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If you go the way of a luggage rack in the trailer hitch make sure anything heavy that you have goes in the saddle bags or tour pack. You think the weight on the tour pack is bad, overload the cargo holder from the hitch, your front end gets really light in a hurry. I have this trailer hitch box, it offers just enough extra space and an additional luggage rack but I only pack the lightest bags in there. If you go this route move your rain suits and the like to the rack and keep the weight in the saddle bags.
I am somewhat of the mind of its better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it for the most part, but have been trying to break that mentality on bike trips. If I'm going to be staying in hotels, I don't take too much extra stuff. If I'm camping though I do seem to take a lot of stuff. On clothing, I generally only take one extra pair of jeans either for both hotels and camp trips. A couple more shirts though because they seem to get dirtier quicker. Do about 4 pair of underwear and maybe 3 or 4 pair of socks.
On my first trips I was lugging along a bike cover and security chain because I had a bike get stolen once and it had me paranoid about it happening on the road. Now both my bikes have security and a remote pager and I'll just take a disc break lock.
Maybe for my next trip I'll try to gather everything before I start packing and take a pic so I'll know what all I generally take.
I also do long trips with my wife on a 08 u/c , got tired of all the weight and digging for stuff. We bought a small AMERICAN MADE trailer from mini trailer in oklahoma . and cannot be happier , it towed at 80 mph with no issue , went to wyoming and back , would never go with out it . We are leaving in may for a trip thru the south then cali then the north west and the rockies will be gone for 4-6 weeks . I will send you a picture. ENJOY THE RIDE !!!
I appreciate all the responses. I don't want to pull a trailer, that's just me. I didn't think of the hitch/basket adding back weight, only making the weight lower so that won't work either. We are just going to pack what we usually do (what we have on and 2 extra days) and do laundry like before. We will start packing the heavy things in the saddle bags instead of the bag on the tourpak and use the tourpak for bulky items and what we need to get to during the day. My biggest concern is jackets cause they take up the majority of the room. We always wear a mesh jacket when riding, then will need something for cold weather and rain, this includes pants for cold and rain. The rainsuits (top and bottom), leather jackets and mesh jackets that we currently have take up way to much room. Guess I'm looking for something that will do multiple things. What have you guys used and can recommend ?
We end up taking our mesh jackets and wearing a hoodie underneath. If it's really cool, long sleeve shirt, hoodie and mesh jacket. Nice thing about good rain gear, it can also act as a wind breaker if needed. No need for leather jacket, mesh jacket and rain gear.
Wear the Mesh jacket. Take a Warm jacket that is thin (Vega is what we have ) take a long sleeve jacket liner. Rain suit. Rain gear will also keep you warm! All of this in the bag on the tour pack rack. My clothes in left bag. Wife's in right bag. Wife's in tour pack. She brings home stuff she never wore. I do laundry about every third or fourth day. I only take clothes that can be washed and dried together. One load does all!
I'm sure a lot of this has been mentioned already cause I didn't read thru it all,but for the riding part of the trip I make sure to have sunscreen,lip balm,ear plugs,and a drink holder.A full face for when it's raining. I carry a little bottle of anti fog spray too for my full face visor.
We made a checklist to ensure that we don't forget anything. We generally pack 4 days of clothes plus a few extra shirts, socks etc... and do laundry on the 4th night. We each get a saddlebag for jackets, shoes, gloves, etc... All clothes go in the trunk bag in trunk and we have a luggage rack bag that we use as our trunk.
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