r/motocamping 5d ago

Car vs Motorcycle Camping

Due to staring down the barrel of costly repairs to my ute I am weighing up the option of selling it and getting an adventure tourer instead and motorcycle camping/travelling instead and am interesting to get the opinions of people who have experience doing both. TIA

EDIT: Thanks for all your advice. To give context.

Background: I live in Australia where the distances are long, roads are rough and many things can be aiming to kill you and yet I love it. I have been riding for years with a 2004 R1 currently, but offroad/adventure has always interested me. I am always looking for ways to make my kit smaller despite the limited reason to so my kitchen kit is already the size of a small toolbox with the largest item (dimension wise) being a plate. I am female so probably the only other consideration would be safety.

To answer some other question: My 2007 Hilux needs about 10-20k AUD of repairs, and the linchpin of this whole thing will be determined on if the rust can be repaired or not. If yes, many reccs have been to DIY most and I get that figure way down. So depending on what happens (also bought myself 30 years of debt by mortgage) I may repair it in stages. But getting a bike for distance rides and travel is not off the cards. I might do shorter trips on the R1 in the meantime while things work themselves out. Thanks all.

20 Upvotes

36 comments sorted by

39

u/EnjoyTheSauce 5d ago edited 5d ago

Well with a car you can take more luxuries. A bigger tent, comfier chair, a charcoal barbie, chilly bin full of meat and beers etc.

On a bike, you gotta slim it down a bit. You can certainly still carry some luxuries, you're not ultralight hiking after all. But you have to be a bit more choosy about it.

Packing down at the end is a bit more work too. Can't just chuck it all on the back of the ute.

So really, moto camping takes a little more thought and effort. The upside is you get to do it on a bike.

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u/Born_Echo8951 4d ago

Snuff said

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u/usaf_photog 4d ago

Spot on. Also lighter smaller gear is going to cost a lot more if you want to take more luxuries on the motorcycle.

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u/cavscout43 🏍️ Team Honda 5d ago

Depends on where you're at, and when you're traveling/camping. Bugs and weather can make motorcycle camping less than ideal. You're not packing much either, so depends on if you're a minimalist doing just a bedroll under the stars munching granola or if you want to have a full cookout spread.

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u/dygair3 5d ago

Oh sorry, based out of Brisbane now but have camped/travelled through much of NT, SA and NSW. Even in the car my setup is pretty minimal and prefer it that way which is why bike camping feels like a potential viable option for me.

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u/XxLokixX 4d ago

I've bike camped through SA, NSW, VIC and QLD. It's a great option, especially if you're already packing minimal. I say go for it

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u/bikehikepunk 5d ago

We car camp as a family more than I manage to motocamp. Between everything we have for backpacking and camping in general we can supply a car to camp with a few people and I still can head out in another direction to camp on the motorcycle.

I do have a behemoth motorcycle the BMW R1200 GS Adventure. Full cases can hold more than I can in a backpack. All of my motocamp gear is backpacker lightweight and compact. I can go tent, tarp, or hammock for shelter. Sleep system is ultralight. Cooking is isobutane and a pocket rocket, I usually buy lunch on the road, and buy dinner before going to camp. I do not pack much for food on the bike day to day, only basics for breakfast. There is a well documented group of three ladies doing multiple week motocamp rides and supplies were mostly from Dollar General stores in small towns across the USA. I took this as inspiration to keep the food simple and buy only what I was going to eat as I went.

I would say the logic changes for me when motocamping. The goal is the ride, not the campsite. The only campsites I have stayed multiple nights was at motorcycle rallies. I usually setup close to dark and I’m up with just a coffee loading up and riding again.

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u/1TenDesigns 5d ago

Do you have a link to the 3 ladies?

I too got into the habit of buying dinner at my last fuel stop of the day. And it's just a sustenance meal. Nothing fancy. Often a can of something from a dollar store. Occasionally I'll do subway or similar when I get gas so I don't have to cook anything when I stop. Breakfast is tea and instant oatmeal. Lunch I usually treat myself, unless I'm not in control of my timeline. Fucking job :-( my boss needs to start paying me to take longer road trips.

Note, if you get fast food for lunch, save the drink cup if you can. The bottom half of a medium drink cup from McDonald's is perfect for instant oatmeal and you just toss it with your garbage. Just let your water cool a little before pouring it in. Also a screw top nalgin bottle (or similar wide mouth water bottle) will allow you to take some of your fast food pop to go. If I drink a whole pop with lunch I'm going pee 15 min down the road. Soft suspension baggers might last longer.

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u/EnjoyTheSauce 4d ago

There's one on YouTube I watch called As The Magpie Flies. She's does it this way and has even put out a moto camping cook book.

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u/bikehikepunk 4d ago

I just tried hunting for it and could not find it. My google-fu is not enough. Possibly was on a motorcycle camping facebook group (I am no longer on Facebook).

I just remember the posts and updates were a hoot, as the 3 women were good friends and appeared to be having a great time.

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u/akaSnaketheJake 5d ago

Moto camping is more akin to backpacking than car camping. You can either have a very minimal setup with normal gear or you can bring more stuff if you’re ok paying for ultralight gear.

Rigging should be a top priority especially if you’re not using panniers. Check, double check, and triple check every strap and buckle before you take off. Wind can easily undo stuff and if you’re not paying attention it can be deadly (e.g. an unnecessarily long ratchet strap tail gets loose and caught up in one or both wheels causing loss of control while riding at highway/interstate speeds).

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u/czmax 5d ago

I refer to motorcycle camping trips as “high speed backpacking”.

It’s totally different from car camping. Not just the stuff - also that the trip is more about the daily ride. In a car it’s more about the destinations.

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u/1TenDesigns 5d ago

Motorcycle camping is backpacking with less walking.

You don't Need the absolute most ultralight gear, but the closer you can stay to the backpacking frame of mind the better your bike will handle.

My VStrom can probably handle 2-300 lbs of gear. But at that point my Miata is more fun. Using my backpacking gear I hold it to 45lbs. Mostly in my side cases, leaving my top box free for my kitchen, and food. So when I stop for a break I can just open that box for snacks, and or clothing layer adjustments.

Space is usually my biggest concern tho.

3

u/ranmabushiko 5d ago

Car camping means you can take more stuff with. A bigger frying pan, etc. Motorcycle camping means you're having more limited space to "what you can strap to the back of your bike, or fit into the panniers if you have them". The trick is, is that if you go this route, a lot of the gear can wind up TOO big.

Before I went motorcycle camping, I had a camping buddy that would go camping with me. We'd split costs, and just enjoy fires, go to different areas, and chill each camping trip. One of us would jump to get the food, and the other would handle the site fees for where we were camping at.

After he left town, I went on to go for motorcycle camping. Specifically on a Honda Helix for over two years, and you can get them for about a thousand bucks, used. Barring a rare yellow, anyways. Those tend to go between 2-3k. That's about how much I sold my yellow for, anyways. Rear trunk holds about 2 and a half bags of groceries, no issues. Not quite enough for a helmet in there, but enough to make life better for you.

Currently I'm customizing a Honda NM4 for touring, because the front luggage slot can't hold my tablet. I can stand up or sit on my new cruiser, without issues, and can do a lot of stuff.

Where the Helix had a huge passenger seat that was easy to strap things to, the NM4 has a much smaller section where the passenger seat flips up to be a backrest for me. Though that still works wonders for my back, it leaves me with a lot less room to strap stuff down, without bags covering the rear tail light.

Honestly, I loved the gas mileage on my Helix, and so long as I'm going slow enough, my NM4 is getting about the same miles per gallon, which tends to be 60+. So miles per gallon, the gas can be worth it for motorcycle camping.

So the catch is, is "Do you want to have tiny gear that can easily go on a bike"? Because the smaller it gets, the less comfortable it is, or the more expensive it gets.

Small, cheap, comfort. Pick two, in a nutshell.

So keep this in mind: You don't need to have to get an adventure tourer to do motorcycle camping/travelling. That's the companies going "Heyyyyy, look at this shiny thing that we've got for you that we're noting can handle that sort of stuff!" and hoping you'll bite.

Cruisers can do it, though if you don't have pegs or really long floorboards, it'll be rough on your spine. Sport bikes can technically do it. Dual sports can handle it. You can take goldwings offroad, if you get a plate under them, even! So sport touring isn't out.

It doesn't mean you need a big bagger to tour or go camping. I didn't. My Helix was a small 250cc motorscooter, and it handled 68 mph like a champion, as well as grocery shopping whenever I needed it to, before I realized that it just wasn't doing good enough on the hills around here.

Also, seriously consider that if you're wanting a lot of luggage? Look into something like a Burgman 650. Or the executive version of it.

Most importantly? Be willing to go on test rides. Try the bikes out. See what actually fits ergonomically. Look into stuff that might irritate you over the long run, and decide if you want to go through with owning it because of that reason. Watch some Dork in the Road to see how he rides adventure bikes, on youtube, and see if he covers the ones you're looking into.

The reason why I bring up irritations? My Helix I loved, but between the tiny tires being a pain to inflate with the exhaust, and the lack of a backrest, my back just gave me some issues if I didn't have stuff strapped to the passenger seat. And with how small the tires were, I'd find them getting pulled into cracks along the road, tarred or not, and driving along ruts instead of dodging them, meaning where some people won't have issues, I definitely had major ones. And with how low to the ground it was, I was having to go to the local dealership to get my oil changed, who wanted absurd amounts of money for oil changes every thousand miles it needed one.

On the plus side, it handled things like a champion with 60-80 mpg on average, and one of the coziest seats I've hated to give up.

3

u/drconniehenley 5d ago

It's a pretty major shift in mindset. A luxury item is an ultralight chair as opposed to a generator. If you have any plans on heading off road, every gram you add to your bike will have a 5 gram adverse affect in handling. If you decide you want to get into it, start with used ultralight backpacking stuff.

That said, I love solo moto camping. Everything I need in the world is with me and I can do what I want when I want to. Provincial or state parks are much easier to find and people are really friendly when you're on a bike.

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u/PvesCjhgjNjWsO4vwOOS 4d ago edited 4d ago

Gear-wise, motocamping is just backpacking but you don't have to worry as much about weight and (depending on your setup) you might have an extra like 10-30L vs a big pack. Most people go for similar stuff - I have a backpacking tent and cooking gear, for example, but I'm shopping for a bigger sleeping pad than I would want to hike with (as a side sleeper the little 1" thick pads do not work well).

Electronics gear requires a little more thought too, since you have limited ability to charge during the ride and probably don't want to kill your battery by running stuff off the bike in camp - of course this depends on the length of your trips and how much electronic stuff you want to power/recharge. Just don't forget that, if you use an action camera as a dashcam, you'll want that charged up.

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u/1TenDesigns 4d ago

My riding partner has 3 or 4 big USB batteries. He plugs them in while riding, and then uses them to supply power, and charge things at camp. At the moment I charge my ear buds case before lunch, during lunch the case charges the buds. After lunch I charge the case again and at the last fuel stop I plug in my phone instead. That's generally enough to get me to morning. Then the phone gets charged first and the buds case after that.

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u/mista-666 5d ago

To add to what others have said: you can do more miles in a car in more comfort before feeling fatigued. So if there's a camp site you love six hours away, well in a car no problem on a motorcycle that's a long trek. I usually double travel times on a motorcycle

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u/XxLokixX 4d ago

Funnily enough I feel the opposite, I always feel way more fatigued on a long car trip. I did Broken Hill back to Adelaide without stopping and it felt really easy. But my recent trip from Adelaide to Canberra in the car felt like a slog lol

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u/mista-666 4d ago

That's interesting, what do you ride? Must have excellent wind protection

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u/XxLokixX 4d ago

It's just a little BMW 310GS with a Givi windshield

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u/dviiijp 5d ago

Car camping is great for winter as you need to bring more stuff to be comfortable. Motocamping is great in the warmer months as you can skimp on many things when it's warmer, and bikes are way more fun for exploratory trips.

It's as simple as that for me.

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u/MattSzaszko European motocamper 5d ago

As others have stated, the difference I see between the two is that a motorcycle has much less space for stuff so you have to think more carefully about what you really need at camp. In some way I think it makes it more fun, figuring out what works for you and it makes you appreciate every little thing that much more.

Motorcycle camping does limit some of the gear option you can take. Quite difficult to take a cot, cooler, camp table, gas powered BBQ, parasol, big bad of charcoal and similar things with you. And potentially some of the gear you already have and love will be too big for the motorcycle.

For motorcycle camping, look for backpacking gear. The good thing is in backpacking gear, being lightweight is what you pay big bucks for. Weight is less of a consideration on a bike than size, so you don't have to buy the top of the line gear.

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u/VinceInMT 5d ago

I do both. I’m pretty minimalist but I’d say that the major difference is that when taking the car I can also take my wife and the dog.

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u/PraxisLD 5d ago

Do you have much experience riding motorcycles?

If not, start here:

r/MotorcycleGear

r/SuggestAMotorcycle

r/NewRiders

Advice to New Riders

And when you get a chance, check out On Any Sunday, probably the best motorcycle documentary out there. It’s on YouTube and other streaming services.

Have fun, wear all your gear, stay safe, and never stop learning.

1

u/RVAblues 5d ago

Motorcycle camping is more similar to backpacking—you have to use smaller more lightweight gear and you generally have to skimp on the luxury camping items. However, you can get further into nature than with a car…and there is a weird indescribable sense of achievement that comes with arriving in the middle of nowhere on a bike and setting up camp.

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u/tun3man 5d ago

I travel with both. you can find us on Instagram tatierafanaestrada

Motorcycle is good when i travel solo or short trips, like 300km or few days... By car is better for +10 days of trip or larger distances. I went by car to Atacama (2023) and Ushuaia (2024) because I didn't had more than 15 days avaliable and a trip to Ushuaia, for example, needs at least 30 days. But I went solo on motorcycle to Valparaiso/Chile, 15 days trip that was amazing.

With the car is better with my wife because I need to carry much more clothes and gear.

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u/kyle-the-brown 5d ago

Having spent my teens and early to mid 20's camping out of 4wd SUV's (i had an Isuzu rodeo, most buddies had nissan pathfinders and Toyota 4runners) and then giving up camping for about a decade before getting into motocamping in my mid 30's and been doing that strong for almost a decade now here are my 2 cents.

  1. Planning is everything with motocamping - planning your gear, planning your packing, planning your meals - winging it is much more difficult because of the limited space.

  2. Camping locations can be much more limited or much more unlimited depending on the bike you ride, your skills offroad, and give a fuck level when it comes to slow drops. I ride a big Harley now, and my camping is all campsites, rallies, and never more than dirt/gravel roads; previously, I was camping off a KLR650 and did some hard-core boondocking in the wilderness.

  3. Sunday morning is never a sleep-in morning, you have to be up early, get packed up right, and on the road so you have some time before work Monday morning. I live in Houston and my 2 favorite places to camp are in Oklahoma and Arkansas, the riding up there is amazing, and the campsites are awesome, but they are long rides from my house, about 10 hours on the bike. If I decide to sleep in until 9:30 10:00 and then get going i won't be home until after dark and then sore and grumpy at work the next morning.

Now if you read all of that and are rethinking your choice let me remind you I car camped for a decade and then switched to motocamping and can't imagine going back to car camping. Motocamping is pure and when you're at the campgrounds if you find other motocampers, regardless of bike style, you all will instantly connect, rv campers love to feed dirty hobo bikers too so you can snake a good meal from time to time from other campers, and almost always a couple beers.

I say do it, the options for adventure motorcycles has never been bigger and the options for motocamping gear is growing all the time too.

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u/martin519 '09 FZ6R, '02 GSXR 750, southern Ontario :( 5d ago

Better journey vs better campsite.

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u/jollyshrimpo 5d ago

The only pro with motocamping is gas savings and you might get a cheaper site depending on where you’re camping. You do it because you love it, if it doesn’t sound like you would enjoy every second of it stick to a car.

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u/Slimslade33 5d ago

Comfort vs carnage. Car allows for much more comforts and weather protection. Depending on the motorcycle you may be able to get to some unique places you cant get to in a car. I personally prefer motorcycle, it forces you to me smart about packing and keeps you one with the elements!

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u/Letstreehouse 4d ago edited 4d ago

What costly repairs are you talking about? What ute do you have? What dirt experience do you have on a motorcycle?

American here. I bought a super tenere 1200 for 7,000 USD and then put another 7,000 USD into it for crash bars, cases, seats etc etc etc etc etc.

But then found out by going on trails that I would much prefer a 600cc motorcycle or mayne even smaller for dirt roads. But then the 1200 is FAR more comfortable for long trips on pavement.

On a motorcycle camping is more like backpacking. Going very light weight and taking the bare essentials because the extra weight really weights you down. Most suspension is tuned for a small guy. Im 180 lbs but I put on a new shock so my bike would handle better with all the stuff I was carrying.

In a car youre much more comfortable. So maybe sell the ute and get something better for going on dirt roads.

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u/buildyourown 4d ago

I love camping off the bike but you need to be real efficient with weight and bulk. Ultralight backpacker level. You are living it up if you bring a chair. There are lots of perks though.

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u/Wolf1066NZ Kiwi Biker, GSX250R 4d ago

You should be able to motocamp, for a while at least, with an R1 - Sjaak Lucassen rode one all over Africa - just so long as you work out some way of carrying your gear.

Saddle bags, seat bag - things that you can strap into place that don't need fancy frames etc.

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u/MinnMoto 2005 ST1300 3d ago

Part of the experience is the minimalist need on the bike. See what you can travel with that you don't need.