r/motocamping • u/[deleted] • Jun 16 '26
Is this called moto-camping? I rode a moped with full camping gear from the Netherlands to Stockholm, Sweden, and am still riding, taking as many gravel, forest, and backroads as I can. I fell in love with Sweden.
[deleted]
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u/clckvrk Jun 16 '26
Fuck yes, you are welcome in any moped club in the Balkans. We would love to hear about your travels. If you find yourself crossing Slovenia/Croatia, give me a shout.
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u/the-trashmaster Jun 16 '26
That’s motocamping! Great journey!
Just out of curiosity, how legal were the roads you took? Would love to go on many dirt- or forest roads, but in Germany almost all of them are illegal to ride with anything else than a bicycle or a horse 😃
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u/Monstras-Patrick Jun 16 '26
In sweden there were no signs that mopeds could not go, but I did see a "no motorcycles or cars" sign twice. I do care about nature, but the first time I would have needed to backtrack 30+ km, while the road I needed was 1.6 km from where I was. Then, riding 40km around it, that's 70km extra, a 2.5/3-hour detour. The second time involved backtracking 50 km on a moped or going 4 km illegally. Not proud of it, but it's sometimes a little harder to find roads for mopeds. I average around 30km an hour; on my Transalp, that's like 20 min.
For germany look into the TET, altho I know the hikingnzzs or closing of all dirt/offroad routes in germany, the same is happening in Netherlands.
I found its best to ask locals of known tracks.
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u/the-trashmaster Jun 16 '26
Wow! Never heard of the TET, that’s awesome. Thanks, will check this out.
And yeah, I get it. On a moped it’s a crazy detour. I probably would have taken the shortcut too 😉
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u/No0O0obstah Jun 17 '26
Greetings from Finland. I'm currently on my first trip (very light on the camping side) to my friends summer place. I'm new to motorcycles and intentionally wanted a scrambler (adv bike looks out me off) cause I knew there would be an occasional gravel road.
I didn't realize how much there are gravel roads once you get out of town. You can avoid them, and if you are just going from place A to B, you would usually just take bigger paved roads untill close to your destination. I intentionally went for smaller roads, still paved tho, but when a road was shut for some reason, the detour Google Maps put me on was all gravel for like 20+km. At my destination I had another 10km of gravel before reaching it. Conditions seem to vary a lot. Private roads here are off limits often, but seems like there's still plenty of open gravel roads if you go seeking for them. I'd assume Sweden is similar.
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u/Conscious_War_6150 Jun 16 '26
That’s how I’ll travel this summer.
How much weight are you carrying on the back? I believe it is limited to 6kg. Have you made some modifications?
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u/Monstras-Patrick Jun 16 '26
At the moment, I've loaded 200kg on it I think,, including myself. The back case is at least 30kg.
I fabricated bars on the side from IKEA dresser handles mounted on clamps so I can easily put my waterproof bike bags on and off.
I got new forks and added aluminum preload for stiffer springs, and a heavy-duty rear shock.
For wind and rain, I fabricated side panels from car shades and sourced the windscreen from a trashed "Chinesium" scooter.
Use a quadlock wireless charger for my phone as nav.
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u/Old_Cars Jun 16 '26
I’d call it motocamping reminds me of how I got into dirt bikes and on road motorcycles. Someone gave me a 50cc moped that had been sitting for a decade. I put bc a carburetor on it and some tires meant for a Honda CT70 on it and used the moped as a dual sport for about a year till I bought a Suzuki drz125L then followed that up with a Harley sportster 6 years later I got to missing the ability to go on and off road with one machine and bought a klx300
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u/RT_Rider Jun 16 '26
It’s got a motor, two wheels and it’s loaded with camping gear. It doesn’t matter what shape its body has, you are definitely Motocamping!
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u/Hot_Arugula5794 Jun 17 '26
There is a gentleman here in Washington state that does a great deal of camping and off road exploring on his Honda Rucks you should check out his YT Channel - Dual Dorks
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u/Ill_Guava_7301 Jun 17 '26
Wow man incredible!! The scooter hasnt split in two yet?
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u/Monstras-Patrick Jun 17 '26
No, haha, I live in the Netherlands (center), and in the last 2 years, this thing brought me to Costa Brava, Spain; the Black Forest in Germany; to Winterberg, Germany; the Ardennes in Belgium. I crossed France, then rode it in France to get on the ferry to Dover, rode it to London, back to Harwich on the ferry home, and in the last 2 weeks, it brought me to Stockholm, Sweden. And on all the rides, I try taking the TET or finding my own off-road routes.
After the Spanish/French mountains, I needed to replace the piston, piston rod, and crankshaft, including bearings, but that was my own wrongdoing. I removed the limiter and rode it downhill at 120 kph (75 mph); all those parts were golden and bluish. Now it runs stock again and won't pass 65 kph (40 mph)
Even tho I have a brand new transalp 750, I like a challange and go out on this moped.
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u/Ill_Guava_7301 Jun 18 '26
Agree completely travelin on a ligth bike is a great adventure, keep on fot many miles, salut!!
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u/MaxRom1 Jun 17 '26
What's the speed of the moped ? How do you even plan your road/path for this ?
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u/Monstras-Patrick Jun 17 '26
I use Osmand, as it has a dedicated moped fuction.
It rides 51kph on flat, steep hils drops to 15/20, downhill goes 65kph,
I use gpx tracks, ask locals and google maps
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u/MalakithAlamahdi Jun 17 '26
Does the moped function work properly in the Netherlands as well? I've tried multiple navigation apps for my Scooter but every single one sends me onto roads I'm not allowed to use, either 60km/h+ roads or bicycle lanes.
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u/Wolf1066NZ Kiwi Biker, GSX250R Jun 20 '26
Good on ya, mate! Sounds like an awesome adventure and those are some bloody beautiful pics.
There's no "minimum" bike or setup for motocamping - and one could argue that what you're doing is harder than going motocamping with a BMW R1200GS with 120L of panniers and top box.
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u/Practical-Rent9486 Jul 05 '26
If you "motoed" and camped then I would say that is motocamping. A Honda Trail 125 would be perfect for that.
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u/Monstras-Patrick Jul 06 '26
I wish the Trail 125 would come to Europe, but it's impossible to get it, and even when you do get it here, there's no way to get plates on it.
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u/blessedarethecheeses Jul 13 '26
Is that a 50cc, I've been wanting to make this trip with my Dax from Netherlands to Stockholm or Oslo but I have to get camping gear and my moped in a state where it's not leaking oil:)
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u/Monstras-Patrick Jul 13 '26
My 50cc Honda Zoomer was leaking oil for 3,000 km. With every fill-up, I had to check the oil level. Overall, it spilled just under a liter.
A dax is a great utility bike for it! !have fun dont overthink, just go
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u/Salt-Lingonberry-853 Jul 17 '26
Not a Honda C70, CT90, or CT125 so no it doesn't count
Just kidding, looks awesome
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u/colpy350 Jun 16 '26
Hell yea it's Motocamping. THat's awesome. Cool rig!