These are some things I have actually taken on cross country bike trips and some personal choices...may not work for everyone but consider these trips I did years ago and I dont pretend Im still doing them in any great distance like I used to be able to do. These trips with exception of a few of the last ones like when we went to the Tetons and all over Wyoming one year were on rigid H-D. Some of my best and first long trips to west coast Oregon and all up and down the west coast and back from Illinois were on my first chopped panhead I built and was when I first started doing bikes as a living(in other words ...pretty much stayin broke for long periods of time!) Note...no cell phones then for me anyway,no credit card shit and no fkin chase truck ever. This was also during times when most all my friends actually RODE to Sturgis...I have been there I think 5 yrs (not anytime lately.)in a row and even then I got burnt out on it. Now it's not even close to what it was...it's fuckin ruined if ya ask me.(my opinion ) I dont consider leaving home without a fkn dependable gun of choice by the way.Long story short: It has kept me from being ripped off one major time. I never claimed to be a big tuff guy so I like to even up the odds and yes it worked rather well I might add.(remind me to tell ya a story as Jini would say!)OK here are few things I like to have along on trips and of course this is camping from a bike.You can condense like you cant believe and I like being self sufficient as much as can . Ive stretched primary chains to where there was no fuclking adjustment left only to be then caught out in a fkin giant storm somehwere in New Mexfuckin-co! and somehow have almost always been able to come up with a quick fix plan to get me to somewhere to get parts or safe place to work on the bike and fix it. Did you know you can repair an auto advance with a chunk of tree bark?(broken springs)
I wouldnt be without a nice very small pup tent with a floor in it.I tied mine under the headlight strapped right to the fork tubes.Hint...when you set up any tent...dont forget to do the small litle trench thing around it to let rain water run AROUND the tent and not thru it.Wrap a small space blanket and roll it right up in the tent...youll never notice any extra from it...they weigh nothing..Pre tie small lil lengths of twine of string to the eyelets on corners so you dont have to do it in dark or in rain storm.This way you can tie the space blanket to the bike or tent etc..
Throw over leather bags is what I used to use till I later did distance with hard bags on a swing arm bike I built from parts.I even went so far as to adda fkn t pack on the teton trip(ever lay yer bike down in mud with the fkin thing so top heavy with a t pack on it ya cant hardly pick it up??? ...ummm errr duhh err um me either of course heh heh) But of course it could happen. Put everything as in clothes inside garbage bags and then in the leather bags. Coat the leather in neats foot oil way ahead of time for water repel(neats foot oil stinks so do it weeks before the trip)
take clothes you can throw away along the way...socks old t shirts .undies if ya wear em...cause youll appreciate LESS to pack up everyday if its a long trip.
Pack ALL tools on top and last.(not that I was stupid enough to NOT do this either heh heh gahilk)
GOOD FUCKING RAIN GEAR! nuff said!
If ya don want to pack a sleeping bag(I DO) get one of those very thin self inflating sleep rolls that fill up as ya unroll em...they roll up real small and are light..Now is the time to think about an extra space blanket to put UNDER the sleeping bag or whatever you decide to lay on.
flashlight of my choice is small led (I like to have atleast 2 along ) this way you can work on a break down and hold the light with your teeth and be hands free and carry AA batteries extra anywhere as theyre so small.
roll up balls of dryer lint(or as RA's case...naval lint) and dip in melted candle wax...youll always have an insant fire and of course a small water proof matches kit...get an altoid tin or an old tin bandaid box...you can fill it with survival stuff like this...read Outdoor Life Magazine and youll learn a lot about how to condense and pack all sorts of stuff to save yer ass.
Im trying to cover the personal items to make it easy on ya when yer done for the day here and next I am going to try and remember and go thru my stuff to try and list what Ive actually carried along even on everyday riding as far as tools and small stuff for repairs you can do yerself.(listing of tools I carry and stuff like that)
if you do the cooking along the trip from whats on the bike...check out the small packable hiker's stoves(not cheap but kool as hell)..then there is always the sterno that takes FOREVER. I go with real fire instead of the sterno.A small boyscout mess kit is what I used forever and I still have it to this day.Hell I hitch hiked from Ill to CA and back twice and used that same boy scout mess kit...too bad I left the old style canteen in some one's car one time DAMMITT! and were in Utah! and it got real thirsty too! Dont stop laughin yet, I was stupid enough to ride across the desert on the bike during the daytime after I was warned to wait till later when it cooled off some ...thought I'd never make it to the Colorado River too.Yep I just had to learn the hard fkn way like an idiot.
anybody bored yet?
Ok so let's just say for some unknown reasons you decide to fuck in yer sleeping bag for more than say...2 nights in a row??? throw that sumbitch away! It aint so much as the fkn odor as it is from now on whenever ya crawl in the fucking thing(the sleeping bag you assholes!!!!)yer gonna think about that lingering odor...right? OK OK now here's where we tell the real FUCKERS from the " WISH THEY GOT FUCKED LAST NIGHT!!!!" cause you'll know that smell I'm talkin about right?...right?....hey Stump??? am I lyin er what? Tell us about that one time you and that one chick were....OK OK...I'll let you tell that story.
OK so that part above may offend some...right???welllll
Too Bad........ to be continued
Terry
terry@terry-zone.com
)
Website Services