Motorcycle Camping on an XS650

5twins <snip> God bless the bungee cord I say <snip> [/QUOTE said:
Yes sir, I agree 100%.

Now as promised we'll yak a bit about bedding. Back when I had more hair on my head and less on my ears I would just sleep on the ground with a sleeping bag. Then I tried one of those foam roll up deals for a pad under the bag....and then I tried an air mattress and I haven't turned back since.

Most of my cheap gear is made by this company but to tell the truth.....all of it IMO is about the same as far as price and quality.



I use a "twin" sized bed and it fits peferctly inside even my smallest tent



Be sure to get and keep a repair kit with the mattress. (note after a few years replace the glue because it doesn't last forever)



You also need a way ot inflate it. I have both of these kinds. Hand pump and battery powered. I find that the battery pump is fine for getting it started while you do something else (it can also be used to deflate) but they never seem to pressure up the mattress as much as I like so I have a hand pump too. This last trip I took on the XS650 I only took the hand pump and it worked fine and really didn't take long at all to inflate the mattress.





When I take the battery pump I share the batteries with one of these lights.



When it's going to be really cold (in the low 40s-30s) I use a sleeping bag but if it's going to be warmer than that I use sheets. Sheets roll ( more about that later) up really tight and small. Takes up a LOT less space than a sleeping bag.



to be continued..............
 
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Here's a quick tip.....



Carry a few of these in your kit. If you're going to patch rubber or vinyl (tire tube or mattress) using these to clean the area before you add the glue makes for an almost 100% positive result. Putting over 25,000 miles on a pedal bike who's tires run 125psi......you learn real fast that you need to carry a spare tube. When you get a flat, (oh yea, you'll get a flat sooner or later and believe me there is no such thing as a slow leak with 125psi tubes) you replace the tube then patch the one that has the hole. I do the same on a motorcycle. I carry a spare tube for both the front and back and a "good" patch kit.

If you get a hole in the mattress on the top/felt side....I've had no luck fixing those. Not saying it can't be done but it hasn't worked for me. But a hole on the bottom as long as it doesn't fall near a seam....is a snap.

My Brit bikes have a QD rear hub and fixing a flat is a 15 min job on the front or rear. I've changed the tires on my XS (remember I'm new to these XS650s) but this was the first and only time I've done it. The front was a snap but the rear.....ugh. Of course everything was frozen up (where's the grease????) and it seemed like it took forever for me to complete that job. Thank goodness I got it all freed up and the tire replace in my shop and I didn't have to deal with it on the side of the road. Next time won't be so bad.

OH......while I was out taking some photos for this reply I ran across this......



I believe this is what FLEA was talking about so I decided to add one to the kit and will give it a try.

to be continued.........................
 
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good idea on the wipes with multi use ,the hammock you found looks a bit bigger and more expensive then the ones I use ,tried finding a eg on internet but ? ,but they are on ebay though under cheapest hammock ,rolls up into a ball bit bigger than your baseball or our cricket ball but very sturdy ,have used a one for few yrs
 
FLEA<snip> the hammock you found looks a bit bigger and more expensive then the ones I use said:
Could be FLEA, I didn't have much to choose from but I thought it was a good idea and wanted to give it a try. It cost less than $25 and the stuff bag is about the size of my hand. I pulled it out to see how it was made.....cheap stuff from China all looks the same but I can't afford to buy Americian made stuff. The cost of everything went up over the past three decades.....but my wages haven't.

I'll report back as soon as I'm able to try it. I've NEVER tried sleeping in a hammock so this "could" go bad. The only reason I sleep in a tent is in an attempt to keep the creepy crawly stuff off of me at night.....down side of living/camping on the East Coast of our beautiful country is.... we have plenty of creepy crawly stuff out there. Sleeping on the ground unprotected isn't any fun. I used to reinact our Civil War (both sides)....it was my son's hobby and I went along to keep an eye on him since he started at around 10 years old. Some of the events we attended were pretty rough, they only allowed you to bring one blanket and an oil cloth for a ground sheet. You could hang the oil cloth over you if you wanted....but it was a lot smaller/shorter than the average pard. When the order was given to "camp in place"......and you were in formation (100 men to a company) where your feet were....is were you spent the night, wet or dry. I was a happy man when my son went off to college and gave up THAT hobby!!!!!


to be continued............................
 
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Hey Mick. Congrats on your 23 yrs. We have always had at least one bike around. Still have #2 but it hasn't run in years. I'm sure I should have parted it years ago but I look at it and see this in my head. That Honda was his 2nd also.
Kinda going sideways with this thread though. . . . .

Why thank you sir, don't worry about the sideways bit, it's all part of the overall story. I've been away working and had little time to reply to Gordon's thread....I see it's become quiet popular.
Good to see, plenty of interesting comparisons can be made from y'all in North America to us down under....we love our bikes and getting away from the masses
 
this is a very interesting thread. :bike:

I dream about going touring on my 79ner and have made lots of plans that have yet to materialise.

One question that is always upamost on my mind is security. Here in the UK if you leave something unattended for more than 10 minutes some scumbag has had it away.!

If you drive your RV off from your paid camping pitch for half an hour to get some food in a nearby Town when you get back someone has pinched your pitch and has a barby going.:yikes:

What do you do if you want to go for a ride exploring around your camping location ?. Do you leave all your camping gear and stuff where it is ? or do you have to strike camp and reload all of it on the bike every time you want to take a ride .
 
Mr peanut........that is a GREAT question. Evil people are everwhere (re: our Orlando, Florida) but I've never had that problem at our campgrounds. Not saying that it doesn't happen, just hasn't happened to me. We tend to watch out for each other and getting to know the folks that are camping around you helps.

Now that said........................theft (thank you Mick) it's another reason I don't tend to use high dollar gear. Heck, if they stole everything I had.....< $300 would set me right back up with new stuff.

If I'm going out.....I leave everything in place. The important stuff is with me on the bike. I attend several motorcycle related events a year and camp at most of them. I also try to get at least a couple of weekends campouts just by myself and to date, have never had anything stolen. With leaving your gear set up.....nobody moves in on you.

Take care.......give it a go. We're not on this earth for long.

Your friend in NC, USA Gordon Gray
 
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What do you do if you want to go for a ride exploring around your camping location ?. Do you leave all your camping gear and stuff where it is ? or do you have to strike camp and reload all of it on the bike every time you want to take a ride .

When I was a kid, back in the sixties, we used to load the family of six into the station wagon and go off someplace for a week tent camping. I remember that big canvas tent well. Nobody ever bothered our stuff. I did the same with my kids. Sometimes we went to campgrounds and sometimes we set up in The National Forest. Nobody ever bothered our stuff. Yes, there were usually other campers about. Anymore, I usually camp at motorcycle resorts. Losing stuff to thieves has never been a consideration. The first time I went to the Barber Vintage Festival, I asked as I walked away from my bike with all my stuff on it. "Nobody is going to touch your stuff. There are 50,000 motorcyclists here!" was the response. I was embarrassed for asking.

Dogwood07 051 by jetmechmarty, on Flickr
XS650 group camping at TWO, Dogwood Rally. I don't know the year.
 
The if "they are stupid enough to leave, I'll take it and show them" attitude wasn't as common in the past. Along with the "it isn't my car, building materials, food etc" attitude found in the service sector today.
The campground was/is maybe the last bastion for respect for others.

peanut I worry more about leaving the bike/belongings unattended while walking an area.
Some are less worrisome than others. Botanical gardens = small worry. Walmart parking lot = big worry.
 
well I guess you haven't had hundreds of thousands
of migrants and illegal immigrants move in with you like we have in the UK over the past 20 years.:(

25 years ago we could have done the same but nowadays you'd be a fool to leave anything anywhere unattended in the UK.

Here in the UK a white van with 3x men pulls up 2 men jump out and pick up your bike (lock chain and all) and shove it in the back of their van . The van and your bike is gone in less than 15 seconds ! you couldn't do a thing about it .

America is a big place and there are lots of areas where you can distance yourself from people. Here in Britain the furthest you can be from a coastline is just 70 miles. You can't get away from riffraff anywhere

I wish we could turn the clock back 25-30 years and have our Country back .
 
The campground was/is maybe the last bastion for respect for others.

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we find that too... when we take a break in our RV at various campsites but we are careful to choose sites that have adults only and are away from Towns and Cities .

I've always found campers to be a 'good sort' . the first time we turned up at a campsite we didn't have a clue. Our neighbours came straight over and sorted everything out for us .Showing us how to errect our awning and sort the hookup and water /waste etc . It certainly restores your faith in humanity . I have a strong affinity with the outdoors /camping/survival/exploring fraternity .....as I do with the oily rag spannermonkys :bike:
 
When I was a kid, back in the sixties, we used to load the family of six into the station wagon and go off someplace for a week tent camping. I remember that big canvas tent well. Nobody ever bothered our stuff. I did the same with my kids. Sometimes we went to campgrounds and sometimes we set up in The National Forest. Nobody ever bothered our stuff. Yes, there were usually other campers about. Anymore, I usually camp at motorcycle resorts. Losing stuff to thieves has never been a consideration. The first time I went to the Barber Vintage Festival, I asked as I walked away from my bike with all my stuff on it. "Nobody is going to touch your stuff. There are 50,000 motorcyclists here!" was the response. I was embarrassed for asking.

Dogwood07 051 by jetmechmarty, on Flickr
XS650 group camping at TWO, Dogwood Rally. I don't know the year.

wish we had more of that here in Britain . Here we have a terrible alcoholism problem... as big as it used to be in Russia . Every festival, fair, classic bike car meet/ rally etc is just an excuse for the majority to get totally wasted and start fighting. Just look how English soccer fans behaved last week or go to any Mediteranian resort . I'm almost ashamed to be English sometimes
 
How unfortunate it has become,in the UK, we, down under don't have camping theft, everyone looks out for others, you talk, have a beer around the fire at night.
You might need to leave the cold dump,and break free from the missory :bike::bike::bike::bike:
 
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I probably would if I was a young bloke :D
I'm collecting my pension in a few weeks time :thumbsup:
 
a couple of things ,with the hammock ,mine is just to get off the ground and relax not to sleep long periods (not for me anyway)..reckon it would kill my back ,maybe with a good one maybe different ...and as for the rip off artists ,well we are lucky here in oz ,except for the caravan parks around the capital citys (they can be real dodgy) 99% of the time your gear is safe,even in the harvest areas (though in the harvest areas you don't take the chance of leaving your washing on communal lines to long) and proper camping areas 99.9% safe..these areas don't seem to attract the thiefs though a lot of booze can get drunk..no doult over the yrs this will change with larger populations
 
The UK has and will always have problems and the migrants and illegals weren't the ones to start football hooliganism. A class based system creates the Toffs who look down their nose at the lower class's and the bottom class will say F**k you ill just take it then.

We are now in a society where respect is not a way of life for the younger mob and why should they when they see what our leaders get away with and no repocusions for such action.
 
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