Your main packing dilemma with 2-up camping will be sleeping bags. Everything else is much more easily managed. Sleeping bags take up a lot of space.
1 - Tent
When looking at a tent, look for the 'compressed size' as that will tell you the length of the pole sections. Some of the 2 person tents have pole sections as short as 16"-18" which gives you a lot of options on where you pack your tent. Once you get into the 3 and 4 person tents you get into pole sections that are 24" and longer and means you will end up packing the tent on top of whatever bag you're using on the rear luggage rack - which is fine.
Get AT LEAST a 3-person tent and I would suggest 4-person. The REI Half Dome 4 is a nice one. Go to
Campmor to see some nice cheaper 4-person tents. You want a bigger tent to help with moving around inside and making things comfortable and not cramped.
2 - Sleeping Pads
As everyone here already knows, I'm a big fan of the Exped mattresses and they are incredible. Having to buy two is tough. There are alternatives that are not as good but may be good enough for a weekend trip. Just depends on how cold it will be. There are many 3-4" thick non-insulated air mattresses which will be 'okay'. Don't go any ticker than 4" for a
non-insulated air mattress as it will suck your bodyheat trying to warm up that air volume and may do more harm than good. You may also want to bring an extra couple of fleece blankets to put between the tent floor and your air mattress as an extra barrier against cold. IMPORTANT - if you can, make sure your air mattresses are AT LEAST 24 inches wide... anything smaller and most folks hang off the side of them, and if you're touching the floor of the tent you're taking away all the benefits of having a mattress to begin with.
3 - Sleeping bags
20 degree down bags.. that's it. I haven't found much difference between a 0 degree and 20-ish degree sleeping bag - again, I use the exped air mattress so if you skimp on the air mattress you may have to pay a bit more on sleeping bags.
PACKED SIZE is something to think about here when camping 2-up. The stats that many sleeping bags show are a bit conservative and I have bought some I returned because the packed size was no where near what was stated. Compression bags help to cut the size down a lot. THESE items will be your biggest issue with packing but, this is also what you're sleeping in and needs to be comfortable, warm and big enough for you. Some, offer the option to zip 2 bags together so keep your eyes out for that. The
Kelty Cosmic 20 degree bag shows an 8x13 packed size. So, two of these would fit in a typical duffel and maybe 2 air mattresses as well as sandals or some other misc stuff. Then, strap your tent on top of the duffel. That was my first quick search and there are 100s of them out there so keep looking 'til you can't look anymore and write down the things that are important and list the bags that match those requirements.
You should be able to pack your camping hotel on just the luggage rack of your bike, leaving saddlebags/tankbag for everything else, if you have a top box, leave it at home.
Hope that helps.
