Two-up Motorbike Adventurous Trip Rules



Two-up Motorbike rules


Find below a list of learned rules we follow during our two-up motorbike trips.

  • Risks
    • Don’t take risky choices for driver, passenger and motorbike. In case of doubt, move to the next Point of Interest (POI). 
    • Recall, even if driver/passenger are ok, without motorbike the trip is over. If driver/passenger are ill/hurt then the trip is the least of the problems.
      • There is nothing heroic, or to be proud of, by consciously putting your motorbike and/or crew under risk.
    • Eye check the motorbike all evenings.
    • If you hear/feel something unusual on the motorbike stop and try to figure out what’s the issue before it is too late.
    • Watch out about the social-political situation.
      • Loocking into the eyes of local people may reveal quite a lot about how they perceive you.
    • Be compliant with the local laws, ethics and expected behaviour. Be informed.
    • Sometimes, a woman gets some unwanted appreciations. Just move on and change topic of discussion.
    • Don’t show up valuable items (mobile phone, watches, jewellery, money bag, etc.).
  • Police and soldier blocking posts and country borders
    • Remember that your are on holidays while they don’t.
    • Keep calm, friendly, firm but not provocative. 
    • Sometimes they are looking for some dollars/euro as ‘gift’. Don’t make it a question of principle. You may waste hours instead.
    • In case of military people, take note of their name on the jacket.
      • Tell that your’re taking note of all ‘extra’ expenses and you will let your/their embassy know about it.
    • Place your camera in safe place before you approach the blocking post/border. No photo.
  • Motorbike weight is the most critical issue
    • Try to be light as much as possible. See our checklist.
    • You don’t need many clothes, even for a 30+ days journey.
    • You can wash clothes on the way and dry up while driving using mesh bags attached to the motorbike.
    • In most cases you may always buy something on the road.
    • One roll bag (80L) is more than sufficient for clothing gear for both (ca. 12kg). It makes the way into a hotel/camping much easier than unpacking paniers.
    • Find a good compromise between POIs, roads, timing, motorbike set-up and fatigue. 
      • No risky choices.
      • One exhausting road for crew and motorbike may mess up your whole trip.
  • On the way
    • For driver
      • Drive smoothly and in an attentionful way. Transmit safeness. 
      • Don’t think you need to show up your MotoGP/Motocross capabilities.
      • Make the trip for the passenger as confortable/enjoyable as possible.
        • Having a passenger with you is a rare bonus on adventurous trips.
        • Indeed, we have seen two-up very rarely on adventurous trips.
    • For passenger
      • Try not to complain too much all the time. Take pictures, unless the issue is life-threatening.
      • Talk about what’s wrong calmly at dinner and sort a solution out for the next day.
    • Listen to each other desiderata and objections.
    • If driver/passenger needs to go to the toilet, do it and don’t wait hours for it.
    • Our highway cruising speed is around 110 km/h and we stop in average evry 1.5h for a short brake (15min or so) 
    • Try to keep with your roadbook (time/POIs) and don’t make too many exceptions.
      • Usually the roadbook as been prepapred for months and the POIs should have been chosen carefully.
      • There might have been good reasons to have left other POIs out of the list.
    • Plan to have also siteseeing and trekking, not only driving from point A to point B.
      • Try to answer: what’s there worthwhile to see/do ?
  • Eating
    • Don’t exagerate, be light and especially avoid dehydration.
    • We usually don’t have proper lunch.
      • We stop for a mid day light meal: water, fruit, dry fruit and the like. A coffe. Typically, 45-60min stop to relax.
    • A reasonable breakfast and dinner are enough and keeps you light.
    • We also use expedition food (e.g., www.expeditionfoods.com, www.survivor-food.de).
  • Accomodation
    • Don’t drive till night: find soon a hotel/camping to rest for the evening.
    • Don’t pretend to camp all the time, especially under rain. 
      • Sooner or later a crew member will explode with anger.   
  • Bluetooth interphone
    • Yes, we chat a lot. It makes the trip more enjoyable for both.
    • It helps also to allert each other in case of necessity.
  • Last, but not Least
    • Don’t take our rules as a panacea for two-up motorbiking and/or as ground truth.
    • Nevertheless, we have made/we plan to do some demanding trips and are still married since 20+ years.