Preparing for a Long Motorcycle Trip.

Planning a weekend ride or a week long ride presents some challenges.  If you are riding nearly 500 to 1000 miles from home the last thing you want is to have any issues on the road and have to be towed to the nearest u-haul so you can load up your bike in a truck and drive home. Almost all towing companies will severely damage your motorcycle because most tow truck drivers have no clue at all how to tow a motorcycle safely and without damage.  The second a tow truck driver touches your bike, damage will start to happen.   So you need to avoid having a breakdown on the road, or at least have the tools with you to deal with any problems.


You need to do the stuff that you have been putting off,   first check your air pressure and bring it up to what you need for the load.  IF you are riding 2 up and with full luggage for 5 days then you need to be near the MAX air pressure.  My K1200LT wants the rear tire at 48psi for a full load, check your manual for recommended pressures.   Also consider adding a tire sealant product such as ride-on to your tires.  This will seal small punctures on the road without you ever knowing it, walking over to the bike in the morning to see a tire flat from a slow leak ruins your whole day.   Lastly, will the tires take the miles? 1000 miles rack up fast on a week long trip,  if your tires are already close to being worn out you want to go and get new rubber before your trip.   The worst failure on the road is a tire problem and they can be avoided.

How are your brakes?  did you flush your brake fluid lines in the spring like you were supposed to? how much brake pad is left?  Do not just look at the front calipers and pads, the rear typically wears out first and uneven on most motorcycles,  check that first and get them swapped out, it takes less than 15 minutes on most motorcycles to change the brake pads, yes even bikes with ABS. You want 100% stopping power in case a deer jumps in front of you at 60mph.

One other thing that a lot of riders do not look at is their throttle cables.  disassemble them and get some lubrication in the cables if they do not feel very smooth and quick.   Many newer bikes have teflon lined cables that do not need lubrication but if they are sticking or hard to move, you  need to replace them or lubricate them with a compatible lube.  I need to replace my throttle cables this next winter, so I bought a dupont teflon lube and put some in the cables.  they instantly freed up and after 3000 miles are still nice and smooth.   The same is for your clutch cable if you do not have a hydraulic clutch.

Go over the whole bike looking for loose bolts or nuts,  lubricate the foot peg pivots, the shifter linkages, etc...  Look for oil and fluid leaks and correct them if possible,  how old is that battery? Motorcycles don't have a kick-starter anymore so if that battery is 5 years old, replace it.   Now get the bike up on the center stand and have someone hold the rear of the bike down. straddle the front forks and lift up.  did you feel the forks move?  can you wiggle the forks up and down?  If so then you may need new steering head bearings, or it just needs to be tightened.   the last thing you want on the open road is for the steering to lock up or get hard,   Start with checking to see if it just needs to be tightened up.  If that does not solve the problem, then disassemble to check the bearings,  but don't check them,  just replace them with new. It is a lot of work to just ckeck a $25.00 bearing set, just replace them with new and not worry about them for another 30,000 miles.  While we are at the frontend, when was the last time you changed your fork oil?  Yes that oil needs to be changed regularly. 

Note: You don't have to do all this maintenance,  in fact a lot of riders don't do any maintenance at all to their bikes.  They love the adventure of sitting on the side of the road trying to fix a problem, the adventure of meeting new people that stop to help them.  The excitement of walking 10 miles  in motorcycle boots to get a truck,  and the huge fun of trying to push a dead motorcycle up a ramp onto a truck.  You have not lived if you haven't spent a couple of hours on your own trying to get a 600 pound motorcycle up a short ramp pushing it yourself, the best vacations are when you drop the bike on the ramp and now you have to pick it up and try again.


If your bike has been well maintained you will find only a few things that need to be taken care of, so the bike is good to go for a long ride.  You still want your tool kit with you just in case, I recommend adding to the kit a spare headlight bulb and a spare signal bulb wrapped up so they do not get broken.  Change the batteries in your flashlight, and make sure it works.  Add a medium towel to your kit as well.  It's nice to have something you can wipe the seats dry other than your jacket or shirt.  Also add a first aid kit,  put in that kit some extra pain killers, some allergy medicine, antacids, etc... I also recommend aspirin in addition if you can take it.   One of the tricks to avoid "I cant stand sitting on the bike anymore" is aspirin,  it's an old iron-butt rider trick.  if you are going to ride a very long distance, take a single aspirin before you ride for 300 miles or more without stopping.  If you can think of a problem you will have on the road, prepare for it.  I will tell you the most miserable ride in your life is trying to ride when you have diarrhea.  So be sure to pack something that will treat the trots.

Fight fatigue before you leave.  Plan on getting good rest every night and plan on rest stops along your way.  Unless your trip is to see how far you can ride without dying you do not need to push yourself, take breaks and even figure taking a long lunch where you can even sneak in a short nap in the shade.   Bring earplugs that are comfortable to you to help with cutting down road and wind noise.  Plan to stay well hydrated, riding will suck water out of you fast as running a marathon so drink a lot of water.  Lastly make sure you can see,  if your helmet has a scratched shield, replace it.  You will get  headaches and get tired of looking through scratches and distortion.  Be sure to pack what you need to clean that shield often.   Be sure to also have good sunglasses, you will be riding into the sunset or sunrise regularly and honestly it sucks having to look at that ball of fire for an hour or more.  I recommend not riding at those times because your risk of an accident is very high, just pull over and take a brake or wait to leave a little later.   Lastly stimulants should be limited.  I am a coffee addict, I cant start my day without it.  But using it to stay awake in the saddle is a very very dumb idea.  I have done it, and I knew how dumb it was but I was only 40 minutes from my destination so I took the risk and also reduced my speed as well.    You are not less of a man by going slower, the car drivers are not laughing at you.   Get there alive, your ego can handle it.

My experience with energy drinks though has shown what works best for me is the little "5 hour" bottles.  They deliver a huge boost of "awake" in their first 30 minutes,   but they have the  side effect of that when you get to your destination you will ruin your sleep for that night if used late,  so it will affect your next day.    I really recommend that you plan on being off the road around 5-6pm each day to give you time to relax before bed and get a good meal in you.  There are no gains from trying to push your ride well into the night and then collapsing from exhaustion.

Have a GPS for your bike?  That's great!  Bring a paper map along as well.  No, do not print out the Google Map, go to a store and BUY a real map or set of maps of where you are going.  You cant Zoom a piece of paper, so you need to buy the big fold out map of your state, or the states you will be riding in.  3 of these maps take up very little space in your tank bag.   You do have a tank bag for your bike? right?  Even plastic bikes like my K1200LT has a tank bag option, get one for your bike as these bags make your ride far more enjoyable by keeping things you need regularly right there at your fingertips.  It's nice to be able to simply stop at a desolated back roads stop sign and take a drink of water, or grab a bite of a granola bar.  Be sure to bring some small food with you, there will be times you will be hungry but nowhere to eat around for miles.

Packing the bike is important.   If you have a touring bike with hard luggage then this is really easy, put your stuff into those and lock them.   If you don't have those then you can get motorcycle luggage designed to strap to seats and elsewhere.  NEVER strap anything to your forks.   Yes I know movies show fools with sleeping bags and things strapped to the forks of their Choppers. And those people are fools.  You do not need something fighting you if you need to make an emergency maneuver to avoid a 1 food deep pothole that will destroy your bike.  Strap it all on  behind you and strap it on tight.  No bungee cords.  if it can move it can shift and force your turn to go wide or even cause a slide out.  Being lazy when you pack your bike means you like the adventure of road rash and head injuries.  Keep heavy stuff like tents on the seat or saddle bags, and light things like sleeping bags high.   What to bring is up to you, I know guys that take only a bedroll and the clothes on their back, Other friends ride a full size touring bike with huge luggage AND pull a trailer.   Most of us are in between that.  If you can stand wearing the same pair of jeans for 3 days in a row,  only pack a single spare pair.  I strongly recommend packing some light shoes, living for a week in your riding boots can get uncomfortable.  Even a pair of sandals or casual shoes that will pack way down is fine.  I found recently that companies are making pants out of ripstop nylon.  These will pack down to nearly nothing.  And the new trendy "rayon" action shirts also pack down to nothing plus work great as an additional layer under another shirt when it's cold.  I have a "compression" type muscle head shirt that I look hideous in but wicks moisture very well and when under another shirt keeps me very comfortable on mornings when you have a light chill.  Look for stuff that packs down small.  Nothing cotton packs down well.  

On the road you can "cheat" and clean your clothing with just water and a very very small amount of hand soap.  grab your shirt, socks, or underwear and head to a bathroom with running water.   Get it soaked in the sink then lather your hands above it.  now rub and squisk the item until you get soap all over it, wring it out and get it soaked under the faucet, wring it out and repeat a few times until you only get clean water.   You now have a clean item to wear after it dries.   Hanging all night works, or tie it to the bike and ride.  It will be completely dry in no time at highway speed, but it may have a couple of bugs splattered on it.

Lastly, bring enough cash to get home if things go sideways.  Figure about $1 per mile away from home will be enough to get you and the bike home if everything went horribly wrong.   I personally like only using cash on the road because places I eat are little mom and pop places and many do not take credit cards.  Enjoy the trip, see the sights, and love getting back on the bike each morning.  Silly trips like riding from NYC to LA and back in a single 3 day weekend, while epic sounding are nothing but pure hell.   Pick a sane route and shoot for a max of 600 miles a day if you really think you have to feed your distance ego.   I try to limit daily mileage to 300-350 and enjoy the ride as well as the sights,  At 55mph 350 miles is 6 hours in the saddle,  that allows a 1 hour breakfast, 2 hour lunch, and a few 30 minute stops each day.   It's really cool to stop and turn around to buy some fruit at a farmers stand on the side of the road and chat with them while you eat a snack of their produce.

Make the trip memorable, something you talk about fondly for years.  You don't want it to be your "summer vacation from HELL" that makes you almost sell your motorcycle and not have anything to do with bikes ever gain.