I went to my first roadtrip this summer, riding circa 2500 km in 11 days across France, mainly using secondary roads and using motorways only for some quick moves:
- Paris to Bourges via Melun, Nemours, Gien 235 km, 3 h 12 min
- Bourges to Chalon-sur-Saône via Nevers 245 km, 4 h 31 min
- Chalon-sur-Saône to Sallanches via Lons-le-Saunier, Oyonnax, Annemasse 248 km, 4 h 2 min
- Sallanches to Gap via Megève, Alberville, Grenoble and Route Napoléon 230 km, 3 h 48 min
- Gap to Marseille via Route Napoléon until Malijai then Manosque, Aix-en-Provence 199 km, 3 h 20 min
- Marseille to Béziers via Martigues, Arles and the Camargue regional natural park, Aigues-Mortes, Montpellier 272 km, 3 h 53 min
- Béziers to Toulouse via Haut-Languedoc regional natural park, Castres 193 km, 3 h 11 min
- Toulouse to Limoges via Montauban, Cahors, Brive-la-Gaillarde 300 km, 4 h 14 min
- Limoges to Bourges via La Souterraine, La Châtre, Châteauneuf-sur-Cher 194 km, 2 h 59 min
- Day off at Bourges
- Bourges to Paris via Romorantin-Lanthenay, Blois, Châteaudun, Étampes 317 km, 5 h 0 min
Riding gear
- HJC RPHA ST (2016) helmet with transparent screen
- MotoRadds Original Universal Motorcycle Helmet Chin Mount
- Sena 3S Universal communication headset
- Dainese Carve Master 2 jacket with Manis D1 back protector
- Dainese Mig C2 gloves for most of the trip and Carbon D1 Long gloves for rainy days.
- Dainese Tempest 2 D-Dry pants with Held 3D-Skin Base or Furygan 01 Stretch jeans
- Alpinestars Belize boots
I also had my Nembo gloves which I tried under the rain, but they were just unusable in that moisty, hot weather of summer.
I initialy intended to ride with the Tempest pants and Held base on rainy days and
only 01 jeans on hot and sunny days (which I did eventualy did the second day),
but I felt unconfortable with sweat and a reduce protection on that ride.
Futhermore, I hurt my knee with blunt trauma the third day resulting in some
stich, and keep thanking the Tempest pants protections it hasn’t been worse.
For extra protection, I then replaced the Held base with 01 jeans under
the Tempest pants for the rest of the trip, whatever the heat. You will now
find myself a greater advocate of protective riding gear.
Luggage
- Decathlon Quechua Forclaz 60L backpack (a 10-year old model) with rain cover, for clean clothes, toileteries, laptop
- Louis Roll Bag, 50L fixed with 2 Oxford Bungee Xtra straps, for dirty clothes, sleeping bag, tent, spare gloves, the drone, a small backpack (a 10-year old Decathlon Rockrider 5L water bag) and shoes for city walks
- SW-Motech EVO Daypack, 5-9L, for small electronics and battery packs
- Yamaha 39L Top Case, for one-piece rainsuit, tyre repair kit, some dirty clothes and a DSLR in a protective bag
Recording stuff
- GoPro HERO 9 Black camera with media mod and 4 battery packs
- GoPro HERO 7 Silver for chassis views
- DJI Mini 2 drone
- MotoRadds Original Universal Motorcycle Helmet Chin Mount
- Chesty mount
- Handlebar mount on the crash bars
On the third day, under some heavy rain, I nearly lost the HERO 9 as the MotoRadds mount peeled of the helmet, the camera only retained by the mike cable zipped to the mount and the helmet. For the rest of the trip, I then used that GoPro on a chest mount or on the handlebar mount in place of the HERO 7.
I also endured several trouble with the GoPro and its media mod, resulting in many hours of unusable rushes. I believe the battery or SD card got a bit loose with the media mod cover as I couldn’t reproduce that trouble with the mod.