I’ve been tenting and backpacking since I used to be a child, however I didn’t get started driving bikes till I used to be in faculty. Even then, for fairly a couple of years I by no means thought to be combining the 2 spare time activities. Bikes felt bad sufficient on their very own.
Attempting to make use of a motorbike to head tenting felt even riskier, to not point out advanced, including new logistical snafus and stresses to people who already come from a tenting commute.
It wasn’t till a commute to Guatemala in 2021 that I first started motorbike tenting. I rented a Honda XR250 Twister, spent a month touring the rustic, and fell in love with dwelling off of 2 wheels. Within the years since, I’ve ridden and camped on over a dozen motorcycles in areas from the Andes to the Himalaya, South Pacific, and Balkans.
On this article, I’ll proportion why I fell in love with the follow, with 4 causes you could wish to imagine motorbike tenting (and one explanation why you could now not).
1. You’ll Save Cash and Be Extra Eco-Pleasant
Motorbikes provide a large number of benefits each on your pockets and your carbon footprint. Small-to-medium displacement motorbikes are frequently a trifling $5,000 new. Older or smaller motorcycles can simply be discovered for a long way much less. I’ve bought motorbikes for as low as $900 in some international locations.
Bikes aren’t simply higher on your pockets at the entrance finish, although. A small motorbike’s fuel mileage is infinitely higher than even essentially the most fuel-efficient automobile. You’ll save TONS on fuel. This varies in response to the motorbike, however for instance, with the Royal Enfield Himalayan—a motorbike I’ve ridden in India, Ecuador, and america—you’ll rise up to 70 or 80 mpg, if now not upper.
NOTE: Motorbikes emit a long way much less CO2 than vehicles, however do emit extra smog-forming pollution like hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides. Alternatively, while you additionally account for the uncooked fabrics and effort used within the manufacturing of a bike vs. a automobile, there’s a transparent winner within the eco-friendly contest.
2. You’re Pressured to Pack Smaller, Lighter, and Smarter
Bike tenting encourages an uber-minimalist method as a result of house is at a top rate. You’ll simplest lift what you’ll are compatible at the back of you. Not like in a automobile, the place you’ll throw in oodles of random tools and provides and select what you need while you get to the campsite or trailhead, on a motorbike it’s important to make all the ones selections ahead of you permit house.
I used to suppose this was once a ache within the butt, however the extra I’ve camped off of a motorbike, the extra I’ve liked the way it forces me to be all ears to what, and the way, I pack.
It is a good way to battle the consumerism so rampant within the out of doors trade in this day and age, to be told what you actually want and what you’ll do with out, and what items of substances and attire are so light-weight and flexible that they’re value bringing. Years of journeys on motorbikes have helped me pare my tools closet all the way down to the naked necessities, so once I do succeed in the barren region, I’m now not surrounded via part of REI’s catalog and will in truth focal point at the nature round me.
3. You’re Extra in Contact with the Global Round You
Any other apparently frustrating characteristic of bike tenting is that you simply’re all the time on the mercy of the weather. Wind, rain, snow, sweltering warmth and freezing chilly… None of this in reality issues while you’re touring via automobile. You’ll merely roll up the ones home windows and placed on Spotify to dam all of it out.
You’re out of success on a motorbike. I’ve spent many hours caught beneath freeway overpasses as rain poured down or upfront stopped to arrange camp for the evening amid snowstorms and top winds.
This will look like a curse, nevertheless it’s in reality a blessing. In any case, tenting is ready getting out in nature, outdoor of our little bubbles at house and paintings, and experiencing the wildlife round us. Bikes drive us to be in the market. When issues pass south on a motorbike commute, there’s no escaping to the A/C, radio, and lush reclined seats of your automobile. It’s a must to pivot and profit from it.
4. The Journey Starts the Second You Go away House
While you power a automobile to a campsite or trailhead, your journey doesn’t get started till you arrive and park your automobile. While you use a motorbike, your journey starts the instant you swing your leg over the motorbike and go away your storage.
In a automobile, the adventure to head tenting is solely anticipation. You’re sitting at the back of your glass home windows, sipping espresso, being attentive to podcasts, and attempting now not to go to sleep as the sector drones via outdoor. On a motorbike, the adventure is a part of the journey.
One Explanation why You Shouldn’t: Bikes are Unhealthy
The largest explanation why most of the people won’t ever discover ways to trip a motorbike—a lot much less take one tenting—is they’re bad. In step with the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Protection Management (NHTSA), motorcyclists are 28 instances much more likely than passenger automobile occupants to die in a motor car visitors crash, and four instances much more likely to be injured.
There’s no method round this. One of the vital chance may also be mitigated via defensive using, common talents follow, dressed in high quality tools, and now not driving below the affect of gear or alcohol. Nonetheless, you’re taking a chance anytime you get on a bike, although you’re a super motive force.
If it’s now not for you, it’s now not for you.
However as out of doors lovers, we take dangers at all times in go back for rewards. For those who give motorbike tenting a shot, it’s possible you’ll to find that the rewards are greater than you anticipated.
