11/06/2014
Going on holiday and plan to ride bikes while you’re there? Taking off on an epic two-wheeled adventure? You can get bikes in far away places but, often, not a decent helmet, much less leathers or dirt bike armor. Here’s how to fly with motorcycle gear.
This is something that, like other bike journalists, I’d like to feel I’ve gotten quite good at. Press launches, feature trips and other travel require that I do dangerous things on a variety of exotic bikes, a long way from home. So, I need to take heavy duty, specialized gear with me. Whether that’s Ducatis in Tenerife, BMWs in Moab or sidecars in Siberia, it means I’m flying with thousands of dollars of difficult-to-replace stuff that’s also crucial to both my job and survival. Losing it or damaging it could render the trip worthless.
So, here’s some tips and practices I’ve picked up on the road. Hopefully they can help make your trip a little easier, whether you’re going carry-on only or checking it all in.
Carry-On vs Checking A Bag
Going carry on will save you the baggage fee and ensure that your stuff arrives in the same destination at the same time as you. But, it leaves you very little room to work with.
I’ve made this work before, even with full, head-to-toe gear. Flying to Moab for the BMW F 800 GS Adventure launch last summer, we had a very tight connection in Salt Lake City–which I feared a checked bag wouldn’t make it. Believe it or not, I managed to get dirt bike boots, a Dainese Teren two-piece, armored shorts and vest, a back protector, gloves and even my laptop and a few clean pairs of un**es into a carry-on bag. Won’t lie, it was very tight.