Top tried and tested touring essentials for any long distance motorcycle trip

If you’re planning your first big motorcycle tour then you may be wondering what the most important things to pack are. Maybe, you already have your packing list written out and you are just looking for some guidance on some good brands and models. To help you out we’ve pulled together a list of our favourite touring kit essential items.

Everyone’s touring essentials will vary depending on many factors, such as what motorbike you ride, how much luggage space you have, where you will be riding, where you will be staying and so on. However, there are quite a few items that are considered the essentials for when you are racking up those miles on the bike.

Jump to:

• Sat Nav
• Phone mounts
• Bluetooth intercoms
• USB charging
• Puncture repair
• Tyre inflators
• Battery jump packs
• Toolkits
• Luggage
• Tyres
• Securtiy
• Accessories

Sat Nav

When you are riding in unfamiliar areas, it’s definitely worth having a good sat nav to help you find your way. There are quite a few options on the market but consider one that is easy to update, has overseas map capabilities and has a good, strong mounting system for your bike. Bluetooth is a good feature to look for as this way you can connect it to your intercom headset to receive notifications, especially helpful during long motorway rides where there is the potential to not notice when the screen tells you to take an exit.

Phone mounting

Most of us rely heavily on our mobile phones these days, maybe you use it for sat nav, or music streaming while riding, or of course photographs and social media updates. For this having it mounted to the bike where you know that it is secure and easy to access is a great idea.

It’s important to ensure that the phone mount is really secure; no one wants to watch their expensive smartphone bounce down the road behind them, and that it has vibration dampening to prevent damage to the phone’s camera calibration.

Bluetooth Intercoms

The next bit of kit to consider is a Bluetooth intercom system. It may be something you never leave home without, or you could shudder at the thought of being contactable or distracted on your ride but. agood intercom is ideal for listening to music while you chew through those boring motorway miles, making those miles fly by more easily.

Also as mentioned above they allow you to hear your sat nav notifications, reducing the risk of you missing a junction because you got distracted looking at the scenery. If you’re riding with a group, having an intercom system means that you can stay in touch with the other riders, letting each other know when you need to top up on fuel or stop for a loo break, much easier than the old fashioned way of trying to get each others attention and playing motorcycle mounted charades.

The main things to look out for when choosing an intercom are specifications like the battery life, effective range and number of riders that can connect at any one time. Some units are helmet specific and others are universal, so keep this in mind too.

USB charging

With all of these electronic accessories and devices that we carry with us when we ride, a USB charger, mounted to the motorbike is a must. This way you can charge up the batteries while riding along so you never find yourself stranded somewhere unfamiliar, with no phone battery or sat nav to help you find your next stop for the night. There are plenty of aftermarket additions that you can fit to your bike to keep everything charged up.

Puncture repair kit

Perhaps you have a really comprehensive breakdown and roadside assistance package allowing you to call for help if you find yourself with a flat tyre. If not and your breakdown policy covers you for less or has an expensive call out fee, then you may want to handle a puncture yourself. In which case, you will need to carry a puncture repair kit with you, or alternatively, there are tyre sealants that you can pump into the tyre to allow you to ride on it to the nearest repair garage.

A full puncture repair kit will require a little more know how and effort, but should last longer in comparison to the tyre weld route, however the pump in sealant is easier and quicker and requires little to know experience or expertise.

Tyre compressor

If you have had to call on your puncture repair kit or maybe you had to let a little air out of your tyres to tackle some tricky terrain, you will need to re-inflate them before you hit the tarmac again. So tyre accessories like a multi purpose tyre inflator comes in handy here.

There isn’t a huge amount to be said about a tyre inflator, but it might be a good idea to look for a really compact one so that it takes as little room up in your luggage. Another consideration might be to choose one with addition features that allow it to save you needing to pack additional items. For instance some will have torches integrated, or the ability to charge devices from them, meaning that you don’t then need to pack a power bank as well. Just remember to recharge it at your next opportunity if you do or else it wont enough juice to pump up the tyres when needed.

Battery jump pack

Hopefully you won’t need a jump starter, but if you do find yourself with battery issues, you’ll be glad that you packed it. Imagine waking up, getting ready for a big day of riding, loading up the bike, kit on and turn the key only to find that your battery dies overnight in the cold. If you have a jump pack stashed away then it’s as simple as giving your battery a little boost to allow the bike to come back to life. If you don’t have that jump pack, its then a huge setback to your trip.

Look for the power output that the jump pack has as many are designed for motorcycles and cars, and If you only require it for the bike while travelling, then a smaller one will likely be plenty and take up less of that precious luggage space, just ensure it has enough for the engine size of your bike.

Here is another device that can double up for other purposes with features like power bank capabilities to charge electronics in an emergency.

Toolkit

Keeping a compact toolkit on the bike when you are touring for many miles is just good common sense really. If anything should happen to the bike you will require a basic set of tools to remove panels, access the battery or carry general maintenance tasks like chain tensioning.

Look for a kit that has the key tools; sockets, screwdrivers, Allen keys and so on. These should cover most simple jobs and fixes that you will encounter on your travels. Also consider what type of case the kit comes in; will it fit under the seat or into a pannier? Does it allow space for additional tools? How securely does it close? The idea is that this kit should be much smaller and lighter than your garage toolkit at home as space and weight are limited when you’re on the road.

Luggage

Luggage is of course a crucial part of any motorcycle tour, you definitely need somewhere to store all of the things that you need to take with you. There are a lot of options for different ways of mounting luggage to your bike, tank bags, tail packs or rollbags, panniers and saddle bags or even a rucksack. Most rider will use a combination of these to maximise their packing space, allowing them to carry more.

If you carry a pillion when you go off on your tours, then you will need to keep this in mind when choosing which luggage to fit to the bike, as your pillion seat will be occupied and therefore, can not take any substantial luggage.

A tank bag is a practical option for keeping smaller items in that you need to have easier access to, it’s mounted right in front of you so is ideal for things like permits and paperwork that you need for border crossings or a chocolate bar if you’re in need of a quick sugar hit.

Panniers and roll bags are a great option for the bulk of your packing, things like clothing and emergency bits like first aid kit and bike repair tools. Some variants will be specifically made to fit a particular motorcycle model, while others will be more universal so make sure the one you pick fits to your make and model.

If you need to add extra bits to your kit that don’t quite fit within the luggage that you have fitted, then a handy option can be a set of tie down straps, be that bungee chords or adjustable straps. This allows you to strap things to the outside of the bags, like camping gear for instance if you are camping, or maybe just a spare pair of boots and a cap.

Tyres

OK, so not really a piece of kit as such, more a part for your bike, but the motorcycle tyres you choose will have a big impact on your trip. Choose the wrong ones and you may find that you’re trip is tainted when you are having to continuously be mindful of your grip limitations in wet conditions or you’re struggling on the rough surface with your sporty road tyres.

Generally speaking for the average road based long haul across countries, where motorway miles make up a good chunk of the trip, a good sports-touring road tyre will be the best choice.

Security

When exploring on your motorcycle you will inevitably have to leave your bike unattended on occasion, be it at night when you head into your hotel or when you pop into a town to explore. To prevent the heartache of returning to find your bike is not where you parked it up, after some good for nothing has pinched it, portable security is vital.

Accessories

There are so many different motorcycle accessories on the market, some more useful than others. Things like action cameras, seat pads for additional comfort, spotlights to help you see when riding down dark tracks and so many others.

How MCN tests touring motorcycle gear

At MCN, our team of expert journalists have decades of experience gained over hundreds of thousands of miles. We don’t usually test our touring gear to destruction; we use it exactly how you do, in the real world and in all conditions, while also being on top of the key safety regulations. That means we can deliver impartial buying advice you can rely on.

Each of our writers has an in-depth understanding of the needs of today’s biker… because they are one, and regularly test and review summer kit.

To find out if a touring product is worth spending your money on, our testers use them in the way you will. That means riding in them in whichever conditions they are designed for, which in this case is all conditions.

We test against various criteria such as the weight of the products, its venting, any active cooling technology, how it performs stationary in traffic as well as travelling at motorway speeds, and of course, which safety ratings they adhere to.

This allows us to give a full overview of which areas each product performs well in. We asses how the products fit; are they true to size, and they comfortable to wear while riding but also off the bike too? Do the products feel like the level of quality matches up to the price, or does it exceed in this area?

If you can’t see a review against an item on this page, it’s because we haven’t tested it yet. These items will only be included if we think they’re important and relevant in the market, and rest assured, we will be working on bringing you a review as soon as we’ve done the miles.

To find out more, head to our dedicated page explaining how we test motorcycle products.

What our star ratings mean

When we review a product, we award it a score out of five. In the ratings tab of a given product, you may also find more specific scores for the different aspects of a product’s performance to help you make an informed decision. Here’s a guide to what each number score means:

• 1 star – Poor performance in this category or overall. A product with a single star rating has fallen below the expected standard and should be avoided.
• 2 stars – Basic performance in this area or overall. A product with a two-star rating has managed to perform to a barely acceptable level and there is room for improvement.
• 3 stars – An average performance in this area or overall. A product with a three-star rating has achieved a basic level of performance and is deemed adequate.
• 4 stars – A product has performed over and above the accepted averaged in this category or overall. A product with a four-star rating has surpassed expectation and delivered in a particularly impressive way.
• 5 stars – A product has performed at the highest possible level in a particular category or overall. A product with a five-star rating has delivered to the highest possible level, impressing the tester with its performance. We would happily spend our own money on it.

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