{"id":10867,"date":"2022-04-18T11:59:27","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T17:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/?p=10867"},"modified":"2022-04-17T10:59:40","modified_gmt":"2022-04-17T16:59:40","slug":"gear-for-a-long-bike-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/gear-for-a-long-bike-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Gear For A Long Bike Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_10869\" style=\"width: 507px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ColoradoCruise.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10869\" src=\"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ColoradoCruise.jpg\" vspace=\"8\" alt=\"\" width=\"497\" height=\"331\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10869\" srcset=\"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ColoradoCruise.jpg 497w, https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ColoradoCruise-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10869\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong><em>So far my longest ride with the RMMRC has been this four-day Colorado Cruise. This Great River Road trip will be nine days.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p>As the day for our departure on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/RockyMountainMotorcycleRidersClub\/events\/284255807\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RMMRC&#8217;s Great River Road ride<\/a> I&#8217;ve been hearing from Roy, who is the group&#8217;s mother hen. Come over and get this packet of information he called me twice to request. So I did.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not exactly new to long motorcycle trips, having been doing them every year with the <a href=\"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/category\/ofmc\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">OFMC<\/a> for more than 30 years. But this will be my first long trip with the RMMRC. So this is the first time I&#8217;ve seen this sheet.<\/p>\n<p>Roy gave me this legal-size page with a lot of info on it, including the names and cellphone numbers of everyone going. Good to have. It also has &#8220;The 12 Commandments of Group Riding&#8221; and information on all our motels along the way. And then there&#8217;s &#8220;The RMMRC Emergency Road Pack.&#8221; This list, divided into &#8220;must,&#8221; &#8220;should,&#8221; and &#8220;handy for emergencies,&#8221; has about anything you could think of, and maybe some you wouldn&#8217;t think of. I&#8217;m just going to give you the list, rearranged into the three groupings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Must<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Copy of M.C. registration and proof of insurance in Ziploc bag: Keep on bike.<\/li>\n<li>Waterproof list of emergency contact numbers: Also cell #s of group riding.<\/li>\n<li>Tire gauge: Check tires before riding and needed for other list items.<\/li>\n<li>Valve core cap that can remove the core: Needed for other list items.<\/li>\n<li>Cellphone with 12V and 120V chargers: Will need in emergency.<\/li>\n<li>Spare ignition key hidden on bike&#8211;don&#8217;t forget where: a must.<\/li>\n<li>Camping tie-down straps: Long straps from BMW dealer or camping stores.<\/li>\n<li>Pressured tire sealer&#8211;Slime: Carry both for different conditions.<\/li>\n<li>Tubeless tire plug kit&#8211;mushroom type is best: Follow instructions closely.<\/li>\n<li>12V air pump with correct plug or alligator clips: Test connectors.<\/li>\n<li>Side stand foot pad with cord for soft ground or asphalt. Use cord on handlebar.<\/li>\n<li>Water bottle: A must for long hot days!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>OK, that group is definitely looking at emergency needs. I personally carry six of those items normally. I&#8217;ll think about some of the others.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Should<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hand sanitizer and hand towels: Need for tire repair.<\/li>\n<li>Flashlight with fresh batteries&#8211;LED lasts longer: Test before long trip.<\/li>\n<li>Bike cover and old T-shirt: Pull T-shirt over windshield to protect.<\/li>\n<li>Zip ties various sizes long and short: Have gotten many riders home.<\/li>\n<li>Stainless steel zip ties long&#8211;Harbor Freight: Great for broken mounts\/brackets.<\/li>\n<li>Duct tape, gorilla tape: A small amount of each.<\/li>\n<li>Baling wire or hanger wire: Around a tool or in a bag.<\/li>\n<li>Pliers with side cutters and\/or vise grips: A must for working with the wire.<\/li>\n<li>Inner tire patch kit with glue: In case of a larger tear in the tire wall.<\/li>\n<li>Short tire irons (2) and extension tube tubular socket or short pipe with irons.<\/li>\n<li>Used inner tube from dealer for emergencies: Dealers throw away old inner tubes.<\/li>\n<li>Combination cable lock&#8211;no keys: Secure your jacket and helmet when parked.<\/li>\n<li>Windscreen cleaner and polish and cloth.<\/li>\n<li>First-aid kit&#8211;small: Basic kit, carry in tank bag or handy spot.<\/li>\n<li>Leaf bags large&#8211;2: Cheap, compact and have many uses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And again, I normally carry six of those things. Truth be told, if I had a flat I would not know how to fix it so I&#8217;ve never bothered with these things. And the one time I did have a flat the tire was beyond repair, even for a short distance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Handy for Emergencies<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>MOA Anonymous Book: Worth the membership and lots of helpful folks. (OK, this is a BMW-specific thing here.)<\/li>\n<li>Small metric socket set: Handle and only sizes for your MC.<\/li>\n<li>Home-made jumper cables with alligator clips 8 to 10 feet long: Cheap to make.<\/li>\n<li>Small siphon pump with pump: Cheap at Walmart and worth it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The only thing in that list I carry is the wrenches. But I do carry a length of tubing on all my bikes in case transferring of fuel is needed. Does that siphon pump come with a long hose? If not you&#8217;d better add that. Maybe that was supposed to read &#8220;Small siphon pump with hose.&#8221; And by the way, I&#8217;ve never had to pull out my tubes. We just make sure not to run out of gas.<\/p>\n<p>As I say, this is not my first long trip but I will think about adding at least a few of the many items I don&#8217;t currently carry. Of course, the good thing about traveling with a good-sized group is that if you don&#8217;t have an item there&#8217;s a good chance someone else does. I don&#8217;t think we all need to carry every one of these items. Looking forward to this trip.<\/p>\n<h3>Biker Quote for Today<\/h3>\n<p>You might be a Yuppie biker if the last time you went to the Harley dealer you came home with golf balls and a toilet seat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the day for our departure on the RMMRC&#8217;s Great River Road ride I&#8217;ve been hearing from Roy, who is the group&#8217;s mother hen. Come over and get this packet of information he called me twice to request. So I did. I&#8217;m not exactly new to long motorcycle trips, having been doing them every year [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,228,818],"tags":[1232,906],"class_list":["post-10867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gear","category-motorcycle-touring","category-rocky-mountain-motorcycle-riders-club","tag-gear-to-take-on-motorcycle-trip","tag-rmmrc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10867"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10871,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10867\/revisions\/10871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}