MMD Motorcycle Packing Tips

everybody thank you for continuing to follow in life Motorcycle Diaries as you know we've just got back or a couple of months ago from our fantastic trip Los Angeles to Las Vegas and one of the topics that kept coming up in questions particularly for our lady pillions and riders was how did we manage to pack for two and a half weeks to enable people to look at least vaguely human when they're off the bikes in the evening so I did promise I would try and do a video around that about how we managed to pack and some of the little tips and techniques around that it's something close to my heart because prior to me being a biker whenever I went away I would typically empty my entire wardrobe into a suitcase and of course that's not possible anymore so what I'd like to talk you through now is some of the tips and techniques for how we can maximize on the space that we've got be comfortable on the bikes but look vaguely human when we're off the bikes in the evening which from at least some of the lady observers is really important the top box on the 1200 is going to be almost exclusively for technology so that we can take our drone and our cameras and everything that we need so that we can publish the videos when we get back and share our trip with you so how do we pack so this is the panty liner that slots really well into the pants we've actually got a quite a number of these we bought them for when we went to LA we're going to use two of these for our Scottish trip one of the things that I found an absolutely invaluable tip before we went to the States and a relatively simple one for one of the later that one of the lady bikers published was to use Ziploc bags or freezer bags I use a combination I use these are Tesco click seal food bags and these are midsize ones these are extra-large and what I do is I pack things label the bags take all of the air out and then we could really well in here so we've got jeans t-shirts my t-shirts sprites top number of other tops so all that it's really important that you do is to seal these bags up leave a little bit of air or a little bit of a gap push the air out and then swap them what that means is that things are really easily accessible if you want to t-shirt you can just pull the t-shirt out without having to unpack everything what you can then do and that's lots really easily into the pannier which works incredibly well so that's how to pack clothes in a panic bag folks but this was my attempt before sue took over were the consummate organizational skills mini bottles of shampoo and conditioner are really useful when you're packing your toiletries and that's what we've used here we've decided to take one pairs of trainers each I've got a pair of boots for ice taking another pair of trainers as well a top tip some of the ladies that are watching be thinking about things like hair straighteners and things like that as of course I do I have a full-size set of straighteners they're probably two or three sizes signs of this and what I found on Amazon with these mini straightness we will put a link on the vlog so that you can find these these are really really tiny their mini straighteners their le mini hair straighteners I found them on Amazon and they are 20 pounds when I first saw them I did wonder how affected they would be and they're brilliant they take up a fraction of the space that the full-size straighteners do they come with a heatproof cover so as soon as you use them you can pack them away again you bite down barbells on the back to pack up the wiring which works really well and then you can cut them straight when you buy any medicines that you might need we've got sticking-plaster nurofen we're going to be going to Scotland in May so maybe something for those Michie bites as well make sure that they're packed up in the front of my bag I've got some sunglasses and the essential visor cleaner as well that you'll need as you traveling so as you know my Tiger 800 has a metal petrol tank and what I thought I might try is a tank bag this I bought again on Amazon it's a sometim magnetic tank bag it was 35 pounds 99 if I'm honest I didn't expect to like it I thought it might get in the way of my sat-nav or my screen it actually doesn't and the first thing I noticed when it arrived was hundred a quality it is it's great and it comes also with a waterproof cover so should it be raining it can be covered lots and lots of different pockets somewhere to put earplugs somewhere to put visor cleaner somewhere to put your phone or a map if you want a map of where you're going lots and lots of space for stuff that normally be in a handbag so my wallet any makeup can all go in there I have tried it it's it's perfectly it doesn't obscure the view of any of the screens that I've got on my bike hardly know it's there so a pretty decent purchase and it certainly saves us the space that would otherwise have to go in one of the panniers the second pannier we've tried to leave that as empty as possible so what it does allow me to do is actually put in some extra biking where it's enabled me to take my biking jeans with me and I wanted to introduce these to you because from a lot of the comments online it looks as though a lot of particularly our lady pillion and lady riders are struggling to find decent jeans biking jeans with decent protection that fit them when they're riding I am one of those people I've tried multitudinous pairs of biking jeans only to find that they were low-rise they didn't fit they were uncomfortable or they didn't have these tension in them and eventually I came across a pair of Ricci jeans these are high-rise they're soft denim they have fantastic protection in the knees and they are the most comfortable thing that I've worn while I've been on the bike pretty true to size as well so if any of you ladies that are looking for a decent pair of jeans these are really what I recommend it I will put a link online for you to to be able to find those we got these at sports bike shop the other thing while we're mentioning biker gear this is probably one of the best things I've ever bought since I've been riding a bike it's good thing it's an e-2 jacket it acts as a really great under jacket if the weather's reasonable but what it also does of course is it heats up this is an additional extra and goes from warm to really really hot keeps me warm in all weathers and is a bit of a lifesaver for me when I'm on the bike if I'm honest because I feel so cold so badly I take it everywhere that I go I wear it all year round so for those of you that feel a cold this is a great way around doing motovlogs of course entails carrying quite a lot of technical stuff with you including cameras batteries GoPros etc so I went online and bought a relatively cheap bag and I thought it was great value I don't know something like thirteen or fourteen pounds of I remember but it's got lots of pockets to fit everything in so you've got places to put the charges for our inter comes on the shoei neotec helmets and an external SD dongle to transfer footage from the SD card to the macbook and all the other attachments you need to make some transfers to to Mike book pros external hard drive 2 terabytes because I find out that downloading video footage takes a massive amount of memory you don't run out of space charges for the camera batteries MacBook Pro batteries GoPro batteries spare plugs tripod pretty much everything you need and it's a handy little bag that fits perfectly in the top box so the lodgers pannier under 1200 gsa was devoted to the panel lining that sue just demonstrated packing so all our clothes fit in and it's a nice snug fit but it fits perfectly the top box was basically full of technology so the drone was in there my cameras in there and the technology bag that I just showed packing that fits in there plus my laptop so that's it folks I hope you find that of some use and if you did please give us a thumbs up or subscribe and the next time you see us we'll be on the road somewhere doing the north coast 500 Scotland until then this is midlife Motorcycle Diaries sounding out until next time [Music] [Music]

Channel: Midlife Motorcycle Diaries

Views: 24,487

Keywords: BMW 1200 GS, Motorcycle touring, Triumph Tiger 800, Bumot Panniers, NC 500

Id: B5r-_DGlr7w

Length: 10min 11sec (611 seconds)

Published: Sat May 11 2019