FZ6 Sport Touring/Motorcycle Camping

[Xlrrp]

Hi,

I've been slowly setting my bike up for motorcycle camping/touring and year round commuting to work. While it looks somewhat odd, I am going for function and not form. There are still a couple of things on the wish list, but so far I think I'm ready for my first two day camping trip at the end of the month.

In no particular order, this is what I've done to it so far:

Iphone 5 weatherproof handlebar mount w/charger (for gps, tunes and phone)
Heated Grips (tried Hippo Hands and hated them)
Brush/Hand Guards (stops the wind chill)
Grip Puppies
17t Counter Sprocket to lower freeway rpm's
Large Top Case
Yamaha Gel Comfort Seat (verdict is still out on if it truly comfortable)
EBC V-Brake semi-sintered touring pads Front/Rear
Two Tractor Manual Tubes mounted near rear seat
Two MSR 30oz fuel bottles (holds nearly half gallon of extra gas)
5 position adjustable clutch & brake levers
12 power outlet (to recharge Sena 10 blue tooth and power tire pump)
Heated vest power connection
Vizi-tec “SupaBrake Flasher” brake light modulator
Soft saddle bag luggage (hard bags are on the wish list)
Tank bag

Well, that's it so far. After a two day camping trip the end of this month I should have a good idea how this set up will work for me. In August I will be taking a nine day camping trip to NorCal.

Anyone done anything similar to their FZ's or have any suggestions on things I have not thought of?

Thanks....

 

[Botch]

I have, it was a four-day campout with the National Motorcycle Campers group.

I used a semi-solid "Bags Connection" top bag, which also has two smaller pannier-type bags that hang below it. Tent was strapped onto the top.
Fizzer can carry everything I needed with no problem. What was a problem was my legs couldn't stay tightly folded on the bike for more than 90 minutes (I'm old with a 37" inseam) and have since gotten a bigger bike.
Have fun, it really makes for an inexpensive vacation! :rockon:

 

[tejkowskit]

I've done a few trips. Longest so far was 7 days. Have done multiple 2 day trips and long weekends.

Here's my most recent ride report from this weekend.
http://www.600riders.com/forum/touring-and-traveling/52908-3-days-1070-miles-motocamping-ozarks.html

Shot of my bike when I take it camping. This setup has the gear to last me as long as I need; would just need to stop at a laundromat for anything over a week.


-Top case has my sleeping bag, hammock, blanket, & rain gear/jacket&pants liners. Sleeping bag gets ditched in warmer weather, but it got down to 34° at night where I was this weekend.
-Blue dry bag has clothes and food-this will go in the top case when its warm enough to ditch the sleeping bag.
-saddle bags hold tools & camping gear.
-camping gear i bring is hammock & tarp, length of excess rope, knife, gsi soloist cookset, msr pocket rocket stove, 1 fuel canister, headlamp with spare batteries.
-tank bag has sun glasses & clear glasses, wallet, earplugs, side stand coaster, deodorant, toothbrush, soap, Kleenex
-camel back holds my water (duh), first aid, sometimes snacks,
-spare key is tied to my wrist
-I keep a snack (usually jerky) between the dash and windshield to eat while riding if I'm on the express way for a while.

You'll love the heated grips on chilly mornings & evenings!
17t sprocket is a blessing as is a more comfortable seat. I can't comment on the Yamaha comfort seat, though.
12V outlet is nice and convenient! Especially good for the tire pump. I do the same.
You've done quite a bit to make it easier.

I've taken a few trips and am comfortable with the setup, but there is always room for improvement. I try taking a more minimalistic approach and am still trying to she'd weight.

I'm taking a 4 day ride to Wisconsin in 2 weeks, and a 16 day trip planned for July into August. Look for my ride reports :thumbup: I'll probably do something in July too, but haven't decided what it'll be yet.

Suggestions: bring synthetic clothes. Cotton takes a long time to dry..can make rain even more miserable. Also aids in washing on extended trips. My shirts are synthetic and I bring nylon basketball shorts to wear under my riding pants (this helps cut down on space too since 2 or 3 shorts can pack down to the size of 1 pair of jeans).
Think this was mentioned in your last thread, but camel backs rock for staying hydrated on the go.
Practice setting up & tearing down camp so it doesn't waste a lot of time. Try keeping everything organized and always in the same place so you aren't constantly searching for items.

 

[Brackson]

It is great seeing how each of you set your bikes up for this. I am prepping for my first couple trips from the bike this summer.

I will probably only have time for one or two trial runs before I spend about 6 weeks living off my bike. I will be riding from Maryland to Maine and spending about 2 weeks up there with some friends from that area. Then one of those friends and I are doing a 3 week camping trip up and down to east coast. Then about a week on the end meandering back to Maryland.

The bike came with a Shad SH40 trunk, and I just ordered the SH43 side cases, they should be here this week. After they are installed I will do my first dry run packing and I will post pictures then. And Tejkowskit I did like your red wine idea, we were planning on bringing a cooler 90% for cold beer (and if space permits we still might), but its good to have another option for evenings around the campsite.

 

[tejkowskit]

The bike came with a Shad SH40 trunk, and I just ordered the SH43 side cases, they should be here this week.

You'll have plenty of storage space with that setup!

 

[Brackson]

Ya, I think I will probably be ok. My tent wont fit in any of the cases so at the very least that will have to be strapped down to the passenger seat inside a dry bag.

Two questions as I read this.

First, I am looking for a good spot to setup the charger for my Sena SMH10 also. I already have all the parts but I am not sure where I want to tuck it.

Second, I totally agree with you on the synthetic clothing. I take the same approach to long motorcycle rides that I do to long hikes. All synthetic or wool. My problem is that very little mens clothing seems to be full synthetic, especially shirts. I find mainly 40 poly/ 60 cotton or similar blends. The few full synthetic pieces I do find are really expensive. Have any of you found cheap synthetic shirts? Ideally they would be like 90 poly/10 spandex or something similar.

Pants are easier, I love REI zipoff pants, they are great on the bike as well as off the bike for hiking and they are full nylon, best of all they are on sale for the reasonable (though not cheap) price of about $40 right now.

Also on the thought of laundry, a distance hiking trick for stretching your synthetic and wool clothing a few extra days is to rinse them with water at camp when you have excess water available and wring them out into one of the hyperabsorbant camp towels and then hang them in your tent. Even expedition thickness wool socks will be dry by morning, and especially items that you sweat into alot like socks (and shirts for some people) this can easy give you a few extra uses out of them. I know a few people that through hiked the AT with just two pair of wool socks by doing this.

 

[tejkowskit]

Ya, I think I will probably be ok. My tent wont fit in any of the cases so at the very least that will have to be strapped down to the passenger seat inside a dry bag.

Two questions as I read this.

First, I am looking for a good spot to setup the charger for my Sena SMH10 also. I already have all the parts but I am not sure where I want to tuck it.

Second, I totally agree with you on the synthetic clothing. I take the same approach to long motorcycle rides that I do to long hikes. All synthetic or wool. My problem is that very little mens clothing seems to be full synthetic, especially shirts. I find mainly 40 poly/ 60 cotton or similar blends. The few full synthetic pieces I do find are really expensive. Have any of you found cheap synthetic shirts? Ideally they would be like 90 poly/10 spandex or something similar.

Pants are easier, I love REI zipoff pants, they are great on the bike as well as off the bike for hiking and they are full nylon, best of all they are on sale for the reasonable (though not cheap) price of about $40 right now.

Also on the thought of laundry, a distance hiking trick for stretching your synthetic and wool clothing a few extra days is to rinse them with water at camp when you have excess water available and wring them out into one of the hyperabsorbant camp towels and then hang them in your tent. Even expedition thickness wool socks will be dry by morning, and especially items that you sweat into alot like socks (and shirts for some people) this can easy give you a few extra uses out of them. I know a few people that through hiked the AT with just two pair of wool socks by doing this.

Here's how I mounted my 12V outlet. The 2 charging cables I bring stay in the tank bag.


The camping part should be easy for you seeing as you're a backpacker! Just gotta incorporate it onto the bike. Most of mine are 100%poly. Whenever I see the marines recruiting I will do the 20 pull ups to get the free T-shirt. It's 100% poly. A lot of golf shirts are 100%poly, too, and can be found fairly cheap at kohls. 40\60 is still better than all cotton.

Thanks for the tip on washing clothes. I'm gonna have to give this a try. It'll be nice to get an extra day or 2.

 

[Brackson]

Here's how I mounted my 12V outlet. The 2 charging cables I bring stay in the tank bag.


The camping part should be easy for you seeing as you're a backpacker! Just gotta incorporate it onto the bike. Most of mine are 100%poly. Whenever I see the marines recruiting I will do the 20 pull ups to get the free T-shirt. It's 100% poly. A lot of golf shirts are 100%poly, too, and can be found fairly cheap at kohls. 40\60 is still better than all cotton.

Thanks for the tip on washing clothes. I'm gonna have to give this a try. It'll be nice to get an extra day or 2.

Gotcha, I am not mounting an outlet. I found a fem cig sock that attaches to the battery tender lead. I hadn't considered putting the stuff in my tank bag, but now that you mention that it does seem like the easy way to do it. I can just run the lead up there and have the fem cig sock, charger, and device all in the tank bag together.

And ya, the camping part is easy. The hard part is the transition to a bike, as well as the fact that its been about 10 years since I did any significant amount of camping without a car for support. So I am going through the repeated process of adding items, and removing items from the supplies. I will check out khols and see what I can find there, that is a good tip. And I guess I need to start practicing pull ups so I can get free Marines t-shirts, lol. I found some rather ugly white and light blue full synthetic long sleeve shirts at sierra trading post for like $5, and I bought one as a layer, but I am still looking for short sleeve shirts for daily wear. It has been so long since I camped or hiked alot that when I go I typically just wear cotton shirts.

Thanks again for the ideas man.

 

[tejkowskit]

Gotcha, I am not mounting an outlet. I found a fem cig sock that attaches to the battery tender lead. I hadn't considered putting the stuff in my tank bag, but now that you mention that it does seem like the easy way to do it. I can just run the lead up there and have the fem cig sock, charger, and device all in the tank bag together.

I see. Yeah you could run the 'adapter' onto your tank bag and leave it all in there. Pretty sure others here have done that with success.

 

[payneib]

I see. Yeah you could run the 'adapter' onto your tank bag and leave it all in there. Pretty sure others here have done that with success.

That's what I've done. I've got the euro N model, so no fairings to bolt the socket to. I've fed it down through my dash, following the harness from the controls, through under the tank and sticking out over the left side of the radiator so I can switch between socket and tender. The socket itself I just losely cable tied to the bars, so I can either pull it through into my tank bag for a trip, or just put the cable back down through the harness run when I'm just commuting, etc.

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

 

[Brackson]

You'll have plenty of storage space with that setup!

QFT!!!

Cases just arrived a few minutes ago. I SEVERELY underestimated how large 43 Liters was. These are huge. I think they might fit my REI halfdome tent directly inside the case. I can't wait to get them on the bike this week!

 

[Brackson]

Apologies for the double post but I felt that pictures (a few days after the last one) deserved their own post. I did the install of the luggage today and a few things surprised me. First, Shad recommended using barrel connectors for extending the headlights and then wrapping the barrels in electrical tape.

A. That is not very water resistant
B. It looks very unprofessional

Obvious solution was solder and heat shrink wrap!

The next thing that surprised me is that even after relocating the turn signals the cases still push the turn signals another quarter inch further back. I don't love that they actually make contact, but I don't think it will have any serious impacts.

Here is a pick of the brackets on, with the wiring half done. And the seat cover (yes it has my company logo on it) is to catch solder drips (no I didn't have any drips, but better safe than sorry) as I soldered the quick disconnect terminals behind the license plate mounting area. Pardon my mess of assorted tools, I was attacking the install from 5 directions so I ended up pretty spread out.

Even with my issues with them, they do look good on the bike!! This picture includes the new SH43 side cases, the SH40 top case that came with the bike and my tank bag. The new cases are so huge this may be all that I have on the bike.

Lastly the internal space. I pulled out my camping gear and did a quick test packing.

This picture contains:
REI half dome 2 man 3.5 season tent
Exped Synmat 7
REI Flex Lite Chair
collapsible bucket

and there was room to spare. I later also added a rain jacket, fleece jacket, and pair of Tevas, and still had room in it. (sorry for the poor quality of this pick, I didn't notice how bad it was until I was uploading and by then I was too lazy to retake it)

Second case test packing.

Contents include:
Full cookware and dishes for 2
Stove
Water purifier
A way too large bottle of dish soap
Nalgene
MSR 30oz Fuel Bottle
And my massive though thorough first aid kit (hey, I start nursing school this fall *shrug*)

This case had even more room than the first. These cases are fantastic, especially considering the price. They sell both side cases with mounting equipment for $500 USD and they include the first set of color plates and an extra lock cylinder for free as well (so you can use one key on both sides and a top case).

O, I almost forgot, I found this little goody during the install.

Very professionally installed and well hidden. I had already noticed that the second tail light was modulated but I figured it was factory like that. After finding this I looked again and realized this module was modulating both brake lights! I love when previous owners install good mods cleanly!


I will update again after I first take it camping. This packing was just a test and did not take into account weight distribution/balance, it was merely to see the space I had available (which was a shockingly large amount). Feel free to ask any questions and I will do my best to answer!

Ride safe guys!

 

[Xlrrp]

Wow, lots of good info in this thread.

Brackson- Thanks for your posts. I am seriously considering investing in two Shad side cases. I had two 30oz MSR fuel bottles mounted to the side of my bike and then the soft saddle bags over the top of them. I didn't like it because the side bags stuck out too far.

On my recent two day camping trip, my bike did very well considering I loaded it down with way more stuff than I really needed. Much of it was unused. Great learning experience for the next trip where I will bring less stuff.

I did learn a couple things such as I do not like the Camelbak on my shoulders and ended up moving it to my tank bag. I also discovered that the Yamaha gel comfort seat isn't and on the return trip used my Airhawk II seat cushion that I had packed in one of my saddle bags.

My Iphone charger is wired to shut off when the bike is not running. This was an issue as I would have liked to charge the phone while in camp with the bike off. I have a hard wired charging cable that came with the Iphone mounting kit. I also have a 12v weatherproof outlet connected to my battery tender so I think the best solution is to simply bring the Iphone cigarette lighter adapter and charge it that way since the 12v outlet is always hot.

A few photos are attached:

 

[payneib]

.

My Iphone charger is wired to shut off when the bike is not running. This was an issue as I would have liked to charge the phone while in camp with the bike off. .

Is that wise? It doesn't take alot to drain these batteries into non-start conditions.

I love your loaded set up, but how much stuff do you need?! Lol.

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

 

[Brackson]

Brackson- Thanks for your posts. I am seriously considering investing in two Shad side cases. I had two 30oz MSR fuel bottles mounted to the side of my bike and then the soft saddle bags over the top of them. I didn't like it because the side bags stuck out too far.

Your welcome sir. It is why I write these things up. I was in a similar situation with the saddle bags from my last bike, they hung at a very strange angle like your pictures and really worried me about hitting the rear tire. So from my research I did I figured out I could spend about $150 getting a bar that would keep my tire from eating the saddle bags, or $400 for lockable waterproof hard luggage, and while I am on a budget, that one was a no brainer.

As for your MSR fuel bottles, I would love to see how and where you mounted them. I have one packed in my gear, but I would love to rig up a fixed mounting location.

On my recent two day camping trip, my bike did very well considering I loaded it down with way more stuff than I really needed. Much of it was unused. Great learning experience for the next trip where I will bring less stuff.

I have so much stuff with me right now I feel like I should be able to cull it down alot, but I realized the reason I have so much right now, is I have full gourmet cooking gear for 2, and a fair bit of stuff that will be split up. I am bringing more than half of the shared camping/cooking gear so once I get to my friend in Maine I will not be carrying as much of it.

I also have a 12v weatherproof outlet connected to my battery tender so I think the best solution is to simply bring the Iphone cigarette lighter adapter and charge it that way since the 12v outlet is always hot.

While this certainly is possible, you need to be very careful with this. All it takes is forgetting the phone once and you are stranded. Especially bad if you are alone. Just something to consider.

 

[Brackson]

Is that wise? It doesn't take alot to drain these batteries into non-start conditions.

I love your loaded set up, but how much stuff do you need?! Lol.

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

Haha you submitted this while I was typing the same thing up into a longer post. I love it!

 

[Xlrrp]

Kinda a goofy way of mounting the two MSR fuel bottles, but it worked fine on the camping trip. Used tractor owner's manual tubes mounted to my Shad top box mount to hold them securely. You can see them in the attached photo before I added the saddlebags over them.

Also, I charge my Sena 10 on a regular basis by leaving it on the bikes 12v charger overnight and have never had any issues. One time it was connected for two days when I forgot to disconnect it. I'm not sure if the Iphone would draw more power and cause the bike not to start.