Used to go loooong ways, I'm retired now and rarely do more than 300 a day. I'm just out exploring while I take my time gettin to wherever I need to be gettin to, in no particular hurry.
I have been doing 700 miles a day on long trips because I was limited on time. Now that I have retired I am trying to cut it back to 400 miles a day. I feel like I’m waiting time on the 400 mile days but my old broken up body feels so much better by not pushing myself. A lot of it depends on the temperature and humidity on how comfortable the ride is for the day. That is not working out so good as I’m at 50/50 between the 400/700 mile days.
Like others, time is my limiting factor. I'm usually working on limited time off, and trying to get to a destination far from home, so I hit the interstates and try to make get to the destination as quickly as possible. Once there, I do smaller mile days, unless moving on. I think I average around 500 mile days, some times more, some times less.
The most I have done on my Wide Glide was right at 700 miles in a day. It was the last day of a looping trip, and I went from a Naval Air Station in New Orleans back to my home in St. Louis. That's also the most sore I have ever been from riding. It got to the point I was taking random exits and stopping on the on ramps for rest breaks maybe every 50 - 60 miles. My ankles where taking it as bad as the old rear end, and I was using an Air Hawk too.
My longest day on my Street Glide has been about 1050 miles or so. Home in St. Louis to west Albuquerque, NM, and that was just last fall. I think I did about 5500 miles on that trip in 10 days. I wanted to knock out a lot of miles on the first day so I could do less through out the trip. I also did a 750ish on the last of that trip from a place I camp in eastern CO to STL. I'm going to head out to Colorado on Memorial Day weekend. I expect I'll do 750 miles that first day, back to my first camp, but then take it easy after that. On the SG
Everything depends on the road I am on and how many points of interest along the way. On a long trip I tend to average 45 MPH and about 350 miles a day. This would be a mix of Interstate and rural highways.
Depends on the ride, I've done a few 800 mile days back to back on super slab cross country trips just to get there, but I prefer 250-350 or less on the back roads enjoying the scenery.
As for the "dick wagging", yeah I did 1,300 miles in 26 hours once, never expect to do that again.
As for the "dick wagging", yeah I did 1,300 miles in 26 hours once, never expect to do that again.
The most miles I have ever done in one "day" was around 900 and it was by car. I imagine if I had something to prove, I could do 1,000 miles in 24 hours by bike, but... I don't. Endurance riding is not for me.
My wife's one day record as a passenger is 660 miles.
We did a 7 day trip over the Christmas holidays all the way to Key West and back averaging 321 miles per day and it was very enjoyable. We did have one day at 500 miles.
Here is what we did last Saturday:
One & Done – Mission Myrtle
One Day – 12 Hours – 487 Miles
Living just 4 hours from Myrtle Beach we usually go there two or three times a year. Normally one of those trips is a 3 to 4 day visit during Bike Week either spring or fall.
Well I had a National Sales Meeting to attend this week in Indy. Then I had an appointment with a key customer Friday afternoon that had been planed for several weeks. So, my wife was disappointed we would not be going down. We’ve had 16 out of 19 weekends with RAIN and yeah, this one was all sunshine. So, I made a suggestion. Let’s ride down on Saturday. The catch was we had to be home Sunday so it would be a one day down and back. We have done it before but not during bike week. She was all smiles and said “Let’s Rock & Roll”.
So the alarm goes off at 6 am Saturday morning. We looked at each other and smiled like we are CRAZY! We laid there about 25 minutes and finally got up in slow motion. Not good for a 500 mile day. Then we finally were ready to go. The thermo-meter showed 63 degrees outdoors at 7 am. We opened the garage, put some water in the tour pack, checked the oil level, tire pressures and gave everything a quick once over. Time to fire the beast up.
We rolled out of the neighborhood at 7:28 am quietly. We leaned left onto the main road and in 2nd gear I twisted the throttle all the way to 5 grand and cranked up the stereo. Just 1.8 miles later we leaned left and rolled down the ramp to I-40 east bound toward the twin cities that tobacco built.
We did not put jackets on and were soaking in the 63 degree temps as fast as the 114 was sucking it in and it felt good!
We hit I-74, rolled though High Point, Asheboro and waved at the Riders Edge class mounting up at *** HD hoping that everyone of them would eventually get to enjoy their Harley as much as we do!
“The road has got me hypnotized and we’re ridin into a new sunrise”
We rolled though both traffic lights in Rockingham on Green and had not put our feet down since we left home. There were tons of bikes and trailers heading home and most looked at us like where are you guys going?
Finally 2 hours in and 150 miles I stopped for fuel and a bathroom/butt break. We kept on trucking and exited onto some two lane roads over to 701 to SC9 headed for North Myrtle. We rolled into Captain Archie’s at 11:10 am and got our picture made. A stop we go every time for the photo. We would have eaten lunch there, but I wanted to try a place we have not eaten at before. So we rolled on and crossed the draw bridge over to Snooky’s On The Water. Yeah that turned out to be an excellent choice. The food, service and view were awesome!
Now it is 1 o’clock and we have to be on the road home by 3 pm to assure we arrive before dark. The decision was made since we were in North Myrtle to skip Murrell’s Inlet. We went down to Barefoot Landing, got another picture and stopped to check out all the vendors.
By this time it was a toasty 95 degrees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOT
At 2:30 we had had enough. We were about to melt. We fired up, hit the bypass over to 501 and had Myrtle Beach in our rear view mirror as fast as we had arrived. We stopped at Galivants Ferry for a fuel gallons of Sonoco, split a candy bar and sucked down a bottle of water. I reapplied sunscreen and off we go.
By the time we got to Bennettsville we were beat. I stopped in the Bojangles and we went in. The guy asked what he could get us and I asked how much it would cost to go stand in the freezer for 10 minutes. He broke down laughing and just about led us back there! We both got a LARGE sweet tea and just chilled. Refilled the teas a second time and after 30 minutes got our second wind. We were less than 20 miles to the NC state line so we put the helmets back on and rolled on down 38 back toward I-74.
“The radio is playing some forgotten song, Brenda Lee's comin' on strong”
We got our second wind and while the temps were still over 90 there was shade and it was bearable. We were a ½ mile from home and I looked down and it was 7:28 PM! Yeah it was a 12 hour one and done Myrtle Beach Bike Week 2019!
“We’ve got a thing and it’s called Radar Love”
Praise God for a wonderful co-pilot, fantastic bike and safe roads!
Usually about 600 a day when trying to get somewhere. I like to go out west every year. That is two and a half days from here. While I am out enjoying my ride in the mountains or wherever, 200-300 miles or so.
05-16-2019, 12:29 AM
