Camping on a Yamaha XT225 Serow

Camping in Iceland on a Serow, with all the luxuries of home. Just keep your kit to the absolute minimum - especially cooking equipment.

A crude but effective way to carry throwover bags without them burning on the exhaust. The luggage carrier is home-made from 8 mm marine ply, screwed and glued with epoxy resin, and weighs about 1.5 kg. It slots over the rear lifting handles and is secured by straps.

It's amazing what a Serow can carry with a bit of planning. The tank bag is borrowed from a BMW R1100GS and fits a treat, but many small trail bags could be made to work - very useful for maps, cameras etc. The big blue bag is made from the stuff they use for liferafts and came from a canoe equipment shop - very tough and totally waterproof. Good quality cam or racket straps are essential for holding things on when the going gets rough. Elastic straps are totally useless.

Since I did the Iceland trip in 2000 I have acquired an Enduro tank bag with a magnetic base from Hein Gericke (www.hein-gericke.com). It's a brilliant bit of kit - well shaped for most trail bikes, good map pocket, expandable to take a load of stuff, well made. Good value at £69. They also do a strap-on version, where you can leave the base fixed and strap off the bag itself.

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