Girl Meets World on FZ-07 Motorcycle: Gear Essentials

As I started gearing up for round 3, a trek deep into Mexico, Central America, and pending some cargo ship logistics, hopefully South America, I tried to be mindful of what was really essential. I'll, of course, still be riding my trusty Yamaha FZ-07, decked out with some basic crash protection and panniers (as noted in Girl Meets World on A Yamaha FZ-07, Part 2: The Bike!), but since I made it back to Los Angeles, I upgraded and replaced a few things, ditched a few things, and tried to refine my pack list that served me over the 49 states, British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon Territory. After loading up the FZ-07 with all my gear it came in at a total of 507 pounds. Hopefully, as I head south, where trading or supplementing equipment will presumably be a lot more difficult, I now have a slightly more perfect-ish bag of tricks. That said, I'll be bringing:

Stuff special for getting around borders and such:

This might seem like a massive amount of stuff, especially to fit on a motorcycle as small as the FZ-07, but when you’re expecting to be living off your bike for months in third world countries with little idea of what to really expect, there’s a lot of considerations to be made. I made a point to get mostly Ultra Light Backpacking equipment from the start of my planning, so the gear would be more packable with the added bonus of not weighing the bike down as much. Things like my Nemo camp pillows might make me sound like a princess, but not getting a good night’s sleep can make riding day in and day out more torturous than fun. And my clothes all packs down pretty small, just because I wear tiny girl clothes (This might be the first time being small has ever been useful in the motorcycle adventure world!). Tool selection was based on a fairly generic set of Japanese motorcycle needs, with just a few more specialized selections, like the socket for the rear axle nut. Everything else basically falls into contingency plans.

Having toured the whole country now, I found myself getting rid of a handful of things I thought I’d need, but never really used. Things like a telescoping fishing pole (Fishing license laws and a healthy fear of doing things that might attract bears or wildlife made this way less of an option than I had originally imagined), a solar panel to charge my equipment that did virtually nothing in practice, A full service manual for the bike (If the work is complicated enough to use a manual, it’s probably too complicated to do on the road), and my purse (going places without my handbag was a really tough mental step for me, especially with how small and useless women’s jean pockets can be, haha). Some of these things that made the cut, particularly in the way of clothing items, perhaps fall more into vanity than actually being legitimately useful. Jeans are a bit bulky, but spending every single day of my life wearing base layers as normal clothes sometimes gets old. You’d be amazed some of the tiny, silly things that become mini morale boosters- things like actually smelling good or looking kind of, sort of, almost like a presentable human being. I’ve given up a lot since I started on these road trips, but getting to stand on a warm, sunny beach in a flowery sundress is not one of them, dammit!

Honestly, all I really know about the world south of the border is what I’ve read in the media and some accounts from friends and internet adventurers. Despite growing up in LA, for some reason I never felt particularly compelled to even go to Mexico. I don’t know if this will be enough or too much or just right, but I’m hoping the knowledge I’ve gained over the last 9 months will serve me well into the next frontier!