Long Distance Motorcycle Camping Gear

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TENT

We love camping. But because of Marisa's bitter hatred for being cold and wet, we knew we needed a tent that would keep us both warm and dry, while also not becoming a sweat lodge in places like the Kalahari Desert.

Our New Favorite - For our trip to Alaska, we switched out our old tent for a Big Agnes Blacktail Hotel 2 Bikepacking Tent for 2 people. It's got plenty of room with its extended side-entry vestibule that serves as the perfect place to stash our motorcycle gear out of the elements and out of view. And because the vestibule is connected to the rest of the fly, there's no chance for leaking between the two connections.

And speaking of leaking, what really sold us on this tent (besides the fact that it packs down small and light) was that the fly is durable and completely waterproof. We'd had a few issues with the last tent in this regard, and so we wanted to make sure there would be no rogue water droplets falling on us in the night.

We have slept in downpours, freezing temperatures, and hot nights in this tent, and it has performed fantastically. For the heat, the fly is completely removable for a full mesh experience, and even the blue cloth sides are breathable in sweltering nights. This tent is highly recommended!

This Big Agnes Blacktail tent is super breathable for hot nights.

Our Old Tent - Our Nemo Losi 2P Tent, with the addition of a separate Garage, provided us with countless nights of comfort and protection from the elements. The tent had taken abuse after two years of living in it, but because of Nemo's lifetime guarantee, the company fixed it for us free of charge. We ended up using this tent for four years across three continents.

We purchased the extra Garage (we did not put our bike in there, it's just called that), and it was a great space to keep our gear. It was even tall enough that in the event of a downpour (or blistering winds in Argentina), we could both sit in our chairs inside and drink coffee in comfort.

The Nemo tent with Garage on.

Like with our current tent, the footprint of the Nemo tent was small enough that it could be used in an emergency as a mosquito net on top of a hotel bed (which we did in Nicaragua before we bought our mosquito net). It worked!

After years, the Nemo rainfly had a few issues with leaking (it was a very light-weight material, which has its positives as well). But overall, this was a great tent that provided us with many warm and wonderful nights within nature.

SLEEPING SETUP

Sleeping Bag

Before setting off on our trip, I knew that Marisa would need a warm sleeping bag because she gets so cold at night (and when she gets cold, she gets like me when I haven't had coffee in the morning).

So after doing a ton of research, I decided to invest in a down quilt for the both of us, not a sleeping bag. At first, Marisa was skeptical, but now our Enlightened Equipment Accomplice 2-Person Quilt is her favorite item we own (she often states she loves this quilt more than she loves me).

The quilt packs down small and is extremely light due to the down feathers, but it fluffs right up and is also super warm. This was not a cheap purchase, but for us, it's worth its weight in gold.

Unlike a sleeping bag, a quilt simply rests on top of you like a blanket. When you lay on a regular sleeping bag, you're compressing all the bottom insulation, rendering it useless. So in order to remove that wasted space, the quilt has no bottom, but instead relies on the insulation of your sleeping pads to keep you warm underneath.

Unlike a simple blanket, the quilt is shaped with an ultra warm foot box, a closable neck area (ours is made for two people), and it snaps into elastic straps around the sleeping pads to hold it in place. Best of all, if I get hot, I can just throw a leg out while Marisa's stays encapsulated.

This Enlightened Equipment Quilt is amazing, but it is dependent on also having good sleeping pads.

Sleeping Pads

New Awesome Sleeping Pads - This year, we upgraded our sleeping pads to the Nemo Quasar 3D Sleeping Pads. They're very comfortable, well insulated, and they fit perfectly inside our tent. Unlike our old Nemo Cosmo Insulated 25L Air Pads which inflated using a foot pump, our new ones use a blow up air sac to inflate. It takes only about 6-7 fills of the air sac to blow up the pads, and best of all, losing the foot pump saves on precious space. So they pack down smaller when rolled up.

Pillows

We used to have Sea to Summit Inflatable Pillows, and they worked well (they were a little noisy). But in order to conserve on space, we gave them up. Now we just use our down jackets as pillows, which have turned out to be a decent replacement.

STOVE

Some travelers like to be completely self-sufficient, and that means being able to cook your own food while on the road. Having a small, portable stove with you is also one of the best ways to save money, since purchasing local produce and cooking it yourself is always cheaper than going to restaurants.

No doubt about it, the MSR Whisperlight Stove is the go-to camping stove for motorcycle travel. We've met plenty of other travelers who carry stoves with them, and it's almost always this one. Paired with the MSR Liquid Fuel Bottle, it can burn any fuel (we use gasoline), which is super convenient.

We also carry an extra fuel pump, just in case the original clogs up, which it has before. I highly recommend carrying an extra pump if you are going to be doing any serious amount of travel.

The stove can be a little finicky at times, and it can take a while to get going, especially at high altitudes. But as long as it is cleaned and properly maintained, this MSR Whisperlight Stove is perhaps the best out there.

COOKWARE

If you decide to cook your own food while on the road, you'll of course need something to cook it in. But this can be very personal according to your specific needs. While some travelers just bring a braai rack for grilling meat over the fire, we've also met someone who brought a whole pressure cooker on their motorcycle with them.

For us, we wanted a couple of pots and pans that were small, light-weight, and made of steel so we could clean them with steel wool and not worry about damaging them. So we chose the MSR Alpine 2 Stainless Steel Pots which nestle into each other (and also protect our Whisperlight Stove that we put inside). We also have a Pathfinder Steel Pan, and we've complemented these with Stansport Cutlery, a small cutting board, a kitchen knife, and a couple of Collapsible Food Containers for the storage of leftovers.

WATER PURIFYING & STORAGE

You don't have to be in Africa to need a water purifier. Even when camping in the States, we always have a good filtration system with us to avoid illnesses and bacteria such as Hepatitis, Giardia, and E-coli.

We Love This Filer - To filter out the muck from unsafe water sources, we got an MSR Autoflow Gravity Filter (no pumping needed) used in conjunction with our 6 Liter MSR Dromedary Bag. This filter is so fast, you can stand there and watch it filter 4 liters in 5 minutes! Unfortunately, once you use it a bunch, it can get clogged with bubbles. One trick we've learned to get it flowing again is to blow into the output hose to back-flow some of that clogged water and push those bubbles out of the filter. I don't know if we're supposed to do that, but it has worked for us. It's also important to gravity black-flow it after every use.

The Gravity Filter output hose screws right into the MSR Dromedary Bag, which can be hung up around camp (or even the hotel room), and has a little spigot for pouring.

The Old Filter - We used to have a Survivor Filter, but it was tiresome pumping all the time, and it didn't have the capability to back-pump out the gunk. That being said, it kept us healthy and safe throughout Latin America.

Other Cool Stuff - For a quick water fix while on the road, we use a Steripen which UV purifies water. We simply stir it around in our Hydro Flask Water Bottles (you can use any small water container) for two minutes. This "pen" is great for sink water in Mexico, or tap water served to you at a restaurant in Botswana... basically any water you're not 100% sure about. It's quick and convenient.

But the Steripen would never be our primary water purifier. It can't filter out chemicals, harmful minerals, or chunks of dirt, so you'll need a real filter for untreated water sources. Also, it runs out of batteries quickly, and these special batteries are hard to find in certain places. But it's great for what it can do, and paired with a Hydro Flask water bottle, or any other bottle with a steel interior, the reflective metal of the bottle maximizes its UV abilities.

LAZY LIVIN' ACCESSORIES

Chairs

Call us crazy, but we carry chairs with us, and we love them! Our G4Free chairs have been some of our favorite bonus items we have. From sitting down at campsites, on beaches, or even hours-long roadblocks, we have never regretted bringing these with us. The original ones needed some repairs over three years of use, but nothing a bit of duct tape and superglue couldn't fix. And the new ones have yet to cause us any problems.

Hammock

We used to carry an Eno Double Hammock which we used all across the States and through Central America. We ended up sending it home once we reached Peru because of the cold weather and the lack of hammock-hanging trees. But it was great while the weather permitted lazy days of laying around in a hammock. And we got the Eno Double Hammock that's strong enough to support us both at the same time.

HEADLAMPS

A bright, long-lasting headlamp is essential while camping, but also while traveling in parts of the world where the electricity frequently goes out (we're looking at you, Uganda). Our headlamps we used in Latin America were not awesome, so we upgraded to Black Diamond Cosmo Headlamps for our African trip and beyond.

These headlamps are bright, have many features like a red light, and the ability to lock. Our last ones didn't lock, and all the bumping around on the road would turn them on and waste the battery. They take three AAA batteries, and they last a good while before you need to change the batteries.

MOSQUITO NET

We've found that while traveling in tropical regions, it's wonderful to have a small mosquito net with us. And for traveling in Africa, it's pretty much a requirement if we wanted to prevent getting malaria. Because even when we went to hotels that supplied their own mosquito nets, we'd find that they'd oftentimes have holes in them. And surprisingly, some hotels didn't provide mosquito nets at all. So it's best to have your own.

The Best Travel Net - We love our Sea to Summit Mosquito Net. It packs down small, and is extremely light. This mosquito net can even be staked down outside in lieu of a tent.

ODDS & ENDS

Besides bug spray, a little sewing kit, and a small hammer for hammering down the tent stakes, here are a few more things we find to be useful:

Reflective Tarp

We got two of these reflective tarps, and they’re actually called Space All Weather Blankets, but clearly this is only a blanket in an emergency. I would describe it more as a thick plastic tarp with one side being reflective, and this indispensable object has many great uses. First of all, it can be a rain cover for the bike, or anything left outside. Or it can further waterproof our tent in a downpour.

But it can also be used to retain our body heat in our tent on cold nights if we lay it reflective-side up underneath our pads (it can bring the temperature up 10°-15°F / 6˙-8˙C). We can do the same with laying one above our tent reflective-side down, but it also works with cooling. If you want to keep things cool on a hot sunny day, simply lay it reflective-side up over the object.

We've beat up our reflective tarps over the years and have had to replace them, but considering they're between $12-$15, it doesn't break the bank to get a new one.

Paracord

You can't go wrong with a bit of Paracord. It's not just useful for stringing up a line for laundry, but also good for when you need to dry off your dew-covered rainfly in the morning and there's only mud and thorny bushes around. We've even used it to secure our tent to far away boulders in Argentina's extreme wind storms. But most of all, it's essential for hanging up our food in a tree far away from raccoons, bears, and lions.

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