Practical mileage limit per day.

[Nick_Giles]

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What would members say is a 'practical' mileage limit per day to ride a motorbike while touring.?

While I am aware that some members have ridden very large mileage in a day, remember that when touring you are doing it for fun and not a chore.! - Also you have to be fresh enough to ride each day for perhaps two weeks and remain safe.

So basically I am not after what is doable but what is a practical mileage to do 'day in day out'.


Cheers, Nick.
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[spikenipple]

If you plan to ride all day but stop to take in the sights, have an ice cream or whatever 200 miles/day is pretty doable as long as you plan it well enough to get to your accommodation at a reasonable time.
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C50 > GN250 > XJ600 > SV650S K7 > 2001 RSV Mille R > MT-09, XR400R > 2005 Fireblade (trackbike) + 2022 MT-09 + ZXR400 race bike

[Derivative]

Depends on the bike a significant amount I'd think.

A comfy big tourer with weather protection will chug 200 miles like it's nothing. On a CG125 even if you could hold the same speed I reckon you'd be much more fatigued.

200 miles is probably doable on any >250cc road bike though I'd say.

On the Hornet 200 miles should be trivial. I do that to/from Uni on my CB500 pretty regularly and it's a twin.

[The Shaggy D.A.]

Depends on the purpose of the tour - you there to see the scenery and visit places, or is the destination a handy target to end the day after just riding for riding's sake?

Personally, my limit is around 250-300 miles, with 150-200 the norm, as I prefer to ride about an hour at a time spread out over the day, whereas others like to put as many miles behind them as early as possible. It also depends on whether you have a B&B/Hotel with an evening meal lined up, or you're camping and need to find a site and sort food out before its dark.
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[Walloper]

Tank and a half of gas or two. Depends on weather road and general arsed to do ness.

I have a toorer wot eats miles so two tanks is easy peasy but the soopur sport would be a grind after two days of tents and tarmac.
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[Casper]

I tend to think 50 miles = 1 hour on the saddle (Non motorway) Then ask what kind of day i want. Do i want to get to the desination quick or enjoy the trip.

Lets say i wanted to do to the swiss alps. 650 miles ish from ferry port. I would split that in two days then enjoy the alps doing 150 - 200 miles a day.

[motobiker]

The tour i organise each year - day one is 260 miles. stop every 40 miles.. 10 - 20 minutes. loo. stretch legs. quick coffee. refuel - for those with smaller tanks. lunch is about an hour - the aim is to reach the hotel in Der Eifel tired - but not exhausted. from then on each day is 200 miles or less. and just as relaxed.... the 'need to blast' is satisfied with a couple of laps of the Ring. but aside from that its all pretty chilled out - it is a holiday after all. Not an endurance test.

When i go on my own - day one is usually the longest, just to get past the Pays Du Calais - Then once in the Ardennes, get off the motorway and slow the pace. The distance can vary - but is on average about 300 miles and i always seem to end up in the Northern Vosges. when ive had enough - a few taps on the sat nav and make a bee-line to the nearest campsite. see if it has a bar or one close enough. if not.. just head to the next campsite. (I have 30,000 of the buggers on the sat nav - so plenty of choice) - next day and from then on. i just ride as much as i want - average is about 200 - sometimes a bit more. mostly a bit less. all very chilled out.

I usually go away for 10 - 12 days and midway will.. more often than not have a 'rest day' - go for a walk. visit some local attraction - generally doss and recharge my batteries before heading off again. works for me.
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1999 R1100GS + 2006 F800S
(Nottingham)
Sooner or later opinions fade and the name on the tank matters not. I think that happens somewhere between 3rd and 4th gear. Enjoy the ride... everything else takes care of itself.

[barrkel]

Focused on riding reasonably fast roads, 300 miles a day is very doable. That's 5 hours @ 60mph, but plan on it taking 8 hours.

If you're visiting towns and villages, stopping to take photos more than two or three times, going through urban speed zones, hitting traffic lights etc., 200 is more reasonable. It might even be ambitious.

It depends on the time of year (hours of daylight, rain), how long you want to get lunch (and how long it takes to find somewhere), and how early you want to leave in the mornings. Riding after dark, especially if you're running late towards check-in cut-off times, isn't very nice. The key to covering good distance is getting away early.

600 per day isn't too hard on motorway, should you need to make up time at the end of a loop, or not waste it at the start of one.

I tour primarily to go on good roads (i.e. avoiding both tiny country roads and motorways) while going a long way. 300 miles per day is my route planning target each night / morning. I can sustain that pace for every day except the first day for several weeks. The first day, I go easy. But usually I end up staying for a couple of nights somewhere to give a break not from the riding, but the packing / unpacking / routing / planning / finding food / etc.

The biggest time risk after getting up late is wasting time looking for food. This is why I usually get breakfast at the hotel, and end up in somewhere like a McDonalds for lunch - they're all in my GPS. Finding somewhere good for lunch is costly in time, and if you plan it beforehand, you lose a lot of flexibility.
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[Rogerborg]

[Derivative]

[tatters]

300-400 miles road traveling on average (I start at sun rise and finish at dusk), though have done around 2000 miles straight over the course of 42 hours from Smolensk to London (via Latvia) during the summer of 2009 and that was at a max speed of 70mph on a R100GSPD.

150-250 offroad/road traveling depending on conditions.
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[barrkel]

[Triton Thrasher]

All comes down to the size of your internet forum dick.
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[Eddie Hitler]

Whatever I end up doing is the mileage I do. I'll never limit myself to a certain target, saying that I'll never force myself to a certain amount either. Tiredness kills and all that crap.

[BigDan1190]

If riding all day, I'd be doing 400 miles per day. On my scotland trip we did 700 one day, 400 the next, 500 after and then 600 home on the last day.

400 was the nicest day

[stevo as b4]

100% depends on the bike, but also the weather, the temperature and the roads. Badly surfaced roads and loads of heavy traffic routes and in and out of city's will drain you more quickly and leave you tired and de-hydrated too.

Long motorways miles will bore you eventually, give you numb bum syndrome and also increase the risk of feeling tired and falling asleep.

Oh and whatever anyone says, 623mile's is too much per day on an 01 ZX6R. I wouldn't do that again, unless I was being paid lots of money.

On a similar sportsbike, i'd have no problem doing 300miles a day, as if you break it up into 2halves like having a ride to the coast for the day and back 150miles isn't that far to go in one stint, (petrol, fag, and snack stops permitting)

I did 160mile's in a day on a 100cc scooter, and that was a great experience until the carb fell off twice on the M5 on the way home.

[nightshaddow]

i rode a rattly skyjet 125 from york to cambridgeshire 150 miles each way only took a short time could have gone further i recon if i haddent reached my destination
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[chris-red]

for fun aim for 2-300 a day.

I've done 5 before it was shit.
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[stinkwheel]

I averaged 100 miles a day on my three month tour of Britain on a bike with a maximum speed of 60mph and carrying all of my camping stuff.

I did not ride it every day. Of the days I did ride, I averaged 150 miles/day.

The trick is to leave early enough. 9am at the latest and you'll get everything you want done. I was generally camped up again by 3pm having left, located my landmark(s) for that day, photographed them then found a campsite.
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[Speedysidders]

I live in germany for the majority of the time and come back to the UK nearly every friday for the weekend to my girlfriends uni in london, which is 480 miles on an sv650s
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[Dave-the-rave]

Age can also be a factor. The mind may be willing but
the body may be saying NOOOO.

[Walloper]

[Shinigami]

definately depends on the bike! on my city fly the 150 miles to manchester was pretty exhausting
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[Walloper]

[Peirre oBollox]

The roads & route also play a part, doing 500-1000 miles on autoroutes is doable, but riding the alps and managing 150-200 though twisties will be a very long day and thats before you consider stopping off for fuel, pics etc. I aim to ride 100 miles or 1hr before stopping for a break
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