Motorbike Camper

Introduction I love motorcycle touring, over the years I’ve loaded up my trusty road bearing steeds and followed the twisties and backcountry roads to many a small country town where at the local watering hole if you buy a beer and stay for a meal they’ll let you camp for free. But Australia is a big country and unfortunately, you can only go so far on the tar. As the years went by I slowly started to explore the road less travelled and took my ZX9R to places it just wasn’t quite built for. Until finally on my last camping trip over Christmas, I blew my fork seals while venturing off-road. Sadly, It was time to assign my jack-of-all-trades ZX9R to commuting duties and track days and look for something a bit more off-road orientated. After a bit of research, I bit the bullet and got myself a brand new bush pig, the fabled DR650. I fitted it with knobbies, a 30L safari tank and started planning my first proper off-road trip. Melbourne to Mungo and back. Day 1. Melbou...

I bought this budget luggage system from Third Gear to try out as I can't afford the Giant Loop one I want just yet. After reading some reviews I figured I'd pay the $74 and see how it goes. As I couldn't find any photos or vids of people using it for camping I thought I'd share my set up and show you what I managed to stuff in it. Here's what I've tried to fit in it: 1. Gas Canister 2. Cookset with stove, lighter and spork 3. SOL Escape Bivvy 4. 6-11c Sleeping Bag 5. Helinox Chair 6. Sea to Summit Ultralight Insulated sleeping mat 7. DD Hammock/Tarp 8. Mountain Design Pillow 9. Tent Pole 10. Vango Blade 2p Tent 11. Tent pegs and hammer Plus, missing from the photo is a headlamp, phone charger, GoPro, Water purifier, spare tyre tubes and a few other odds n ends. As you can see the only thing I couldn't get in was my tent and tent pole, so they will probably go on the back of the bike or in a backpack. All that's lef...

The Bug - Kawasaki ZX9R Time in lieu and public holidays are great things, especially when a weekend falls in between them. The Australian Alps. I've not heard a bad word about the roads up into the Alps. Up until this point in time, the furthest I'd been is up to Omeo via Bairnsdale. I'd rate it as one of the best rides I've been on based on the road surface, grip, vision and corners. If the rest of the Alpine Road was of the same quality I knew I was going to be in for some fantastic riding. Good old google maps The Route. Starting from Melbourne I'd slab it to Ensay, then head up to Omeo, Mitta Mitta, Towong, through Mt Kosciusko, Jindabyne then to Cooma. From there I'd either go north to Canberra and go coastal to Wollongong or inland and head into Wollongong through Macquarie Pass. Road trip on the cheap. As I was planning on doing this trip on a budget I decided I'd camp along the way at free camp spots I found using the WikiCa...

Weekends are what you make of them, mine, up until last weekend was usually full of alcohol, late nights and hangovers. With Sundays wasted in bed and Monday mornings spent thinking to myself, where did my weekend go? So last Sunday I decided to make something of my weekends, from now until the end of Summer I was going to spend as much time on two-wheels with mates out doing road trips or camping. To start off I planned the next three weekends going away camping with my partner in crime. First stop, Rawson. I chose Rawson for a couple of reasons, it was less than 200kms from home. There's a bar on site and a half decent road to ride on once you got off the freeway. I checked the weather report on Saturday morning and it was forecast for 1mm of rain but the sky in Melbourne was blue so we decided to grab breakfast and have a late start. By 11.30 we had the bikes packed and we were set to head off.  The first part of the trip was along the Monash for 130kms or so o...