Minimalist Motorcycle Camping

 


When motorcycle camping in Vietnam you may encounter everything from tropical heat to tropical storms and freezing temperatures. On your trip, taking too much gear can be just as debilitating as taking no gear or the wrong gear. To help you plan for your next or first motorcycle adventure, here’s a look at what you need to get you motorcycling camping easily and efficiently. 


Big Backpack On Motorcycle
Image: Pinterest - You’ll need to load up your bike with all of your
motorbike camping gear to know if it’s going to be too much.
This traveler seems to have packed it all just right.



How To Pack For Motorcycle Camping

When planning your backcountry adventure you’ll need to consider what you really need vs what you want vs how long you’re going for. Added weight on a motorcycle makes braking and maneuvering slower or unpredictable. To add to this, the frame and suspension of your bike might not be designed to handle a heavier load. Personally I’ve blown two shocks (in less than desirable locations) on an overloaded bike, and needed to weld broken frames 10+ times. I’ve since made some adjustments to what I take, and suggest that less is more.


We have a full list of adventure motorbikes you can use for off road and camping in Vietnam. For these motorbikes, we typically suggest no more than 15kg of gear. To some, that’s enough for a year, for others that won’t get them out of the parking lot.



Pre-trip questions

  • Can I share items like cooking stoves or a motorcycle tent with other riders on this trip?
  • Do I have clothing for all weather conditions?
  • Have I packed all my equipment to see if it fits?
  • Will one change of clothes do or do I need five?
  • How to pack for a motorcycle trip? Make sure your load is balanced and the weight is as low as possible.

Tip: Pack All Your Gear On Your Bike And Ride It On Similar Roads Before A Trip. You’ll Get An Idea If Your Overloaded.

Mosko Moto Bag



Image: Mosko Moto – Motorcycle dry bags and outdoor laundry bags are virtually identical.
Look at your motorcycle and camping gear to see what items can have more than one use.




Motorcycle Camping Gear List 

Pre-departure, go through this suggested list and see what’s most important to you and what you can live without. When packing supplies for a motorcycle trip you’ll want to consider if you can get more than one use out of each item. Having two uses for anything means less weight and less space. 


Packing quality lightweight items like antibacterial towels, moisture-wicking shirts, waterproof motorcycle clothing, and cooking stoves that use gasoline can save weight and space. 


Space Saving Ideas

  • Antibacterial = less washing. 
  • Moisture-wicking = less changes of clothes. 
  • Waterproof motorcycle gear = less rain gear.
  • Dry bag = laundry or dishwashing bag.
  • Gas stoves = reserve fuel.
  • Rok Straps = Tarp tie-downs

Supplies & Personal Items

  • Tent/Hammock/Tarp
  • Sleeping bag
  • Sleeping mat or pad
  • Stove and cooking equipment (Fuel, pot, cooking spoon, knife, fork, bowl)
  • Cutting board. I use the lid of a Tupperware container. Works great.
  • Motorcycle Camping chair (luxury item)
  • First Aid Kit. Often customizing your own is better than buying one. (Gouze, Aspirin, pain medication, diarrhea pills, peroxide/sterilized wipes, bandages, tweezers.
  • Clothing. Rain gear, warm clothes, cool weather clothes. Sandals for bathing.
  • Soap. Personal and biodegradable for dishes. 
  • Solar or USB charger on your motorcycle for electronics.
  • Toilet paper or wet wipes. Wet wipes are great for cleaning anything, personal or material.
  • Shovel for bush bathrooms.
  • Water, water bottle, Life Straw, purification tablets. 
  • Antibacterial towel
  • Flashlight/Torch/Headlamp. A headlamp is good for hand-free bike repairs, night cooking, and can hang as a lamp.
  • Lighter/matches
  • ROK Straps or similar. Good for tying things down, getting firewood, hanging food away from animals. Check out our moto-packing video with Rok Straps
  • Pillow. I have a preference for rolling up ADV pants and putting a t-shirt around them, but there are inflatable pillows for those with precious heads. 
  • Axe or saw. There are hand saws that attach to sticks if you really want compact.

Check Out: Reccomended Safety Gear Jon Chrunix goes with to Ride in Vietnam  

Motorcycle Camping Tent

Tents are primarily used for shelter from the elements, but they are equally as useful at giving a traveler their own mental space and a place to relax. The tent topic alone could go on for pages. To keep it simple will look at three basic options and why they may or may not be the best option for you.


Garage Tents: Do you and your moto deserve only the best night’s sleep outdoors? You might consider taking a garage tent. This style has some benefits like the ability to work on your moto out of the elements and keep it safe. Typically though, these are the heaviest design options and the one pictured below is 5.5kgs for a one-man, one bike tent! There are larger versions if you’re shopping for 2 up motorcycle gear, this might work out to be less than taking two tents but it’s no hammock. 




Backpacking Tents: In my opinion, this is the best option for minimalists who still want comfort. A one or two-man motorbike camping tent is usually light and small enough to pack inside your luggage. Depending on the design it should be able to handle a variety of elements. The MSR Hubba tents are a favorite among the adventure motorbike crowd. 


What to look for in a motorcycle backpacking tent:

  • How many seasons is it? Three season vs four-season tents offers very different protection from cold and wet weather.
  • Pole length. Will the tent poles fit inside your luggage or stow out of the way.
  • Vestibule. All that smelly biker adventure riding gear is best kept outside. Make sure you have a vestibule. 
  • Weight. Less weight is better, however, quality lightweight tents will typically cost more.


Image: KixMarshall.com – A Three-season tent similar to the MSR Hubba design. Packs small and the vestibule is great for keeping
motorcycle camping equipment out of the rain.



Bivy Bags And Tarps

The minimalist approach to sleeping anywhere can be had in a compact bivy bag or even under a tarp. A Bivy Bag is basically a cocoon for one person that you slip inside to sleep for the night. For lightweight short-term trips, Bivys make perfect bike touring tents. Quality Bivy Bags are waterproof and usually weigh less than 1kg! 


If the weather is right and you’re not in snake country then a tarp might be good enough. Tarps can be staked out into A-frame tent-style shelters or tied to your motorbike to snuggle with your moto at night. More expensive designs like Exposed Bivouac shelters are good, but for the price, why not just pack an adv tent. The time of year you plan to go plays a major impact, check the weather before planning any camping excursion.


Image: Pinterest - Judging by the photo, I’d say this guy packed nothing more than a trap and whiskey. Hopefully, he packed some Aspirin too!




Hammock

For the extreme minimalist, a hammock is all you need. Riders taking off for a weekend on an agile adventure bike can pack light. Check out our article on the Honda XR150, the perfect example of these capable and light off road machines.  When deciding on the hammock, there are a number of different options from the most basic of material attached to a rope right up to fully enclosed hammocks that zip shut keeping out bugs and weather. A hammock can roll down to the size of a pair of pants weighing about the same. For space-saving, these tree sacks can’t be beat.


Image: Hamakusala.it - All you need is a couple of trees and you can hang out for as long as you need.



Tip: If You Plan To Camp Next To Your Motorbike At Night Be Sure It Is Angled Away From You.
Soft Ground Or Otherwise Could Tip Your Bike Onto You At Night. 

 




Motorcycle Camping Cooking Gear 

If you plan to cook, what you aim to do with that can be the difference between going to bed happy or going to bed hungry. I opted to pack and use a Dragonfly stove to cook, they’re extremely durable. 


In my experience though, most people can’t be bothered to carry around cooking gear and opt to eat along the way at cheap eateries and food stalls, then pick up something simple like bread and cheese for dinner. When you’re venturing around Vietnam, there are plenty of options to save money by stopping at roadside eateries. 

 On those weekend warrior, short trips, or bigger budget rides you can also pack freeze-dried food. It works, but you’ll need to be in a country that sells it and have a way to heat it up. Here are some motorcycle camping cooking options to consider.


Multi-Fuel Cooking Stoves 

The best motorcycle stove is a stove that can use multiple fuel options to cook. This makes the options for useability greater and is an excellent alternative to carrying a spare fuel can as well as fuel for your stove. Something like the MSR Dragonfly can burn white gas, kerosene, unleaded auto fuel, diesel, and even jet fuel if you’ve got it!




Ultralight Compact Stoves

The size of a novel and only 180-grams, stoves like the Esbit Ultralight Stove seem like the ultra-minimalist solution and great idea for dirt bike camping. Using fuel tablets as the heat source, this self-contained ultra-light stove is a perfect short term choice. The real drawbacks here are; the fuel cells last just over 10-minutes each. Great if you’re just boiling water, boiling potatoes you’d be out of fuel in one meal. Also, the inability to control the heat source means hot heat then fizzle. It’s more of a weekend freeze-dried food stove.  


Image: Esbit - When it comes to
ultra-light, it’s tough to beat this little cooker.




Campfire

The real woodsman, true minimalist, or biker who broke down in the bush might resort to cooking around the campfire. If you’ve got plenty of outdoor experience, this is by far the lightest way to pack. All you need is a lighter or matches and a bit of good luck. The drawbacks to this are that you might not be around firewood, be allowed to have a fire, be able to start a fire, be noticed if you are stealth camping, or just suck at cooking around a campfire. I’ve cycled through each drawback at one point or another!


If you get it just right, campfire fish tacos ocean-side are a cinch! 




Sleeping Bags & Mats 

A poor night's sleep equals a poor day's ride. After a full day of wind in your face or battling the elements, you’re likely going to be ready for bed when the sun goes down. Spending the night tossing and turning or freezing isn’t going to make the next days ride any more enjoyable. Sleeping bags are designed to keep you warm or keep you cool. As for sleeping mats, they aren’t just for comfort, sleeping on the ground can suck the heat from your body making you cold or even ill. The right biker bedroll and the right mat are crucial to getting quality rest.


Sleeping Bags

The lightest warm weather bags are often down-filled and cost more than a set of motorcycle tires! A bag like the Therm-a-Rest Hyperion 32 UL scrunches down to the size of a water bottle, weighs close to 500-grams, and is good until about -15oC. At over $400, it’s not for everyone. If you can afford the space, any quality bag with a rating to around +5oC will usually do for the average camping trip. If it’s going to be cold, getting a bag with a hood will add in an extra layer of heat-containing protection.


What To Look For In A Motorcycle Sleeping Bag

  • Can I wash it? Down bags are delicate and tricky to wash. Synthetics make washing easier but can be heavier.
  • Should I get a bag liner? Liners add warmth and are easier to clean than the bag.
  • Is it hot or cold where I’m going? Warm bags have hoods, summer bags can be perforated.
  • The size. Sleeping bags can be tiny bottle sized bags up to huge duffle rolls.



Bike Camping Mats & Pads

Like the rest of the adventure sports world, mats range from self-inflating that reach over $300+ to blow-up mats or pads for closer to $15. As per usual, the price you pay can often dictate the comfort and quality level. The best motorcycle camping bed is usually at the Holiday Inn up the road, we’ll save that as a last resort for those trips with never-ending rain.


 For the ultra-minimalist, you can sleep directly on the ground. This is good for short trips in warm weather, but if you’ve never been treated to a rainy night with rocks in your back, you’ll soon make room for a motorcycle camping mattress. 

What To Consider In A Sleeping Pad

  • Do I want self-inflating, air inflating, or a cheap pad?
  • Is roll-down size, comfort or a combination of both important?
  • How big is it? An air-filled mat is the smallest, but not usually the most comfortable.
  • Will it be cold or warm? You might sweat on a plastic mat or not be warm enough on an air-filled one.
  • What is the “R-Value”? R is the resistance rating, ranging from 1-11, the higher the number the more insulated it is.
  • Cost. Shopping around, you might be surprised that 1” mat costs more than a month’s worth of fuel.
  • Do I have room for this on my bike? Some mats are huge, taking up premium space.


Where To Buy Camping Gear In Vietnam?

To get specialty equipment like $300 down-filled sleeping & MSR stoves designed to burn almost any fuel, you’ll likely need to bring or import it into Vietnam. Inside the country, you can search out FanFan, Vietnam’s answer to camping equipment. They have locations in Ho Chi Ming, Danang and Hanoi. Then check out the deals here on quality motorcycle luggage gear and straps.



A Summary That Can’t Be Summarized

When you’re trying to decide where to sleep when riding motorcycle cross country, what to take, what’s important, and what you really need, is a never-ending topic. On a RTW trip, you’ll want lightweight quality goods, for a weekend with friends you can probably split the load with everyone. For those warm-weather adventure trips in cheap Asian countries, you can easily forget cooking gear and probably get away with a hammock.


 It all depends on who you are, what you think a moto camping experience should look like, the space you have in your adventure motorcycle luggage, and what you can afford. If you want to cut costs, experience incredibly diverse countrysides, and have the moto adventure of a lifetime, get out and explore Vietnam on your motorbike. But before you go, make sure your bike is well maintained. If the camping doesn’t work out for you, it’s never more than a few hours to a cheap hotel and a warm bowl of Pho.