Much has been said about what to bring on a motorcycle trip. However, now the trend is to get some blogging skills to make sure that your trip was adequately logged. There are many gadgets and tech out there that can be overwhelming. Sometimes the best way to go is to start trying by yourself what works and just not to slave your adventure to a writing routine.
As a manner of suggestion, I’d like to share my own experience based on what worked on a hell of an adventure (to me) Last December before all this COVID-19 chaos took place. 4,5 weeks, 18000 km ridden with the goal of summiting Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas, and the world, outside the Himalayas.
I’ve read tons of material about blogging, what to use, and whatnot. Then again, I had to adjust mainly to my own needs and style. So,
What I needed: was to travel light, avoid as much as possible accessories and cables and be able to have video and photo. The use of writing on-the-go was also a must. There was a useful insight from the rolling hobo which tells you in detail and as accurate as you can be, on how you can save space and weight in your camping.
The tools: I brought with me an 11in IPad Pro with its Smart Keyboard. It’s reliable enough, and the less moving parts, the better for me. It works just like a laptop, and it was so versatile in every sense. Small enough to travel and to withstand any bike falls/drops, and big enough not to end up blind in the process. I carried it inside of a neoprene bag, and this inside of a small case for GoPro that I had, with enough room for cables and adaptors. I thanked that case couple of times. Especially in Bolivia, when a truck hit my motorcycle in the middle of a crowded street in La Paz. That small case I carried it in my left saddlebag.
For accessories, I carried cables to charge my iPhone and the IPad factory ones. The synergy between both devices is merely remarkable. And to load the micro-sd to download the videos and pics from a GoPro 4 and one GoPro 6 I took with me, I used an adaptor to my iPad brand less called USB-C hub that allowed me to connect different sizes of micro-sd while charging my device. Also, another useful gadget was a power bank to use it while camping in the middle of the desert in Chile and the North of Argentina. Any power bank with at least 20000 mAh should do the trick to have your tablet and phone charged a couple of times.
To compile ideas to have proper writing and not to miss anything, I used an app called Notability, which works pretty much like a scrapbook to keep voice reminders on the fly for any point you might think worth keeping for later. And for the pics, Photoshop mix.
Whatever you do, make sure to buy some space on the cloud to store your work. Anything can happen at any time, and it won’t be pretty if you loose your excellent pics on your motorcycle. 200 Gb can be purchased for around USD 3,00 a month. To work on pics and videos on the go, I used a prettysmall SSD Hard drive with 2 Tb of capacity. Very important not to have moving parts on electronics on this kind of trips.
As mentioned before, for the video, I used GoPro from previous models I had, and for the photo a Nikon D800, just because it was what I had back then. These were carried in my tank bag for easy access and to look after them carefully.
I wrote the main ideas over every day and tried to keep it as attractive as possible. Then I used Grammarly to polish any wording and presto! I had my setup ready.
I hope these ideas would prove to be useful in your nextmotorcycle adventure. Usually, this is nowadays what we recommend to our customers before any tour so they can get the most of it.