing what cables do we take

um stuff so just to just to get everything together because you you quickly quickly if you

haven't came for a while if you haven't came for a while walk out the door and you forgot

but i think we are so set up now that even if we like now that we in Cape Town and i mean we came

back we've camped quite a bit in Namibia over november and december um then we tend to when

we finish with the trip as our stuff is packed inside our motorcycle gear we actually pack it

into a big suitcase and it goes into storage as is we don't take the items out so and and the longer

you travel the more you you sort of have your list already because of your equipment so if i open my

bag i can already see all my packing cubes and i know exactly what i put in them so i think with

it the list sort of disappears once you've got your system going because if you open your tank

back you know yes my camera yes my batteries and if it's not there you go look for the pouch that

goes in there right i see yeah so those packing cubes and and just the idea of you know what's in

each one of those and and obviously you're keeping your possessions fairly few as few as possible

oh yes absolutely yeah i mean that's that's the one nice thing about doing it for the

stumps that you you get to a point where you man you don't need a lot of stuff

you honestly it's it's it's the most stuff you have the most stuff you have to worry about the

delicious and if they work well that's the way to go yeah i think that's a really really

important statement i really do i i definitely subscribe to that now i wanted to talk about

packing you you've talked a little bit about that with the packing cubes but how about access weight

routine those those sorts of things uh what do you do for that i mean because we're thinking

that we want to pack our heaviest stuff at the bottoms possibly or or how do you do it

so basically keep it low keep your areas weight low keep it centralized um and avoid tail

tail every bike so avoid getting stuff right at the back of the bike um it makes it makes a bike

tail even then obviously we're also trying to pack in such a way that the stuff that we need

every day yeah or quick access like first aid kits must be accessible without opening a bag

now if i see it's a little bit easier because i can for example carry

like the tent and the camping stuff we don't need it every single day so we can stay on the bike

and like carry the the tools it stays on the bike where else we could get the bags if we can quick

to take off but if i if you travel so low again you get the like tools pack it in the bottom of

the of the bag or your saddlebags or your panties because you don't need this stuff every day you

might need it every now and then but also you can use for example a small little pouch just to

carry your your leatherman or a screwdriver that's something that you probably would need

just to tighten something or maybe you need to have a knife or something you you don't have to

keep that in the in the bottom of a pannier but the heavy heavy weight stuff must go um bottom

and then try and keep it central to the um you know to i think we've also learned along the way

that we do quite a bit of combination of camping hotels staying airbnb um so we tend to pack much

that and again we're very lucky that we've got two motorcycles to do this on um so i will almost

have the daily use stuff and mechness will have the camping stuff and the stuff that's emergency

stuff um so that gives us a lot of leeway but we also pack in such a way that if we stop or we have

to do uh you know just grab what is very important that we actually just have to grab one bag of my

bike and everything else can stay on the motorcycles so we will pack very important documents um the

electronics that that we need to carry because we we work while we travel the electronics we need to

do our job and our clothing isn't one bag so if we get to our hotel we actually just remove one

bag of the motorcycle we don't have to get something out of this part something out of that one it

takes you off an hour to just get into the room six trips in and out while you're all worse this

where is that yeah so you stay in hostel in the third floor that really will depend on your setup

and and how you travel so that and again it's not something that we can do a list for everybody

because it will be different for everybody but the main the main stuff we we carry in the duffel

bags that that's easy that you can literally take the bags and go in and otherwise you just carry

yourself to death especially if it's upstairs so sort of to cap this all off when riders are

there looking for camping gear what sort of questions do you think they should be asking

themselves before they buy anything i think that the the in years coming back so so again maybe you

start off with with camping and you think ah you know i'm not going to buy some good stuff now because

maybe you know maybe i don't like it or something yes then sure you know buy buy cheaper stuff or

other buy secondhand stuff but by the third or fourth time and if you know you you you start to

get into it and you know you do maybe only short trips because you only get time off

two or three weeks a year or something like that and you sort of start to like it then

go quality first um and and do it there is i mean it is possible and we all know that

reviews on on youtube is not always what reviews on youtube supposed to be um but there is places

and look for reputable companies that that's been doing this stuff for a long time and that you can

actually see on their reviews that people are complimenting them they actually replaced my bag

they actually to give you an idea expect we bought into that brand because when we asked them what is

the backup if we're in a different country they immediately said doesn't matter where you are our

warranty runs and so far so we actually tested it we bought bought our experts the last ones in the

usa and they actually replaced one for us in ecuador so look at companies that can help you

everywhere the same when mehnus chooses a camera he that he knows has got an

international warranty and not just in the country he's purchased it and i think the same goes with

if you buy a team make sure that the brand of things you buy if you're going to be a world

traveler that will actually fit everywhere if you know that for the next couple of years you're

really just going to be in your own country your choice might be still a very good quality but maybe

not the international company because you will have to support locally so when you start out sort of

see what is your long-term plans and look for equipment yeah there's another thing as well is that

if you buy for example online overseas you can't send a thing back if something's broken so you've

just wasted money and that's why we like to support dealers and stuff like that where you can actually

talk to people you can take it back the other thing is that look for some products in a range

for a company that's been making the same thing over and over for many years now and the reason

they're doing that is because if it works don't fix it whether they say if it's broken don't fix it

so if it's a proven type of product then it's a no-brainer because they've made it for such a

long time and it's keep on selling it means that that it's working it you know so you can you can

it's like Toyota you're not going into Africa without a Toyota

it's boring that's what you take great it's not going to be an Instagram star but that's what you

take but I think I think first you know that my and it's not because I'm a cheap guy I don't want to

buy stuff I would rather buy a good product secondhand even if I start off with is to buy a good

product secondhand from somebody and use that and either resell it again maybe you probably get

maybe good money back from it again by selling it then rather buying something that I that I don't

know don't trust or it's don't get sleeping and yeah you know and and it fails you because it makes

it it makes you experience miserable but I would rather even if we start off with and even if we'd

use shorter trips maybe you only do two big trips a year if you can't afford or can't buy this the

one that you really want you've researched you've checked the stuff you've spoken to people they say

why this thing is like dude it's really expensive go find something find it online secondhand or

maybe just look for something in their range that's a little bit less expensive you should actually

think of it in the way from you're taking a friend with you camping this weekend it's the first time

this person will be camping make sure the mattress doesn't get it blow down that's true because you

do hear these stories right where things happen like this to people and they say I hate camping

it was a horrible experience well it doesn't have to be that way it's all about being prepared doing

your due diligence well we saw at first hand we were camping in a canyon at the desert campsite

and there was a new family coming there and they had the tents and everything and the brand new

literally they were taking the stuff out of the boxes the camping the whole shebang and we we went

for a walk and we came back about two hours later and everything was in the in that um skip in the

in the bin that threw everything away literally everything even the pot with a chicken was just

chocolate in that thing they packed it up and left they that thing was off cooked I can we could

just take it out they didn't even pack it up they just threw it in the dumpster the tent was in there

I packed the tent that one of these little things where you stand up inside the dressing room or

something thing a magic was there sleeping bags everything literally they just dumped it in there

elspy picnics thanks so much that was good fun I appreciate that it's a pleasure thank you for

that was miknis and elspy ulevir from piki piki overland or Turkana gear as well

piki piki overland.com and Turkana gear.com and we'll have those links in the show notes along

with some photographs of them and what we were talking about and different camping stuff

all in the show notes for this episode on our website adventureriderradio.com

this episode was brought to you in part by green chili adventure gear at greenchiliadv.com

best rest products at cyclepump.com anytime you're dealing with these companies or anything you hear

on adventure rider radio let them know you heard them here and this show is built on a model of

advertising and listener support the combination of the two we'd really appreciate if you go to

adventureriderradio.com and click on support while that wraps up another episode of adventure rider

radio and we sure hope you enjoyed listening to it as much as we did making it the show is built on

a model of advertising and listener support now we have some ads but we need your support if you're

not doing it already adventureriderradio.com click on support we would really appreciate it if you

consider doing something on a regular basis signing up for our patreon account we need your

support we've been doing this every single week for 12 years that's a long time and that's quite a

dedication it takes it's our life really i mean we work really really hard at this and we would

appreciate it if you would at least consider it adventureriderradio.com click on support now it's

time to get out there and ride your bike i hope it's sunny and warm and perfect riding conditions

where you are my name is jim martin thank you so much for listening and i will talk to you next week

i'm ted simon and here i am on adventure rider radio again and extremely happy to be here with

jim martin

About this episode

Motorcycle camping gear isn’t about copying someone else’s checklist—it’s about starting with the right questions and choosing a setup that matches your trip style. The hosts break camping into “camp to ride” (Spartan) versus “ride to camp” (gourmet), then zoom in on sleep systems, tent livability, and dependable, repairable gear. They also cover practical packing and organization, from packing cubes and weight distribution to tire inflators, SOS devices, and waterproofing/condensation control.

camping stove centralized first aid kits flat water pack pouches foot pegs footprint hugger IMS products Leatherman LED light

Dodge Charger

Original notes

How to Choose the Best Camping Setup for the Way You Ride

Before you start comparing motorcycle tents, sleeping pads, stoves, chairs, pack sizes, and weights, there is an important question to answer. In this episode, Ben Williams from Moto Camp Nerd talks about a simple way to think through your motorcycle camping setup before you start buying gear, so your choices are based on the way you actually ride and travel, not just someone else’s packing list.
Michnus and Elsebie Olivier of PikiPiki Overland and Turkana Gear also share lessons learned from years of motorcycle travel, including what they've overpacked, what they've replaced, and what has earned a permanent place in their kit. It's a practical conversation about choosing gear with purpose, not just following the latest trends.

🔗 Show Notes & Links:
Find photos, links, and resources related to this episode on our website at Adventure Rider Radio.

🎧 Subscribe & Never Miss an Episode:
We release new episodes of ARR every week on Thursday and of RAW on the 21st of every month—full of inspiring stories, expert advice, and insight from the world of adventure motorcycling. Hit subscribe so you never miss out!

💡 Got an Idea?
Have a guest suggestion or topic you’d love us to cover? We’d love to hear from you! Drop us an email through our website.

⭐️ Leave a Review:
Enjoying the show? A 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app goes a long way in helping others discover the show.

📱 Follow Us:
Join our growing community on Facebook and Instagram. Let’s stay connected!

🙌 Support the Show:
Love what we do? Help keep the adventure alive by supporting us. Your contribution allows us to keep bringing you great content week after week.

📤 Share the Show:
Know someone who would enjoy this episode? Share it with them! Word of mouth helps us grow and reach more riders around the world.

📬 Join Our Newsletter:
Be the first to hear about new episodes, bonus content, and more! Sign up for our newsletter at Adventure Rider Radio.

🙏 Thanks for Listening!
We truly appreciate you being part of our adventure community. Until next time—ride safe and keep exploring!

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Adventure Rider Radio – Motorcycle Podcast

Adventure Rider Radio | Adventure Motorcycling

View classic page →

0:00

113:05