Newly minted ADV bike owner seeking advice

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Orindarider

Well-known member
Congrats on your new bike. Check out BMWNorcal.org. We are a riding and camping motoclub. It’s a great club and once the pandemic is over lots of opportunities to ride and camp once a month all over california. Also a great place to connect with Gs riders.

Lots of,the great off road riding areas are one fire right now or closed. Mendo has so many great areas to ride a big bike it’s really sad to see the forest on fire and closed.
 
EBDan

EBDan

Active member
Orindarider said:
Check out BMWNorcal.org. We are a riding and camping motoclub.
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Oh, fantastic! Thanks for pointing me to that site. I'll take a look and sign up. It'll be nice to meet other GS owners and get bike specific advice as well.

I'm really sad to see so much fire destruction all across the state.
 
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N4teTheGreat

Noob!
EBDan said:
Ok, to a separate topic...

What were some difficult situations you've been caught in while ADV riding and how did you get yourself out of those jams?

eg - Did you ever blow a tire out in the middle of nowhere and couldn't just patch it? Ever have a mechanical failure and needed to get towed but no cell signal? Get injured when riding solo? Robbed/gear stolen at motel or hotel?
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I've not been riding for that long, and I use a DRZ for ADV riding so it's a bit easier to get out of a jam, but I'd say the biggest challenges are always either mechanical issues or getting into some place you may not be able to get out of. For me that is solved by travelling with a riding buddy. If along I'd make sure to be prepared to fix flats or damage from a drop and I'd scout trails on foot to if I couldn't see what was ahead to make sure it was doable.

Had a buddy who blew a tire / bent a rim in Death Valley and had to walk for miles to get cell signal. He probably shouldn't have attempted that trail alone and should also have been carrying more water. When I did the BDR I had stuff to camp in an emergency (we were hoteling it) just in case someone broke down or we got caught out after dark.
 
1962siia

1962siia

Well-known member
If you plan to ride solo the garmin/delorme inreach would be a must have item on my list. I’ve got the older se model but it looks is to my phone and I can send and receive texts anywhere. There are different plan options and lots of info out there. A group of barfers goes down to Mexico on an annual trip and generally we have at least one of these in each group.

Also prep your bike thoroughly and carry spares of things that might end your trip if they fail. Each bike is different obviously but things like fuel pump, fuses, wheel bearings, have caused problems on our Baja trip. Bring a tow strap!
 
EBDan

EBDan

Active member
N4teTheGreat said:
For me that is solved by travelling with a riding buddy. If along I'd make sure to be prepared to fix flats or damage from a drop and I'd scout trails on foot to if I couldn't see what was ahead to make sure it was doable.
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Great advice. I found a BMW Adv group recommended earlier in this thread (thanks OrindaRider) which will hopefully provide me a way to meet other ADV riders. If I can arrange it, I'll always ride with someone. At the moment, most of my ride group are street/track riders. Scouting ahead makes a lot of sense too. Glad to hear your buddy made it out from his predicament.

1962siia said:
If you plan to ride solo the garmin/delorme inreach would be a must have item on my list. I’ve got the older se model but it looks is to my phone and I can send and receive texts anywhere. There are different plan options and lots of info out there...Bring a tow strap!
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I'm probably still a ways away from doing serious backcountry riding, but I go far enough off the main roads sometimes by myself on weekends that having an InReach would be good backup in areas with bad cell coverage. Tow strap is going on my list of items. Thanks

ksandvik said:
You will be fine, check out the Honda C90 driver who drove across Asia and now from Alaska down south solo.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVqpNG1R72i21jh-nAxEk4A

Get a California map from AAA, plan a trip, mark it next time where you drove, after 2-3 years you should have crossed California just everywhere.
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Thanks for the youtube recommendation. I'll have to check that guy out. Yah, my hope is to be able to cross off some favorite riding spots throughout CA in a couple/few years depending on time and budget.
 
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nrvale0

nrvale0

Well-known member
There's North Bay adventure motorcycle Meetup that does rides pretty regularly I've not had a chance to ride with them but it might be worth dropping in over there and tagging along on one of their beginner/overnight rides.
 
norcalkid

norcalkid

Well-known member
Don't over think it. Throw your gear you have on the bike and do a little trip.

I recommend a tent with 2 vestibules. One that could be used for storage.

My hate: I F-ing hate the Garmin Zumo. 1990's tech that's totally unuser friendly. If your not really guna be out there where you need it I'd pass.
 
bmwbob51

bmwbob51

BMWBOB
Any bike that weighs 500 pounds plus with gear is a be careful where you go adventure bike! It can bite you if you get too adventurous.
 
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EBDan

EBDan

Active member
nrvale0 said:
There's North Bay adventure motorcycle Meetup
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Thanks. I'll take a wander over there to see if I can find out more...

norcalkid said:
Don't over think it. Throw your gear you have on the bike and do a little trip.
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Yup, that's my plan...once the fires and the air quality calm down a bit, I'll go for an overnighter somewhere. I'm not a huge fan of the Garmin units, either, but I may try and pickup the Garmin/BMW Nav VI on a black friday sale or something since my bike comes with the mounts for it already. Sounds like that unit may be phased out soon in various ADV forums I've visited so if that results in fire sale prices, I may get one as a backup.

Any tents in particular you would recommend?

bmwbob51 said:
Any bike that weighs 500 pounds plus with gear is a be careful where you go adventure bike! It can bite you if you get too adventurous.
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:laughing For sure! I did the MSF dirt course and know it's not like taking a small Kawasaki KLX up and down tough dirt/gravel/sand trails so I'm definitely focusing on the "lite" aspects of adventure riding with my GS.
 
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quicksparks

Well-known member
I'm new to this, too. I recently acquired a dual sport and started to take trips where you can't rely on cell service. I'm surprised nobody mentioned this yet, but you can use your smart phone as a standalone GPS like a Garmin. It requires that you install an app and map data along with whatever route data or tracks you intend to use. Most (all?) of the GPS apps for smart phones can also navigate on the fly, just like a Garmin or TomTom would. All while using only the data the phone has on board.

There are many apps to choose from and tons of info on ADVrider. I had a hard time making up my mind but I picked an app for my iPhone and I planned routes on a different online mapping tool. Planning takes a lot of time, especially if you want to get off the beaten path where you're not sure if that dirt road will be open or gated, where the nearest gas station is, etc.

After reading a bit on ADVrider I picked Furkot as my routing tool and Scenic as the navigation app for the phone. I don't find them intuitive to use though. It may be just because I don't have experience using these sorts of tools but it could also be par for the course. There were plenty of gripes to go around about the usability of all the options on ADVrider. But anyway, I'm getting better and am pretty happy with them.

I'll be taking the other users' advice in this thread and picking up some more paper maps, if only to transfer the info into Furkot while I'm planning a trip.

Exploring and camping off the bike opens up a whole new level of access to terrain that you wouldn't be able to navigate otherwise. You have so many options for camping. Once you're in BLM or national forest, basically just get off the main road so you're not impeding anyone and camp. In a car you're restricted to flat open pullouts but on a motorcycle, you can wander into the woods a bit to find a clearing that cars can't get to.

For finding more dispersed camp sites, while you're in the planning phase, there are apps/websites that tell you where the sites are and info about them*. But due to the flexibility of camping off the motorcycle, you can camp just about anywhere, so plan B is usually easy.

*The Ultimate US Public Campground Project and Campendium are the ones I use.
 
EBDan

EBDan

Active member
quicksparks said:
...you can use your smart phone as a standalone GPS like a Garmin. It requires that you install an app and map data along with whatever route data or tracks you intend to use.

After reading a bit on ADVrider I picked Furkot as my routing tool and Scenic as the navigation app for the phone. I don't find them intuitive to use though.
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Thanks for the valuable input. I use Rever which has an offline map feature.

I was thinking of a GPS unit as a backup in case something happens to the phone or vice versa. I'll have to investigate the apps you mentioned since I'm not that happy with Revers in-ride rerouting, frequent hangs, and the route planning UI. Paper maps might be a good alternative backup to the phone instead of a stand alone GPS. I'll mull over that option a bit more.

Exploring and camping off the bike opens up a whole new level of access to terrain that you wouldn't be able to navigate otherwise. You have so many options for camping. Once you're in BLM or national forest, basically just get off the main road so you're not impeding anyone and camp. In a car you're restricted to flat open pullouts but on a motorcycle, you can wander into the woods a bit to find a clearing that cars can't get to.

For finding more dispersed camp sites, while you're in the planning phase, there are apps/websites that tell you where the sites are and info about them*. But due to the flexibility of camping off the motorcycle, you can camp just about anywhere, so plan B is usually easy.

*The Ultimate US Public Campground Project and Campendium are the ones I use.
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Good stuff, thanks again!
 
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matty

matty

Well-known member
I'm hardly a GPS/ cell phone app expert, but a month or two ago I decided it might be handy, so I grabbed an old phone and installed osmAnd app and then use https://mapstogpx.com/ to convert maps I create in google to gpx files. Pretty handy. I can't really attest to the osmAnd navigation or anything else, I mainly pull it out when I say to myself "where the heck am I?" but that mapstogpx site is super convenient.
 
Kalvin00

Kalvin00

Well-known member
EBDan said:
I like mapstogpx. I use that to convert routes when I go bicycle riding. Good stuff...


Thanks! I'll have a look at that tent and check out it's features.
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There’s no end to the possibilities of spending money on gear. For me, my motocamping tent is a Coleman sundome 4 person. Not the smallest or lightest, but I have lots of room in the duffel bag on the back and it’s $75.

I do have a Big Agnes inflatable insulated sleeping pad though. That part is worth spending money on.
 
EBDan

EBDan

Active member
Kalvin00 said:
There’s no end to the possibilities of spending money on gear. For me, my motocamping tent is a Coleman sundome 4 person. Not the smallest or lightest, but I have lots of room in the duffel bag on the back and it’s $75.

I do have a Big Agnes inflatable insulated sleeping pad though. That part is worth spending money on.
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Totally agree on not going all out on gear. I'm on a budget so I've got to make sure I get the most out of what I spend.

The only thing I may go fancy on is a cot instead of sleeping pad. I've never been able to sleep well on those when I was doing the boy scout thing with my son, and now that I'm way older, I know that I'm going to have to get something more like a cot if I hope to get anything resembling sleep while on the road.

I've seen a couple MotoCamping youtubers use them.

I think this is the one - review : https://youtu.be/W3tQids996Q?t=876

https://helinox.com/collections/cot...ZZG8x3ts_cMoQ-K6YO4N5uAsvSs_wF-xoCnA8QAvD_BwE
 
Cabrito

Cabrito

cabrón
EBDan said:
Totally agree on not going all out on gear. I'm on a budget so I've got to make sure I get the most out of what I spend.

The only thing I may go fancy on is a cot instead of sleeping pad.
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I like the cots a lot.

I used the Thermarest Deluxe Ultra-Lite cot, and also got a cheap one that I've been using because it's a little lighter than my Ultra-Lite..

Check eB*y or Amaz*on for cheap camp cots. They have some nice budget models.

This is my cheap-o one with my Thermarest expensive bug net setup.


This is my Ultra-Lite with the bug net (it fits better on this cot, but still works on the other one)


Cots are the way to go for me. I call it bringing my Ritz Carlton..
 
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