5 Things to Consider Before a Motorcycle Trip

Hey, my name's Steve Noble and this is Fix My Hog. What we're gonna cover today is five things that you should consider before you go on a motorcycle trip. Now, there's lots of things going around through your head before you go on a motorcycle trip. There's a lot of things to remember, a lot of things to do, a lot of things to consider in different scenarios. Sometimes the list is so daunting it keeps people from even trying a motorcycle trip.

But to me, trips are one of the greatest things about riding a motorcycle. So we're gonna run through the five things that I think you should remember to look over before you go on a motorcycle trip. First and foremost is your riding gear. Now everybody loves to just like jump on the bike in T-shirt and jeans and brr, take off. It's cool.

However, very rarely do you go on a motorcycle trip and never run into any variation of weather. Here in the Northeast, it could be 80 one day, raining the next day, 90 the day after that. You never really know. So you always wanna make sure you have a couple different options available to you. One of the most important things to have a couple different ones of is gloves.

Now I like I have my warm weather gloves which have some nice leather palms on them, but they're very flexible, they're very vented so these are really great for sunny days, warm weather, whatever it may be. And maybe you don't think you need gloves but consider this. One, if you go down, who's gonna help you in the bathroom? Also, having your hands out there and your knuckles out there in the wind for long periods of time can dry them out, and then suddenly your skin's cracking, it's bleeding, it's really painful. Plus getting hit by a stone at 70 miles an hour on your fingertip really, really hurts.

So I like to have like a summertime glove, with a leather palm and like a fabric back or maybe even padded knuckles. these are really great. They keep the sun off your hands so you don't end up with sunburned hands. They'll protect from stones and things like that, and God forbid you go down you still have some protection there. Now if I'm taking a trip to anywhere further north or if it's in the spring or the fall I like to have some insulated gloves.

It's great to have some nice insulated gloves. There are also gauntlet ones, gauntlet meaning whoop they go up over your wrists so your sleeve or your jacket will go in there. these ones are also waterproof so if you get caught in the rain they're gonna keep you dry and they'll keep your hands warm. So always a great thing to have. Then of course with the mention of rain it's always good to have rain gear.

Usually I have this packed into a small pag- small bag but, you know, this works out better like this. even the cheapest rain gear is good, the cheapest motorcycle rain gear, not the stuff from Walmart. but even the cheapest motorcycle rain gear is pretty good. And if you have a fairing bike you don't even need that great of rain gear, you just need something to keep the mist off of you, and to keep you dry when you come to a complete stop. A lot of people scoff at it and they say like, "Oh, well I can only get so wet." This is true, you can only get so wet.

However, rain is generally pretty cold because it comes from up there and eventually hypothermia will set in and nobody likes hypothermia so good to have some rain gear. And of course, lots of different glasses. I always have an extra pair of sunglasses around and I keep a clear pair around too. That way even though I wear a full face helmet sometimes it's nice to have the visor open or God forbid something happened to my visor I can just wear the clear sungla- clear safety glasses and, have eye protection. So it's really good to make sure you have all your bases covered with your riding gear.

Then of course dress in layers for whatever temperature you're gonna need. So number two item, maps. Old paper maps are still always great to have. Sometimes I just print out ones if there's like a certain area that we're going to or, with a lot of the apps now you can actually download the map from the area and then if you have little to no signal there, your phone will actually cache the map as they call it and, that way your phone will actually store the map area inside there and then it will use your GPS to locate you and somehow or another it knows where you are. I don't know.

I fix motorcycles, I don't know how the cellphone thing works but you will have the map info downloaded onto your phone so even if you have low service or low data, something like that, you will still be able to access it and still figure out where you are and where you wanna go. And speaking of cellphones, it's always great to have an extra charging cord. Granted you can usually buy these at most gas stations anymore, but sometimes they're cheap or they won't work with higher power chargers and stuff so I like to have one with me, that way I know it will work with my stuff. And then of course I have one of those backup battery banks and it's just a rechargeable battery backup. you can charge it off any USB port and then you can plug your phone into it or whatever device and it will recharge them.

I found even the cheap ones will recharge a modern cellphone from dead about two and a half, three times or so before the charging pack goes dead and that should be more than enough time to give you for whatever you may need. 'cause remember especially if you're running your GPS out on the trip it will pull your battery down pretty quickly. Some of the newer bikes do have charging ports underneath the tanks, some of them don't. either way it's good to have that little backup there with you. And then when you get to your destination at the end of the day you can always plug it in and recharge that battery bank.

Plus it's just a great thing to have with you. I keep mine in my car the rest of the year 'cause you never know. Number three, a tool kit or some form of a tool kit. Now you're not gonna be able to do major engine repair on the side of the road. I'm sure someone's done it but odds are what you're usually gonna run into is you have to retighten up a foot peg or maybe your clutch lever is coming loose or maybe you have to adjust some shifter linkage.So some basic hand tools, a whole bunch of zip ties, and a flashlight and a pocket knife are really good things to have in your toolkit.

You can either buy a complete toolkit or build one off the wrenches you use to work on your motorcycle. Either way, I have these little canvas zip-up bags. I found them online somewhere, and I find them nice because I can shove a bunch of stuff down inside there, and they zip up, and they're good to go. A lot of people just buy the whole tool roll. There's nothing wrong with that.

It works really well. But things like flashlights, electrical tape, and especially zip ties can be a lifesaver. There isn't a whole lot I haven't found that you can't fix with enough zip ties. Number four, your tires. I cannot tell you how many times I've either been on a trip with friends or encountered other people out on trips, and they're like, "Man, I got to find a tire shop.

My tire wore out." Look at your tires before you go. Measure the tread depth on there. Are they down to the wear bars? Are they down even close to the minimum tread depth? Take into consideration how many miles you're going to be riding and, how many miles your tires will last for.

Most tires are five to nine thousand miles, somewhere in that range, unless you have some extended tires. so consider if you're almost down to the wear bars and you're looking at a two to three thousand mile trip, that could be half the life of your tires. So if you don't have at least fifty percent of your tire depth there, you should have more, you really might wanna consider new tires before you go on the trip. Because even if you're down to the wear bars and you get caught in a heavy rain up in the mountains or out in the southwest somewhere, that could be a sketchy situation. Nobody wants that.

And number five, the maintenance on your motorcycle. Give your bike a good walk around. Look at every fastener. Don't be afraid to put a wrench onto things like your brake caliper mounts, your shifter linkages, your levers, your mirrors, lots of little things like that. Not only is it a good inspection to make sure nothing is loose or about to come loose, but it familiarizes you with your motorcycle.

And if you've looked at a lot of stuff and then when you're out in a parking lot on the road and you see something that might be a little iffy, you'll be a lot more confident to say, "Hey, that did not look like that when I left. I need to investigate that," or, "No, that's just the way it looks. It's good to go." So be sure to give everything a good inspection. Check your tire pressure. Have your tires been holding air?

are your fluids good? Is everything tight? Is everything look- does anything look like it's worn out or any of your wires wearing through? Any of your cables wearing? Any odds and ends just like that?

Because that's the type of thing that comes up out in the middle of nowhere on a motorcycle trip. It's generally not something major. It's usually something small that leaves you stranded. And if you go over those things and give them all a good inspection, you drastically reduce your chances of having a problem on the side of the road. So I hope this video helped you build a little more confidence in you and your motorcycle's ability to go out on a trip.

So hopefully you get out there and explore the countryside. Maybe I'll see you out there on the road somewhere. Until then, my name is Steve Noble, this is Fix My Hog, and thank you for watching.