"Distance in a Day"

[Our Gee]

Not wanting to hijack Tamiller's "New here from Kentucky" thread I thought it would be fun to start another thread to discuss "Distance in a Day". Realshelby's 1000 miles and Laf's 710 figure is to me, astounding. The most I have managed is the 524 miles from Paris (France) to my home in North Yorkshire (England). That was with my wife as pillion and riding our K1200LT which compared to an RT is like riding your most comfy sofa. That took us about 10 hours including comfort stops, rest breaks and the English Channel Tunnel Train. The thought of turning around and backtracking to bring the total to around the 1000 mile mark would fill me with dread as I wouldn't have been in a fit state to do it. Riding our present bike, a Twin Cam RT on my own and leaving at around 9am I regularly do the 502 miles from home to Evreux, France in about 9 hours arriving early evening, tired and ready for a shower, couple of beers, bite to eat and bed. So hats off to the mega distance riders over the pond !!.

[beemerboy9]

I have a mate who drives buses (in the UK) for a living and presumably has great powers of concentration and observation (and endurance!). For the challenge, he managed just over 1500 miles (Iron Butt Association Bun Burner 1500) in 24 hours using the European motorway network.


Personally I have travelled from Dusseldorf to Vienna (585 miles) in 10 hours, but I cheated by putting the bike on a train!




The USA is a large country and so long days are a fact of life for Americans.


In defense of we Europeans, I know of one very, very experienced US rider who was accompanied to the passes such as the Stelvio, pronounced them too dangerous and headed for lower ground.

[RTs4me]

Our highest mileage day was from near Koblenz, Germany, to home in Hartlepool, about 650 miles. It wasn't by choice though! A 'miscalculation' of holiday dates (don't ask!  ::) ) meant that I had to dash back to return to work the following day. We had a short break from riding whilst on the Channel ferry, but I think we did about 12 hours or more on the bike. This was a few years ago, on a twin-cam RT with Touratech seats.


Nowadays, with, ahem, better planning, we aim for about 350 miles per day. That gets us from either Rotterdam, Ijmuiden or Zeebrugge ferry ports to Bavaria/Alps/Austria areas with one overnight stay. Much more comfortable. 

[LAF]

I think distance is mental and physical.  We ride 200 mile rides a lot with our BMW club.  We leave after breakfast today and will do 175-200 miles today just messing around on back PA roads.  I think riding endurance is built up over time in the saddle.

The biggest thing is if you feel tired then stop get off, get fuel, a bite to eat a coffee and walk around a bit.  If you get back on and ride a little and feel tired time to get off the road.  No accident is worth a 100 dollar motel room.

It is also sometimes a groove.  I get into a groove riding and it does feel I could ride forever.  Other times after 100 miles I say bag it I do not have it today and head for home.

When I went 7600 miles across the USA we rode 100 miles stretched rode 100 got gas, rode 100 stretched, rinse and repeat.  Now we did move those out or in if we needed something or both felt good.

IMHO safety is more important than anything so if you are sleepy or loosing concentration then you need to get off the bike.

Like I say I think you need to build endurance.  I would never dream when Winter breaks to jump on the bike and do a 500 mile run.  Muscles need to get used to things again and for me it takes a bit to be comfortable after a long time off the bike.

I might add that 350 miles of my 710 were in very dense fog.  I mean enough that water was rolling up the shield at all times.  That makes for a tough ride. 

There are many people that laugh at 700 or 1000 mile days as that is nothing to what they are capable of.  We are all different and we all do not have the same ability's. 

Ride your ride and stay safe.

[gogs01]

I am interested in the distances people ride in a day and I admire the ability of some people to clock up enormous distances.
On the other hand, I can't see the point of doing miles purely for the sake of quoting a bigger number.
I've done short days and long days and the longest days have been born of necessity. My wife made me promise never again to take her on a 700 mile day from ferry to hotel in Austria >:(, and if I'm riding solo I just want to enjoy the day, so mostly six riding hours and 450 mile would be a plan. I'm not sure I would like to tear up and down motorways for 24 hours to do an enormous mileage, but that's me. As I say, I respect the ability of others to be able to do it

[RTtourer]

Most I've done in a day is 900 miles. It was the last leg of a cross counry trip a couple of years back. I was on a HD Ultralimited at the time. I've done a bunch of 600 miles and 1 or 2 other 700 mile days. When I get on a bike, I just don't want to stop! Now that I've had some hearing loss/damage, I'm likely to shy away from the high milage days.  

[tamiller]

My longest day was 1238 miles in 21 hours, from Scottsbluff, Ne. to Elizabethtown, Ky on a 2001 Goldwing, in 2005. 


My most tiring trip was 9972 miles in 19 days, 16 of them in cold rain, on the way to and from Alaska in 2007.  We rode 6 consecutive days in non-stop rain with a high temperature of 44 degrees. 


I nearly always ride from here to Hays, Ks. on my trips to the west, and that is 820 miles.  After that I slow down and usually ride in the 5-600 mile per day range. 


I intend to change riding style a little and that is one reason for getting the RT.  I've ridden countless long looping trips and seen most all National Parks and points of interest (tourist traps) and been to every state, most multiple times.  Now we want to get off the main roads and ride to our favorite areas, spending several days there.  At nearly 65 years of age very long days are losing their attractiveness.  We've seen everything, now we want to stop and smell the flowers. 

[simbo]

My longest ride was 550 miles back from Normandy to Manchester on a fully loaded GSX1250fa, The first 450 in France and and up to Birmingham in the sunshine was pleasant  8)  The last 100 in the dark pouring rain wasn't 

[slowvet]

Back in '86 I had a dumb idea of riding my new '86 gsxr 1100 from Washington DC to Omaha Ne. straight through. Only stopping for gas and a bite to eat, 24 hours and almost 1200 miles. The speed limit was 60-65 mph back then if I remember right. I was seeing dinosaurs at about hour 17. Hallucinating I was so tired. Got to Omaha stayed a couple of days, turned around and did it again. Not smart.

[JBnAZ]

2 iron butts completed, both in the 1100 - 1250 range. Multiple 500 mile days. My ideal distance is 250 - 350 per day.

[MEM62]

My longest day was on a VFR800fi.  I was visiting friends in the south of Spain and usually allowed two days for the trip up to the north coast to catch the sailing home.  On this occasion a storm was forecast as coming in so I had an earlier than usual start on day 1 and pushed on in the hope of having the bulk of the journey done before the storm hit the next day.  Well, I pushed on and did the whole 623 miles in one day. I was very glad I did too as the storm was severe with even some major roads not being passable and widespread flooding and general disruption.  I watched all the carnage on TV.  There was no way I could have ridden in it and would have missed my sailing if I had not done the trip in one day.   

[gogs01]

In 2002 I had bought a new Yamaha 600 Fazer and I rode it to Imola for the WSBK battle between Troy Bayliss and Colin Edwards.
On the morning of the race I was up early and off to the circuit for a terrific day of spectating. After the races, I left the circuit with thousands of others and my plan was to ride until the roads cleared then look for a hotel. Roads eventually cleared and it was beginning to get dark. Could I find a hotel ?? Buzzing through Switzerland in the dark was interesting, but by the time I got into France I was considering sleeping at the side of the road if I couldn't find a hotel. At 4 in the morning I managed to get checked in to a F1, having covered 640 miles. Not my greatest mileage, but it must qualify for my longest day !!

[Sprintgull]

I enjoy pretty long days.  I do the Round Britain Rally and National Road Rally in UK each year.  That usually means 2 or 3 500+ days and one 600-700 day.  300 is a nice steady day.

[realshelby]

My 1000 mile day isn't that much to some riders! The route you take and the conditions you travel in all come into play. But the most important thing is getting everything you sit on, grab onto, wear to work with you rather than against you. That takes several trips to iron out and get right.

[slparry]

My first trip to the Bol d'Or in the 80's was two up on a Kawasaki KLR600 with camping gear, 1200 miles in a day, must admit I didn't want to ride the next day, which was OK as we were watching the racing