They’re describing the idea of carrying less stuff on purpose. It can make the bike easier to control and help you ride farther, but it also means you might have fewer comforts or backups.
This is a small pump you carry so you can put air back in your tire if it goes flat or loses pressure. The hosts are saying experienced riders rely on theirs because it’s dependable.
Best Rest Products makes a tire inflator that riders trust for roadside repairs. The point is that it’s designed for motorcycle use and is backed by a long warranty.
This is a multi-purpose tool that combines functions you’d normally need separately. The benefit is fewer tools to pack while still being able to handle tire-related issues.
A strapping system is how you fasten bags to your motorcycle. It’s important because on rough roads you need the bag to stay tight and not bounce around.
Green Chili Adventure Gear makes motorcycle adventure gear—like luggage and bags. They’re saying the brand is built to survive rough weather and bumpy off-road riding, not just normal commuting.
Adventure riding is when you ride a motorcycle on a mix of roads, including dirt and rough trails. It usually means you’re traveling farther and the weather and terrain can be unpredictable, so your gear has to handle it.
Car
Honda CRF 300L
They’re riding a Honda CRF 300L. It’s a smaller, lighter dual-sport bike, which makes it easier to handle on mixed roads and trails. The hosts like it because it supports the “small bike, big trip” idea.
Car
Suzuki DR650
They started with a Suzuki DR650. It’s a capable adventure-style dual-sport, but in their case it was older, so it needed more repairs than they wanted. That’s part of why they later looked for something more reliable.
They’re basically saying that smaller, lighter bikes are easier to handle when the trail gets bumpy or complicated. If you fall, a lighter bike is also easier to lift back up, so you can ride more confidently.
A two-stroke engine makes power in a simpler, faster cycle than a four-stroke. In this episode, they’re saying the two-stroke bikes felt easier and more “forgiving” when the trail got rough.
Enduro bikes are made for off-road trail riding, not just smooth dirt. In this story, they felt easier because the bikes were set up for that kind of rough terrain.
On a lighter bike, you can feel problems sooner—like the front end starting to shake. That makes it easier to react and fix your riding before things get worse.
Head shake is when the front of the bike starts to wobble back and forth. It can happen on rough or loose ground, and riders learn how to steady it with their body position and control inputs.
“Forgiving” here means the bike is easier to recover when traction breaks or the front end gets unsettled. With less weight and often less abrupt power, riders can make smaller corrections and bring the bike back under control more easily than on a heavier machine.
Concept
technical terrain vs lighter bike workload
They’re saying that bigger bikes can feel harder to handle in very technical spots, so you work more. With a lighter bike, you usually spend less effort just trying to keep it under control.
Bridgestone A41 is a specific type of motorcycle tire. Tires like this are made for riding on a mix of pavement and dirt, but the exact tread and compound can still make certain surfaces feel very slippery.
Smaller bikes can make you ride more carefully and learn better control. The idea is that once you get good at handling a smaller bike, you can usually ride a bigger one better too.
Riding off-road can make you better on the road because you learn how to handle changing grip and unexpected situations. That experience can translate into smoother, more confident riding anywhere.
Panniers are the hard or soft bags mounted on the sides of a motorcycle for carrying gear. Bigger panniers mean more storage, but they also add weight that can make the bike harder to control.
They’re talking about carrying less stuff over time. The lighter you keep your setup, the easier the bike is to handle and the more fun it is to ride difficult terrain.
They’re talking about carrying less stuff so the motorcycle is lighter. A lighter bike is easier to control, especially when the road or trail gets bumpy.
They’re talking about how hard it is to lift the motorcycle if it tips over. A lighter bike is easier to get back under control when you’re riding rough trails.
Concept
handling rough terrain with a heavier vs lighter bike
They’re saying weight changes how the bike behaves on bumpy rocks. With a lighter bike, it’s easier to steer and react to the terrain, so you can handle tougher sections.
Helinox is a brand known for lightweight outdoor chairs designed for portability. The hosts mention not bringing Helinox chairs this year, implying they chose to reduce weight even if it meant less comfort.
They’re saying you should try going without something and see how it feels in real conditions. If it makes the trip less enjoyable or harder, you bring it back next time.
Instead of changing everything all at once, they adjust their gear one item at a time. That way they learn what they really need and don’t waste money or weight.
They’re using a toothbrush example to show that tiny changes can still help. If you do it for lots of items, the total weight you carry can drop more than you’d expect.
They’re talking about cooking pots made from titanium. Titanium is strong but not very heavy, which helps when you’re trying to pack light for camping.
They’re trying to make tools smaller for travel. They cut and reshape wrenches, then add a simple extension so the tool still has enough “oomph” to loosen things when you’re stuck on the road.
They’re talking about the nut that holds the wheel on (the axle nut). If you get a flat, you need the right tool to loosen it so you can take the wheel off and fix the tire.
They’ve had several flats, so they tested their setup in the real world. Their point is that their small, modified tools were still strong enough to get the wheel off and fix the problem.
Company
obsidian tool
They mention a tool kit brand called Obsidian Tool. Since the whole discussion is about carrying less gear, the brand matters as an example of a compact kit.
An Atlas throttle lock is a gadget that helps you keep the throttle steady without constantly holding it. That means less strain on your wrist and arm during long rides.
Factory cruise control is a built-in system that helps keep your speed steady. If your motorcycle doesn’t have it, you may need another way to avoid holding the throttle all the time.
A trail stand is a little stand you bring on the trail so your bike doesn’t just fall over while you’re changing a tire. It adjusts to the right height and holds the bike up safely so you can work on the wheels.
The front brake is what slows the bike using the front wheel. They use the front brake area as a convenient place to strap the stand so it doesn’t slip while they’re changing a tire.
The swingarm is the part that connects the rear wheel to the bike and lets the rear wheel move when you hit bumps. Putting the stand under it helps keep the bike stable while you work.
A skid plate is the protective plate on the bottom of the bike. They’re saying you may need to line the stand up so it rests against the skid plate or frame to keep the bike from falling.
If you get a flat, you need tools to get the tire off the wheel. Tire levers help you pry the tire loose, and a bead breaker helps pop the tire’s edge off the rim.
Motion Pro makes motorcycle tools that are popular with riders. They sell specialized tools like tire levers and bead breakers so you can fix a flat without a big workshop.
JB Weld is a strong glue/epoxy that can patch things in a pinch. It’s useful on rides because it can help you get back on the road when something breaks.
A T-handle is a wrench handle shaped like a T that gives you leverage. A collapsible one is easier to pack, and with sockets it can fit different bolt sizes.
The clutch cable connects your hand lever to the clutch inside the bike. If it breaks, you can’t properly disengage the clutch, so having a plan or spare helps you keep riding.
They’re talking about being able to handle problems yourself when you’re riding far from help. That means carrying the right small tools so you can fix common issues and keep going.
An air pump lets you add air to your tires. If you get a flat or your tire loses pressure, having your own pump can be the difference between riding on and being stuck.
A camp stove is what you use to cook while you’re camping. The point here is that some gear is essential, so you shouldn’t rely on someone else having it.
A tent and sleeping bag are what you use to sleep outdoors. The hosts are saying you can’t assume you’ll always have them if you’re riding with someone else.
The Leatherman Crunch is a multi-tool with locking pliers. That means the pliers can clamp onto something and stay tight, which is handy when you’re working one-handed.
These are the thin blades that move back and forth to cut. They’re useful for quick repairs, and smaller blades are easier to pack when you’re trying to travel light.
A pin vice is like a tiny hand tool that holds a very small bit firmly. It helps you work carefully with small parts instead of using a big power tool.
This is a small cooking stove that uses gasoline as fuel. People like it on trips because it can be easier to find fuel far from home.
Term
CD crossfire boots
These are riding boots they bring for the trip. They’re good for riding, but the hosts say they’re not great for hanging around camp, so they also pack lighter shoes.
These are off-road riding clothes—pants and a shirt—made to move easily and handle rough riding. They’re often worn as the main layer before adding extra protection or rain gear.
A protection vest is a padded/armored layer that helps protect your chest and torso if you fall. It’s useful because you can wear it under other clothes.
This means packing too little or not having the right gear for the conditions. If the weather turns bad, it can put you in a tough—and sometimes unsafe—situation.
Checking the weather means looking ahead so you know what conditions to expect. It helps you bring the right stuff and avoid getting caught in bad weather.
“Pare it down” refers to minimizing carried weight while still maintaining safety and comfort. The discussion frames minimal-gear strategy as a balance: enough clothing and tools to handle rain, cold, and emergencies without overpacking.
Your exhaust is the pipe system that carries burned gases away from the engine. People swap exhausts to save weight or change how the bike runs, but it has to stay legal for emissions.
Euro 5+ is an emissions rule for motorcycles in Europe. Newer bikes have to meet tougher pollution limits, so their exhaust and engine settings can be different from older models.
Concept
weight savings vs riding comfort mods
They’re saying they don’t always mod the bike to save weight. Sometimes they focus on making the ride feel better, because that can matter more than shaving off a few kilos.
Engine oil has to be kept at the right level for the engine to stay properly lubricated. Taking out “a bit” to save weight can be risky if you go below the safe range.
They’re talking about trying to carry less stuff. The idea is that even small weight and bulk reductions can make the bike easier to ride and you less tired over time.
Foot pegs are where your boots rest on a motorcycle. When you ride off-road and stand up, better foot pegs can make it easier to control the bike and feel more stable.
IMS products makes aftermarket parts for motorcycles. Here they’re talking about foot pegs that are designed to help you stand more comfortably and feel more connected to the bike when riding off-road.
“Go lighter” means carrying less weight on the bike. They also point out that it’s not just the weight—making gear smaller can help too because bulky stuff can change how the bike feels and how you pack.
A packing system is how you carry everything on your bike—like bags and how they’re arranged. A good system helps you fit more efficiently and keep things manageable.
Packing cubes are small zippered bags that keep your clothes organized. They can also help you fit more into your luggage without it turning into a messy pile.
They’re talking about wearing very lightweight, thin shoes to save space and weight. But if you have to walk a lot, they can be uncomfortable, so it’s a trade-off.
They’re describing how to pack for a motorcycle trip so you carry less stuff and it takes up less space. That makes the bike easier to control and helps everything fit in your bags.
This is the routine of packing your down sleeping bag back up after camping. Down insulation needs to be handled carefully so it stays fluffy and warm next time.
Your motorcycle’s center of gravity is basically where the bike’s weight balances. If you keep heavy bags low and near the middle, the bike feels steadier and easier to control.
They sometimes load the bikes onto a trailer instead of riding them the entire route. The reason is that small bikes can be uncomfortable or inefficient on long highway stretches.
They use tires meant for dirt trails, and those tires tend to wear faster on pavement. So if you do lots of highway miles, you’ll likely need new tires sooner.
Knobby tires are made for dirt roads. They have chunky tread that grips loose ground, but on regular pavement they wear out quicker and don’t feel as “right” for long highway miles.
Ultralight gear means bringing the lightest camping stuff you can. It often costs more, but it makes the whole trip easier because you’re carrying less weight.
“Wild camp” means camping outside of established campgrounds—often in more remote areas. For riders, it can reduce recurring lodging costs, but it also depends on local laws, land access rules, and Leave No Trace practices.
LIVE
For some people, adventure motorcycle riding is all about getting farther off the beaten
track to places that you otherwise wouldn't see, but at the same time testing their skills
and rougher, more technical terrain.
And for some of those riders, that gets them to thinking about getting lighter bikes and
lighter gear.
And that's just what happened to Luke and Emma Davitz, two riders from the Netherlands
who've gone deep into reducing weight and trimming bulk, pushing it to the point where
it starts to affect their comfort and then sort of figuring out where to draw that line.
In fact, they've got their camping gear, tools and luggage pared down to nine kilograms.
That's just under 20 pounds per person.
And in this conversation today, they're going to talk about what that gives them, what it
costs them and how pushing it that far starts to change the way you think about what you
pack.
I'm Jim Martin.
This is Adventure Rider Radio.
Stay with us.
We'll get a good one for you.
Experience 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 cyclepump.com.
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.com.
I'm Emma.
I'm from the Netherlands and yeah, in a day job, I'm a nurse.
I'm Luke.
I'm also from the Netherlands and my day job is project management.
I came from a software background, so I do that now for government.
Emma and Luke, welcome to Adventure Rider Radio.
Thank you.
How did you get into riding, Emma?
Well, at first I got motivated by Luke because he bought a bike and yeah, we were
looking at what we wanted to do and we planned a big trip to Sweden just when he got his
driver's license and we went camping there.
So I was on the back and that's how I got into riding a motorcycle.
Yeah.
And by riding on the back, you decided that you wanted to ride your own bike?
Yeah, exactly.
Riding at the back was really fun, but especially because we started to ride a bit of off-road.
It was more fun to get my own license and yeah.
What was the idea of the bike to begin with?
I think that was more my thing.
From when I was young, I always wanted to ride motorcycles, not necessarily
adventure or off-road or something, but my father always rode bikes and I was really interested.
And actually, pretty late, I got the opportunity or I had the time to get my license.
So somewhere in 2020, I think, when I got my license, we had actually the trip we first
planned was with the camper or a camper van with some friends that fell through because
of COVID.
So we decided to go on the bike.
Yeah.
And what kind of bike was it?
There was a Transel 700.
Oh, I see.
So you started out with an adventure bike?
Yes.
Right.
Okay.
You've progressed to what bikes now?
We both ride the CRF 300L.
That's a nice bike, small.
And of course, that's what you guys are all about with these bikes.
Well, first of all, why did you go to the small bikes?
Why not get two larger bikes?
We did it first.
Yes.
So first, I bought a DR650 and it was an amazing bike, but it was a lot of work,
not in only riding, but it was an old bike, so we had to repair it quite a bit.
So after a while, I started looking at a reliable bike next to my DR650
and a bit lighter bike.
And that's why, yeah, I decided to buy a CRF 300.
And yeah, look also.
Yeah, it was also partially because we started riding more technical stuff.
Or we wanted to ride more technical stuff.
We started riding in Sweden together on the DR650 and the Transalp.
But yeah, the riding was so fun that we thought, yeah, if we get lighter bikes,
we can get through more rough terrain easier.
Yeah, and we went to Romania also to get some training.
And there we rode on 250.
Two strokes.
Two strokes, yes.
And yeah, it was so much fun.
You mean so much fun because there were lighter bikes?
What did you find that you weren't getting from the heavier bikes when you're going off-road?
Or you were getting that you didn't like?
First off, when you're a new rider, then if you drop your bike,
yeah, then you need to pick it up.
And the lighter bikes are pretty easier.
But also it's, yeah, you're more flexible.
Yeah, I don't know.
It kind of felt like cheating riding the lighter two-stroke bikes in comparison to the heavier
bikes. They were Enduro bikes, so they were really set up for it.
And we rode with a guide in Romania, and it was pretty rough terrain, but it felt,
yeah, a lot easier on those bikes than on our heavier bikes.
So that really set that.
Did you feel like maybe that your skill just wasn't up to the bikes that you were riding,
or did you think that that light bike actually gave you something that you couldn't get with
the heavier one?
I think for me it was the skill level as well.
Yeah, the lighter bike is easier to control.
And even though the Enduro bikes were really with a big engine, so yeah, you can wheelie,
it's quite easy, but it was easier to handle.
I don't know why, yeah.
Yeah, and also what I've noticed is that I think it was skill for me as well, by the way, but
on a bigger bike, you don't notice what you're doing wrong as much as on a lighter bike.
Do you know what I mean?
Right, so you're getting more feedback from the lighter bike?
Yeah, yeah, that was something I really needed to get used to as well with the 300L when we
rode it through, for instance, soft sand or anything. You feel it shaking or a head shake
much more than on a heavier bike, but you get a lot more leniency in terms of correcting it.
Yeah, it's a lot more forgiving, isn't it?
The lighter bike, and it's easier to pull back in as well when things start to get bent out of
shape with it. So did you guys find yourself riding rougher stuff now with the smaller bikes?
Definitely, yeah, pushing a little bit further.
But I've often said this with a larger bike, this one of the things I love about riding a
bigger bike is that you're riding it in a place that it doesn't belong and you have to work your
skills more to try and get it through, etc. But if you ride a day on a large adventure bike in
some really technical terrain and ride another day on a light bike, for most of us, you're going to
be working a lot less with the lighter bike. Yeah, you're totally right. And also, it's
kind of the large bike. I know what you mean. It's also kind of a challenge to ride it in a
terrain where it doesn't really belong. I still remember we were in Sweden the first year and
Emma was on the back. We were on the Bridgestone A41 tires, I think, the Adventure tire, the really
slippery one. 18-20, yeah. And we were riding stuff that I would now not even think of doing
on those tires and that bike. But afterwards, it felt really, really cool. Like, yeah, we did manage
to do that. Well, do you find, has your skills improved by riding the smaller bikes and getting
more used to it? Because your skills will improve just the more you ride, obviously, bigger or small
bike. But do you find that you can go back or you could ostensibly go back to a larger bike now
and ride it better? Yeah, I think we would be way more aware of the technique while riding now.
Also, when you ride on the roads now, I noticed that I'm getting better by riding so much off-road.
Yeah, yeah, there's a huge... I mean, you hear Clint and Smote on rider skills talk about that.
I mean, it gets used to things that you wouldn't otherwise experience just on the road.
But so moving from the large bike to a smaller bike, did you have some sort of problem with
your luggage and what you're carrying, switching from the bigger bike to the smaller bike?
I don't think we necessarily... We already were moving to lighter luggage.
It's part of a continuous getting lighter. But we already on the big bike didn't carry that much,
even two up. No, we had like two panniers at that time on both sides, like those big panniers,
but no roll on the back. And then there was for two of us and with the camping gear, everything
with us. But they were huge panniers. They were like 45 litres each.
So why did you decide to start focusing on reducing weight in bulk?
Mostly, I think, for riding purposes. So make it easier to ride. Like we said, we're not pro riders
or anything. But we do like the challenge of riding and being able to ride freely and on hard terrain.
So the lighter the bike is, the easier it is to ride in my experience.
And also, it's kind of a challenge to us to continuously keep getting our gear lighter.
If it's like paring it down so you can watch the scale drop sort of thing when you're riding.
Do you guys also like, do you go on diets and stuff like that to reduce your weight so you can
have less weight overall? Well, it's not that crazy. But when we buy gear, when we get new gear,
we always check if we can get something lighter and get smaller gear. Yeah.
Right. So what becomes easier for you? You're saying riding, just picking up the bike?
It's more than that. I think it's also handling the terrain. Like Luke said, when you have a heavier
bike, then you don't feel the bike that much moving around you. And it's just lighter,
then you feel every impact better. And also, in our last trip, we rode in the in the Balkans.
A lot of rocks and really rocky terrain. And I can imagine that with a heavier bike, you get
a lot less control in those situations. The light bikes move a lot easier through all the
bigger rocky sections. So you're doing trails and things like that that you wouldn't otherwise
do on a larger motorcycle? No. So what about when you get to camp though? Because the gear that we
carry, of course, you're camping, right? This is this is the way you travel. Yeah. Right. So
you're camping, you get your camping gear with you, you've got your your tools, whatever else
you're going to carry with you. But what about when you when you pull into camp? How does it feel
then when you arrive in camp, though, and open up your panniers and find that you only have a
toothbrush and a face towel? Like that's like a comfort level. So yeah. So like, how does
like are you suffering at that point? No, no, no. I must say, like, when we went to Sweden and Norway
with we had like camping chair with us, the lightweight once, but still, right now we sit
on thin mats. So sometimes it is a bit survivally. Yeah. But if you take into account, if you just
look at the the lightweight aspect, it doesn't bother us that much. We, like you said, we didn't
take the the Helinox chairs this year. We thought we would really miss it. Because after a day of
pretty heavy riding, it's nice to sit down comfortably. But not having it didn't really
bother me as much as I would have thought. We just sit against the tire and use the the seating
pad on the floor. And it's fine. And it's it's not that much of a difference in comfort level.
No, you get used to it. It all depends on your level of comfort, of course. Yeah.
The luxuries are nice, of course. I mean, you know, it's great to have a fully set up camp.
But I know not everybody's like that. I mean, some people will say that the one piece of gear
they want to take is their chair. For instance, people are really big on their chairs.
Yeah. And I think that depends on your level of comfort, because some things like last year,
I wanted to go without my pillow. Look, or we usually sometimes take things with us and don't
use it and test if I will miss it. So for example, I took my pillow with me, but I was planning
not to use it. But then yeah, I tried without it. But I noticed like it didn't work. So I was so glad
I brought it along. So yeah, you need to test your limits and because it still needs to be fun,
right? How do you guys think about this whole reducing weight thing? I mean, do you have a
philosophy that you apply to things or is it a piece by piece process?
It's still a piece by piece process. We always say you shouldn't be or you don't have to upgrade
everything from the start. But as you go along, we try to question everything
we have with us. So that's the most important thing. And also right after a trip, we check
like did we use, is there anything we didn't use that we can throw out of our kit?
Yeah. And the things we do use, could we make it lighter? Could we take less,
for instance? So that's something we do a lot. We also think about every gram counts. That's
a really important one as well. Because one thing you hear a lot of people say is, for instance,
people make fun of cutting your toothbrush in half. We've heard that one before.
And I understand because how much does it really save? We kind of laughingly did it this year,
just to try. But on the other hand, if you sum all of the things you cut off,
or out of your gear, sum all of that up, it does add up to a lot of volume and weight in total.
Yeah. And together it's much more than just toothpaste, toothbrush thing.
I can see that if there's a lot of pieces, but we'll get to that. Let me first ask,
what have you found that you can't do without? Like you're talking about things that you don't use
and you consider chucking them and not taking them out the next time. What have you found that you
actually could not produce weight or bulk on? Good sleeping bag. Yeah. That's it.
No, a lot more here. We really like to cook when we go out camping. So that's something that we
always bring along. Yeah, quite a big cooking setup. Yeah, but that is still pretty light.
We use a pretty lightweight tent, pretty lightweight sleeping setup,
also pretty lightweight cooking setup. But we use the TOX titanium cooking pots,
which is already pretty light. But is there something we really...
Now the tools as well, because... Yeah, tools are quite hard.
Yeah, because we bring a lot along for when we get something broken or something.
So tools you haven't been able to reduce? Have you actually looked at that and
figured, okay, I've got a wrench here. How can I make it smaller?
Oh, yeah. Luke is like a welder. He solved like the... How do you call those keys?
The Allen keys? No, just the regular wrench. Yes. So he solved those two
true and then welded them together in the right sizes.
So you've got like two sizes, one on one end and one on the other. I mean,
they sell them like that. You can get some... Yeah, but there were weird sizes that we couldn't get
in light... For our bikes, especially. And we also took like the tire or the axle nut.
Socket? Not the socket, but the wrench. We have sawed it off right at the head
with a small piece sticking out and then took an aluminum tube to lengthen it for leverage.
The stuff off and I smashed it a bit, so it's flat.
And does that work? Have you tried it? Yeah, we had to try it. Oh, really?
Three flat tires this strip. And it works no problem at all. No problem. Oh, that's interesting.
Wow. Yeah, it's pretty light. We just had somebody on from his obsidian tool and that's
kind of what they have in their tool kit. It's a really nice tool kit, but the thing that really
caught me was the axle because on some bikes, they're huge, right? So you've got this massive
wrench or a big socket or something, but they've made a piece basically just like that. Like,
you took the end off of a box end wrench and you cut it off only. There's this flat and very low
profile. And then you put a handle on it, right? And you use the same handle for other things.
It's great. So what other things do you use your aluminum tube for? Mostly to get leverage.
It doesn't really have an extra use at this point, except keeping some of the wrenches together
when we store them. So you don't lose the individual wrenches. But yeah, I saw the obsidian tools.
I already sent them to Emma after your podcast. You should get this.
They're really nice. And it's a nice little kit that it comes in as well. So you can put
other stuff in there. So I mean, I really liked it. I was pretty stoked about it.
Well, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to talk about how Luke
and Emma deal with holding their motorcycle up while they work on it. So we're going to dig
into their toolkit. This is a whole bunch more coming up. Stay with us.
If your bike didn't come with a factory cruise control,
the Atlas throttle lock will literally change your ride. I know that for me, from my personal
experience with it, I was blown away when I put this thing on and realized just how much
tension I hold in my hand and my wrist and my arm from holding the throttle on any long stretch.
I mean, it doesn't even take much of a long stretch before you start to realize it. The
Atlas throttle lock allows you to relax that grip. It releases the tension in your arm and tension is
fatigue and that's something we don't want on a motorcycle. Now the Atlas throttle lock, it was
invented and is sold by riders just like us. Matter of fact, they run around the world trip
when they come up with the idea for it. It is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. I always
refer to it as like a Swiss watch because it's beautiful. It is like when you look at mechanically,
design wise, it's beautiful. It installs in a few minutes. You can swap it out from one bike to
another. So you don't have to buy one for each bike. The Atlas throttle lock is a game changer
for your ride. AtlasMoto.com is the website. Anytime you're dealing with them, throw them
in the dirt here on AdventureRiderRadio. AtlasMoto.com. So you're cutting wrenches, you're welding
wrenches together, which is great if you're a welder, but if you're not, you're going to be
stuck with that one. Cutting it off and using a tube though, just about anybody can make that,
which I think is a great idea. What do you do for holding the bike up when you have to take
a tire off or something? Are you always flopping it on its side? No, no, we have a trail stand for
that. And what is that? It's an eastbound trail stand. It's a manufactured one.
We also have made one ourselves, but the eastbound one is really nice. It's basically
two or three aluminum tubes that are telescoping, and you can put a locking pin to get it to a
certain height so it won't go further in. And then you can put a piece of Velcro around your
front brake. And if you push your bike to one side, to the left side then, if you have it on the
stand, you can lift up your rear wheel and put the trail stand. So it's basically, like I said,
aluminum stick with a rubber end on the underside and on the top. And it has a bit of a hold, so
you can put that under your swing arm. And it keeps your bike upright if you want to
change your tire or your inner tube. Right, it makes it kind of like you center stand,
really, except it's more versatile than that because you can move it around at different points
on the bike. Yes, on other bikes as well. Yeah, yeah. And it's a bit hard to get the front wheel
up sometimes. You need to position it just right so it's at the skid plate or something or the frame
so you can keep it up enough. Why not just crush the tube on that and use that as your handle for
your wrench? I'm just thinking of reducing weight here. I mean, then you can bring a whole toothbrush.
Nice. Thank you. As a matter of fact, why don't you use that for your toothbrush as well?
Yeah, we've made jokes about using the toothbrush as a chain cleaning brush as well.
Yeah, that's right. So what are the things with your tools have you found to reduce weight in bulk?
Well, one thing we that's why we chose to CRF 300L is if you share the same bikes,
you can keep the same tools. And of course, we're a couple, so we ride together a lot. But if you
ride with people with the same bikes, it helps. And also stuff like taking a small can of chain
cleaner gasoline to clean your chain. Yeah, yeah. So not taking chain cleaner in a can but
using diesel from diesel from a gas station. So you mean you just do it to the gas station sort of
once in in a few times when we're getting gas, we just stop and clean our cleaner chains with some
diesel. What do you think you've got your tools down to as far as that? Well, first of all,
just kind of give us sort of a quick walk through what you have, what your toolkit looks like.
We have the Motion Pro tire, tire levers and bead breakers. So that's one actually.
JB Weld? Yeah, we always have JB Weld with us.
We have some basic more like screwdriver and Allen keys, which are pretty small.
We have a pretty small T handle, which has the socket end. So a T collapsible T handle
from, I believe it was from Motion Pro. No 24 mix. It was pretty cheap.
And we only take the the sockets we need for our bike.
And we have a few regular wrenches, tire pump. Yeah, I think it's quite a small toolkit, but
it has everything we need, like also cable for the clutch when we when it breaks. Yeah.
Yeah, a lot of things are in it. Tire, tires. Pull rope. Pull rope, yeah. Like a tow roll? Yeah.
We've gotten some situations, especially in the Netherlands, sometimes we ride with
different bikes, like the older bikes. And then, yeah, I think like at least once a month,
we have to drag a bike. Is that because your stock or is that because the bike quit?
The bike quit. Is that unreliable?
We still need to fix it a bit because one of our bikes, the KLX at the end,
when we clean the bike, it doesn't want to start up ever when it gets cold.
Yeah. So after we've ridden it, it just shuts off and doesn't want to start up again.
We have to start it. So the toolkit, when you guys have a breakdown, I know you're doing all
kinds of rides and you're pushing your luck, you're not pushing your luck, but you're you're
riding into areas that are where you have to be more reliable, self-reliant.
Are you able to fix everything? Do you find yourself sitting on the side of the trail waiting
for somebody to come along so you can borrow their tools or do you have everything you need
every time? We've had up until now, we've had everything we need. Within reason, I mean. Yeah.
Yeah. I think our toolkit is the biggest part of our gear. So the rest of our gear is a bit more
lightweight, but the tools we don't really try to cut too much because we rather be selfish
efficient. Right. And the tools work for both bikes. You're only carrying one toolkit, I'm assuming.
Yeah. Yes. Right. How much does it weigh? Do you know?
To be honest, we weight everything in total, but like all our gear, but not the toolkits alone.
Right. Okay. But it's heavy. It's not, it is not our lightest kit. No.
Do you split it up between the two bikes? Yeah. Oh, you divide it up. Okay, so.
Well, the bit, the pump is on your bike. Oh yeah. I've got the pump on my bike, but that's it.
Right. That works fine if you're with somebody you know you're going to stick with, but one of the
issues that I have with riding with other people that you might just meet up with or plan to go
out with is if anybody decides to go and it happens, right? Somebody changes their mind the last
minute, it gets too difficult or not difficult enough or whatever the case is. And next thing,
you know, you find it, you realize when they've left that, oh no, you know, I don't have a camp
stove or I don't have an air pump. Yeah. Yeah. That's really important. So it's okay to share gear,
but you need to be self-reliant. Yeah. Yeah. You need to be able to figure that if they did go
to the heaven of thing I really, really need. Yeah. Yeah. If Luke goes, then I don't have
to like the tent and sleeping back. That would be a problem. Right.
Well, but one thing I did mention is my favorite piece of tooling in our toolkit is the Leatherman
Crunch. Oh yeah. Do you know the tool? Well, I know the Leatherman. I don't know as I know the
Crunch version. What is that? Yeah. The Crunch is sadly it's discontinued, but it's just like a
normal Leatherman. You can fold it up or and fold it out. And there are some useful tools,
but also the pliers are vice grips. So they are locking. And that's really useful because you can
use it as regular pliers, but also to hold something. For instance, a bolt on the back
where you can't reach it with one hand. So you can keep that clamped down. Or you can use it as
emergency clutch lever or anything. You can clamp it on really tightly. But one thing we
have used it for is and I saw obsidian tools as well was the small reciprocating saws.
Oh, right. It has a pin vice. So you can. So it's just a small slit through the middle of the jaw.
So you can really tightly lock those really small reciprocating saw blades into them.
We had to do some repairs on metal. So we took some metal and wood blades with us.
And the metal one came in handy sometimes. You said blades. You're carrying more than one metal
blade and more than one wood blade. One metal and one wood blade. So that's so you can cut firewood.
And then like you said, do some sort of repairs or something. Yeah. But they're really small.
Just a blade. Yeah. Yeah. Just a blade. Yeah. And what? Like a six inch sort of thing or
size your hand? No, no, not even. It's shorter. Yeah. Shorter. They're like the
10 centimeters. Yeah. Yeah. 10 centimeters. What's that? Four inches? Right. Wow. So you're
really, really working at trying to. If you had false teeth, would you leave those at home?
Probably. We're on the combs, but
because that could certainly save some weight.
So I'm curious what you carry. What else you carry? Not necessarily like a gear list, but
you're carrying, you're carrying what? Camping gear, clothing, just sort of talk about your
what's in your pack. It shouldn't take long. I'm assuming. No. No, we, so we have, well, the
big three camping tents, about one and a half kilos, big Agnes copper spur. We have sleeping mats.
We have a quilt. So we have a two person sleeping bag because we sleep together. So that's
saves weight as well. We have a cooking setup, which consists of two plates and a pan gasoline
stove. Yeah. And those pans or those plates can also serve as pans. So yeah, frying pan.
In terms of like, like for clothing, we both have like two t-shirts, but that's also your sleeping
t-shirts and yeah, two pairs of socks and etc. So yeah, it's not basically two sets. Yeah.
It's not quite a lot. Yeah. For shoes, we wear those CD crossfire boots and for at camp, they
aren't really comfortable, but we have like really tiny camp shoes. And they're so thin that
you can feel every piece of the ground where you walk over it.
It's just enough. But it's, it's, it's really lightweight. So get what you want to give up.
And since last year I have a hair comb hairbrush with me.
What do you mean since last year? Yeah. Well, I usually use my hands when camping to go my hair.
I've got quite long hair. And yeah, when riding last year, I noticed that I was almost getting
dredged in my hair. It was really dry and warm in the in the Balkans that year. So yeah.
Oh yeah. So on the roads, yeah, you can often buy things on the roads. So this year I bought
yeah, it was some chelts hairbrush like shining. Really shiny. So the guys made fun of me like
trail princess, which I'm not. But that hairbrush must weigh a ton. Yes, I know. So I upgraded
right away when I got home. Because you said you're, you're watching every gram. I forget
how you said it, but you said every gram. I think said every gram makes a difference. So if you're
watching that, you probably do. Like when you bought that hairbrush, you're thinking it's extra
weight. Yes. Yeah, it is. But yeah, sometimes, yeah, you, it's about comfort. You need to be
comfortable because otherwise the trip isn't fun. Yeah, you got to be clean. I mean,
you can not take soap and say that it's too much weight, but I mean, yeah, you gotta be clean.
But you were going through your gear there. So as far as clothing, you've got, you said
two t-shirts. I'm assuming that's two extra t-shirts, correct? No, no, no. That's the t-shirt you wear
and the t-shirts. One for camp. Yes. So in the, like if you get wet and you don't dry that t-shirt
out, you're going to wear your dry one to bed and you're going to get up in the morning, put your
wet one on to go ride again. Yes. It sucks. Especially with the socks. Yeah. And what about
like dealing with the weather and camp, like, you know, for rain and warmth, like for a sweater
and things like that? Yeah. So it's important to stay warm, of course, because if you get
cold, then it sucks. So sometimes, because we camp quite a bit, sometimes if when we get
too much rain, then we go to a shelter or a hotel. Like a few years ago, we went camping up a mountain
really high and we got into a storm and everything, every piece of gear got wet. So
we went to a hotel the next day and tried everything up. So sometimes you need to seek out
comfort to get warm again. Yeah. But apart from that, we're pretty able to withstand some rain
or nasty weather. We have our riding gear and we also have rain gear with us. Yeah. So it's like
a raincoat that you would wear in camp? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But also while riding in the rain. So we
basically have our setup with riding gear is also layered. So we have just regular
motocross, pants, and a jersey. And on top of that, we have protection. So we ride with
protection vest. And on top of that, a jersey. And if it's needed, rain gear.
Yeah. And when it gets cold, even a vest underneath it. Yeah. So down jacket.
When you said you got wet there, obviously you spent the night in the mountains and then went
to the hotel the next day. Were you cold that night? Was that a freezing cold night?
Yeah. That was in Norway really high up. So it was really cold and the thing was not really,
not just ourselves getting wet, but also the tent couldn't stand on the planes. So it got blown
down every time. So we couldn't safely stay there. So what did you do?
Yeah. It was still light around one o'clock in the night. So we packed up our tents and
yeah, went searching for a hotel that time. Oh, I see. Okay. So this is where the being too tight
on gear. It failed you at that point. Yeah. But it was just stupid to stand on an open plane.
And we didn't check the weather that good. So that's also a thing. Yeah. And usually when
we go somewhere, we always check the weather because you need to be prepared for what you get up to.
Yeah. Right. But for the most part though, what you have works for you every time and you're
still looking to pare it down. Yes. Yes. Because you guys said you have like you weighed all of your
gear and it's nine kilograms, which is just shy at 20 pounds, I think. What is included in that?
Yeah, that's per person. Like when you're weighing that nine kilograms, what are you
throwing in there? You're throwing in your riding gear, you're throwing in your tools,
you're throwing in your camping gear, what's included? Yeah. So the riding gear isn't. So
because we wear the riding gear, but everything else is includes even the bags. Yeah. And the
camera gear is not included. That's the only thing we didn't include because, well, we,
like we said, we have a YouTube channel. So while you're cutting off half your toothbrush,
you're on, now you're taking cameras and batteries. That's happy. And so how much weight do you carry
in video gear? Oh, so much. Yeah, that's too much. Do you not gram that? Like, do you not look at that?
So you cut your cords off and make them shorter to save weight?
Oh, we should. More, probably. But yeah, we don't really cut a lot on the video gear because we
really want it to be good quality. And it's one of the things we really like to do is make good
videos of our travels. But yeah, we take, so we have nine kilograms of luggage per person. So
that's actually our camping gear, tools, etc. But on top of that per person, I think we have about
five kilograms of video gear, which is way too much. But it's a sacrifice we're willing to take.
What about the bikes themselves? Did you do anything to try and make the bikes lighter?
So I want to get my exhaust lighter.
Louder? No, no, not louder, lighter. So the exhaust is like five kilograms, the stock one. And I want
to go for a lighter version. But for my edition, the 2025 edition, it's not out for you. You
regulate versions, so I'm still waiting and hoping that they get one.
Are you not riding the same bikes? One year apart. And the Euro five plus emissions
went on the newer one. I see. And mine has the lighter pipe on it. And in terms of weight savings,
we don't have specific mods for weight savings, actually more on riding comfort,
but not weight savings, specifically on the bike. I'm still thinking about your toothbrush
and the half handle that you cut off, because I'm thinking if you ran just a little bit less oil in
the engine, like within the limit, that would be your handle. We might try that. Good advice here.
That's nice. You can always do that. Siphon a bit out every time. Yeah.
But it gets even worse. We also share a towel, which we cut in half. We cut a towel in half.
They both have one side of a lightweight camping towel. So you just take turns washing whoever
goes first gets the driest towel. No, no, no. We have two pieces of one towel.
Oh, I see. I see. Okay. So you do have your own. It's just half of one.
We're going to take a quick break. I'm going to tell you about a couple things,
but when we come back, we're going to get into if this ever feels ridiculous,
you know, obsessing overweight like this. Stay with us. We got a lot more coming up.
Yeah.
Stock foot pegs give you a place to put your feet. That's what the motorcycle
manufacturers put them on there for. And that's it. IMS products foot pegs gives you a tool
to control your motorcycle. That bigger platform with a better design gives you more leverage
and better comfort and a more solid connection to the bike while you're standing.
If you ride off road, it's a mod that makes sense right away. IMSproducts.com. Anytime you
deal with them, throw in there that you heard them here on Adventure Rider Radio. IMSproducts.com.
So does it ever feel ridiculous? Do you ever feel like you're going too far?
Yeah. Well, your fans make fun of you, but yeah.
No, but not really. We also don't really like the gate keeping stuff. Everybody
needs to travel the way they want. If you want to ride a heavy bike, that's fine. And that's
really cool as well. But for us, it's just kind of a challenge to do so and to get lighter every
time. And it kind of feels like at first you're like, am I really going to cut the toothbrush in
half? But now we're to the point like, maybe we could do with a t-shirt less.
So would the t-shirt less be weight or bulk that you're trying to remove?
That's a good point. Yeah, often people say like go lighter, but yeah, it is also
trying to get smaller because that also counts for riding a bike. Yeah.
So for example, when we buy like shampoo, we have like one soap for shampoo and
the dishes and washing your clothes is like one type of soap. And then we use like a small bottle
and not a big bottle. So all those kind of things help out. So not only cutting your toothbrush.
That one always just stands out to me because I'm thinking even with the straps that you have on
your packs, you could cut the extra straps off, I guess, to save a bit of weight. But I mean,
I think it's, I don't know if there's really going to notice the gain. Even if you took all those
little bits off, I just wonder if you're actually going to feel it. Like right now with the reduction
that you guys have done, do you feel in the bikes? Do you actually notice a difference?
Do your friends ride with you and say, we can see how much lighter your bike is?
Yeah, if you for our friends are also camping really light. So they are also quite experienced
in that. But last year, they were impressed with how small or luggage system was and how small we
got everything. Because when you think of like, we make fun of the toothbrush, but everything helps
ads up. So like, you've got those packing cubes where you put your clothes in, if you
don't do that kind of thing and just pack it in mesh bags, then yeah, it makes a difference.
And it's also, if you can save on it, why not save on it? If it doesn't negatively affect your
travel. But you mentioned walking around a camp, for instance, your super thin shoes,
that's a negative effect for sure. It's certainly if you had to walk very far
for anything that could even be, but I mean, it's somewhat uncomfortable and you're putting up with
for the benefit of not having the extra weight. Same as not taking your chairs,
you could have that comfort, which I mean, the Helinox chairs are like, I'm assuming the lightest
chair out there. I don't have one, but I always look at them, but they're so expensive. Every
time I get to that point, it's like, I can't pay this much money for a tiny little chair.
They're amazing. That's what everybody tells me. That always makes me feel like I should
really get one of these things. But I just feel like I'm better off just sitting on my mat. I mean,
I guess it just doesn't matter that much, but you're certainly making trade-offs, right? Like,
you know, in comfort. I guess the trick is, is staying within your comfort zone.
Yes, I think that's it. It's always look at what you find yourself comfortable in.
Like for me, my pillow, that was the line. I just need a pillow.
And I don't want to be cold, so I need warm gear. But for example, when we make dinner,
you can use like a trash bag to make salad in it. It sounds really funny to use a trash bag,
but this is just a clean bag and you throw your salad in it and shake it around. You've got like
great salad. So it's thinking about the possibilities you have and going lighter to make the experience
still good and have fun. Yeah, we used to use that trash bag trip actually on commercial trips.
I was guiding commercial trips for doing salad for everyone. It seems bizarre, but it's like,
it's a really good way to toss the salad around. It's just so much easier, right? It makes it
so you don't have to have any of any big pot or container or anything. Yeah, exactly. Certainly,
if you're doing a Caesar salad, that's great for that. Yeah. So what are some things that we
haven't talked about that you guys have learned, either products or ways of thinking about things
to reduce weight and bulk on the motorcycle? Well, if you're talking about bulk, one of the
things I really like is like Emma mentioned, the mesh bags. We have really thin mesh bags
in which we carry, for instance, all our hygiene products or stuff like cooking stuff that needs
to be held together. And the nice thing about them is that they are really light, but they also
are compressible. So they fit really well into your luggage. So they don't take up a lot of space.
And we also, for instance, our clothing, we always put them in really small compression bags,
so you can really cinch them tightly and put them in the point of your
saddlebags. And something we also really learned is that it really helps to have
test runs and shake downs every once in a while to look at your gear and check out what works
and what doesn't. We label our bags. We have the roll top bags, and we put labels on them
of what's in the bag. And that really keeps things organized and also makes it really
fast to pack in or pack out stuff from your bags because we don't, like we said, we don't use
packing cubes or anything. So we don't have it organized in that way, but we can
keep track of it because we know what's in which bag. Also, we, I don't know if you do it, but we
keep all our wet stuff in one bag, like the tent and the rain gear and everything. We keep it in
one bag and all the other stuff in the other, so it doesn't contaminate the dry stuff.
And the last thing that we usually do, what really helps out for going on short adventures,
like in the weekends, sometimes we go for camping trips, then we leave our gear in the bags so we
can just put them on the bikes really quickly and go off when we're ready.
So when you come back, you clean your gear, get it ready to go and pack it ready to go so you
don't have to think about it? Yes, exactly. Only the sleeping bag, we of course leave
unpacked because otherwise the down-comp process.
This is basically the process of going through it after a trip and then packing it in again,
so it's ready for the next one. We also found some things that didn't work. For instance,
you're going to think this is ridiculous, but we tried to replace a sponge with
how do you call it, like the netting around oranges. The oranges have netting around them,
so you can bunch that up and use it as a sponge, but that didn't really work.
A sponge to wash with? Yeah, yeah, to do the dishes.
Or to do the dishes. Okay, I see. Yes, I do think that's funny, and that didn't work.
No, that didn't work. Don't try that. It isn't much lighter and it also fell apart and got
dirty really quickly. When you pull up, do people look at your bike and think, where's your gear?
Yes, they don't think that we're camping. Most of the time they think we're riding to hotels.
Wow, okay, so it's that much. It's a noticeable amount. So how big are your panniers now?
In terms of liters? Yeah. We use the Enduristan Blizzard panniers,
or saddlebags, and they are pretty nice because they keep the weight
really close to your bike and also low and towards the center of gravity of your bike.
And I think mine are... 12 liters, something? Yeah, 12 liters. And mine are 14, I think,
something, maybe. I don't know for sure, so don't pay me on it. The medium ones, and you have the
large ones. So they're quite small, yeah. And is there anything else that you have taken
out of your kit that you've regretted and had to put back in other than the sponge?
The hairbrush, I guess, too. Yeah, the hairbrush. You missed the coffee setup. So this year, yeah.
I really like coffee in the morning. I can't go without it, but I kind of get grumpy if I don't
have my coffee. We usually ride by a gas station at some point in the day, but if it's not in the
morning, I kind of miss my coffee. But we found something for that as well. We found a small
titanium coffee straw, so you can just pour coffee in a cup. Like a cowboy setup. Yeah, and you can...
Straw? Yeah, it's a straw with like a mesh filter at the bottom, and it filters the coffee while you
drink it. So you're putting the coffee into the cup with the water, and then you're sucking it out
through a straw. Yeah, and it sounds weird. I was anxious at first as well, but I tried it at home,
and it's pretty nice. It's nice. Why not a filter? Why not just paper filters? Take a few paper
filters with you. When you use it, you have your coffee in there, and you stick it on top of things
until you get to a gas station. You're able to throw it out. Yeah, that would work too, I guess,
but you still need to have some kind of thing to hold the filter, which there are pretty light
options for that. Yeah. But I haven't tried those yet. We have some heavier options for that, but
that's basically heavier than the straw. Right. So, okay, so all of this has... Just with an incredibly
light setup, you're very mobile, but this... And the bike being small too, the bike is a 300.
Your motorcycles are 300. There are times when this actually doesn't pay off, because I know there
was one point you guys used a trailer to trailer your bikes, because I think what you said in the
video was there's too much highway. Yeah. Talk about that. Yeah, the small bikes, the CR300L,
are not really that comfortable on the highway. Our trip was going from Slovenia to Montenegro,
so we wanted to start at Slovenia because we only had two weeks to travel that distance.
But when you start from Slovenia and you need to go there from the Netherlands, that's quite a
trip. I think it's 2,000 kilometers. I don't know, but I think if we rode it on the bikes,
we would have done about three days about it, maybe two. So it's quite a ride. Yeah. And
in the car, we rode in one go because we switched riding.
Yeah, so that gave us two days extra of riding. And also the tires we run are pretty soft
off-road tires, so they would be pretty far gone as well if we took that much kilometers on the
highway with them. But still, a bigger bike would be more comfortable to do that. Yeah,
it would make it so. I mean, that's the whole point of the big bike, right? So you can ride it in
the dirt and your trade-off is, you know, it's bigger, it's heavier, but you pull it on the highway
and you cruise along in relative comfort. So I mean, that makes a big difference. But the tire
thing you just mentioned though, at the end though, if you run an aggressive tire, it's
everybody who runs knobbies thinks about, you know, when doing large miles of any sort of asphalt,
it always strikes me as a waste. You know, I don't want to waste the knobbies on the highway.
Yeah. Yeah. It just feels wrong. Yeah, it does. And it's like you lose your, you know, your best
miles sort of thing on your tire on the highway, which just seems like I was such a waste.
Yeah, especially if it's on the start of your trip. Like you said, you wasted the
nicest part of the tire. Yeah. If it's on the end, I can, I can, I don't really care because you're,
you're changing it in a while anyway. Yeah. But
So has this whole approach been expensive for you? I know you, I know you enjoyed doing it. I get
that. But has it cost a lot of money? Yeah. Well, ultralight gears is pretty expensive.
So the tent and the camping gears is pretty expensive.
But if you take into account that we, we mostly wild camp, so you save a lot on
camping cost or hotel costs. Sure.
I think it kind of compensates for it. And we also use, have used the tent and sleeping setup for
four, five years now. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. And my sleeping mat only just went leaking this year.
So that's pretty okay. And we, we got that under warranty. Wow. That's pretty good. Yeah. That
was amazing. I have the Nemo Tensor sleeping mat and they were really lenient on the warranty
because one, a lot of the dimples went leaking and they, yeah, refunded it.
Well, you did mention when you're working with your toolkit, you're doing some home
stuff there, you know, you're cutting stuff down and making your own toolkit. That can,
that can certainly not save some weight and not cost you a lot of money. But yeah, when it,
when it comes to lightweight camping gear, basic and clothing for that matter, if you want top
quality clothing, you have to pay more money for it. But like you're saying in the long run,
it's well worth it because the other upside of buying that higher quality gear is that it'll
tends to last longer. And you're saying, you know, you've five years with this stuff already,
and it's the same stuff and you're camping a lot. So that, that's sort of a payoff down the road for
you. Yeah, totally. Yeah, buy once, cry once. Right. Do you ever find like, you know, we were
talking about this time when you put the bikes in the trailer and had to trailer them, do you find
that you get two areas where sometimes you're limited by your setup? And just before you answer,
I'll give you an example. I always remember this, this couple that came and rode with us
myself and another guy for a day. And I remember riding around and we were on Vancouver Island
in British Columbia. And we said, Oh, we're going to zip up Island for a bit. And they said, well,
how far? And it struck me as an odd thing to ask how far. And then they explained it because they
were on, I think they were on 400 DRZ 400s. They said that the highway is just so aggravating for
them. It's actually not worth it for them to go up and check out this other area. So it's sort of
limited, you know, it's the big trade off. So do you find that? Do you run into that very much?
Yeah, don't know. No, not really. We do have a sixth gear on the CRF. Just kidding. We have
the two friends we ride with a lot. They have DRZ 400s. So we kind of tease them with having a
sixth gear. Oh, right. My 350 is a sixth gear. Yeah. But it doesn't help because it doesn't feel
very good on the highway at all. Now, and the CRFs are not really nice on the highway. Well,
to be honest, we visit a lot of events or we try to visit events in the Netherlands. And if it's
far away, like the other side of the Netherlands, which is not really far away, but it's about a
two hour ride. We did buy a van recently to put the bikes into so we can ride the van towards
an event. So it's more comfortable to get there and just ride over there on the bikes
and not be annoyed by the. But it's also because we have like open faced helmets that ride on the
highway. We like to speak while riding. We've got a communication system. And when we're riding on
the highway, we can't rehear each other that good. So yeah, it's also the fun is off it
because to when I go to work, sometimes I also go on the CRF. And then I don't have I don't mind
riding on the highway, but it's especially when we're together. And yeah, you can understand
each other from wind noise. So you're planning your trips around this really, you know, you're
planning the trips around the way your bikes are set up, the way your gear is set up.
Yeah. And I think that that is also part of why we don't really experience the negative effects
because we really like the trips we do without much highway miles. But if you if you like also
touring in between the off road stuff, then yeah, you would run into problems with the CRF
and the comfort level, I think. If weight weren't an issue, what would you take with you? I mean,
if you could take something you just wouldn't add anything to your weight.
I think like fear gear. So because sometimes you're worried that you've got like all the tools with you,
like last trip, you used like two tires. And but you're still worried because hey,
is there a second tire going to be used or a third? And so I think the fear gear is the thing I
would think of the most. Yeah, mostly the things that could stop our trip from continuing.
A bigger cooking setup, more food space. So when we ride, we leave some space in our bags to bring
more food with us. But I would rather take more food with us. How much more weight do you think
there is to remove? Not that much, I think you're right down to the wire sort of thing. You've
you're taking exactly what you need and very little more. I think in our comfort level,
this is where we want to be staying at. But I think you can always go lighter. But it depends
how comfortable you want to be for us. This is it. Well, camping is the big deal, isn't it? Camping
is what makes it more difficult. If you're staying in hotels and you basically just have your tools
and very little else, a first aid kit sort of thing in a way you go, but it's camping that makes it
more difficult. Yes. And if you look like a true hiker, there are people who bring even less like
a tarp with them only and like cooking setup for cold soaking. So not even cooking, but they have
like a pot to cold soak their foods and don't even bring a heat or something. So it all depends on
your level of comfort. Yeah, so we could go lighter if we didn't take a cooking setup.
But we really like cooking, so we do. So that's maybe something we're not willing to compromise on.
So if you were to tell someone else how to go through it and light up the gear,
not necessarily to the same way you've done it because you did make the point that to each
their own sort of thing, right? You got to do it to your own comfort level. But if you're going to
tell somebody using what you've learned, how to figure out how to lighten your gear aside from
cutting your toothbrush in half and not taking a hairbrush, how would you tell them to do it?
Yeah, question everything. Just think like, do I need what I take along with me?
So if you pack your gear and think about like, is this comfort? Do I need this? And
can I bring something lighter with me? Yeah. Also, yeah, you can always like,
it also really depends on where you're starting, right? So if you're, yeah, with really standard gear
or you haven't looked at this in any way possible, you could maybe start with things like your tent
and your sleeping setup, because there's a lot of advantages to be had there. You can really
shave off a lot there. And in terms of all the other things, like I said earlier, you don't have
to upgrade everything from the start. But when you're buying new gear, when you're thinking of
thinking about, do we really need to buy new gear? Do we really need that thing? We're trying to
upgrade. And if so, can we make it smaller or lighter in some way? Or can we take less of it?
And how do you tell the difference between fear gear, which you call them versus something that
you probably should take with you? That's a hard one. Yeah. It's really
it also depends on planning your trip ahead. Sometimes you do a longer trip,
you don't know where you're going to end up. But if you, for example, go to a hotter climate,
then you don't need to bring a lot of layers. Or if you don't go to an area where no bears,
then you don't need to bring bear spray. So yeah. So planning your trip ahead, think about
where you're going. And also in terms of tools, if you think about what are you realistically
going to repair on your bike on the trail? Yeah, that's a good one. So something we do as well as
we wrench on our bikes with our toolkit a lot. So we get used to it and know if we miss something.
So you also get more comfortable with your toolkit and are more comfortable throwing stuff out.
But also, yeah, you're not going to take apart the whole engine on the side of the road. So if you
have road assistance and you, it's fine. You don't need to take everything.
Yeah, especially if you don't, for example, know how to remove your spark plug and how to do that,
then yeah. Why take the tools? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, there's only so much we can do on the
side of a trail before you're going to have to figure something else out of getting out.
And the interesting thing is about fear gear. Because I think that's really a big problem
for a lot of us is you think, well, I might need this and I might need that. And it takes me back
to something you said earlier was you said every gram counts. And so I mean, when you're
throwing in, well, I'll throw in another spare battery, you know, little AA battery or something
like that. And it doesn't weigh much. No, it doesn't. But once you add up a bunch of those
little things you've added in your fear gear, you're looking at a lot more. And what I often think
about this is that when we're talking about riding and going wild camping, for those of us who love
to go on wild camp and ride remote areas, you're still, and you said it Luke, you're almost in
a gas station every day. I mean, it's, it's unavoidable, right? So we're, it's not like
we're heading off to the wilderness for a 30 day canoeing trip. You know, you have an opportunity
to get something the next day. Yeah. And you can get stuff like an extra t-shirt as well.
Yeah. And what's for us is a luxury because we are with both of us on two bikes. But if one of
our bikes breaks down and we can't fix it, we can always leave one bike behind and go
somewhere to repair. But I can imagine if you're alone on one bike,
then you want to bring a bit more with you like food.
Yeah. Yeah, survival stuff, you know, if you thought you might have to stay there for a day
or two or something like that. Also communications. I'm assuming you guys carry comms with you,
some sort of satellite communicator or cell phones. Yes. We've got a phone that can have
like emergency communication with it. Yeah. We got it in half though.
That's a great idea. I mean, you can pop it out of its case, right? And just have the electronics
there. That might be, I don't think you can do that nowadays. But is that the reason you're wearing
open face helmets is to save the weight? No, no, no, comfort. Oh, I see. The time we went riding
in Romania for the training we mentioned, it was like 40 degrees Celsius plus. And we didn't have
the motocross style helmets yet or I didn't have one. And it was horrible. So I didn't want to go
to a warmer climate without an open face helmet anymore. 40 degrees Celsius, like 110 or something
like that Fahrenheit. Yeah, like that's hard. Yeah. Yeah, that's really a lot when you're
in a forest riding intensively. Well, I'm also curious, how do you think about riding lighter?
You bought a lighter bike. Before you had the DR, you had a 800, right?
Yeah, that's right. The 800 went down to 350. I love riding a lighter bike. When you're riding
any sort of technical things, it's more forgiving. It's easier to do and I can go more places
without the stress. I think because a lot of times I'm riding solo. So for me, when I ride into
somewhere, I think if I have a problem here and I can't get myself out, what is it going to take
to get out? Or generally, what is it going to take to get out? And I've had my 800 into some
really tight spots on single tracks and ATV tracks and things like that, where it's very difficult
and I've worked really, really hard. And also, I'm not getting any younger either. So the bike
tends to get heavier every year. So picking up the 800, which thankfully, I'm picking up bikes
less now, but still when you do it, it's never easy. It's not like picking it up like in a parking
lot or something like that. That's nothing. And we see all the pickup demos of picking up your
motorcycle on a nice lawn or something like that. That's never my world. My world is blood
and angles and ruts. And it's just so stressful. So the lighter bike is so much easier. And what
I find with the 350 is that when I go into somewhere, if I get stuck, I'm not really that stuck.
Like I can get off it and I can power it through. I mean, it just gives me a lot more versatility,
I find. The downside though, I find you get on the highway and the 350 is just not fun.
It's just the size of it, your exposure, the way it reacts to the wind, things like that.
That's the downside. So for something where I'm going slower speeds and much more technical,
there's no doubt that the 350 is well worth it. Getting on the highway, a bigger bike is much
better. I think when a lot of people talk about downsizing, this question comes up a lot,
especially as people get older and they're thinking maybe I should go with a smaller bike,
there are huge advantages, all of what like I said, like what you both said, but that disadvantage
really is the highway. So I mean, if you're covering those great distances, I think it's
the asset in the trail. I don't know. You have to wait up for yourself, of course,
everyone has to. But my thought process is if you have many miles to go or you're planning on doing
trips that are far away from home and you're going to be riding some highway, you really want
to think about that smaller bike thing. Maybe what you want to do is change the end, the goal,
that you have, you know, the trail that you're going to run, ride a bigger bike and do less
technical stuff and keep your technical stuff for closer to home or like what you guys have
done by van or a trailer or something and get it there. Yeah, yeah, that's our thought as well.
And we still enjoy riding the bigger bikes off road here as well, the DR650 and the KLX650,
they're really fun to ride, just some more power really in the soft sand. It's really nice
and in the mud, it's really nice to ride bigger bikes as well.
And do you find yourself still riding off road stuff with those bikes?
Yeah, yeah, especially KLX. Yeah, the KLX650 is really fun to ride.
Well, that's great, you guys. Thanks so much for coming on and talking about that. I mean,
lightweight gear or making your gear lighter is a subject that we all deal with, right? And
it's difficult to do. So thanks so much. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for having us. Yeah.
I was speaking with Luke and Emma Davits from their home in the Netherlands. Now,
they share many of their adventures on their YouTube channel called Skidmate.
We've got that link and some photos from Luke and Emma in the show notes for this episode on
our website, adventureriderradio.com.
This episode was brought to you in part by Green Chilli Adventure Gear at greenchilliadv.com,
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Hi, this is Bill Drague. You're listening to Adventure Rider Radio.
About this episode
Luke and Emma Davitz from the Netherlands break down their ultralight adventure setup and why they keep pushing it—until comfort starts to suffer. They run small bikes (CRF 300L) for technical terrain and easier handling, then apply the same logic to packing: camping gear, tools, and luggage down to about 9 kg per person (under 20 lb), plus lots of tinkering like custom wrenches and a trail stand. They discuss trade-offs (thin camp shoes, no luxury chair, highway limits), “fear gear” vs essentials, and how their approach stays fun and self-reliant.
Luuk and Emma from the Netherlands are passionate dual-sport riders who have made it their mission to find that sweet spot between minimalist motorcycle travel and meaningful challenge. Riding their Honda CRF300L motorcycles, they’re currently pushing themselves to travel as light as possible — aiming for just 9 kg of gear per person — while still tackling terrain that stretches their skills.
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