The big activity for my trip is a motorcycle tour of northern Thailand.  I’ve had some experience touring on motorcycles, and unfortunately have some first hand-experience at what it is like when the bike is shiny side down.  Riding safely and wearing protective gear is just not negotiable. The tricky part is picking the gear and figuring out how to bring it all with me to the Golden Triangle.

So here is the gear I decided to pack:

Motorcycle Gear

• O’Neal VR-1 Helmet
• Shift Racing Squadron Convertible Pant
• Fly Racing Patrol Packable Jacket
• Teknic Chicane Gloves
• Leatherman Multi-tool
• Bungie Cargo Net (for holding down gear)
• GT-Rider Touring Maps
• Cigarette Lighter Adapter Socket
• i.Trek Garmin GPS Handlebar Mount

The Shift Racing Squadron pant is really pretty cool–sorta a cargo/motocross pant/short–it is lightweight with several mesh vents and lots of pockets.  The legs zip off and convert to very usable shorts.  With a compression sack, these take up very little room.  The pants are reasonably priced at about $100.

I originally bought a proper ‘mesh’ hot weather riding jacket, but after getting one and realizing that it is just about as heavy (weight wise) as a full leather jacket, I started looking for alternatives.  Fly racing makes a couple of nice lightweight (yet tough) enduro jackets, including the Patrol packable jacket which folds into a nice compact pack.  The Patrol jacket is a only a little bit lighter than a normal textile jacket, but is definitely lacking any CE or padded armor that you’d normally find in a summer jacket.  It does have big mesh vents that can be opened or closed, and if you’re too badass for sleeves?  Sleeves are optional.  Personally I don’t see the point in wearing a riding jacket with no sleeves, but “to each his own”.  The new jacket didn’t exactly break the bank at about $100.

I ended up deciding against specialized riding boots just on pure bulk–my trusty Doc Martens will have to suffice.

For navigation, I bought a set of maps from GT-Rider.com–very nice maps, waterproof and easy to read.  Normally I ride with a nice Marsee tank bag with a big map viewer pocket on top.  On this trip though I decided to leave the Marsee at home because of the sheer weight of the thing–with the built-in magnets I think it weighs well more than my helmet.  To solve the navigation problem, I bought a GPS handlebar mount (for my Garmin Nuvi 265T) from Semsons.  I’m still bringing the maps, but am hoping the GPS works well as too.

To be able to charge the GPS and other digital products directly from the bike, I picked up a little cigarette lighter adapter with aligator clips.  All I have to do is clip it to the battery terminals and run the 4′ cord to wherever is convenient.

Packing gear like this gets tricky–especially since I was using a North Face Terra 60 Liter “medium sized”  backpack (which is actually pretty big) .  The Helmet actually fits where a sleeping bag would normally.  Gloves, cargo net, GPS mount fit inside the helmet with room to spare.  I used a compression sack for the jacket and pants and put them in the main compartment–which they dominate.  Once I get on the ground in Thailand I think that I’ll probably clip the jacket pack to the exterior of the pack to give me a bit more room for in-country acquisitions.