Neil_B

Anyone else fond of shorter distances when on tour? During my recent ride through Delmarva, I tried to keep the days to under 50 miles, and in most cases 45-30 miles. This gave me time to site-see and explore.

antokelly

did you use paper map's or sat nav.

Allen

I'm a fan of shorter distances.
Actually I prefer "hub and spoke" style tours.
Find a place to stay and set up a base of operations and explore that area.
It's because I'm a camera nut and if I carry the photo gear I want, it's too much weight for long tours.
Shorter distances also give me time to use my camera rather than just ride my bike.

antokelly

so alleng have you any good shots of BIKES...

Allen

That's my favorite bike there.

Neil_B

The excellent Maryland and Delaware bike maps, available from the respective state's DOT.

antokelly

historian im the other end of the planet from you ,i was just curious if you used satnav for your tours.no particular reason but i would imagine a good map reader would get much more fun finding there way ,useing there map reading skills.

antokelly

alleng what a fantastic photo, but we could be hijacking this thread,sorry historian about that.alleng is it a big ask to put some more photo's up maybe start another thread,love to see more and ask what's the story on that bike.trying to figure if it's tubes are bamboo or a trick faux finish

Speedo

Last tour we averaged about sixty miles a day. The riding was nice, but it didn't leave enough time for other things off the bike. The one day we planned on a short day we were able to squeeze in a walk through Watkins Glen. Next tour we'll plan on shorter days.

Speedo

adaminlc

I love shorter distances. I almost always have a specific stopping point in mind, with a desire to do something when I get there. Even if I don't, I feel that long days undermine the purpose of a tour: to go out and see, not just get from point A to point B

nancy sv

ME!! ME!!! ME!! We try REALLY hard to keep our daily mileage under 50 miles. I would guess we tend to average 35 - 45 miles on the days we ride, and we only ride around 50% of the days!! In other words - we are the world's slowest bike tourists, and proud of it!!

BigBlueToe

I long ago decided that the reason I tour is for enjoyment, not to cover massive miles per day, or to please those stern critics who think that you have to average X number of miles to be a "real" tourist. I ride as far as I feel like each day. If I feel like stopping after 20 miles, I do. If I feel like pushing to 80, I do.

I enjoy lounging around the campground, eating, drinking coffee, reading, very much, so if I'm not in the saddle grinding out the miles, that doesn't mean I'm not having fun.

Of course, the location of places to stop for the night dictates the choices I have. But if I find a nice campground after 25 miles, and there's another one at 60 miles, it depends on my mood, as well as what the options are for the next day.

The bottom line, I guess, is that I have no problem with shorter distances. Sometimes they're just what the doctor ordered.

imi

My next tour won't be until january as I'm working all summer, followed by a hip operation. For the first time I'm not planning on riding all day, maybe get an early start at sunrise, find a campsite in the middle of the day, put some equal time into writing (in progress, and nothing to do with bikes or travelling, hihi and even stay for longer at places I'm at (heading for Joshua Tree and Death Valley to begin with)...

Love your attitude BigBlueToe (as always)... and in this case it literally will be "what the doctor ordered"

jbpence

on a recent tour of Yunnan I averaged less than 35 miles a day. the southern Himalaya are ummm... steep.... and big.

I took about every 5th day off too, which is included in the average. I often was still on the road 10 hours, thats how steep and long the climbs are....

I tour for fun, not "bragging about what a he-man I am" rights. I once met three guys who were bragging about going across the USA in 23 days. When I asked them "Oh, what did you SEE", two of them didn;t get it, the third guy kind of rolled his eyes as though maybe he didn't have such a great time...

Enthusiast

Before I went on my first tour (which I'm on right now) I thought I'd be in the same camp as BigBlueToe. (not literally!) Now that I'm out here riding, I'm finding it hard not to ride for most of the day. Of the 7 full days I've been on tour, I've ridden between 80-110 5 days and 50 on my two "rest" days. I really enjoy riding and sometimes it's tough to put on those brakes to snap a photo or take that couple hour break. When I'm in a quaint town I'm thinking, "Ok, they have some fun touristy stuff, or I could spend an hour or two updating the journal, but would it be as fun as Riding My Bike!?"

Before I went on tour I always had other stuff keeping me from riding as much as I wanted. Now I have the whole day available to ride. So I do. For those of you who are fans of the shorter distance, how can you do all this other stuff when you could be riding your bike?

Perhaps I'll have an answer to that after another week or so on tour.

nancy sv

The longer I'm on tour, the more I realize I like to do other things besides just riding the bike. At first, it's nice to just pedal, pedal, pedal. But after a while, it's nice to pedal a bit and do others things too!

staehpj1

I think it is great to do whatever mileage you enjoy whether it is 20 or 200. What I don't get is why folks think that if you do 60 or 80 or 100 or more miles in a day that you do nothing but ride. I still manage to meet people, take pictures, have a siesta, and generally enjoy the area whether the mileage daily mileage is 40 or 140.

On my last trip I tended to start at or before sunrise and usually had 80 miles in by 1 or 2 in the afternoon. That leaves a lot of time to hang out and see the town. Also I go out of my way to be sure I meet people during breaks.

Even on a really long day it is possible to still smell the roses. On my longest day on tour (142 miles) I took a lot of pictures, talked to about 20 people, had a snooze, had a great breakfast lunch and dinner, and generally enjoyed the people, the food, and the scenery.

I met lots of folks on tour and my observation is that how much folks enjoy the people, scenery, and food of the area has little to do with what their daily mileage. It is possible to do low mileage and still not really experience the country to it's fullest and it is also possible to do long mileage and still find time to enjoy the sights. It has more to do with your attitude than your daily mileage. The biggest thing when it comes to meeting the people is being open and friendly. When it comes to the scenery, it is possible to be oblivious or observant at any pace.

My point is that it is just as silly to knock someone for riding long miles as to knock someone for riding short miles.

Neil_B

Your point is well-made, Pete. It may be that the posters who described folks who tour and just pedal pedal pedal were quoting personal experience. There are an awful lot of "mileage guys" out there.

Cyclebum

I have the impression that 40-60 miles/day are by far the most common distances that touring cyclists travel. That's about 4 to 6 hours on the bike for most, leaving a lot of down time for whatever.

Some average much longer mileage because they either want to or have some sort of deadline to meet.

It's all good.

neilfein

It's nice to get into the cycling zone once in a while, the miles melting away. I have had days of 50-100+ miles, but these are special and uncommon days.

Over the last year or so, I find myself preferring days of no more than 25-40 miles. Touring is, to me, about the things I find and the people I meet as much as it is about the riding.

BigBlueToe

I think we're both in the same camp philosophically because you're going the distance you feel like and doing what you enjoy each day. Some days I feel more like riding than others. There are often times when I forego the opportunity to stop and take some pictures or see some attraction because I don't want to stop pedaling.

However, I think I'll always be the type of person that, towards the end of the ride, looks forward to getting off the bike for the day, rather than regretting that I ever have to stop riding.

paul2

When people ask me how far I go in a day, I say 80-100 km. So I was surprised when the other day I went through all my journals and figured out the average distance for each one. Of the twelve tours I've done, I've only averaged more than 80 km a day on two of them. When I start to plan a tour, I usually plan for days of 80-100 km. But often I'll have some extra days to play with, so rather than take days off, I'll split long days into shorter days, so I can poke along and see the sights.