Planning a Touring Route - Tips to Mitigate Touring Stress
By Alberto Centrino

You've picked out a sweet destination and are all packed with everything you'll need. Take a moment and think to yourself, have you thought about a particular route to get there? Check out our guide on what you should know to plan out the best route for you.

 

On the tour bike, 150 miles at a stretch might work. Old habit from the days on a honda 1100 shadow for me is stopping every hour. Sometimes for only 30 seconds a minute and gas every other. Always seems to help keep blood moving and more miles in a day? Sometimes, like out west, the road decides. Towns being 70 miles apart.

How long between stops do you like to try for?

 

I agree, 150 miles is a touring bike-kind-of distance. Others, especially those riding with no fairings or windshields would probably really appreciate a shorter distance between stops. I am a big fan of just letting your body know when to rest.

 

Obviously different for everyone but two thoughts.

Sure you can do 600 mile days but they sure get old if you do a mess of them back to back. I sprinkle in a few 300's, as well as a couple days off in a 10-14 day tour. Then you have built in make-up days as well as turning a 300 into a 500 miler if needed. Nothing more stressful as deadlines. Save that **** for work.

I have to have my accommodations set for the end of a riding day as early as possible. Nothing is more stressful to me than having to search every hotel in some town and finding nothing because of the damn Possum Festival or some such thing. Since the body refuses to camp anymore, I need to lock down early because when I'm done, I'm done!

 

I agree, 600 miles per day can and is exhausting back to back. It sounds like you know what you’re doing, and by that I mean that you know how to enjoy your rides. There’s an element of pride in challenging ones self to a 1000 mile day But there’s definitely something to be said for knowing when it’s OK to do a 100 mile day.

For new riders and those are new to multi-day touring, camping at least once is a must. Myself personally I make it a point to camp at least once and except for my final destination I do not book hotels in advance. I will admit however that although seldom I have had instances where I could not find a hotel that wasn’t completely full but I still prefer to take off and let the road tell me when and where to stop. Riding with the group however usually does involve planned stops nightly Which is why I make it a habit to ride very early in the morning and stop an hour or two before the sun goes down.

 

Time, as opposed to miles is probably a better indicator for when it's time for a break.
When I ride solo, I tend to sit on the bike until I need gas and then do fuel, food, leak and stretch break.
When my wife goes along (she ride her Heritage) she prefers to ride just under two hours and then take a break.

As we get older, the chances of dehydration, cramps, blood clots, UTI's and just plain fatigue can quickly become an issue for us.

I mean, it's not like we "have" to be somewhere at a certain time, right?

 

“Touring Stress” is an oxymoron

 

I stop every hundred miles or so and walk for 5 minutes. Also spread your clothes around in all your baggage in case they get stolen. Ask me how I know?

 

I usually just let the road, scenery and POIs decide...I crank 600-700 days when I need to get to the good stuff and slow it way down once there - 200 mile days not uncommon when there's lots to see. Start early each day so you can cover as much as you can and get to your destination with some daylight left so you can connect with other bikers or locals. Remember, it's a ride. Enjoy it. Set your bike up so it's comfortable and take all of the gear needed too.

Enjoy the people along the road..listen to their stories and tell some of your own. As much as I love seeing the country, the memories of connecting with people along the way mean more. It's pretty cool to go back and see them again a few years later.

At lunch, or, an early afternoon gas stop, project where you'll be at the end of the day and call ahead for a reservation if you're winging it...saves a lot of stress and secures you a room before the pull-ins off the road fill them up.

Generally, I'll stop after a tank (150 or so) unless I feel the need to get off and move around to keep the circulation up. Sometimes a quick stop and brisk walk gets things dialed in again and keeps me alert.

 

riding two up we prefer stopping about once every hour. That is usually on the days we are travelling to get to a certain place. If we are doing our scenic rides then we usually
stop a lot to see something or take some pic's. Another thing I started doing was planning where we will eat lunch. Breakfast is usually at the Motel. Dinner can be decided once we get back to motel. So I do a lot of research on trip planning. This has made it easier since finding good places to eat can also take up what could be precious time. Our last really big trip was last in 2016. 4,146 miles to Yellowstone national park.
My only error in planning that trip was not having a rest day. I usually have that planned. We were pretty tired when we got home but other then that it was a great trip.