Early Planning for a Big Motorcycle Ride - Expert Tips and Gear Recommendations!

Get ahead of the game with our expert tips on planning your next big motorcycle ride. From gear to route planning, we cover everything you need to know. 🏍️

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Saddlemen 4100 Seat Bag, Wolfman Luggage, Vacuum Sealer, GoPro 12, Insta360

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⏰ Timecodes ⏰

0:00 - Teaser

0:41 - Intro

1:13 - Pre-Roll: BMR Rider Alerts

1:44 - The Toolkit: Gear Reviews and Tips

6:21 - Ride Wise: Planning and Safety Tips

9:40 - Mile Marker: Story Segment

15:24 - Website and Subscribe Promotion

15:53 - Roadside Q&A: Interactive Segment

20:18 - The Last Mile: Reflections

21:42 - Closer

#MotorcycleTravel #TravelPlanning #MotorcycleGear

About:

Welcome to the Best Motorcycle Roads Podcast! Join Tom and Todd as they share over 65 years of combined motorcycling experience and 30 years of planning and riding motorcycle trips. Tune in for tips, stories, and expert advice to make your next motorcycle trip the best it can be.

Episode 022 - Early Planning for a big ride - Best Motorcycle Roads Podcast - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzPsEQ6KhF0

Transcript:

(00:41) can be we'll dive into technology planning packing the roots and other tips and everything in between from essential prep to Unforgettable Roots we've got you covered before we Kickstart today's Journey we ask you to sign up for our BMR Rider alerts it's our way of keeping you in the loop with the latest rides tips and stories we promise no spam only the essentials to enhance your motorcycle Adventures join the BMR crew today we'll put a link in the show notes this segment about motorcycle gear

(01:44) looking at some seat bags is kind of what they call them or um yeah seat bags so I'm looking at a saddleman 4100 4100 cubic Ines of uh luggage storing fun um it's kind of a U-shaped fits really nicely on the passenger seat and then can buckle down um on there so um I was doing some math and I'm pretty sure I'm wrong because it was telling me 4,100 cubic inches I thought each can was 18 cubic Ines does that seem right like a can of pop a can of soda yeah 18 cubic inches sounds right that sounds 41 when

(02:51) like a U-shaped large luggage and as we've talked about on other um other episodes we kind of like to just have the thing and take the whole whole thing in with you now or hopefully even better a liner that you can just pull out leave the bag on but because if you get too caught up with some of it it just seems like you're forever I mean on the last trip when we went down the eclipse I was it took me hours it felt like hours like I was there the last guy taking crap off the bike and I feel like I was just took

(03:51) the thing open it falls open you grab the two handles you just walk in yeah you've got it all so look into that it's kind of like the generic I think you know and this um also comes with of course well it doesn't come with it little extra rain cover but you always you need a rain cover but I was also thinking I have my um I'm a big Wolfman luggage fan and he has those I bring those two bags one of them I put all my clothes in to start with and one of them's empty and then as you get dirty clothes you move them over to the

(04:46) day expenses so we're going to bring a cooler pack some food pack some um um drinks water that kind of thing um I was just what did we bring last time I was kind of thinking about that and I need to kind of respark that yeah I think uh what I remember is that you had vacuum sealed a lot of like uh meat and cheese and uh make like a trail mix or a nut mixture um yes and you would you and that vacuum sealer just works so good cuz it makes it small keeps it fresh feels fresh anyway it feels fresh and and then I had a small cooler with that

(05:50) the hardest part um but yeah so hopefully everything will go well it'll be fun yeah ridewise is the section we focus on planning and safety tips ridewise is the section we focus on on planning and safety tips and one of the things I was just thinking Tom you know you've got this long trip you're going to go probably close to 1900 or 2,000 miles one way um you know one of the fun things and we talk about this on every trip and it just happened this this past weekend we uh did a memorial day you know kind of ride and uh we we checked

(06:48) three-hour Drive is Portland and I know Jason the guy we used to work with at The Gazette has a place in Portland so maybe he'll be there then and so that was one of the thoughts I had that's a good idea um yep no that it's it's one of the things I just didn't realize is the fun part it really is yeah and then uh you know just remind you to hydrate hydrate hydrate cuz you're going to be going in July oh man Late July Late July or August yeah yeah technically everything will be in August but yeah um

(07:47) sure we pre-trip some things that's a good one and then um this this was just something that I did U this this past weekend the end of last season one of my headlights went uh you know burned out and so excuse me I went and you know picked up a couple headlights but uh my bike has two so I I was okay to finish the you know the ride or whatever I uh but I wanted to replace them uh replace it this year I just replaced both because I can't remember what's what was in there what you know like the color

(08:47) time yeah you know so we'll have to see yeah cuz you're at about 3,500 miles right now your bike on that tire and then it's going to be hot you're going to have it loaded down um and I would say that you're probably going to want to even well you'll make it out there but then check it when you're there because sure well I want to do a little research on how many miles people have gotten it now this has the aftermarket suspension and supposedly that is a really big difference so we'll have to

(09:40) segment is what we call the mile marker it's our story segment this is a section we call the mile marker so yeah we're heading to Seattle Turk and I at the end of July just so I have 2,000 miles as Todd mentioned that's kind of just the Google Map so not you know if we take any alternate routes I know um the first night we're staying in rap City so we're going to want to drive through I think it's the Needles Highway out in stur it's the it's the main one now we're going to be there two days wor stures so

(10:38) we're going to hit some states G be great um we'll probably you know Mark and I are we hit it pretty hard so uh the first day I think is 800 miles 400 miles by the second day but we know we want to do some of that Needles Highway and I think the last day is still 700 miles so is that that equal about 2,000 is uh yeah I wasn't paying attention plus four carry the one divide by six I don't sounds pretty good uh yeah so on the way back I know Mark wants to we might tack on a little more he's never

(11:39) Seattle's dry season which is like four days I think maybe huh right but uh no for I mean so that's kind of a bonus we've been looking on the forums the motorcycle trips and advice a lot of people from out there giving us some great suggestions I know um Olympic Island I think is a place we can ride out there is all those beautiful pictures of these wild looking rock formations that are sticking up out of the water so I think we'll find enough to ride hopefully um yeah we won't end up in Canada by accident but if we do we

(12:42) different I can do right um maybe it's just the gold wins run a by 400 Harley-Davidson's might be enough might be um yeah I don't know just keep your eyes open for for cool things to see along the way and you know I would say when you find some great roads and things that are real memorable that you know the rest of us you know should come out and join you with we you know version two yeah we'll take another ride out there that's a good point yeah I'd make sure You' really pay attention to

(13:40) how how it was we just knew it was stur just being so close we were going to have to get something so I hope we really do have a place to stay yeah I'm surprised you got a place to stay it's so close to Sturgis and maybe because we're it'll be Sunday night and so maybe people are just leaving on Monday I don't I don't know I can't believe it 29th no you know what it's 29th and 30th is Monday the first is Tuesday the and the second is Wednesday that's the first day oh so maybe just maybe I still think

(14:44) trailer yeah for sure the podcast can be found on best motorcycleroads.com podcast all the information you need will be there uh but you can subscribe on Spotify Amazon music apple pocketcast and YouTube this is the interactive segment we will be looking for input from you uh we want you to send us your questions and suggestions for roads topics and anything else you have on your mind today's roadside Q&A comes from Sam and Sam would like to know if we have any recommendations for cameras that work well on the motorcycle and uh

(15:57) way upside down and the Horizon never Chang you can literally sit there and spin it like this and it doesn't look like you've moved the camera it's unbelievable yeah and like I said the GoPro 12 the reason why we picked that one up is because of the Bluetooth capabilities that it connects to the center red so that the goal here is try to get it hooked into our headsets which I have not successfully yeah yeah but that's why we picked that up but I know the insta 360 both attaches the Bluetooth like that and I'm assuming

(16:57) thought process was I bought a GoPro accessory door so I could plug in the camera the whole time Y and my thought was well if it rains if I angle it that way then it could be rare that the rain would drive up yeah under there well once in a while and I don't know if it's cuz of vibration motorcycle or what but I would get a warning that says you know not enough power well what I think I decided was that was the battery maybe just microsc disconnecting from the camera you know and giving it a weird signal so I need to check into that but

(17:48) 2k video which like you and I have talked about I'm not sure how we're even going to edit these files down my computer can't handle it because I think each segment of file is 11 gig wow one file so yeah uh TBD yeah TBD for sure might have to buy some pretty big computers to deal with that a super computer there you go so Sam to answer your question insta 360 uh the GoPro 12 I guess if you want to try and connect to the that's and I'm pretty sure the 11 and 12 are similar of that Bluetooth feature I think it's close it's probably the same

(18:54) job of good pictures and the one thing you just have to remember every time you stop clean the lens oh yeah CU it's inevitable that a bug has gotten in there within the first two seconds of you stepping onto the motorcycle no other bugs hit the bike anywhere but that lens at little but no that is important because um yeah those things were great and I mean they they get a great and they're always running so you can kind of go back and watch it all and I don't know I love it if anything happens hit the button it takes an

(19:49) that put a cover over it or something the the sun is not treat the uh screens well on those so they kind of burn out and then they they kind of I wouldn't say they're worthless at that point but they're they're tough I've seen them go out and then oh wow they still work but they don't you can't see anything on them I see and then one more tip I guess I was GNA I'm trying on mine is I kind of got mine mounted all up in my trunk I actually found a an SD card reader for one that's extension so I'm going to try

(20:45) mean I think I've done close to that like I think we did that one you know just a few years ago or Co year Well we did because remember cuz we uh I went a ways broke the bike came back got a different bike so yeah it was about that much that was about that far but um you're going to see some just amazing scenery out there don't forget to take pictures and uh yeah I kind of wish I was uh taking that trip with you because I think it's been great well I'm excited too just to kind of see how the ride out

(21:42) the thrill of the ride and the bond it creates keep the spirit of Adventure alive and remember bikes friends and endless roads the stories ride forever take care [Music] a [Music]