Want to go on a motorcycle adventure but don’t know where to start? Start here!
Adventure Motorcycle Travel Tips and Guides
Welcome to the Motorcycle Travel Tips page. These articles and resources are detailed preparation and travel guides for adventure bike riders and motorcycle travellers.
Pre-Trip Planning
Everything you need to know about preparing for a RTW motorcycle trip with links to detailed guides and more.
Adventure bike travel isn’t reserved for motorcycling pros. Anyone can do it! Here’s what they don’t tell you…
More on trip planning
Riding Gear
If you’re thinking about what adventure bike riding gear you need for your travels, have a read of this first…
A cold weather motorcycle gear guide packed with info on how to keep warm and choose the best winter clothes.
More on riding gear
Adventure Motorcycles
Choosing an adventure bike is a big decision, here’s our suggestions for picking the bike that suits your needs…
Our motorcycle has faced everything from Iraqi deserts to being completely submerged. Here’s how we prepared it for the world.
Everyone loves a hack. They’re simple snippets of trickery that take a minute to apply. Here’s five of our favourites.
These tweaks will save you time, hassle and money. Here’s how to prepare your bike for a round-the-world trip.
More on adventure motorcycles
Packing and Luggage
Packing for a motorcycle adventure is brilliant fun, but a headache to get right. Check out our packing guide first.
Hard vs soft luggage is one of motorcycling’s greatest unanswered questions. Check out the pros and cons to each.
The Ultimate motorcycle Trip Packing List including all the essentials you may need on your bike trip with links to in-depth guides.
More on packing and luggage
Paperwork
This guide explains the most common documents and paperwork you’ll run into on a round the world motorcycle trip.
Motorcycle Travel Insurance is incredibly important. Here’s how to avoid pitfalls and make sure you’re fully covered for your adventure
Ever wondered what a Carnet de Passage is? You’ll need one if travelling round-the-world in your own vehicle. Here’s the info.
Safety and Bike Security
Here’s our top 10 tips for keeping your motorcycle, kit and gear as safe as possible while travelling and touring.
A policeman jumps out from behind a bush, says you were speeding and demands £100. What do you do?
Tools and Workshop
Dakar Racer, Simon Pavey, once showed me his Dakar tool kit, and it’s tiny. Here’s what to take and what not.
Whether it’s for looks or practicality, car or bike, wrapping your exhaust is easy – once you know how…
Forget chucking £1000s at a luggage system, make your own motorcycle tool luggage for just £12 with these quick guides.
Life on the Road
These easy tweaks and quick tips will help you ride further in comfort and not feel like an achy mess.
Here’s 5 essential tips to help you communicate with locals while travelling and 3 things you should never do!
These five free apps will make your travel life so much easier. They’re perfect for overlanders travelling the world.
Here’s how to motorcycle travel on the cheap and the 10 BEST ways to save money on a motorcycle trip.
Gourmet cooking, equipment and delicious recipes for adventure riders who love cooking proper food around a campfire
Travel Companions and Pillions
Here’s our thoughts, pros and cons after motorcycling solo, two-up and in groups around the world for the last 15 years.
After riding 25,000 miles from the UK to Japan two-up, here’s the six tips that have made the biggest difference.
Everything you need to know about joining a women only motorcycle tour and why you should join one.
Logistics, Shipping and Rentals
This detailed guide is packed with info on freighting, crating, agents, paperwork and top tips from our industry expert.
A handy guide on the benefits, how it works, cost, things to look out for and recommended transport companies.
This guide is packed with Fly and Ride info, how to rent abroad, what you need, expert tips and amazing destinations
More on logistics, rentals and tours
Motorcycle Touring
Here’s how to go on a motorcycle tour! This guide is packed full of info on motorcycle touring for beginners.
Planning a bike trip for 2021? Here are 6 tips on how to plan the perfect European motorcycle tour.
This European Tour Packing Guide has everything you need to pack for a motorcycle tour with links to in-depth guides.
More on motorcycle touring
Motorcycle Adventure Travel Tips FAQ
Here’s a bunch of the most frequently asked questions we get on preparing for a motorcycle adventure and travel tips.
Preparing for a motorcycle adventure is very subjective. Some people pack it all in and leave within a week, some spend years preparing. It completely depends on your own personal circumstances and how ‘prepared’ you want to be.
Firstly, you’ve got your finances to consider and how long you need in advance to accumulate your budget. That’s of course completely down to you.
Preparing your bike, luggage and gear is the easy bit. Once you’ve decided on what you want, it’s just a case of finding time to put it all together.
What really soaks up time though is the research into where you’re going and how long for. If you’re going to be travelling through multiple countries and continents then you need to account for so much more, including: shipping, visa and entry requirements, timeframes in each country and visa/ import extensions, where to get spares for servicing, tyres etc. This can take a lot longer to plan than say a European tour.
So, there’s not really a definitive answer into how long it takes to prepare for a motorcycle trip. It’s down to what you’re doing, where you’re going, how long for, your personal finances and how prepared you want to be. But if you are thinking about going on a trip, then start planning yesterday and go!
The hardest part of preparing for a round-the-world motorcycle journey is, without a doubt, paperwork. It takes so much time figuring out what visas you need, where to get them, how long they last, specific entry requirements, insurance and where to get it from for each country, how to stay longer in a country, does this country require a Carnet or Temporary Import.
It’s a headache, especially when you first start out. Although, it does get easier. And the longer you go for the more used to it you’ll get and the more second nature it’ll become.
To make it easier, check out our comprehensive paperwork guide: Motorcycle Travel Paperwork Explained
We actually have a detailed guide called How to Travel on the Cheap and in that guide is a dedicated section to how we budget with tips and advice for the long-term motorcycle traveller. Budgeting is actually quite easy and fun once you get into it.
Check out the guide: How to Motorcycle Travel on the Cheap
The most expensive aspect of a big motorcycle trip is shipping. If you’re travelling round the world on a motorcycle then this is impossible to avoid. With careful planning and good research, you can keep your shipping costs down to a minimum. For example, carefully calculating the differences between sea and air freight from and to certain countries.
Aside from shipping, your next biggest expenses are accommodation because it’s a constant. This can be overcome if you’re up for camping most nights! And cooking your own food regularly keeps those costs down too.
Next up is visa and paperwork requirements when entering new countries.
Here’s our Ultimate Motorcycle Shipping Guide
And, check out our recommended shipping companies. Visit the page and click a country on the map or use the drop down menu to find top companies in that country. You’ll find their info and contact details there. Recommended Motorcycle Shipping Countries Finder
No. Certainly not. But of course, if you’re thinking of heading out the front door for a round-the-world ride and you’ve never travelled on a bike before, then it might be worth going on a few smaller trips first. This’ll just help you get settled into it. You’ll quickly figure out how what you do and don’t need or if you’ve missed any important items of your pack list, you’ll be able to iron out any snags on the bike like an uncomfortable seat or handlebar height etc.
But, you do not need to be a mechanical genius, expert off-roader or travel extraordinaire. Many, many accomplished and seasoned motorcycle travellers just decided to go for it one day with no experience at all. Anyone can do it.
If you’re after a little more inspiration, check out our Stories page for awesome tales of adventure from people travelling the world on two wheels. And you can also check out Our Adventures too.
And finally, the How to Go on a Motorcycle Adventure Guide should help put your mind at ease on experience needed as it covers what you need to know about bike travelling.
We have a bunch of great guides on packing for bike trips that answer this question in loads of detail. The first one below lists everything you need. Of course, you can easily remove the obvious bits you don’t need if you’re not planning a RTW world.
- Here’s what you need to pack for a RTW motorcycle trip: The Complete Motorcycle Trip Packing List
- Here’s what you need to pack for a motorcycle camping trip: The Ultimate Motorcycle Camping Gear Checklist
- Here’s How to Pack for a Motorcycle Adventure
- Here’s Our RTW Motorcycle Trip Packing List