Over the last few years that I have moto camped I’ve always gone the traditional route of sleeping in a tent. For several years, my REI Camp Dome 2 tent gave me a dry place to rest my head at night after a hard day’s ride through the Mountain West. I eventually upgraded to a Big Agnes Blacktail Hotel 2 with the bike pack option last year. My Big Agnes tent has been great, and it performed very well when I rode the Mid Atlantic BDR. While tent camping has been great my moto camping setup has started to evolve and right now it’s mostly focused towards being as small and light as possible.
Enter the hammock, after talking to a riding buddy of mine and checking out his hammock set up on a few trips, I decided to take the dive and pick one up from Moto Camp Nerd. Ben from Moto Camp Nerd sent me a Yukon Outfitters Freedom Hammock which arrived just in time for a four-day trip on the South Carolina Adventure Route. To supplement the Yukon Outfitters Hammock, I added a Yukon Walkabout Rain Fly to keep me nice and dry. Since it was winter I decided to forego a bug net since mosquitos are dormant in South Carolina during this time, however I do recommend one during the warmer months especially in the southern parts of the country.
One of the nice things about a hammock set up is how small and light weight it is. Everything is very compact and can fit into a small Wolfman Luggage Rolle Bag or a Giant Loop Revel Stroke bag. In terms of weight, the Yukon hammock and rain fly weigh a combined 37.4 ounces which in my opinion makes it one of the lightest set ups for moto camping. However, going with a hammock set up does have its trade off’s. While the rain fly is large enough to provide a nice dry overhang, your riding gear and camp gear will be sitting on the ground. Another trade off comes down to location, while hammock camping works great on the East Coast it might not be practical in the wide-open areas of the Mountain West.
To close things up, using a hammock for moto camping can be very beneficial to those who want a lightweight set up. It’s perfect for those on smaller dual sports who are limited in terms of weight in how much camping gear they can carry. It’s also useful for those with bigger adventure bikes since it does provide a different and unique experience for moto camping. So far, I’ve used my hammock set up on three trips and it’s done very well. I like how small and compact it is and it’s very quick to set up and break down which is useful when jumping to a new camp spot every night. As this year moves forward, I plan on using the hammock set up for most of my trips on the East Coast so keep an eye out to see how it goes.
Stryker ADV 