simplygib

+1 My longest was 88 miles and that was way above what I normally want to ride in a day. If all I wanted to do was ride all day long I would ride in circles around my town. But if I'm going to the trouble of traveling vast distances to unfamiliar lands, I want time to explore and enjoy those areas off the bike as well as on.

Last tour I did some couchsurfing in El Salvador and my host told me of another group of touring cyclists who came through about a month before I got there. He said they were shooting for 200 km (124 miles) average per day. He added, "They didn't look like they were having much fun."

To each his/her own, but that just sounds like work to me.

RepWI

Fully loaded for camping I rode 107 miles in 91F weather through northern Wisconsin. I would say my route included moderate hill climbs. It was my first century ride.

mtnbiktn

54 miles and I can only dream of a tailwind since on this trip I haven't experenced one.

countrydirt

76 miles - 21 gravel road - knobby tired MTB - 4 panniers, tent, etc...but I went from 6400' to 4000" over that course of miles.

AdamDZ

Holy... sh..moly!!! What's your heart made of?!?

I only did 78 miles at most, but I only toured twice so far But that was about the most I'd want to do in a day.

slaani

about 14" depending on how cold it is

er, uh, 108mi. Which was about 40mi too far!

jamawani 

Been there - - more than once.



On one trip I was the only person in Elk Lakes Parks -
No ranger at the station, no other campers, no others on the glacier trail.
Even if you don't do Elk Pass on dirt,
folks should really consider adding Kananaskis via Highwood
rather than the BC side via Fairmont.

Much nicer.

iain.dalton

99.8 miles, from Torrey, Utah to Hite. I was riding with another guy, John, and his friend, Pete, was a day ahead of us, in Hanksville. He told John on the phone it had only taken him 2 hours to get from Torrey to Hite (45 miles), so he waited for us. It took us 3 hours, then we watched the world cup for an hour (Ghana beating the US), then rode to Hite. It was an easy day, with the only uphill at the end, and quite pretty, and the next day was the most gorgeous of the trip, riding along White Canyon. I don't have any pictures up yet, but this is White Canyon.

PurpleK

92 miles north to south along the coast of North Carolina. Fully loaded being two rear panniers and camping gear on top of the rear rack. Consistent strong tailwind which made pedalling on the flat-as-a-cowpie roads almost effortless. At 91 miles when I found a place to stop for the night, I felt so good I turned around with the idea of doing 9 miles of out and back to get to a nice 100. Of course turning around changed that nice tailwind into a monstrous headwind and after 1/2 mile, I said screw this and turned back around.

But my typical is 60-70 miles daily. I've found that works well as a balance of covering ground while allowing time to appreciate the journey.

indyfabz

120-ish. Port Jervis, NY to New Hope, PA. Bike and gear weighed about 90 lbs. Terrain was flat to gently rolling with several short hills thrown in for good measure. It wasn't by choice. I had to be somewhere on a given date and lost a day due to a hurricane. Then my planned campground was closed due to flooding and I had to do another 10 or so miles.

nancyj

I was pretty mellow - typically 40 to 65 miles a day was plenty - ride all morning, have fun in the afternoon kicking around.

chipg5

I just finished a 6 day 510 mile tour from upstate NY to the toll booth of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, fully loaded for camping, Jamis Aurora touring bike.

Three of those days riding over 100 miles:

Day 2, 103 miles, temp in the 80s to 90s, 6400 feet of climbing, from New Milford PA over to Bike Rt L, down to White Haven PA. One very long, 5 miles at 8 percent in 95+ heat, at about the half way mark, that was hard. Then it rained the last three hours of the ride.

Day 4, 103 miles, temp in the 70s, raining all day but actually a very pleasant ride, from Douglassville PA to Smyrna DE, 4400 feet of climbing.

Day 6, 105 miles, temp in the 90s, humid, 800 ft of "climbing" -- eastern shore is very flat -- but I took it real easy because of heat/humidity. Salisbury MD to Kiptopeke VA.

This was very doable, though my last day was tough by the end. The main limits were amount of daylight available, I was averaging about 10mph, taking it real easy that last day because of the heat/humidity.

Not sure if I'd plan for much longer than 105-110 miles riding fully loaded, esp. if there's any significant climbing and/or heat.

on edit: (Day 1: 82 miles; Day 3: 34 miles; Day 5: 83 miles)

Taking a break at mile 102 on day 6: Virginia's eastern shore

OldLog

Just so I know do people actually tour or just ride to see how far they can go in a day? I would be interested in a casual tour to sight see

leftcoast

This all depends on the traveling conditions, I have done from Oregon Coast across the mountians to down town Eugene in 90 dregee heat and that was 70 gruelling miles. Done 80 miles up the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia same conditions and that was enjoyable but hard, on the other hand I've done the same distance on relatively moderate grades in 70 degree heat and no problem at all.
50 miles a day fully loaded is perfect for me.

staehpj1

I don't get why folks seem to think that because someone does a long day it means they "just riding to see how far they can go in a day" and therefore are not actually touring. The fact of the matter is that even on really long days you might still be doing plenty of smelling the roses.

Some types of terrain are best seen from in the saddle and not much stopping is really required while others call for more stopping to do hikes or check out attractions. Lots of Montana is like that. Great scenery, but not much to get off the bike for.

Some parts of a long tour may have long sections where there isn't all that much choice about doing a long day. I know that in the American west and even the plains there are often places where there just isn't anything for a long ways. If there isn't water or an attractive campsite then you just ride all day.

Also the notion that you are "just riding" when you do long days may not be true. I know that even on my 142 mile day in New Mexico I still made it a point to meet the local people. I stopped and had long chats with various local folks a number of times through the day. I stopped and took pictures. I enjoyed watching the antelope. I enjoyed looking at the mountains. I marveled at a violent storm that I just managed to stay ahead of on one section of the day. At one point I even took a snooze.

I have done some pretty high and pretty low mileage days when on tour and I really think that on average I saw more, met more folks, and just had more fun on some of the longish days than on many of the short days.

Nothing wrong with short days where they make sense. If the terrain is especially tough, it might take all day to do pretty low mileage. Also there will be places where it is worth stopping to go whitewater rafting, go hiking, or whatever. I know we felt it was worth doing an 8 mile day so we could stop and raft the Salmon river and worth spending 7 days and 6 nights in Yosemite Valley so we could do the tourist stuff in the valley and do some hikes.

Machka 

First of all, the first time I rode a century (100 miles) on a tour, the terrain was flat, the wind was behind us, and we were crusing along very comfortably ... and we just ended up doing a century, and finished it in less time than some of the shorter distances we had been doing when we were in the mountains. The second time was the same sort of thing. The third time was more intentional ... I was doing a CAM that year and needed a century that month, so we did one. But there was still time to chat to people, have lunch, take photos, etc.

If you're in shape and riding in good conditions, a century might only take you 8 or 9 hours, which isn't much time on the bicycle.

Secondly, there's touring and there is long distance cycling. When I tour, I generally prefer to ride shorter distances, although I like being flexible enough to include longer distances as the conditions permit. When I ride long distances, I ride them for the challenge of covering the distance. I am first and foremost a long distance rider ... who likes to surround her long distance riding with tours.

Thirdly, because tours are not long distance rides/events, you can ride them however you like.

The OP just asked what our longest distance on a tour was ... not whether or not all our tours consisted of day after day after day like that. The day after my first tour century, for example, I only rode around the town we were staying in for a couple nights. We spent the day exploring the town a bit.

Thulsadoom

U jest go ahead an ride yer bike any old way u wants to bubba. Donchu let nobody tell u how.

AsanaCycles

Humbug mtn campground to Elk Prairie Campgrounds: 111 Miles under 8hrs
Monterey to Moro Bay: 125 miles 9:15hrs
Day 3 of the Tour Divide: 124 miles: 13hrs
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/38071108
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/38071106

kayakdiver

Quickest 107 miles... 18.9 average speed fully loaded... I've done plenty of 100+ mile days with a loaded cycle but never at a pace like that. Tailwinds can sure help the average!

neilfein

My longest day fully loaded was a 73 mile day from Stony Brook to New York City. That includes going though Queens.

wheel

I think the better question is how long have you pedaled for in a day?

12 hours about as far as I could muster. I didn't count the standing up and then going. I excluded my rest stops though.

Had many of those days. 8 hours is fairly common on my tours.

AsanaCycles

16hrs

Machka 

Fully loaded or lightly loaded?

The longest I've ridden on a tour with my bicycle laden with panniers was probably about 12 hours.

The longest I've ridden is 24 hours. I've done two 24-hour races, and numerous randonneuring events.

neilfein

I average a pace of 9 - 11 mph, but when you factor in stops for lunches, taking pictures, looking at cool stuff, etc.; I can almost chop that in half on days when I don't have a lot of distance to cover. I can start at 8 or 9 in the morning and "cycle" for 12 to 14 hours.

For these reasons, I've been leaning towards shorter routes -- they give me more time to stop and smell the photo-worthy flowers.



All that said, it's nice to mix it up. There's nothing quite like the exhilaration of a day where I've put a lot of miles behind me!

mev

Not the normal case, but the longest single day I've ridden was 16-hours from 6am to 10pm. This was July 1996
and last day of my ride from Dawson City, YT airport to Inuvik NWT. I was north of the Arctic Circle and the
sun didn't set. Even at 10pm, I could see the sun and my mind was saying it was perhaps ~3pm though I was
more tired. That evening after I arrived there was a midnight BBQ. I stopped here or there, but most of that
time was on the bike and in total it was 150km of gravel road.