Review of One-Bag Travel Gear for Fly-to-Ride Moto Tours

Minimalist travel is all about making travel simpler by packing less and packing smarter. On a recent 14-day tour through the Balkans, I carried everything I needed—clothes, toiletries, tools, EDC items—in a Peak Design Travel Backpack and had plenty of room to spare. Packing everything in one bag made it easier for me to stay organized, alleviated potential travel headaches, and simplified daily routines.

Truthfully, I still had to check a gear bag with all my riding gear at the airport. Even had the airline misplaced it, however, I’d still have had all my everyday essentials with me. Once the trip started, I stowed the gear bag in the chase van until my return trip home. So, in terms of daily use, I was one-bag all the way. While other tour participants pulled huge wheeled bags to and from the hotel to the chase van each day, I carried my minimalistic loadout on my back, leaving my hands free to carry my helmet and gear.

Traveling light made it far easier to stay organized and decreased the odds I’d leave something behind, especially critical considering I stayed at a different hotel room every night. And by simplifying the process of packing and repacking each day, it transformed a potentially onerous task to a gratifying ritual.

In addition to its Travel Backpack 45L, I used Peak Design’s packing cubes and products from its mobile ecosystem. Versatile clothes from Foreign Rider and shoes from Bedrock Sandals kept my load light, and tools from Leatherman and Asahi (via Rolling Mavericks) gave me a measure of self-sufficiency.

Peak Design’s 45-liter Travel Backpack ($299.95) is the command center of minimalist travel. I was initially afraid committing to one-bag travel would mean I’d lose the level of organization afforded by hauling a roller bag and standard backpack. I needn’t have worried. The Travel Backpack 45L combines the catch-all capacity of a duffel or carry-on with the organizational capability—and portability—of a top-quality daypack.

In standard form, the Travel Backpack is a carry-on approved 35 liters, but can be expanded to 45 liters with a stealthily incorporated expansion zip, or compressed to 30 liters by snapping the top corners together. The main compartment can be accessed via clamshell-style openings on both the front and back of the pack, or via lateral zips on either side. The front lid has organizational pockets to keep small items in their right place and close at hand, and if you’re willing to sacrifice immediate access to the main compartment from the front, you can zip in a divider that adds two mesh organizational pockets while creating a separate zone at the front of the bag. This isolates the contents of the main compartment (toiletries, clothes, etc.) while giving quick access to smaller travel necessities. Other useful storage areas include two huge expandable water bottle pockets, hidden passport-sized pockets, padded and secure laptop and tablet sleeves inside the main compartment, and a plush lined pocket for sunglasses. When everything is put away, it gives a similar sensation to opening your tool chest and knowing you’ll find just the tool you’re looking for.

The Travel Backpack is so full of clever features that discovering all of them requires watching Peak Design’s 20-minute Setup and Tips video. A universal favorite feature is the stowable shoulder straps and hip belt, which tuck behind the back panel’s padded wings and secure with magnets. A hidden magnetic flap on the bottom of the lid conceals external-carry straps. Four carry handles make it easy to haul out of an overhead bin, and a pass-through strap on the back panel adds a secure way to attach it to the handle of a roller bag.

The body of the bag is made from 100 percent recycled 400D nylon canvas; the bottom is made of even burlier 900D nylon. Even after being tossed around inside a van for 14 days, it only took a quick wipe-down of the water-resistant exterior to keep it looking as good as new.

To keep the main compartment organized, I used one small ($29.95) and one medium ($39.95) Peak Design Packing Cube spec’d to fit the Travel Backpack perfectly. Peak Design says the cubes’ 70D nylon/poly blend material is self-healing. Expansion/compression zips help maximize space and an internal divider is used to keep clean and dirty clothes separated. Pull-apart unzipping makes for ultra-quick opening. Sure, they may “only” be packing cubes, but the thought that’s gone into their design adds a usefulness that makes ordinary packing cubes seem inadequate.

There are so many moving pieces on an overseas motorcycle trip. I loved the way the Travel Backpack gave me a sense of security. The brief daily ritual of packing and unpacking became an exercise to keep me mentally organized as much as physically organized. The Travel Backpack, like the right bike for the ride or the right tool for the job, made me feel well equipped for the task.

Packing only a small bag is entirely contingent on bringing very few clothes. The key is packing clothing that’s functional on the motorcycle, not too-technical to wear around town, and comfortable for travel days with long layovers and interminable flights. Plus, they need to pack small, withstand multiple days of wear before washing, and dry quickly when you do get a chance to do laundry in a hotel sink. For my two-week trip to the Balkans, I tested apparel from Foreign Rider, a Toronto-based brand whose ethos aligns with the requirements of minimalistic two-wheeled travel. The core of my wardrobe was FR’s merino short-sleeve base layer tee ($98), merino long-sleeve base layer tee ($110), merino hooded jacket ($248), and five-pocket pants ($128).

Foreign Rider specializes in making casually styled apparel with performance-oriented utility and go-the-distance durability. The brand is the latest venture of Ralph Dunning, who founded Dunning Golf in 2001, revolutionizing the golf apparel industry by introducing performance and technical fabrics to the country club crowd. For Dunning, Foreign Rider is the culmination of three decades of experience building brands and producing innovative, sustainably produced apparel. As an avid motorcyclist, Dunning designs apparel that’s equally at home beneath a motorcycle jacket as it is on the trail or around town.

Foreign Rider uses merino wool in many of its performance pieces. The material has superior thermoregulative properties compared to cotton—it holds less moisture and dries quicker—and it’s naturally odor resistant, making it totally conceivable to get multiple wears out of a single shirt before washing. Foreign Rider ups the ante by using Nuyarn merino. Compared to conventional ring-spun yarn, Nuyarn is made using a twist-free spinning method that allows it to perform closer to the way nature intended, enabling Nuyarn products to feel softer, retain heat better, breathe better, dry faster, and to be stronger, more elastic, and more durable.

From 45 degrees and rainy to 85 degrees and sunny, the FR merino tees lived up to the hype. They’re softer than any other merino tee I’ve ever worn, and their dialed-in fit and under-the-radar styling made me feel like I was wearing the right thing for the moment. On hot days, they never get that clingy, heavy feeling that makes cotton tees so uncomfortable when you sweat. Instead, FR’s merino tees feel airy, light, and persistently fresh-feeling. On the coldest rainy days, I added the long-sleeve tee on top, and the two together were as warm as a performance fleece but took up a minimum of space beneath my Alpinestars Tech-Air 5 vest and Aether Divide jacket. Because the combo worked so well I never added the merino hooded jacket on top, but I wore it most evenings around town and on frigid airplanes. With two hand pockets and one chest pocket, a low-profile hood, and full-length zipper, it’s the perfect layer for traveling—versatile, comfortable in a broad range of temperatures, and performance-oriented without looking techy. The five-pocket pants are the only cotton items I packed, and I wore them every single day. With a hint of stretch and a supersoft hand they were comfortable even on warmer days and when seated in an airplane seat for hours at a time. Plus, they pack small.

Foreign Rider also has a full line of stylish everyday streetwear, like its timeless waxed-canvas utility jacket.

One of minimalist travel’s maxims is bring only one pair of shoes: the ones you wear when you leave the house. If you’re flying halfway across the world to ride a motorcycle, the Bedrock Sandals Mountain Clogs have you covered for every off-the-bike activity you’ll encounter.

As Teva was to the 1990s and Chaco to the 2000s, Bedrock Sandals is to, well, now. Bedrock’s Y-shaped strap design, rugged Vibram soles, and innovative adjustment system position its Classic and Cairn sandals as icons in the making—gear made for the outdoors that transcends its purpose to become daily-wear for city slickers, grocery-getters, and in this case, a motorcyclist looking for something that takes up a not-egregious amount of space in a pannier or backpack.

But sandals aren’t the ideal option for a fly-to-ride motorcycle trip. While they pack small, they’re not ideal if you’re prone to cold feet on airplanes or averse to grimy feet in cities. Hiking shoes, which are comfortable and up for anything, take up too much space in a pannier or travel backpack, while athletic shoes are a lightweight and packable choice, but can feel too sporty. Enter Bedrock Sandals’ Mountain Clog ($160–$175), the Missoula, Montana–based brand’s first closed-toe shoe, introduced in 2023.

Take what you know about a casual clog, like the super-popular Birkenstock Boston Clog, and reimagine it for the rigors of the trail. The Mountain Clog uses custom Vibram Megagrip outsoles, a three-point sandal strap adjustment for a secure and customizable fit, a climbing rubber toe cap, a wide toe box, and a zero drop sole. Available in suede, nubuck, and synthetic leather, the Mountain Clogs are sturdy like a shoe, but easy to slip on like a sandal—perfect for going through airport security. While the suede models have polyester spacer mesh lining for added comfort, I opted for the unlined nubuck model. The nubuck leather is supple and looks just as good with some miles on board as it does fresh out of the box. The Mountain Clogs can even be resoled, so their hard-earned patina can live beyond the millions of steps it took to wear the soles out.

At under 13 ounces per shoe (size 10), they’re light and pack relatively flat. Most importantly, they’re super comfortable. The wide toe box can accommodate a wide range of foot shapes. Even on my narrow, low-volume feet, they weren’t sloppy. In fact, with a low tolerance for hot feet, I appreciated a bit of room to breathe. The Vibram outsoles gave ample grip trodding Sarajevo’s superslick cobbled streets, and the strap system gave me plenty of security hiking the sloping trails through Plitvice National Park. The Mountain Clogs are the happy medium minimalist packing requires: more breezy than shoes, more protective than sandals.

The Leatherman Arc ($229.95) is the Portland, Oregon, maker’s flagship multitool. From simple tasks like changing face shields and tightening the tiny screw on a Sena Bluetooth communicator, to critical ones, like bridging a faulty starter relay, the Arc was indispensable on my trip to the Balkans. The Arc is uninsulated, as you’d expect from an all-purpose tool, so using the pliers to bridge the starter relay definitely goes beyond what it’s designed to do (it caused a lot of sparks and slightly melted the tip of the pliers), but when you’re stranded on the wrong side of an international border, you improvise—you make do. And that’s kind of the whole point of a multitool: making do.

The Arc goes well beyond making do however. First, it’s a pleasure to use. With its patented Free technology, the Arc opens one-handed with a flick of the wrist, and the use of magnets to secure the tool makes it a tactile delight. For easy access, each tool can be opened with a single finger (and without fingernails!), including ones sandwiched in the middle. The knife blade even has a thumb tack for fast opening. As a category, multitools aren’t known for using premium steel for their knife blades, but the Arc bucks the trend, using MagnaCut steel that is said to offer greater edge retention and corrosion resistance. The blade also uses a DLC coating.

The Arc weighs 8.7 ounces on my kitchen scale and packs 20 tools into its elegant brushed and PVD-coated (Physical Vapor Deposition) steel body.

Rather than making do with, say, only a flat or Phillips screwdriver like the average multitool, the Arc has a built-in bit driver and includes 10 two-sided interchangeable bits. The bits are less than half as thick as a standard 1/4-inch bit to maintain the slim profile of the tool; the available Bit Driver Extender ($25) enables use of standard 1/4-inch bits. Representatives at Leatherman didn’t say how much torque was safe to apply to the tool, but twisting it in the hand like a screwdriver naturally limits the amount of torque that can be applied anyway, so don’t expect to use it in situations that demand lots of force. For lightweight tasks like adjusting your suspension clickers on the trail, the Arc is pretty ideal. It also has a small bit driver for micro screws like the ones that hold the microphone in place on a Sena communicator.

Jackson Wang, Leatherman senior product manager, says: “Each Leatherman multitool and implement goes through rigorous testing to ensure it meets our high quality standards and empowers our consumers to tackle the expected and unexpected.”

Leatherman is so confident in the durability of its multitools that it includes a 25-year warranty. If the durability of my Leatherman Super Tool, which I purchased at least 25 years ago, is anything to go by, the Arc’s lifetime will likely extend beyond the warranty.

The Arc is distinguished by its useful, easy-open tools and its use of premium materials. For two-wheeled global travel, encountering the unexpected is expected. When there’s a problem to be solved, the Leatherman Arc is a dependable first responder.

It wasn’t strictly necessary to have my own navigation on this particular tour, but I wanted to have the ability to use my phone for navigation should the need arise. I came to Peak Design for its ultra-sleek, vibration-damping motorcycle mount, but left with an entire ecosystem that transformed my phone into an EDC toolkit.

Peak Design’s mobile ecosystem centers around its Everyday Case ($49.95), available for Apple, Pixel, and Samsung devices. The phone case’s slender design features a TPU surround for drop protection and a nylon canvas covering on the back that keeps the case slim and gives it a luxe feel that distinguishes it from the average phone case. Unlike other case-dependent phone mounts, the Everyday Case’s clean design is so unobtrusive you’d never guess it’s anything other than a “normal” premium case. Peak’s SlimLink mounting technology, a discreet “magnetic/mechanical lock,” enables users to connect their phone to other Peak Design accessories, like its motorcycle mounts, Mobile Tripod ($79.95), or Mobile Wallet ($49.95).

Peak Design makes a number of different motorcycle mounts, but I opted for its Ball Mount Adapter ($49.95) so I could pair it with a Ram Tough-Claw to make installation on the bike quick and easy. For optimal security on board a motorcycle, Peak Design recommends using its locking mount, which at the time of testing didn’t come with the option of wireless charging. It now offers a locking, charging version that’s designed to be used on a motorcycle. The jewellike anodized aluminum mount is only a half-inch thick but has built-in vibration damping to protect the phone’s camera—an absolute must for using on a motorcycle. SlimLink’s strong magnets tractor-beam the case toward the mount, aligning it perfectly with the locking mechanism and connecting it with an affirmative clunk. Pressing the button on the mount releases the lock so the phone can be removed easily. It’s an elegant solution that makes most other systems seem awkward and rudimentary.

Off the bike, the phone can be attached to the Mobile Tripod. It’s one of those products you never thought you’d need, but once you use it, you realize how handy it is for travel and everyday tasks: FaceTiming with family, shooting photos on a timer, or watching videos on a plane. The Tripod magnetizes to the case in either landscape or portrait layouts. Its legs can be deployed and adjusted independently to sit stably on uneven ground, or folded down in kickstand mode. The Mobile Tripod is made of anodized aluminum and is about as thick as a stack of a few credit cards, so it doesn’t add too much bulk when it’s attached to the case. Still, at 2.68 ounces, it adds enough weight to the phone that it feels a bit heavy in the pocket. Its sleek construction is reminiscent of some of Rizoma’s moto-specific wares, which is to say it’s a beautiful piece of kit.

The Mobile Wallet also transcends two-wheeled usefulness to become an integral part of your EDC. I’ve long used minimalist wallets, but none so streamlined as this one. Made of the same canvas nylon as the back of the phone case to which it magnetizes, it holds up to seven credit cards accessed by pulling up the front flap closure. Compared to the tripod, the wallet doesn’t “stick” as strongly to the case, so if you drop your phone, the wallet can become detached. Likewise, the magnetic flap closure can open inadvertently when pulling the wallet/phone out of a pocket. While Peak’s other mobile accessories seem essentially flawless, the mobile wallet is merely good. Still, its integration with the phone merits its use as a full-time wallet. On an overseas motorcycle trip, when you’re trying to keep track of your keys, passport, insurance documents, etc., having the ability to connect your phone and wallet as a single unit simplifies the “sign of the cross pocket-check” you do every time you’re about to get on the bike.

Ultimately, I’ve never liked the idea of investing in a mount-specific phone case that’s only useful when I’m using it on the motorcycle. Peak Design’s additional mobile accessories make it useful off the bike, which, to me, makes the investment more justifiable.

The Asahi Lightool trail spanners ($26.49) are ultralight open-end wrenches, perfect for a motorcycle tool roll—a handy addition to a fly-to-ride loadout. The four-piece double-sided set includes 5.5mm x 7mm, 8mm x 10mm, 11mm x 13mm, and 12mm x 14mm chrome vanadium forged steel wrenches. On my kitchen scale, they weighed less than 4 ounces in total. You’ve gotta think eight conventional combo wrenches would weigh in the neighborhood of 12–16 ounces.

Having a handy set of Asahi Lightool trail spanners gave me a measure of self-sufficiency to do basic lever adjustments, etc. In the time it would have taken me to walk to the chase van and ask for the toolbox, I grabbed the Asahi wrenches from the GS’s top box and repositioned a friend’s rear brake lever, hastening our first sip of post-ride beer. Priceless.

The Asahi Lightool wrenches measure from 4 inches to 5.5 inches in length, so they’re incredibly compact. The downside, of course, is that you won’t get the same torque you would on larger conventional wrenches.

The chances of finding Asahi tools at your local hardware store is practically nil. But as luck would have it, a Dutch motoring journalist recognized the Lightool spanners perfectly fit the requirements for a motorcyclist’s tool roll and made them readily available through his website, rollingmavericks.com. Shipping from the Netherlands was fast (I received them in under a week) and amazingly affordable. Rolling Maverick also produces its own very cool Enduro Trail Jack Stand, which enables you to lift your motorcycle’s front or rear wheel off the ground for trailside repairs.

Carrying a minimalist wardrobe on a 14-day trip means at some point you’re going to have to do laundry, most likely in the bathroom sink of your hotel room. Minisoak travel detergent makes the process quick and easy. Each individually wrapped 5-milliliter pouch has enough detergent for a sink full of water. Soak clothes for 15 minutes, pull them out, wring them out in a towel, and you’re done. The no-rinse formula eliminates an extra step and doesn’t leave any discernible scent or residue. Critically, it’s safe to use on delicate fabrics, like those merino wool tees you’ve been wearing for days. Because hotel sinks don’t always have reliable sink stoppers, it’s a good idea to bring along a flat rubber stopper.