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Stoves for Motorcycle Camping
Finding the right set of cooking gear to take on your motorcycle camping adventure can be a challenge. There are many alternatives available, from high tech light weight backpacking stoves to do-it-yourself alcohol stoves, titanium mess kits to eating out of a large soup can made into a cooking pot. In this article I will try to shed some light on the various commercially available stove alternatives and hopefully give you some ideas for you next big motorcycle camping adventure.
There are many great products available for motorcycle camping from the backpacking market. Extremely light weight camp stoves are available that burn various types of fuels from wood to gasoline.
Extremely compact tablet stoves such as the Esbit tablet stoves are available at almost any store that sells camping gear as well as most military surplus stores. Stoves that use Sterno fuel cans are also available, but not as compact as the Esbit style stoves. These are very inexpensive (<$10) and compact but do not create much heat. Getting water hot enough to boil is questionable with these stove. There are also small wood stoves available that are basically a pot holder under which you can build a small fire with gathered twigs or wood you’ve brought from home. Vargo offers a very compact and light weight wood stove that sells for around $60. One major downside, if you are planning to gather your wood for the fire and it happens to be raining, you may be eating cold rations. Canister type stoves are fueled by single use canisters of fuel. Popular brands include MSR, Coleman and Jetboil and prices range from $15 for a simple Coleman burner to nearly $200 for a titanium JetBoil stove kit that includes a huge 1.8 liter cook pot and bowl. Fuel costs about $5 each for a small one-time use canister. Most liquid fuel stoves use white gas; however, some of these stoves are capable of burning mulitple types of fuels including unleaded gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and naphtha as well as white gas. These stoves range in price from $80 for a simple white gas stove to around $150 for a heavy duty expedition grade multi-fuel stove. You will also need to purchase a fuel bottle and I would highly recommend purchasing a maintenance kit as these stoves can be a little finicky. These stoves are available from MSR, Soto, Primus and others.