Dirt Bike Americana: Pics Or It Didn’t Happen

My crude little bike is slowly becoming a properly tested and outfitted exploration vehicle. Every time I ride I test something. Nothing goes on or off but what I put a lot of thought into it. I carry a lot of gear but that’s just how I roll. (See what I did there?)

The rear rack on my TW200 is from CycleRacks. I installed it last year and it has held up very well. Recently I added pannier support from CycleRacks. (I don’t get any sponsorship or kickbacks from CycleRacks but I’d accept it in a heartbeat. Hint hint!) I mention them because the product is awesome. Tech support is great and the product is well designed. The pannier racks are super easy on/off. I can remove or install them in literally 20 seconds. No tools needed.

Bolted onto the pannier supports are RotoPax brackets. These work incredibly well. They’re not cheap but it’s worth every penny. They only work with RotoPax containers. I bought two brackets and a 1 gallon RotoPax gas container and a one gallon RotoPax water container. You can get them as a set. Amazon seemed a little flaky about the brackets so I ordered direct from RotoPax company. The brackets get bolted into the pre-drilled holes in the pannier racks.

Mounting RotoPax containers onto their brackets is heaven. They’re what engineering was meant to be! They lockup instantly and hold tight. No vibration. No bullshit. You could drive through a volcano during a tornado and they’d stay put. The containers are tough too. I could probably remove a container from the bracket and beat a moose to death with it without losing a drop of liquid. Top quality stuff!

I plan on carrying water on the muffler side. I’m 100% sure you can carry gasoline there, but since I’m carrying both, the non-flammable liquid goes near the pipe.

Notice the teeny-tiny turn signal? It’s almost impossible to see; just above the tip of the muffler. That’s the LED replacement for the big honkin’ OEM incandescent I damaged when I crashed onto a tree last year. The little turn signal is tucked in so tight I’m less likely to damage it. The replacement LEDs were cheap. I swapped an LED bulb into the taillight; because why not?

The non-muffler side has a little space behind it. I think I can move my tool-tube to behind the pannier rack. I haven’t done it yet, but it’s on my to-do list.

I drove around for a month with a huge incandescent bulb/lens on the left turn signal and a tiny LED on the right. Asymmetric turn signals are lame but they worked and I’m more interested in riding than wrenching. I have since removed the large OEM turn signal and swapped to a matching tiny LED.

I bolted a Milwaukee Packout to the rack last year. What you see there is a “regular sized” Packout that’s permanently bolted down and a “low profile” Packout that’s stacked on top. They stack like Legos. they’re easily removable but stay on tight while I’m riding. The “low profile” Packout is just right to hold my iPad (a.k.a. Steve Jobs’ Unholy Snitch Machine).

I have a love/hate relationship with my iPad. I use the iPad to run Avenza software to locate myself via GPS on georeferenced maps. It works very well. I do this without a data plan! (If you’re considering this, you may have to buy an iPad with a cell chip but (as I did) you don’t have to activate it with a data plan. It’s just the way Apple chooses to iFuck their customers.) It’s very handly and very slick but Apple was modestly better on privacy until it (predictably) went woke asshat. Apple recently started scanning their user’s camera files “for the greater good”. I object to some algorithm monitoring the photos I take of sunsets and sprockets to see if I’m up to snuff with whatever Apple decides is acceptable. It’s 2021, no company can refrain from being evil. No company is on your side. Speaking of evil, I stuff my cell phone in there too.

The lower Packout is 95% waterproof but not perfect because modified it. I drilled holes in the underside. The upper Packout is 99% waterproof. I’d ride in a hurricane with a delicate iPad in there… but it’s not 100% perfect if you submerge the bike. (I recommend against submerging motorcycles.)

I also have a second standard Packout, a Packout soft cooler (which holds the iPad in a side pocket if I wish), and a Packout tote (which is very handy for carrying a sweatshirt or whatnot). Amazon doesn’t show all of those options sale right now. Our just in time supply chain strains under the issues of Year 2020 Freakout: Part 2: The 2021 Sequel I Didn’t Want To See. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, everything is fine!

Anyway, I can mix or match or stack any of the Packout things I mentioned. It might be wise to avoid carrying too much weight too high, but y’all are adults that already know that. Every Packout piece I’ve used has ridden well.

(One note, I set the Packout tote in some sand while fishing. When put it back on the bolted down bottom piece (with sand still there), it scratched up the sexy looking clear plastic of the receiving tote. Not a big deal (it still works great) but I now know to clean off sand before I lock them together.)

This is a random smattering of some of the junk I carry. Waaaaaay more than most bikers carry but I don’t care. I go solo and intend to never let nature kill me.

In case you’re wondering, the socks are tick repellent (and worth every penny!).

Underneath the SpotX (mine is older than the linked model) is a Noco Boost Sport GB20 battery pack. It fits on the bottom half of the center container; it’s a flashlight, jumpstarter and gadget charger. (The jumpstart alligator clips are under the Biffy Bag.) The center areas also has room for “long things” like wrenches and a socket driver. I use a cardboard piece to keep the two layers separate and the sock is nice padding.

The Biffy Bag is just a smidge too big to fit in the Packout’s little plastic cup. So I just left the cup home. (All those cups are optional.) YMMV on the Biffy Bag. I’m still not convinced about them. Plain old shit tickets and an absence of modesty is my usual plan.

You can’t see all the stuff I carry but you can probably guess; matches, wrenches, a driver’s license, bug dope, some rope, etc… What I’m doing is riding around and whenever I want or need a tool or equipment it goes into the “carry always” group. My gear choices are slowly evolving on their own.

This was just a random shot. (I was trying to remember the new Clif Bar flavor I’d found. Dark chocolate almond is tasty!) I always carry calories of some sort. Just a little bit of advice from the friendly Curmudgeon… when you’re hungry, you’re probably dumb. It doesn’t have to be a Clif Bar (jerky and GORP are good too). Americans get HANGRY when they’re hungry and I’m no exception. 200 calories may be the difference between wisely considered choices and a pissed off person starting the cascade of suck that can be devastating when you’re solo.

The tool tube works well. Easy access and waterproof. It’s in a dumb spot and I’m going to improve it soon.

See that water carrier? It looks stupid in that color but according to RotoPax water = white and gas = red. (Pause now for someone to somehow interpret that as racist… we done? Good.) The water container is a little lighter and a little cheaper and has a regular funnel. The gas container is a little tougher and has a standard PITA California Compliant funnel.

It will never again be this clean. It’s usually covered in dirt. I believe outdoor gear should look like the outdoors.

That’s better! About 50 miles of crud on the containers and they don’t look so silly now. The funnel for the water container is crammed in my helmet to keep it from falling in the dirt. You can freeze the water container. I experimented with this and didn’t like it. For one thing, you can freeze the funnel and then you can’t get your water until it’s thawed. For another it’s so dang hot out that the ice doesn’t last too long anyway. If the forest fire conditions ever calm down I’ll use the water as God intended, for brewing coffee over a fire.

The front rack has straps I made for carrying my awesome portable firebox. The straps and firebox both work great but it’s tinder dry out there. Probably won’t be able to use it until there’s snow on the ground. I left the straps on because they might be useful for other things.

My jumpstart battery can charge from USB and via USB. I need one kind of USB to handle my SpotX and GoPro and a different one for my iPad. The OEM cables worked great.

But a few bucks on Amazon made everything a lot smaller and simpler.

A random photo.

Street legal regulations require mirrors on a plated motorcycle. I was perfectly happy with the OEM mirrors until I whacked one on a pine.  Then I whacked the other on a log. I reefed one back into place by hand while riding. The other just loosened up too much for hand tightening.

180 degree spin! Thwack! Notice it was totally undamaged. The good people at Yamaha decided (back in 1987) to put them on regular and reverse thread sockets so they spin inward and loose. Someone was thinking that day! Took 10 seconds with a 14MM wrench to put everything back in order. I’ll replace them someday but it’s no rush.

That’s all the technical news from me. Now get out there and have some fun!