Where should the weight go on an adventure motorcycle?

Why does it matter where the weight sits, and not only how much?

Total weight comes first. Every kilogram has to be pushed through sand, held up at walking pace and lifted after a drop, and nothing about where it sits changes that. Placement changes how the weight behaves once it is on the bike, and it does that in three separate ways that are worth keeping apart.

Height. The higher the combined center of gravity of bike, rider and load, the further the bike wants to fall once it starts to lean, and the more effort it takes to hold it upright at a standstill or crawling through rocks. It is also the difference between a bike you can pick up alone and one you cannot.

Distance from the middle. Mass far from the center makes the bike slower to lean, pitch and turn, because the bike has to swing that mass around with it on every change of direction. The same kilo in a tank bag and on the end of a tail rack weighs the same on the scale and feels very different in a rut.

Distance behind the rear axle. A load behind the axle acts on a lever: it presses the rear down and lifts weight off the front tire, which is the one doing the steering. The Motorcycle Safety Foundation's rider manual says to place the load over, or in front of, the rear axle, and that mounting it behind "can affect how the motorcycle turns and brakes. It can also cause a wobble." The same manual's advice when a wobble starts: "Center the weight lower and farther forward on the motorcycle."

Where is the middle you are aiming at?

Not the middle of the seat. The target is the center of gravity of the bike with its rider and load aboard, and Chris Scott, author of the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook, puts it "in the region of the injectors": on most singles and twins, a little below the top of the tank and just ahead of the rider's knees. His rule for everything heavy is to carry it "low, forward and close" to that point.

That tells you the order of good places. Low beside the engine is best, which is where rally bikes carry fuel and where a bash-plate tool box sits. A tank bag is forward but high, so it suits light things. Panniers are low but behind the rider and wide, so they suit the middle weights, packed dense end forward. The tail, behind and above the axle, is the worst place on the bike and gets the lightest things or nothing.

Where should extra fuel go?

Low, and split either side of the bike, not in one tall tank on top. Fuel is dense: the European petrol standard puts it between 0.72 and 0.775 kg a litre, so 20 extra litres is roughly 15 kg, and it is usually the heaviest single thing a long-range rider adds. It also changes as you ride, so a layout that balances full may not balance half empty.

The three builds on this page split along exactly this line. In 2003 Chris Scott's Desert Riders XR650Ls carried 37 litres, about 27 to 29 kg, in one big tank that sat above the carburettor so fuel fed by gravity. His verdict afterwards: "Too high and top-heavy with that giant tank", and "A lower tank with a fuel pump would lower CoG and improve handling." Lyndon Poskitt's 690 Rally carries 32 litres in a factory layout, two tanks beside the engine and one under the seat, which he says "help to keep the weight central and low down." Jussi Hyttinen, The Rolling Hobo, added most of his fuel to his 690 Enduro R in tanks at the front of the bike.

The pump is what made the difference between 2003 and now. A tank mounted below the carburettor needs a pump or a siphon to feed it; a fuel-injected bike already has a pump, so low tanks are easier to plumb on a modern bike. Scott's own advice today: fuel pumps are cheap to run and easy to replace, "so better to suck low than have the mass of the added high."

How much can a rack carry?

Far less than most people load onto one, and the number that matters is usually the structure the rack bolts to, not the rack. On KTM's 690 Enduro the rear subframe is the plastic fuel tank, so the rack is carried by a fuel tank and is rated to match. Honda's current XR650L manual gives a maximum luggage weight of 3 kg, including the luggage itself and any accessories.

Side racks that run down to the footpeg bracket or the frame put their load into steel instead of into the tail. That is why Rally Raid tells 690 owners not to extend its tail rack for luggage and to fit its soft-luggage side racks, and why Poskitt fitted the rear tank from KTM's 450 Rally: it is a structural part with proper attachment points for a luggage rack. On the Desert Riders XR650Ls, which ran alloy boxes on a heavy rack, Scott found the rear subframe cracked on one bike "and possibly" a second.

Soft or hard luggage?

For rough ground, soft. A pair of Adventure Spec Magadan soft panniers weighs 1.57 kg a side for 32 litres each; one 38 litre Touratech Zega Pro aluminium case weighs about 5.2 kg empty, before the heavier rack it needs. Soft bags sit closer to the bike, can be sewn up in camp, and do less damage to a leg or a subframe in a fall. Hard cases lock, keep water out, and make a table at camp, which is why road-going tourers still choose them.

The Desert Riders trip is the worked example. Scott wrote that the Sahara "took it out of our alloy panniers (never again!)", and his later guides favour soft bags. Both 690s on this page run Adventure Spec Magadans.

Where does low and centered stop working?

Where the bags start to move or get in the way of your feet. Scott's rule carries the exception inside it: low, forward and close, "while allowing for those instinctive corrective dabs when losing control, as well as paddling in soft terrain."

Jussi Hyttinen's 690 shows what happens without that allowance. In 2013 he chose Rally Raid's racks because the bags sit lower and further forward, writing "I don't want to have my luggage far back and high up." By 2018 he had done the opposite: hung low, the left bag touched the side stand, the luggage "could swing a little", and in technical terrain "I kept getting my foot caught between an obstacle and a pannier." So he "raised the panniers higher up and further back", and kept the straps over the seat loose so the weight rests on the frame-mounted racks.

Low and centered is the rule. A bag that swings, or a boot that cannot reach the ground, is where it stops.

How do you pack so the heavy things end up in the right place?

Weigh what you carry once, then pack by density. Tools, spares and water go lowest and most forward: in a tool box on the bash plate if the bike has one, otherwise at the bottom front of each pannier. Clothes and the sleeping bag go on top and toward the back. Keep the two sides within a kilo or so of each other, because an uneven load makes the bike drift to one side. Keep the tank bag for light things you need often. Leave the tail rack for a light roll or nothing, and never stack a fuel can on top of a pannier.

Then check it where it counts. Paddle the loaded bike across a car park and put a foot down on each side; if a bag touches your boot or the side stand, it is too low or too far forward. Push the bike upright from its side stand. If that is hard on tarmac, it will be harder in sand.