Five tips for a weekend motorcycle trip

Even as I type the words, “road trip” conjures up visions of expanses of open road and beautiful scenery, traversed over multiple days if not weeks. Out there in the middle of nowhere, stopping in a different town every night, eating at sketchy truck stop diners or over an open fire at a remote campsite. In these mental pictures, sometimes I’m solo, often I’m with friends, but almost always my mind’s eye paints my motorcycle heading off to some distant place.

The truth of the matter is, the majority of the motorcycle trips I’ve taken are often accomplished with only a few days to spare. Two to three days to get out, get on with it, and get back. For a lot of us, time is a luxury to be enjoyed with the utmost of care. The response I most often hear from new and experienced riders alike on the topic of road trips is “I’d love to try it, but I don’t have enough vacation time to do that.”

So, in an effort to help motivate the unconverted to get out and take a trip on their motorcycles, I figured I’d write down some tips that I’ve learned along the way to help get you over the hump and plan an adventure that can fit into a weekend. Here we go:

The guest list

I’m a huge fan of both solo and group motorcycle trips. That being said, if you’re going to travel in a pack, make sure you know who you are traveling with and that you’re on the same page about how you like to travel. While this is a good tip for group rides in general, it’s extremely important when you only have a few days away.

If you prefer less miles on exciting and twisty roads but your traveling companion values long distance with fewer stops, you’re going to have diverging goals that will disrupt the enjoyable flow, at least for one of you. Have the discussion up front about your plan and intentions for mileage in a day, how often you plan to stop, what restaurants you enjoy, whether you’re going to camp or hotel it... you get the drift. Having this conversation ahead of time will help set the tone and level expectations for the trip.

The route

Ol’ Lance and I took a road trip together a few years back where we met at his uncle's cabin in West Virginia and then rode back to Philadelphia together. We knew that the morning was going to be spent enjoying the great winding mountain roads west of Harrisonburg, Virginia, and the late afternoon would be spent slagging down the freeway to make it home. While this wasn’t ideal, it got us out of the office for two days to enjoy some of the best roads in the eastern United States at the cost of sacrificing a bit of the enjoyment later in the day.

The important thing was we had an agreed-upon plan (per my first point) and we had an intention with our route: to spend several hours riding some great mountain roads. The intention for your route could be the same, or it could be to try an ice cream shop in the next state, to visit a friend and share a drink, or to just get out of town and clear your head. A great place to start is to pull out a map and start checking out what you have going on around you in a 500-mile radius. (I particularly enjoy the Butler Maps overlay feature in REVER because it offers up the best motorcycle roads.) You can opt to plan it out meticulously or to just give yourself a few bread crumbs to hit. There’s not a right or wrong way to do it, but having at least some loose guidelines helps.

The distance

When people discuss road trips, you’ll often hear that less is more. For the weekend road trip, it’s important to plan a route or destination that is reasonably achievable without forcing yourself to just burn miles non-stop. My rule of thumb is 250 to 300 miles per day, depending on the intention. Even as I’m typing this I can picture Lance in the comments.

The aforementioned trip had us covering something like 500 miles in a day. And while we enjoyed ourselves on the first portion of the trip, the second half of the day became a bit of a grind battling traffic into Philadelphia. While I do think that covering longer distances in a weekend road trip can be fun in their own right (surprising an old friend or family member 700 miles away, tackling an Iron Butt route in a loop, or just getting out and burning miles), in my experience those are most often successful as a solo trip versus trying to have two or more people agree on a aggressive pace.

The gear

While having all of the right gear can make a motorcycle trip more enjoyable, it’s not necessary to make it memorable. On a recent episode of Highside/Lowside where Zack and I discussed motorcycle mods, he quizzed me on whether I’d rather have a center stand or a communication system for a road trip. I hemmed and hawed. This was right after we declared our entry to middle age by saying electronic cruise control was a “must have.” The truth is, that’s all bullshit. A year ago, Zack and I traveled nearly 2,000 miles across India with no cruise control, no center stands, and while we did have com systems, that was mainly because we were filming for a CTXP episode. And that was an amazing trip, one I’ll never forget.

The point is, some of the trips I remember the most were the ones where I just got on the bike and rode. I’ve been guilty more than once of forgetting rain gear, not packing enough layers, and using some really inappropriate luggage solutions. Most recently I caught awkward stares from my co-workers when I strapped an Adidas duffle bag to a BMW F 900 GS and set out across the Mojave desert. It was what I had, and it worked. Does RevZilla have you covered with all of the latest and greatest in motorcycle gear and parts? Sure. But do you need each and every last farkle to have a perfect trip? Nope.

The motorcycle

Any motorcycle is capable of a road trip, especially a weekend road trip! From 50 cc scooters to touring mainstays like a Honda Gold Wing and everything in between, any bike can take you away from home (and if you are diligent with your maintenance, it might even bring you back). I can’t tell you how many times people have tried to tell me the bike I was on was too small for me or too small to take on a trip. I smile, nod, and ride away. Don’t let naysayers affect your good time and sense of adventure. You’re most likely having more fun than they are, anyway.

That being said, you still want to make sure you’ve taken some basic precautions before setting out. Check your tire tread and pressure to make sure your tires are up for your intended distance. While you’re at it, pack a plug kit (or spare tube) and know how to use it. A flat tire can put a long delay on trying to enjoy a short trip. Familiarize yourself with your bike’s fuel range and whether gas will be readily available. Make sure you give the bike a quick once over by checking your oil level, adjusting and cleaning your chain, and tightening up any loose nuts and bolts. If you’re not sure how to do this stuff, Ari Henning covers a lot of the basics in his YouTube series The Shop Manual.

Conclusion

Aside from that, the rest is up to you to figure out. Are you going to camp? Well, that means more packing. Are you going to stay in a hotel? Well, that means more budget. Surprising friends or family? Better make sure they’re home!

While this isn’t the be-all-end-all guide to motorcycle touring, it’s not meant to be. Instead, I hope it serves as some level of inspiration to just go out and go for a ride on your bike. If you’ve never done it, give it a try. If you haven’t done it in a while, maybe it’s time. No matter who you are, or the bike you ride, or where you live, you can find a way to cram a lot of fun into a short amount of time on a motorcycle.

All things considered, I’ve yet to find an activity that I enjoy more than a good motorcycle road trip. It helps me escape technology and the problems of the day, week, or month and just clear my mind in a way that nothing else does. If tensions and stresses are building at home and on the job, oftentimes the first thing my wife, Nicole, suggests is to take a day or a weekend off and go out for a motorcycle ride. And almost always, without fail, it’s the reset I need to get myself back to "normal."