Have you ever tried to persuade your wife to travel light? ‘Dear do you really think that we will need our own cups and dishes when we arrive in Kathmandu?’ Someone might be inclined to ask to his beloved wife while she is carefully packing in bubble wrap every single piece of the delicate china inherited from her grandma before a long weekend visit to Nepal. Imagine the great amount of tactful diplomacy that riders, despite their rude and tough look, need to deploy for making their partners pack all they need for a twenty day trip to Cape North (a kind of Mecca for European bikers) in a tiny bag that fits inside the side-case of a motorbike.
Traveling by motorbike does not only represent an adventure and a physical challenge but also a great planning and optimization exercise, similar to the one necessary for a mountain-climbing expedition, for instance. Travelling by bike adds to the general discomfort of travelling, particularly that of an open-air means of transportation and very limited luggage space, especially if you travel with another person. If you don't travel by bike you may wonder who would want so much suffering by his own free will. The pure act of displacement, going from one place to another, is generally considered a mere burden; one is always willing to arrive in the destination as soon as possible (think of motorways/highways). The truth is that you only begin to know what traveling is when you go by motorbike, on foot, by bicycle or similar means. The importance of the destination begins to fade and enjoying the road becomes a relevant part of the experience (one tries to find the colorful roads and keep away from highways). There is a very well-known bikers saying that illustrates this: Only a biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window.
There are two main ways of relieving the discomfort of travelling by motorcycle: wearing the appropriate equipment (helmet, gloves, jacket, trousers, boots, etc.) and optimizing the luggage. The former one helps you minimize the effects of weather on an open air vehicle, and the latter is the only way to ensure you will not forget anything necessary. In this essay we will focus on the luggage. Preparing luggage for a specific trip requires a great effort in planning and optimization. If you are a last-minute packer this will make no sense for you. Just pack what falls out from your closet when you open it, but be sure to grab your credit card: you'll need to buy what you forgot. On the other hand if you obsessively plan everything to the last detail, you will be glad going through the steps in the following paragraphs (and maybe writing an essay about it later).
First of all we should write down a detailed list with all the items. Maybe it is not worth the effort for a weekend trip but it definitively is for longer ones. There are some essentials like money, credit cards, ID or driving license that we do not want to forget but there are also items in many other categories that have to be considered. We do not want to forget our riding gear (gloves, helmet…); accessories for the bike, like some tools or a cover to protect it from dew; navigation and communication equipment, like a map or our cell phone and its charger; day-to-day clothes, we definitively will not need our dinner jacket (tuxedo) but we do not want to burst into a restaurant in Copenhagen dressed in leather and cordura. We must also remember a first aid kit, our toilet bag, a little knife, our photo camera and depending on the specific type of trip, we may also need sheets or a sleeping bag, a towel etc.
The second step is assigning a level of necessity to each item and to write it down on our list. Some are essential for the trip, money or our driving license that can’t be forgotten. The necessity level of the rest of the items depends on the person and the trip. These are the categories I can think of, listed from the most to the least necessary: items that may prevent an emergency (a rain-suit or a polar fleece sweater to keep us warm and dry); items that are essential in case of emergency (a cell phone); items that may solve or assist on dealing with an emergency (a screwdriver or a flashlight/torch); items for travelling more comfortably (an iPod or intercoms); items to make emergencies less uncomfortable (hand wipes); and at lasting, not-so-necessary items (our national flag to pose with for the photos). In most cases it will be necessary to go through the list several times trying to satisfactorily fit those items whose category may not be so clear.
The third task is to decide the most suitable place to store every item and note it down on the list. This will also depend strongly on the bike, the biker and the trip itself. If you are planning a long trip by motorbike you most likely have a touring motorbike, a big cruiser or a trail bike, already equipped with saddlebags or side-cases, a top-case, a tank bag and maybe a luggage rack on the top-case. If you have a super sport bike things simplify sharply: there’s only space for your credit card. In my case, I have a touring bike with side and top cases and two front compartments one at each side of the handlebars and I add a tank bag for long trips. There is a delicate blend of reasons to make one decide which is the best place for storing each item. ‘Reachability’, security concerns and personal preferences are issues to take into account. It is also advisable to place very heavy items close to the center of gravity when possible (tank bag), along the centerline of the bike or symmetrically distributed and never to exceed the cargo limit. For instance, you may want to have your camera within reach at all times which may suggest that the tank-bag, right in front of you when riding, is the place for it. Nevertheless this will force you to carry the tank bag along with you on every single stop to keep your camera away from pickpockets so maybe the top-case will result a much safer place for the camera, although this will make you get off the bike and unlock it for taking a picture. All this may not be an issue when traveling in less populated regions of the world. There may be no unique solution for distributing your luggage and finding the one that works for you may require some trial and error. As a general rule I trend to store in the side-cases the day-to-day clothes, toiletries and everything that will not be necessary until we are in the hotel at night. I put in the tank bag everything we will use on every stop or that things that you need to keep within reach and will not cause any security issue like the rain suits or our neck gaiters. Finally I reserve the top-case for those things that we may need during the trip like an extra polar fleece sweater and those that must be stored in a secure place, like our camera.
Only after this last stage should we put the pen aside and actually start packing. There is no way of being sure that all that we decided to store in some specific place will actually fit in. We will surely need to make some last minute redistribution and maybe even be forced to leave something. Our necessity classification will be very useful at this point. It is not a bad idea to start packing several days before departure especially if we don’t have much experience.
Despite the time and effort spent on the luggage we will surely leave something essential at home and carry along some knick-knack that we will never use during a trip. The most careful planning will never reach the level that only a great amount of experience can provide. Always remember that if your luggage doesn't fit in and you have already developed the necessary suggestion ability to persuade your wife to travel by motorcycle it will be almost effortless to make her see how convenient it is for her to drive the luggage by car while you still resign yourself to going by bike.
