Last minute solo motocamping

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NuggyBuggy

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I had previously posted a thread where I was going to do the Newfoundland T’Railway with my BIL on an ATV.

He bailed a few weeks ago but I just started fantasizing about buying a dual sport, keeping my ferry booking, riding it to NS and doing the whole ride by myself.

Everyone around me says it is a terrible idea.

Context:
- my ferry leaves on Sunday night. I figure I'd need to leave Friday AM at the latest to leave me lots of room for error
- I've never motocamped; in fact I've never really done much real camping at all.
- I've never done a multi-day trip on a bike by myself.

First the bike:
- I don't have one! At least not one suitable for the trip, though I may be driving tomorrow to buy a KLX230 or some other dual sport. I figure that's light enough to pick up and pull out of just about anything I could find myself in.
- I'd have to prep the bike for travel.
- the bike I'm looking at has a rear rack but no side racks. I don't think there's time to source side racks, so I think I'd need a rackless bag. Those are expensive! Not sure how big I'd need to go. 80L? I have no idea.
- I think I'd want a Rotopax, Kolpin or similar, or carry a bunch of fuel bladders or bottles. ChatGPT suggests that the weight of a full Rotopax on a rear rack might stress the frame bouncing around on such a light bike. Maybe I'd be better off strapping some fuel bottles around the frame?
- the KLX230 comes with IRC Trails GP tires. Apparently the claim that these are 50/50 tires is misleading and they're more like 90/10. ChatGPT suggests upgrading to more dirt-biased tires.
- Ive seen recommendations of dropping tire pressures below 15psi for some stretches. If I do that, I guess I'm looking at drilling out the rims for rimlocks, installing those, and then getting them balanced.
- I have a basic tool kit but would need to buy tools specific to whatever I end up with - axel wrenches etc

Other stuff:
- I have or can borrow an ultralight tent, sleeping pad and bag, ground sheet, a Spot or Garmin InReach.
- I think I'd need to buy water filtration, chlorine tablets, small camp stove, first aid kit, camp towel, bear spray and/or banger.

So there's a LOT of things I'd need to do before Friday, and I'm probably missing a crap ton. If all goes right I'd buy a bike, get it safetied, registered, insured and prepped. I have a lot of shopping to do, and not much time to do it. I'd be doing something I've never done before, on a bike I'm not familiar with.

Am I crazy to be considering this? Wife and my BIL think I am.
 
NuggyBuggy said:
I had previously posted a thread where I was going to do the Newfoundland T’Railway with my BIL on an ATV.

He bailed a few weeks ago but I just started fantasizing about buying a dual sport, keeping my ferry booking, riding it to NS and doing the whole ride by myself.

Everyone around me says it is a terrible idea.

Context:
- my ferry leaves on Sunday night. I figure I'd need to leave Friday AM at the latest to leave me lots of room for error
- I've never motocamped; in fact I've never really done much real camping at all.
- I've never done a multi-day trip on a bike by myself.

First the bike:
- I don't have one! At least not one suitable for the trip, though I may be driving tomorrow to buy a KLX230 or some other dual sport. I figure that's light enough to pick up and pull out of just about anything I could find myself in.
- I'd have to prep the bike for travel.
- the bike I'm looking at has a rear rack but no side racks. I don't think there's time to source side racks, so I think I'd need a rackless bag. Those are expensive! Not sure how big I'd need to go. 80L? I have no idea.
- I think I'd want a Rotopax, Kolpin or similar, or carry a bunch of fuel bladders or bottles. ChatGPT suggests that the weight of a full Rotopax on a rear rack might stress the frame bouncing around on such a light bike. Maybe I'd be better off strapping some fuel bottles around the frame?
- the KLX230 comes with IRC Trails GP tires. Apparently the claim that these are 50/50 tires is misleading and they're more like 90/10. ChatGPT suggests upgrading to more dirt-biased tires.
- Ive seen recommendations of dropping tire pressures below 15psi for some stretches. If I do that, I guess I'm looking at drilling out the rims for rimlocks, installing those, and then getting them balanced.
- I have a basic tool kit but would need to buy tools specific to whatever I end up with - axel wrenches etc

Other stuff:
- I have or can borrow an ultralight tent, sleeping pad and bag, ground sheet, a Spot or Garmin InReach.
- I think I'd need to buy water filtration, chlorine tablets, small camp stove, first aid kit, camp towel, bear spray and/or banger.

So there's a LOT of things I'd need to do before Friday, and I'm probably missing a crap ton. If all goes right I'd buy a bike, get it safetied, registered, insured and prepped. I have a lot of shopping to do, and not much time to do it. I'd be doing something I've never done before, on a bike I'm not familiar with.

Am I crazy to be considering this? Wife and my BIL think I am.
Click to expand...
Are you thinking of riding a klx230 to Newfoundland or trailer it there. If trailer then sounds epic riding not a chance.

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It's kind of a terrible idea, but I also want to read the ride report when you're done.

I've done the trip to NS a couple of times on a VStrom with a ridiculously comfy touring seat. Making the trip down over two days on that setup is okay, but a bit mind-numbing. Three days is much better, but there aren't a lot of options to get off the highway if you're sticking to this side of the border. Doing it on any kind of dual-sport seat rushing to meet your ferry booking would be agony.

Regular camping takes a few tries to figure out what works, and then dump the 75% of the crap you brought the first couple of times that you don't actually need. Moto-camping refines that quite a bit further. Just do the most redneck thing possible for rackless luggage: get a very large pair of heavy canvas trousers or overalls and sew or ziptie the legs shut, then roll and tie the waistband with cord. Arno straps (small cambuckle-style) are good to affix the legs to your passenger pegs. Even if you end up buying fancy luggage, you can go jam your tent, sleeping pad and bag into a pair of pants right now to give you an idea of how much room you'll have to deal with. It's not much.
 
Not saying it's a good or bad idea, a,t the end of the day you'll do what you want.
But, in my experience rushing any type of motorcycle trip tends to be problematic especially if you're doing things for the first time.
 
Do the trip but head northeast and stay in Ontario. Get to know the bike, camping amd not too far from home if things or weather don’t work out. You supposed to have fun with a stress or two. With the new gained experiences and confidence you can tweak things for the bigger trip next time.
 
Scuba Steve said:
Are you thinking of riding a klx230 to Newfoundland or trailer it there. If trailer then sounds epic riding not a chance.

Sent from my Pixel 10 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I was planning on riding it out there. I could trailer it, but I HATE trailering my bike on my trailer. I swear it cuts mileage down by more than half.
 
I think it sounds like an epic trip, but a horrible idea ONLY because it's so last minute to try and set things up.

I've tried moto camping before with a GTAMer many years ago. It was awesome, but it was all within 6hrs of Toronto and was a good way to test run some setups / gear / etc.

Horrible idea due to time constraints and lack of prep time.

Awesome idea because it will be epic.
 
Since nobody else is willing to say it, I will:

THIS IS A STUPID IDEA OF EPIC PROPORTIONS.

Which is all the reason, someone with AMPLE experience would do it. You admit to having NO experience with such a venture.

It's a bad enough idea to truck the bike to NF and go ride the trail ALONE with no off road riding experience, but to throw in camping and attempting to load all that gear, plus necessary extra fuel, as well as a fully grown adult onto a low-end, learner-friendly enduro (already out of it's element) and ride from here to the ferry........nope.

The little bike will be so over-loaded, over-stressed you'll be stopping for fuel every 100 or so km. Even unloaded it would struggle to maintain highway acceptable speed (lets say 80kph). Depending on your own proportions, YOU may exceed the maximum weight the bike is designed to haul around.

Even on a suitable bike a trip like this requires planning, AND some experience. The empty barrens of fly-infested Newfoundland aren't the place to do the learning, nor is the whooped out, sometimes washed out, often rocky, often remote, trans Newfoundland trail a great place to be alone for a new off road rider on an overmatched, overloaded motorcycle.

By all means get a suitable bike and go do some solo camping, but do it closer to home to start.
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