🏍️ Motorcycle Packing
Packing for a motorcycle trip isn’t about looking fancy — it’s about surviving the ride without dragging a whole house behind you. Space is tight, weight matters, and every useless extra thing will piss you off on the third day.
🧳 Keep it simple:
Pack only what you’d carry on your back if you had to walk.
Secure your gear well — what flaps in the wind today, flies off tomorrow.
Distribute weight low and even — your bike will thank you in the curves.
Dry bags over fancy luggage — lighter, cheaper, and don’t care about rain.
I recommend not using a tank bag, keeping all documents and your phone in the inside pockets of your jacket.
Unless you’re going to the Sahara, you can get water and sandwiches at every gas station.
Do not forget the documents!
🔥 Pro tip: If it doesn’t fit on your bike without looking like you’re moving apartments, you’ve packed too much.
👉 Bottom line: Packing on motorcycle trip is very similar to traveling, but there are some small differences. Read next text.
🏍️ This is My Motorcycle. Rocket.
I’m not a rider. I’m a spaceship captain 🚀🧑✈️
🛣️ I ride 20,000+ km every damn year. That’s asphalt, hot sun, sweat, rain… and heavy rain.
💀 Over 160,000 km in 10 years — and yeah, I work from home or from halfway across the globe. That’s not theory.
Let’s get something straight:
🚫 You don’t need three huge empty boxes and a spare tire to ride to the next village.
🤡 A pile of gear doesn’t make you a biker.
🧳 A shiny GS with Touratech equipment and a sticker map doesn’t make you an adventurer.
🔥 Real riders travel light, get dirty, and keep going.
💨 The rest just pose at gas stations, stroke their luggage racks, and talk about “the big trip they’ll do someday.”
If this pisses you off, good. You’re exactly who I’m talking about. 😎🖕
🏍️ My Moto Clothing — Real Rider Edition 🖕😎
In my gear, I can roll straight into the city without looking like a total clown. No plastic spaceman suit, no tactical vest circus. I still look like a real man on a real bike.
Honestly, motorcycling is also about the style.
🩲 Synthetic boxers (no mesh!) – Mesh burns your ass after two hours in hot weather. Soft fabric = happy butt. Brand? Honestly — I don’t ride a Ducati —
so anything that doesn’t look like a stripper’s thong from the Blue Oyster Bar works just fine for me. 🏍️😎🫡
🧦 Socks / knee socks – sporty, breathable.
👕 Functional base layers with long sleeves – Yes, even in summer. Pulling on a jacket over sweaty arms is hell. A cotton T-shirt works as a second layer or just to soak up sweat.
🧥 Leather jacket + riding jeans – I use 4SR for both. You can zip them together and skip the kidney belt. After years of testing, I finally found something that fits like a glove and doesn’t fall apart. There is lot of brands, but I always recommend to have jacket and trousers compatible.
🥾 Boots
- For cold weather: leather, waterproof, above the ankle.
- For warm weather: sneakers, also waterproof and above the ankle.
- Both from TCX, because my feet are wide and I like blood circulation.
🧣 Balaclava or buff – Easier to wash than helmet padding and saves your neck from cold wind. A stiff neck on the road sucks.
🧤 Leather gloves – Always. When you fall, your hands hit the ground first.
🪖 Helmet – Everyone’s got their favorite. Mine’s Shoei GT-Air II with Sena SLR intercom. The helmet was prepped for it, installation was easy. Even if I had other choices, I’d go Sena again.
⚡ Pro tip: Buy the same intercom as your riding buddies — unless you want to communicate in sign language and swear words.
👉 Bottom line: Thank God I don’t ride a GS — otherwise I’d have to dress up in those depressing grey adventure suits with 38 useless pockets and look like a lost Alpine hiker who forgot his trekking poles.
I ride to feel free, not to carry my entire apartment on my body.
No safari cosplay. No tactical fashion show. Just gear that works — not that screams “look at me, I’ve got GS and midlife crisis.” 🫡🏍️🔥
🚫What I don’t wear — and don’t carry on my bike
🏍️ First of all, nothing is mounted on my handlebars.
I look at the road, not at a TV.
No phone mounted. It stays in my jacket pocket — which stays on me.
It won’t fall off, it won’t drown in the rain. Nobody will steal it, and I won’t forget it at the gas station like an idiot.
🧭 No dedicated navigation either.
Riding a motorcycle is about exploring, not commuting from hotel to restaurant like a lost tourist.
If I need directions, I listen to the instructions through my intercom. Sometimes it’s a mess — who cares. I’m not in an orienteering race.
👜 Tank bag? Useless junk.
It just tempts you to carry crap you don’t need. And then you have to babysit it.
🗺️ Online maps? Overrated.
Where cars can’t pass, bikes usually can. Traffic jams? Not my problem.
Speed cameras? Offline maps got that covered if you update them once in a while.
📶 Local SIM cards at every border or fancy roaming plans? Nope.
I ride, not livestream my breakfast.
🔧 Tools, spare parts? Even if I had them, I wouldn’t know what to do with them on this machine.
⛺ Tent, sleeping bag, camp stove, field kitchen, combine harvester, wheat field, farm…
No. No. No.
I spent almost 20 years of my youth sleeping under the stars like a proper tramp.
That was enough. Now I want to sleep like a human, eat like a human, wash like a human.
I’m not out here to relive a camping trauma — I’m here to ride. 🫡
🛵 Right Saddlebag – Motorcycle Essentials
🌧️ Raincover – because it always rains on me. If you’re in the Sahara and it rains, bring a lifeboat first. I ride Scott raincover — worth every €200 after testing every crappy workwear jacket and Decathlon poncho.
👢 Shoe covers – because wet feet ruin your ride.
🧤 Gore-Tex gloves (Held) – expensive as a divorce, but flawless.
🧤 Plastic gloves – or dirty work, or when I’m riding underwater.
🧻 Toilet paper – because let’s be honest… sometimes nature calls and you can’t exactly tell her to wait until the next gas station. Or you need to dry your hands or helmet visor.
I always have a small roll or a few folded sheets under my saddle. Not the whole jumbo pack like your grandma stocks in the basement — just enough for emergencies.
🧴 Spray for visor – I use old monitor cleaners, or improvise with local stuff.
❌ No plexiglass. The bike is freedom, wind, style — not a bubble-wrapped coffin. Flies? Bring ’em on. 160 km/h? Hold the bars like a man.
🧽 Microfiber cloth – helmet cleaning and seat drying.
🔒 Disc lock – obvious.
🛠️ Tire repair kit & USB compressor – optional for long trips, for deflation emergencies.
💧 Platypus bottle – because dehydration kills faster than a flat.
⚙️ No extra tools – never needed. Probably because I never owned a Harley.
🥪 Food – a little something for long rides. Very good are boiled eggs with some salt. Two for day are enough. Hot dog and chocolate you can buy when you fill up your tank with gas.
🧳 Left Saddlebag – Personal Stuff
Yeah, this is where I pack a bit differently than on regular trips. Still light, but not like a caveman.
💻 Laptop + adapter – only if I’m working from some beautiful corner of Europe. Otherwise? Hell no.
🔌 USB charger for phone & intercom – for phone and intercom.
👖 Jeans – for evenings in town, restaurants, looking at least half-civilized.
👕 1 cotton T-shirt – for the same reason.
👕 1 synthetic T-shirt – dries fast, for actual travel.
🩲 1 spare set of underwear – no explanation needed.
🧴 Cologne – because smelling like a wet dog isn’t sexy.
🩱 Swimwear – lakes, sea, or unexpected spas.
🧼 Toiletries – my optimized kit, not the whole bathroom.
🥿 Hotel slippers – you’ll thank yourself later.
👟 Light sneakers – if is some room for them. If not, moto boots must be enough.
🧠 Basically, the same minimal set as my backpack packing — just with a dash of civilized human. ✌️
💨 Keep it minimal. Travel light. Ride hard.