Say I want to take a tour and not quite plan out the route. Say LA to New York, what would be a good estimate of distance travelled? Find the distance if you take the highway and multiply by 1.5? Get a paper map and use a compass? Obviously, the mountain ranges, climate, and terrian will be researched. Is it a good strategy to pick cities 100, 200, 300 miles apart, and say, I'm going to these cities, but I don't know how to get between them?

Basically, how do you figure out how much time it is going to take to get from A to B?

google maps?

There can be a big difference between the theoretical amount of time a certain amount of kilometres should take, and the actual time. Hard to explain...In rural and semi-rural areas where you can calculate the distance between Nowheresville and Hicktown the distance might be 100 kilometres, say. Average speed of 22km per hour. A few quick stops inbetween. It will take five hours. Impossible to get lost as you're just following the road through the main streets of a few small towns.

There are many variables though. Wind, a flat tyre, taking the wrong road, road surface etc. You might feel like riding faster that day; perhaps slower. Where a cycle tourist can run into trouble is getting through bigger cities. Especially if the signs are in a foreign language or designed for locals and are illogical. I spent half a day trying to get through Hangzhou in China because the city is full of bridges & elevated roads, and most are off-limits to bicycles. Maps do not provide this information

A guesstimate of the total distance isn't hard to determine nowdays using Google Maps. The time taken to cover that route is more subjective. I calculate the total distance, divide by the number of kilometres per day I expect to travel, then allow a handy margin of error to cover navigation errors, mechanical errors and fatigue.

1) Open Google Maps

2) Find LA

3) Get directions to New York

4) Choose the route that looks roughly close enough to one you might want to take

5) Look at the distance

6) Determine how far you might want to travel each day (i.e. 80 km/day) ... estimate a bit low just in case something happens to hold you up

7) Divide the total distance by the distance you want to travel

8) Add in a rest day for every 4-8 days of cycling, depending on your preference.

And there you have it.

Check this out Microsoft Streets&Trips. We use the European version and can vouch for its accuracy. We have this program installed on our notebook and do not need to be online to use it.

I generally add 20% to the driving directions to estimate cycling distance.

I use Google maps, walking option. Keeps you off freeways. Then I divide the distance by 50, my avg miles/day. Then estimate how many days off I might be taking.

Whoever wrote the Google program must think hikers walk 24 hours a day.

Well first off on a coast to coast tour my preference would be to use one of the Adventure Cycling Routes or some combination of them. They are nice if they go where you want to go. On our TA we did improvise some sections where we wanted to, but really liked the fact that on the AC part we knew where all of the services and points of interest were on the route. We also liked that we met other cyclists with some regularity.

As far as picking a bunch of cities and linking them... I generally avoid cities most of the time. The AC routes don't usually pass through cities of any size very frequently. When I pick my own route I do the same. The Trans America for example only passes through a few cities of any size. Eugene, Missoula, and Pueblo are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Many of the towns are tiny, we always considered it a big town if there was a comma in the population (i.e. over 1,000).

If there are no AC routes where I want to go, I like to pick roads that look about right on the map and check sections out with Google Maps Street View. The ones that connect smallish towns and parallel larger roads are often good choices. I don't go out of my way to pick the very lightest traveled roads. In some places I enjoyed the interstate. Out west you are allowed to ride on the shoulder of many of the interstates. I found I-80 to to be kind of unpleasant the short way we were on it, but I-25 in NE New Mexico was delightful (both the access road and the shoulder were pleasant riding).

How much time to allow? A good portion of riders average between 50 and 80 miles per day. Some do more or less, but I think the majority are in that range. That said it is nice to not have a schedule. If possible I like to have a lot more time than it will take. That way you can feel less rushed and enjoy the trip.

The shortest bikeable route from NY to LA is roughly 3000 miles. I think our Vodka tour last summer did it in 5000 miles via Dallas.