Motorcycle camping is unlike any other recreational activity. It allows you to be one with the environment, without the obstruction of four walls. Moto-camping, I thought, would be a romantic escape – a communion of sorts with the road and nature. Instead, on several occasions, it proved to be a masterclass in how not to prepare, pack, or pitch a tent.
It’s so easy to go wrong with motorcycle camping – even the smallest mistakes can snowball to become the breaking point of a trip. God knows I've certainly spent plenty of nights camped-up next to my motorcycle wishing I could’ve made wiser decisions.
Wisdom is tough to earn without making a few mistakes, though. Or learning from others' mistakes, if you want to skip the queue. So, here you are - the top five motorcycle camping mistakes I've made, so you don't have to!
1. Overpacking
Can I really warn you about a mistake if I'm still guilty of making the same one even today? Don’t blame me - it’s tough to be efficient with your packing, especially when you’re on a motorcycle and even more so when your aim is to camp for several days. And it's certainly tempting to throw in the kitchen sink, 'just in case.'
But overpacking can really bite you. Take this one instance: I had to cross a long suspension bridge over a river on my bike, to get to the other side of a valley somewhere in the Himalayas.
I was sweating like a pig from head to toe; it was no easy bridge to ride over. It was only about 200 m (650 ft) long, but that's a long way for a bridge in this sort of condition, and between the wooden slabs shifting underneath me, suspension wires howling in the wind, and the river echoing my prayers, I was freakishly nervous.
On top of that, I was on a heavy motorcycle, packed to the brim. All the bad decisions of my life flashed before my eyes as I wobbled across, trying not to think about the creaking or the rushing currents below, and my thoughts turned to the baggage that was making things even harder. I was carrying useless clothes, random pieces of gear, ready-to-eat packed food… All stuff that would remain untouched until I unpacked at home.
I made it across, breathed a sigh of relief, and then promptly toppled over along with the bike, flopping into the moist green grass and feeling extremely glad that nobody was watching.
The lesson for me was simple - you can't go moto-camping with too much weight on your bike. A lot of supplies are readily available even in the remotest areas, so there’s no point carrying a load of things from home when you can stack them up on the way. Remember, light is right... I might even successfully remember that myself one day!
2. Not carrying the right gear
And on the other hand, there are some things you absolutely can't do without! There are two kinds of moto-campers in this world: those who think they’re prepared, and those who wake up in the middle of the night freezing in a damp tent after realizing they didn’t carry the right gear. I’ll let you guess which one I was.
It can get a bit cold up in the mountains, to understate the obvious, and once I woke up in the middle of the night shivering in sub-zero temperatures in my tent. I was a bit confused - I seemed to be layered up well, wrapped under four different layers of clothes. I was even wrapped up like a baby inside a sleeping bag. What could I be missing?
Ah yes, the tent. My stupid, inexperienced ass thought a generic, lightweight summer tent would be just dandy for the freezing temperatures of the Indian Himalayas. Safe to say, I learned a lesson that day. Guess what was the first thing I invested in right after that trip? That’s right, a proper, sub-zero tent.
Remember, conditions can change very quickly when you're out camping. This is especially true if you’re in a place like the Himalayas, where it could be sunny and warm during the day and suddenly ice cold at night.
3. Not choosing the right spot
It was 2 AM somewhere in the middle of a vast open meadow in the Himalayas. My tent fluttered aggressively with the wind. Somewhere in the distance, I could hear wolves howling. Suddenly, I felt a stern brush against the outside of my tent. I could spot a shadow with my half-opened eyes too. This wasn’t camping anymore, this was survival in the face of my own incompetence.
It took me a few minutes to gather the courage to unzip the tent and peek outside, the endeavor very nearly making me reach for a fresh set of pants... But it was just a shepherd dog I had fed earlier that day. I collapsed back down with a gurgle of relief and thanked my lucky stars.
As it turned out though, I was camping in wild animal territory, and the other side of that zipper could easily have had a much nastier surprise in store for me. There you go - call me lucky!
So now I try to pick my spots a little more wisely. How? Consult with the locals, check Google Maps, and if nothing else works, have a good hard look at the area for signs of animal life, and on top of all that, trust my gut.
Talking to locals is especially important in the Himalayas. It’s not just animals – there are often restricted army areas, and signage can be vague at best. It’s best to check in beforehand to ensure you're camping in a safe and legitimate spot.
4. Not accounting for rest days
I’ll admit it: I thought I was a road warrior. Someone who could ride from dawn to dusk, set up a tent in the dark, and get up the following day, ready to conquer another 300 miles (480 km)... That might not sound like much to an Ironbutt Rally regular, but it's a big day's total up in these mountains! Either way, spoiler alert: I'm not the road warrior I thought I was.
By the third day of one particular journey, I felt as though I had been riding a jackhammer instead of a motorcycle. So much vibration had come up through the handlebars over the last three days that my arms felt like they were still vibrating even when I got off the bike. My brain wasn't faring much better – I reckon I was functioning at about 30% of my normal cognition levels.
Luckily, I still made the right call – to grab some gas station pizza, camp near a ditch, and throw the next day's plans out the window.
Here’s the thing: moto-camping isn’t just about the miles or the views. To avoid falling face down on your sleeping bag, too exhausted to fully take in where you are or who you are surrounded by, you need to pace yourself. A proper rest day isn’t laziness, it’s survival.
Doing laundry, taking an odd night to rest, replenish, and recharge in a small homestay or hotel – all of this is key for any adventure that is well-lived. So now I try to schedule in those days off. And more than once I've thanked myself as I'm trying to untangle my back muscles on day four!
5. Camping too close to a river
Camping on the banks of a gently-flowing river is the stuff of daydreams, postcards, and Instagram posts. The sheer, unbridled serenity of it. The luxury of a nature-boy style skinny-dipping bath in the morning. The peaceful, trickling soundtrack to a night under the stars. Bliss!
Of course, nature doesn’t give two hoots about such fantasies, and stands ready to make an absolute fool of you – or worse – if you put your Insta-follows ahead of your sense.
I learned this the hard way when I set up my tent a bit too close to what I believed to be a peaceful, harmless river. By the wee hours of the morning, the gentle murmur had blossomed into a throaty roar. My sense of blissful serenity suitably punctured, I spent the rest of the night wide-eyed, wondering if I might drift off, then literally drift off, floating downstream like a soggy moto-hobo.
And let’s not forget the bugs. Mosquitoes congregating near rivers don’t just bite – they organize, like a coordinated airstrike of whining bloodsuckers that laugh in the face of an ordinary bug spray. Enough made it into my tent before I closed the zip that I was roundly savaged through the night.
But the real kicker came at dawn when I crept out of my tent and realized that I'd misjudged the river's high-water mark. My boots, parked neatly outside, were now buried in muck, along with my pride and my chances of a comfy day on the bike.
Lesson learned: rivers are gorgeous, but they’re also dynamic, and can ramp up their flow quickly. Set up camp on an incline. And for the love of all things dry, check the weather forecast. By keeping a safe distance from the water, we can avoid countless damp socks and restless nights.
Here's a video I put together a while back, that highlights a few moto-camping tips that might be useful for anyone who's starting out:
God knows I love me a good mistake in the Himalayas – after all, a trip where everything goes right is hardly the kind of thing you'll find yourself telling stories about years later. But hey, if my loss can become somebody else's gain, then maybe I've done my good deed for the day!
Have you made any particularly juicy blunders while out moto-camping that the rest of us can take a lesson from? I'd love to hear about them – jump into the comments below and fire away!
