Small Budget Touring on a Motorcycle
Making long journeys with motorcycle takes money, something that is not always in abundance. Gasoline and food need to be bought, its hard to try to save on these two subjects. There are however ways to keep your budget moderate, assuming that you are not expecting five star hotel services each night.
Let me state as a first thing, that no sane person will start counting how much it costs to have a motorcycle and to do trips with it. Cost is not the point, but when on limited income, you simply have to estimate a budget for the trip, so that you can make a longer one, or a more luxurious one, depending on your needs.
What is a long journey depends on who you ask. For some it is 2-3 nights out, for others it is couple of months living off your bike. Lets assume a trip of two weeks for an average value.
Average price for a litre of gas on EU is about 1.20. Lets say you ride 400 km (250 miles) per day (yes many people do ride more). An average bike consumes about 5.5 litres on 100 kilometres. So about 370 would be needed for gas. Depending on how you like to eat, cook with a trangia on your camp, or eat at a good restaurant, cost of eating for two weeks would be from 50 to 350 or more. I haven’t done it, but I assume that anyone who eats trangia foods for two weeks, would like to have a decent restaurant meal every so often.
Cost of sleeping for two weeks is about from 0 (sleeping in a tent in a forest) to 200 (sleeping in a tent in a camping ground) to 500 (sleeping on cheap log cabins in camping grounds) to 1000 or more (sleeping in hotels).
All these numbers would make the total budget for a two weeks trip range from 420 all the way to 1700 or more. For many the difference of 1300 will make or brake their change to do it. So, what can you do to keep the cost down?
Obviously, one of the biggest expenses is accommodation. It is also one of the easiest to save on. Cheapest option is to get a decent tent with water-proof cover, they can be bought for 30-70. Depending on where you live, a tent can be erected almost everywhere where it is legal. Just try to get on high ground near water and you’ll be okay. Sleeping on a tent for several nights requires a possibility to take a shower or a swim frequently, either on a camping ground or on a suitable lake etc. Also public swimming halls do provide a change to wash up. A GPS is very handy here, camp grounds, swimming halls etc can be found with ease.
Camping grounds charge about 10-20 per night for a tent, which is not too much for the shower and electricity they provide. Of course on minimal budget you just have to put your tent somewhere where it is free.
Food is another possibility of keeping costs down, however, you’re gonna need good food or it will start effecting on your general morale. Good thing is that with a trangia it is possible to make much nicer meals than it looks capable of. Get a cooking book and you’ll see.
Of course one option is to plan your route so that you can sleep and eat with relatives or friends, but that is seldom the case, they probably don’t live where you want to go.
Teemu – http://www.thesportsterblog.com
