Covering 1100 miles in roughly 9-10 days (at 100-150 miles a day) isn't much different than completing the LEL (London-Edinburgh-London ). The LEL is 1400 km (850 miles) long with a time limit of 116 hours (about 5 days). So that sort of thing is doable, BUT the riders who do the LEL are generally experienced long distance cyclists who have ridden at least a Super Randonneur series.

Covering a long distance in a short period of time is not about seeing the scenery or bakeries or relaxing and enjoying people's company or whatever, it is about accomplishing a goal which is just as legitimate a reason for riding as seeing the country, visiting historical places, or whatever.

If the OP is serious about doing this (and we may never know because he is one of the masses who proposes something like this and never returns), the OP needs to take it seriously and get out there and ride lots for the next few months.

1100 miles would take me at around 30 days...if not longer, but I ride slow and take lots of breaks.;):thumb: I have had 100 mile days when touring but they were coming across the midwest with some serious tailwinds. I have also had 10 mile days when everything that could break did, the weather sucked and I was tired of riding.

When I set up a tour I figure on 40-50 mile days max and am pleased if I can exceed that.

Aaron:)

I did a 5100 mile tour in 2004 and when I re-read my journal, the one thing that sticks out to me is that my best, most memorable days are less than 60 miles. I never had a sub-50 mile day that was bad, so I with you on the leisurely pace.

Thanks
 

Thanks for all the positive advice I received. I'm sorry it took so long to reply. I have a job that doesn't include sitting at a computer all day surfing the net. I want to answer some of your questions. I'm a 26-year-old ex-distance running college athlete that has converted to biking (it’s easier on the body). I do not have much experience or friends that bike to ask advice so I have turned to the Internet.

It seems that it is unanimous that my mileage goal was a little high. I figured that was so. It was the least of my concerns. I would like to really focus on the training, gear, food, route, camping, panniers, etc. I should have included that I will be stopping and reloading occasionally on small foods (bagels, snickers, pop-tarts, etc). I think I will plan to eat out most meals. I’m not concerned with the food cost due to that I would be buying it anyway if I were home.

Feel free to keep adding useful advice. It will be at least a few months until I will be able to try to accomplish this goal. I’m sorry for bothering some of you with my senseless questions. Please feel free to ignore them.

Good. Neither do I. I do all my computer surfing at home in my own time.


These are details which would have been helpful in the first post. We do get a lot of people in here who have read or heard about someone cycling from here to there, and even though they haven't been off the sofa in years, they figure they can do it. It is very helpful for us to provide you with a meaningful response if we have some idea who you are and what your exercise background is.

It is coincidental, but I did do an 1100 mile ride in 11 days. I was 30 years old, in racing shape ( training about 400 miles a week) riding a 52/45, 13-28 1973 Peugeot PX10. I have no idea what my average speed was, and milages were taken from a road map (bike computers were still several years away). I was fully loaded, which for me at that time was about 25 lbs. My longest day was 169 miles: about 69 miles up one side of the Cascades and 100 down :thumb:the other. I was by myself and often spent 12 hours riding, including stops. I didn't smell any roses on that trip, but at that stage in my life it was great. The day after I got home I PR'd in a 10K run. Unfortunately, what a person used to does not mean much. It is what am I doing today that counts. On our last trip, almost 37 years after that particular venture, we averaged 50 miles a day for 74 days (3650 miles, 3 rest days). I was a heck of a lot older, but still in relatively good shape, upping our milage to 150-200 miles a week for two to three months before the trip. We smelled a lot of roses on this trip. Like a lot of fellow bike tourers, I think this is a good and realistic average speed. For me it is a good daily milage to use for planning.

If you are really serious, do back to back centuries some weeknd.

Edited 6/29!! I was thinking about the 169 mile boast I made above on my ride today. I had a hard time coming up with 69 miles from where I camped to the top of the pass, so I used Google Map to check the distance ( I have driven portions of that particular leg recently). I'm not sure how I did it, but the distance is only 39 miles from my camp spot to the top. I have been thinking that I rode 169 miles for over 30 years, when it is only 139 miles:(

Also, during the trip I ran into 2-3 inches of hail on the road during a thunder storm and took the ride offered me. I lost abot 45-50 miles taking the ride. I was wet, cold and my bike needed some work. I guess I was wrong on all accounts-- I didn't actually ride 1100 miles and did not have an 169 mile day. Probably not too much number creep for over 30 years of telling the story. I'm waiting for a thread about riding to school barefoot in the snow;)

If you use the search function you'll find lots of advice in this forum from experienced tourers. But here's some basic advice.

Pack light. The rule is not what you could do with, but what you can't do without. It's surprising how few clothes one really needs, and how often there is a lighter alternative. For example, DON'T take jeans, they weigh a ton. Take some nylon trekking trousers instead. These also have the advantage of drying fast. You get the idea.

I see you plan on using a bivy tent. If there's any doubt about the weather, I'd buy a lightweight two-person tent. You want enough room to be able to bring things inside.

Take a headtorch so you can have your hands free for whatever needs doing (including fixing the bike) in the dark.

Distribute the weight over the bike. If you use both front and rear panniers the bike will handle much better than with all the weight on the rear, and you'll be at less risk of wheel problems.

Use waterproof panniers. Some who post here will disagree with me about this, but I like not having to wrap everything in plastic before packing it.

If you're not cooking, that will save weight. But don't rely on just the foods you've listed, they'll give you short-term energy but nothing else. Eat properly. Even at 50 - 70 miles per day you need protein, vitamins etc to recover and stay feeling good.

You don't really need to train if you're fit and used to being on the bike. But I'd recommend loading up with all your gear and going on a long day ride some time before you start. Riding a loaded tourer is a different - slower - experience.

Take your time. The point of touring is the journey...

Kind of ironic that people "patient on the bike" are impatient on the net. 23 hours for a reply is not an unreasonable amount of time in which to reply.

Me, I'm going to gripe about your thread title. I opened this thread hoping to find some "new touring tips" as if you had some new information on touring or something. :lol: Anyway, welcome to the forums!

LiveFree, you really ought to make the time to ride a couple of back to back centuries on your loaded touring bike. Ride to a destination 100+ miles away where you can camp and then come back the next day and see how you feel. If the back-to-back centuries go well, I'd say you're good to go. If not, then you know you either need to scale back your mileage, do more training, or both.

Ditto. Fully loaded is different than fully sagged. I HAVE ridden 120 miles/day fully loaded but it was the challenge and not the tour, so to speak. Not fun...but I did it. Last month I finished a 1,000 mile solo tour and averaged about 70 miles/day. Some 50-60 mile days goofing off and having fun and a couple 80+ miles/day when there was nothing else to do but ride. A much better time for me than pushing for high mileage. I took two weeks and 200 pictures. It was a blast.

Jerry H

I'm new to touring too, only did two tours so far this summer but I think I learned enough that I can contribute some blah, blah, blah ;)

It depends on what your goal is: are you riding because you want to get to some particular place or because you want to enjoy the riding itself and your destination is just an arbitrary ending of your trip?

Touring is about enjoyment of the ride and the surroundings IMHO. The destination is your secondary consideration. I don't think you can enjoy it if you're exhausted every day. Even for a very fit, young person 100+ miles a day seems unreasonable for anything more than 3 days in a row, for a tour that is. I did 50-60 miles a day in the Adirondack mountains for 10 days and felt fine. Then I did, by accident and poor planning, two 80 mile days in Massachusetts and Connecticut and that burnt me out and I hurt my Achilles tendon and my knee started to hurt. I'm not very fit by any means so I consider 60 miles per day the most I can do unless it was flat and the weather was cool and dry. I think you can reasonably expect to be able to do perhaps 80 miles a day, but not more than that.

I would carry at least a full day worth of backup meals, if not two days: dehydrated meals, ramen, couscous, canned chicken, that kind of stuff. Just in case you find yourself in a very rural area. I rode about 20 miles in MA without seeing a single grocery or convenience store or a gas station. I expect some southern states may have even more scarce resources. So don't count on being able to stop and get a meal whenever you want and small snacks may not provide enough nutrition. But I guess being a long distance runner you know a thing or two about nutrition ;)

You will likely spend more on food on tour comparing to being at home unless you set yourself a strict daily budged and be very mindful of your spending. Why? Because you're likely to eat more, snack more and may not always have the choice to buy your food at the cheapest places. Although, for me since I live in NYC, I found that all the places I rode through were much cheaper.

Ah, yeah, that's a no-go. Trim it back to 70-90 at the most.
Thats a long trip and at some point you are going to want to stop and smell the roses.

My rule of thumb is if you would not drive it without a eating break, don't ride it without a 1/2 rest day.

I feel like a wimp. I was wondering if I could do 60 to 75 miles a day.

What bike did you get?

I got this bike:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...=#post10787745

I have been very happy with the bike and feel like I can use it on tours. I am so glad I got it!!

You'll know when you've done too many miles per day when the buzzards start following you on a daily basis... you get the same uneasy feeling as Napoleon when he left Moscow ....
You can't fool the buzzards.

You would be able to ride 60 to 90 miles a day.

I am going to put on slightly wider tires and a rear rack and see how it feels.