Motorcycle Camping on an XS650

Anyway......keep it up fellows and thanks for going to the trouble to share. I'm headed out on the XS to go retrieve my share of my dad's ashes and give him a little ride along the river.

Sorry for the late replies, been busy since I was made redundant from my last position, it's true.....Gordon, really sorry to hear about your Dad, sounds like you and he had a good ride, love it....

Mick you asked about the 40 pic. Here it is. We left yesterday and have 12,days. Should be able to see some of KS, CO, NM, TX, OK, and AR before returning to mizzery.

WOW that was a really cool picture, so you will be posting up some camping pictures as you go around? Gotta love PMA, I read a lot and have seen many stories about how great a PMA is, for me, I'll go with the two brushes, rotor & stator, the way it was spat from the factory :)

glad your ride with your dad went well ,the other hammocks which sleep across (sth American?) are a different design from the look of them and a lot larger ,there are a few on survivalist sites fully inclosed (mozzie net as well) which combine to hang up or peg to the ground as a small tent but don't know how good they are or if they are just a toy, how does every one go for a stove ,that was the 1 thing I could not sort out properly ,tried quite a few different ones but size of bottles /avalibility of canisters etc was always a hassle (you cant always light a fire)

Flea, don't tell them about the croc's, snakes and our little sharks, they won't believe us! loved your comment about the fire "you cant always light a fire" our North American friends probably have signs up "No Fires", where we can go 50 miles from the coast and there is absolutely nothing around you as far as the eye can see....Light her up!
 
So what happened? you must be back on your trip by now, get some free wifi and post up a picture and story weekend rider......


Bronson probably sold more bikes than any commerical.
First nights lesson if you put the tent under a tree to hide from the morning sun it takes a lot longer to dry the dew so you can fold it up.
Sent the son a text @ 6 the next morning. Get the trailer and come.rescue us. At 8 he called wanting to know if I was yanking his chain. . . .
Plans made we passed the time in the shade, took pictures and talked out various "what to do's". I finally decided on going back home to make the repairs and then we would putt round our part of the world on day trips. The calvary arrived about 2:30 but still had to wait for the battery to finish charging to load the bike. Then my son dropped the fathers day bomb. I'm taking you to Wichita the dealership can get you in on Tues am and have all the charging components in stock. This mean another 2 1/2 hr.s west for him and no way can he get back home before 2 - 3 ish am. I'm not that agreeable. That would make for a long workday. No worries he had some time banked and has taken off Monday. I ran out of you don't need to be doin that arguments so we are in Wichita and hopefully will be headed on west before the 100+ degree heat gets here Wed.
 
OK, Gordon, Scotty (with the bad avatar pic) I've had a look for this and can only find a copy of a pilot movie "Then Came Bronson" your saying it was a TV series? Where do you find it? I'll have a look at the usual (cable TV down under which is like holding a coat hanger and gripping onto the rabbits ears for reception) but I've never heard of it before, still I am a youngish fellow... Ha!

DAMN YOU SCOTT!!!!!!! :cussing: I should have been cutting/splitting wood for winter BUT I just spent 3 hours watching Then Came Bronson :bike: episodes instead. :popcorn::) :love: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Going to watch some more later.....:sneaky:....you cad.

Gordon in NC
 
What Skull said......You tube for some of them. But I need to look because ( I forget the name of the site) some of the other (ex. one of my favorites...Sybil) episodes are on a different site.
Then Came Bronson was a short lived TV series here in the US......I "think" September 1969 to September 1970??? REALLY SAPPY.....so don't go looking any for life changing realizations out of it. It did come along at a time in some of our lives where the dream of traveling around on two wheels and camping under the stars...without a care in the world could come true. The actor who played Bronson could sing and I believe his song "Lone Lonesome Highway" was sorta popular back then. IF you lived in California you kept seeing all sorts of places you recognized. Sappy.....pretty typical of TV at the time. Don't think Bronson ever cussed.....even when a nut drove his bike off into a river (or lake?). Always had a happy ending. Sappy I tell ya but at the time I know I watched every episode. I had COMPLETELY forgotten about it......until Scott brought it up.

Gordon in NC

PS:......now that I think about it there might have been a dark side to Bronson's life...somewhere back in time. I seem to remember??? him having a flashback of someone falling off a building but not sure if that was ever explained. The late 60s early 70s were pretty rough on me......and I'm paying for it now....heck, come to think of it....I had to pay for it then too!!!!!!
 
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Some camping pics from last week. It is easier on a bigger bike.

Camp is broken down and I'm ready to go.


All the comforts of home.

Over 80 people at the Virginia Guzzi rally and everybody is camping!
 
Interesting thread.
I've not been bike camping for at least 20 years, but the two decades before that was spent doing it a lot. I was just thinking of the kit I still have, stashed away and unused since. I'm still up for it, but not in the cold, not any longer.
For cooking, I used an assortment of devices, from pump-up paraffin (kerosene) stoves to the ubiquitous Gaz (in Europe) small disposable cartridge stove, but I ended up settling on these two...
For solo camping, a Trangia meths burner and two billy cans...
TRANGIA%20Burner.jpg

And for emergency fall-back, the hexamine stove, as beloved and hated in equal measure by countless services personnel around the world...
1EC45ADE5711307716C684F162EEAC89.jpg

Both take up no space at all, and neither has ever let me down.
 
Then Came Bronson was a short lived TV series here in the US......I "think" September 1969 to September 1970??? REALLY SAPPY..... Sappy.....pretty typical of TV at the time........ Always had a happy ending........ Sappy I tell ya but at the time I know I watched every episode. I had COMPLETELY forgotten about it......until Scott brought it up.

Gordon in NC

Sappy, that's the key word, found the series (thanks guys)......Sappy........ :)
 
I watched 3 or 4 episodes of "Then Came Bronson" on Youtube, I knew the wife would enjoy it too, but when I went to find them again they seemed to be gone. I found some different episodes on .....dailymotion.com.......When the show was airing "sappy" was a good thing with the war going on, perhaps we were too insulated from the war unless it became personal to you at the time. If I remember the story of the pilot movie right the story started with Bronson's friend, that he had built the custom Sportster with, had just returned from the war and was having trouble with civilian life, friend committed suicide, friends wife insisted that Bronson take full ownership of the bike, story continues.

Scott
 
I watched 3 or 4 episodes of "Then Came Bronson" on Youtube, I knew the wife would enjoy it too, but when I went to find them again they seemed to be gone. I found some different episodes on .....dailymotion.com.......When the show was airing "sappy" was a good thing with the war going on, perhaps we were too insulated from the war unless it became personal to you at the time. If I remember the story of the pilot movie right the story started with Bronson's friend, that he had built the custom Sportster with, had just returned from the war and was having trouble with civilian life, friend committed suicide, friends wife insisted that Bronson take full ownership of the bike, story continues.

Scott

Re the above, hence Bronson's purpose for getting quickly involved with the peoples lives and problems that he meets, but at the same time always looking for room and board, sometimes with a sorry excuse to get that room and board. See, I was young once.

Scott
 
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Hey folks......sorry for the long silence but I've been working some crazy hours and just can't seem to find the time right now to add to this thread. I'm still a little taken back by Marty's mishap.....can't help but wonder if he'd been in a motel instead of hauling all that camping gear if things would had turned out differently???????

I'll get around to sharing some more of the gear I use. Water proof bags/containers are pretty important to me. Of course I use the cheap ones but so far they have never let me down.

Only up side of all this time spent here at work is......the bonus at the end of the job is going to pay for a trip across the US on two wheels for me. Something I've been dreaming about for YEARS.

Yea..... Bronson came along at a good time for some of us. I graduated high school in 1968......not a good time to be a male in the us with two eyes, arms and legs. Sometimes you didn't even need those (a good campfire story). > 58,000 Americans left and didn't come back to be sitting here in front of these computers screens today....that doesn't count all our other brothers in arms that met the same fate. I'm not sure what kind of impact Bronson had on me but I do remember watching them. Yea, it sappiness ( is that even a word??) was a welcome relief and was a lot better out look on life than the evening news.

You ALL.......be careful out there. Have fun, enjoy life....live your dreams.....life is way to short to regret not doing something when it's over.

to be continued....................................GG
 
Hey folks......sorry for the long silence but I've been working some crazy hours and just can't seem to find the time right now to add to this thread. I'm still a little taken back by Marty's mishap.....can't help but wonder if he'd been in a motel instead of hauling all that camping gear if things would had turned out differently???????
to be continued....................................GG

WHOA! Don't go putting this on yourself! You had nothing to do with it. That big big bike carried that stuff without any problem, much of it in the bags. The whole mess weighed in less than a passenger. I'll do it again. It could even be on the same bike! Jury is still out on that.
 
WHOA! Don't go putting this on yourself! You had nothing to do with it. That big big bike carried that stuff without any problem, much of it in the bags. The whole mess weighed in less than a passenger. I'll do it again. It could even be on the same bike! Jury is still out on that.
BikeOK.jpg

Thought of you Marty, when I saw this. Glad yours turned out the other way around.
 
Sorry for reviving an old thread but it also ended before the rest of the tips were offered. Anyways heading to TWOs for Legends spring meet next week which overlaps with the Dogwood rally, (will be on the VFR my XS is not road ready yet) I was wondering if anyone could let me know the campfire situation on the property, are we allowed to build fire at night for cooking/hanging out or just camp stoves for cooking? Thanks.

Art
 
^If fires are banned, that means it's dry. You win either way :) Single burner coleman gas stove is great to have either way.

I just noticed people called Bronson sappy. The music is generic sappy TV show music from the era, but I have found the show to be surprisingly realistic. The only thing that is definitely not realistic is all the stuff he seems to have that he carries neatly in just those two bags. Everything else, you will have your little adventures and girlfriends... True it always ends happily, but that's accurate enough.
 
I've been MC camping a couple years now, 5 or 6 trips, first with the K1200 then the Royal Star. For a couple weeks out, a BIG bike makes solo "luxury camping" pretty simple, just keep throwing it in, piling it on. Even moderate, off and on rain is no big deal. The cost? You never forget you are on a BIG bike. Gotta be really careful where you go and balance while getting a pig in and back out of campsites can be a real challenge. Electric reverse on the Beemer was quite useful. Been thinking of trying a cross country on an XS650 something I haven't done since oh about 1975 LOL. Truthfully I'd just keep using the royal star, The beemer in the rain is pure luxury You can literally stay dry for hours on the road, the Star, not so much. But If I want to go to XS650 rallies it's kind of awkward to show up on one of the barges...

20150805_134003.jpg 20161003_083925.jpg
A camping list from "Cafephil" all fits well on the Connie.
Phils list.jpg
 
Been thinking of trying a cross country on an XS650 something I haven't done since oh about 1975 LOL. Truthfully I'd just keep using the royal star,
There's a site named avrider or adventurerider or something like that and buried deep in there is the fascinating diary of a teen who rode from L.A. to New York on a 50cc moped. Pretty resourceful dude. My XS is the biggest bike I've ever ridden, so I never miss my BMW pig :)
 
Sorry for reviving an old thread but it also ended before the rest of the tips were offered. Anyways heading to TWOs for Legends spring meet next week which overlaps with the Dogwood rally, (will be on the VFR my XS is not road ready yet) I was wondering if anyone could let me know the campfire situation on the property, are we allowed to build fire at night for cooking/hanging out or just camp stoves for cooking? Thanks.

Art
Art,
TWoS has fire rings and fire wood for purchase. You can't move the rings. You go to them. I don't believe they're set up for cooking, but you'll manage. The resort serves food. I just noted the old Lenny's Grill just up 180 by Lake Winfield Scott is now open. I don't know the name of the new place. Jim's Smokin' Que just north on 19/129 is notable.

OK. Yes, you can cook and hang out by the fire!
 
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