Top Camp Kitchen Gadgets for Motorcycle Campers
ADV bikes are increasingly popular among motorcyclists—and for a good reason. They’re prime vehicles for taking you to stunning secluded camping spots along narrow forest trails.
But when dinner time comes around, you usually have to cook it without the comforts of a modern kitchen. That is, unless you have a complete camp kitchen packed away in your panniers.
Here are 10 useful camp kitchen gadgets that can save your trip when your stomach rumbles louder than a Harley-Davidson.
Mountain House Meals
Mountain House meal packs are a quick, efficient, and tasty way to fill your stomach while motoring through the great outdoors. Each of the pouches is a completely self-contained meal solution that will be ready to eat in minutes.
All you need to prepare a Mountain House meal pouch is some boiling water. Open the pouch, pour the water in, re-seal it, and in 10 minutes you’ll have a hot dinner ready to serve.
Mountain House offers many different kinds of meals in varying package sizes, from breakfast options to very compact dinners and even whole buckets containing enough food for a multi-day trip. Not all of the options are gourmet meals, but hey — when you arrive at your campsite four hours late due to road closures, Mountain House pouches still let you crawl into your tent with a stomach full of hot grub.
Jetboil Flash Java Kit
We don’t know about you, but we can’t start a riding day without a hot cup of coffee. The Jetboil Flash Java Kit is a compact and lightweight travel French press coffee maker that lets you make a warm cup o’ Joe wherever you are.
This device consists of the Jetboil four-cup cooking container (with the color-changing logo on the side acting as a handy temperature indicator). Attached to the provided igniter and stand, it brings water from cold to boil in just a couple of minutes.
Then, just drop in your coffee grounds, wait for them to steep, and press the included silicone-sealed plunger into the cooking cup. Voila—hot coffee within minutes, no matter where you camp.
Note that the Flash Java Kit requires the smaller 100g Jetboil fuel canisters which are sold separately.
Jetboil Genesis Basecamp Cooking System
Transporting a whole kitchen on your bike is a pipe dream. Yet, the Jetboil Genesis Basecamp comes about as close as you can get.
When packed, the entire Genesis Basecamp system fits in a single 11-by-8-inch container, weighing barely over nine pounds. Unraveling it, however, reveals a heat-adjustable two-burner gas stove, a strainer lid-equipped five-quart pot, and a 10-inch ceramic-coated frying pan.
You can whip up a five-star meal as you would in your home kitchen. Afterward, the pot and pan are quickly and easily cleaned before disappearing back into the carrying bag.
If you have multiple Jetboil stove units, you can daisy chain them together virtually endlessly. The Genesis Basecamp system uses standard 16.4-ounce propane canisters (sold separately).
Sea to Summit Camp Kitchen Clean-up Kit
No matter how far you escape from civilization, you can’t escape from doing the dishes. The Sea to Summit camp kitchen clean-up kit makes this inevitable chore quicker and easier when on the road.
This lightweight (only 9.5 ounces) kit contains a collapsible 2.6-gallon wash basin made of waterproof nylon, a pot scrub brush, a dish towel, and a drying towel. You also get a small bottle of biodegradable dish soap so you won’t have to worry about harming nature at your campsite.
It all packs away into a five-by-eight-inch nylon pouch. Doing the dishes is never fun, but this kit makes it about as much of a breeze as it’s ever going to get.
Nice Rack Travel Spice Rack
Campsite cooking often requires compromises—but you shouldn’t compromise flavor. The Nice Rack travel spice rack packs your favorite flavorings in an extremely compact space.
The Nice Rack consists of five separate spice containers with shaker lids that slot together to make a small tower. Each container is made of durable transparent plastic and attaches to the others with threads so you won’t have to worry about them popping open during transit.
Just let us be clear: this rack is nice but also very small. At around 3.5 by 1.5 inches, it’s about the size of a roll of nickels. Consequently, each container holds only about a couple of teaspoons’ worth of spices.
The Nice Rack comes pre-filled with salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne, and rosemary. The containers are re-fillable, though, so you can pack whatever spices you prefer.
GSI Outdoors Cooking Set
You can’t cook with just a pot and a pan, not to mention eating your gourmet cooking. The 24-piece GSI Outdoors cooking set contains enough utensils for one camp chef and four diners.
Opening the 14-by-9-inch nylon zip pouch reveals a foldable plastic spatula and spoon, a collapsible whisk, a small grater, and a paring knife (with a plastic sheath for safety). There are also four spoons, forks, and knives, alongside two squeeze pouches for oils and/or condiments and a salt shaker.
The entire set weighs just about 1.7 pounds, making it easily portable. The plastic of the spatula and spoon won’t scratch non-stick pans—but they can’t take too much heat so don’t leave them sitting in the pan!
Tapirus 3-in-1 Multipurpose Spork
If James Bond went camping, you can bet Q would hand him the Tapirus 3-in-1 spork. If you can’t eat it with this multi-utensil, well, you can’t eat it.
Put together, this gadget forms an 8.8-inch-long spork that can reach deep into MRE (or Mountain House pouches). That long handle, however, hides a serrated stainless steel utility knife for eating and other tasks, and a Ferro Rod firestarter that works with the knife.
The pieces with together firmly, so you can hang the spork from your neck (or anything else) with the included 10-inch nylon paracord without worrying about it falling apart.
If there’s a downside to the Tapirus 3-in-1, it’s that the spork’s bowl is a bit shallow and can make eating soups difficult. Then again, no one’s there in the woods to check your manners, so just sip the broth from your bowl and use the spork on the solid bits.
The Hungry Spork Trail Recipes
Beans and spam make for a decent meal, but subsisting on them for a week-long camping trip gets dull. If you’re not sure what’s for dinner on each day of your tour, check The Hungry Spork cookbook for some inspiration.
This 245-page tome contains a wide scope of healthy, nutritious, and delicious trail recipes. They’re easy to cook too—each recipe relies on home-dehydrated ingredients you can cook by simply adding hot water.
Basically, this is a cookbook for making your own MREs. It’s a recommended read for any enthusiastic moto and regular camper, or anyone who wants to keep something homemade in their pantry that can be warmed up in minutes.
iClimb Camp Table
Balancing a hot bowl or plate on your thighs can be both inconvenient and uncomfortable. With the iClimb camp table, you can bring a sturdy dinner table with you to the campsite.
This aluminum camping table measures 15.7 by 15.7 inches, giving one person enough space for a meal. The tool-free setup is quick and easy—unfold the legs, slot in the tabletop end pieces, and finally snap the rollable tabletop into place.
The four pieces weigh only 3.3 pounds in total and fit into a single bag, making this table easy to transport. Thanks to the heat-resistant surface, you can safely place your Jetboil or other portable stoves on it.
Sea to Summit Collapsible Bucket
Water—you can’t live without it but it weighs a ton. With the Sea to Summit collapsible bucket, you can stop overloading your bike with water canisters.
This 2.6-gallon collapsible bucket is made of durable TPU-coated nylon, as is the dual-layer handle. The handle is welded to the bucket material so it’s not going to rip off while carrying.
On the bottom part of the bucket is a grab handle that helps a good deal with pouring. As a thoughtful touch, the inside of the bucket has a clear volume indicator to keep you from hauling too much water around.
After you’re done using it, the bucket folds into a 4.25-by-4.25-inch zippered pouch, weighing 2.8 ounces. It’s a valuable and lightweight addition to your moto camping kit.