Storage Space

The motorcycle that Michele and I will be riding for this trip is a 2009 Honda Gold Wing (the airbag model for those interested).

At 5.2 cubic feet of storage, the Wing has a fair amount of storage.

Two people for 17 days of traveling and everything needs to fit on one bike. How do you do that? Well, if you ask Michele, she’ll say, “Those trailers I see behind motorcycles sure look nice.” Uh….no! I don’t want to pull a trailer. I don’t want to pack a trailer. I don’t want to maintain a trailer. I surely don’t want to pay for a trailer. Besides, if we had the space, we’d probably fill it with a bunch of unnecessary “stuff” anyways….right?

So what is a guy to do to so he doesn’t get tortured by his wife complaining about not having room for all their makeup and hair tools? Well that’s not a realistic goal, so I just tried to focus on reducing the complaining. (Think I stirred up the women folk enough?) :-)

Before we even begin discussing clothing (or other "stuff"), I have some gear that I always carry with me on the bike. That includes:

• Rain gear (2 sets)
• First Aid kit
• Air compressor
• Tire repair kit
• Jumper cables
• Tool kit (in addition to the Honda supplied kit)

Those items basically take up one saddlebag which is effectively 1/3 of the storage. Add to that my DSLR camera and a half cover for the bike (keeps the seats dry overnight) and both saddlebags are mostly full leaving only the trunk (about 2 1/4 cubic feet) for any real additional storage. I still had a large bulky telephoto lens plus our tennis shoes (also bulky) that I would like to be able to bring.

The solution to the space issue was the Pakit Rack. Rather appropriately named, I think.

The rack attaches to the rear of the bike (via a vertical trailer hitch in my case) and allows for an additional 1.74 cubic feet of storage. So while the saddlebags will carry the above mentioned gear, Michele gets to take anything she wants as long as it fits in the trunk bag and I take everything I want as long as it fits in the Pakit Rack. That means I was able to double Michele's space.

As part of my lodging bookings, I made sure that we would have a hotel with laundry facilities at least every four days. We therefore plan on packing at least four days worth of clothing and doing laundry 4 times during the trip. With Michele smiling at the idea of going from half the trunk bag to the entire trunk bag, we have sufficient space to bring clothing and gear for our trip without the use of a trailer. :-)