Realistic daily distances for touring on 125's

[andymcadam]

I'm touring the UK soon with my brother, I'll be on a Suzuki GZ 125, he'll be on a Honda varadero 125.
We're aiming for 300 miles per day, starting at 9am each morning and setting up camp before it get's dark. So around 8pm, that gives us 11 hours to ride 300 miles and take breaks every 100 miles as well as fuel stops.

Is this realistic, ideally of course we'd like to get to camp well before dark and have the late afternoonand evening exploring (down the pub).

We're spending 7 days on the bikes, hopefully covering scotland, wales and cornwall starting from Cambridge

[BanditJeff]

I would say 300 a day is doable. A big trailie, albeit small cc should be comfortable, and yer small cc cruiser should be reasonably comfy too. I would get a screen if you dont already have one. Theres a lot worse 125cc bikes to do it on.
You're looking at a good 6 to 8 hours a day riding plus stops.

[Skudd]

300 miles is doable, but are you touring or doing the iron butt challenge? If you use a realistic average of 40mph and an average 5 hours riding a day, you will enjoy your trip a lot more. If you want to do more riding then ride once you set up camp or allow for the road that takes your fancy that you didn't schedule for.
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[G]

As above - sitting in the saddle day in day out's not much fun really.
Doable, but seems a bit pointless to me, unless it's interspersed with some days out of the saddle wandering around in your destinations.

(Saying that, I did base of Scotland to John'O'Groats one day last year, then back again the next day, carrying on to a bit north of Manchester in a loan Fiesta when I got a puncture.)

[Bendy]

[Skudd]

[G]

Ah, but then I'd say the good roads and good views are the tourist bit - unless it's the A99 you like .
I was working on the presumption that their 300 miles was just 'commuting' miles to get from A to B, rather than fun-road miles, which would take even longer!

[Bendy]

[G]

That's my point... if you're trying to get places in a short space of time, you're going to be taking the 'nothing special' routes; the 'tourist' bit is when you get to the fun routes and spend a fair bit longer winding in and out of mountains .

[Bendy]

You're working on a very different definition of 'tourist' to me.

Tourist: Stupidly-dressed loud-mouthed ignorant who spends entire holiday looking for official 'photo points', enquiring as to why local shops "don't sell anything Scottish*" and telling everyone within earshot that they're directly descended from Flora MacDonald / William Wallace / Bonnie Prince Charlie.

* They are in fact looking for a tartan plastic backscratcher with a piper on it, made in Taiwan.

Going for the far higher purpose of good roads and good scenery isn't remotely 'tourist-y'. That classifies you as a 'visitor' which is a whole different animal...

[njd27]

[Skudd]

[Mystery]

well i would say it is, i done about 150 miles on my 125 sports bike last night in about 4 hours, didn't get in till 3 am lol
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[Pernig]

We did Penzance to Lincoln in around 11 hours, my friend was on his 125. It was around 390 miles. This included stops for petrol and a stop for tea and dinner. We didn't use a map, which added to the fun. Sure was knackering though!
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[Clanger]

I would say it totally depends on your bum!!! It's how you feel that determines how far you'll go...
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[andymcadam]

only four days left now!!! Can't wait!!!
I'm stuck in an office in Switzerland right now, which is making me really look forward to the trip. A week out from work, sat on my bike that I've not had much chance to ride before now, covering as many miles as I can, chatting to my brother over the headset radio, the sound o the engines, getting a bad neck from nodding at other bikers, stopping for tea and burgers at roadside cafe's, bliss.

[Alexio]

In my opinion 300 miles a day on a 125 is do-able but I wouldn't do any more. You might have a 125 with a seat more comfortable than mine though.

About a month a bit ago (can't precisely remember when it was now) I drove from my home in sussex to glastonbury for the festival and back that week. That journey is 200 miles and it took about 5 and a half hours both times. So 300 miles by that scale would be at least 9 hours on the road and a rest every 100 miles would be every 3 hours or so. That would be absolute worst case scenario though. I sadly didn't take any rests (not recommended)!

If you are luckier than me and the roads are clear you'll be doing ~60MPH and so obviously it's a little under 2 hours per 100 miles which is much nicer.

If you kept on going for 10 hours (plus how ever much time you spend resting) at an absolutely ideal 60MPH pace then you could even travel 600 miles in a day.

I'm excited for you! I hope you have fun. I would personally just stop when my behind couldn't take any more.

[Irn-Bru]

Depends on the seat really... I did 100 miles once on my old scooter (Yamaha Cygnus) and it felt as though I'd been bum raped for hours I even had to pull over on the way home as the pain was unbearable. However, on my DT I did 91 miles (with one rest aka burger and chips time ) and I felt fine.

Sounds like a good little adventure!