I've done the 500-700 mile trips and 70-100 mile days were ok for 6 to 7 days, but on a 1250+ mile trip whats a good average daily milage? How many days do you ride before a day off? I am planning on doing it fully loaded and mixing camping and hotels.

Average mileages are dependent on the person and vary.

Given that you already know what you've done in 6-7 day trips, I'd extend something similar to longer trips unless you know something more like you've been pushing extra hard and ended up exhausted. On my own trips, I do somewhat similar mileages in the month-long trips but then I'm also making sure I keep riding at a pace that I can sustain repeatedly - even for a one-week trip.

Personally ...

I like riding for 3-4 days in a row, and then taking a day off.

And I find 60-80 km/day, on the days that I ride, to be a comfortable distance.


That kind of schedule provides flexibility to be able to take a day off if the weather is particularly bad, or if there is something interesting to see. It also allows me to ride at a relaxed pace, to get a good night's sleep, and to stop in the middle of the day to do some sight seeing, or to arrive at the destination early enough to do some sight seeing there.

Good? Whatever suits you at the moment based on conditions, including terrain.

Crossing the country in 93 days with a group, we generally rode 5-6 days and then took a day off. We probably averaged about 60/day on the days we rode. During two solo, 7-8 week tours the following year, I didn't stick to a rigid schedule. Several short days when the mood hit me and several multiple days off in a row when I found places I liked.

I average 55-65 miles/day if it's mountainous, 70-90 if it's flat (please god noooo!!!!) and I take a day off every 6 to 10 days. If there are non-riding attractions, I take more days off or may take shorter days for transit between attractions (I did short days in Tasmania, for example, where the national parks I was visiting were close together). I usually figure 350-400 miles/week.

30-80 miles a day, averaging about 50-60. I'd rather plan days off by attraction than by calendar; do you really want to spend a whole Saturday in a tiny town with a only a courthouse, restaurant and gas station, just because it's been 6 days since your last day off?

Can't be over-emphasized, IMO. During my group trip we had a day off in a town with more than that (Glasgow, MT) and it was God-awful boring. The highlight of the day was the customer appreciation BBQ at the local grocery store. We also had a few other short, flat days in Montana that left us with a lot of hours to fill in towns with nothing to them. Best rest days were Glacier NP, Lake Itasca SP, Minneapolis and Niagara Falls, ON. Lots to do and see.

Might be because I got out of the US.. for my long tours.
never thought about Planned days off, as I was easily distracted.
they seemed to come as the diversions appeared along the way.

Or Like my trip to Eire in the spring when the heavy weather,
had me stay in the Hostel that day.
Independent Hostels for a win then, IYHI sends you Out the door
at 11: till 4 or 5:

When I was 22 I went cycling on my own in BC for a month, down the Pacific Coast for a month and across the continental US for a month. I was athletic, but had no strong cycling experience. For the first several days each day was my new longest distance record. Other than stops between each leg of the trip, or to visit someone, there were no planned days off.

In BC the weather was cold and I did about 130 km per day mostly because there was so much daylight and nothing else to do. The Pacific Coast I average something like 50 miles a day and generally met a lot of other cyclists at the H&B campsites and rode with them. Going across the US, I mostly was just getting home on a budget and aimed for 100 miles per day, but ended up more like 90 miles per day because of some big storms.

See. It's all over the board. There is no relevant average. All depends on the individual. Some enjoy making a tour a race. Most take a more leisurely pace. A few just amble along, no time constraint. It's all good.

I run about 50/day on a df, day off every 6/7, or when my body/mind tell me I need one. As I've switched to a bent, daily mileage will likely increase. No comfort issues.

The real rason I am asking is a deadline to get somewhere, wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to enjoy to ride, but also to make the deadline. I am going to do a fund raiser for my HS and want to arrive "home" the 1st day of our 30th class reunion weekend. Route from Dallas, tx to Homer MI is about 1300 miles, and I hope to do at least some offroad, or at least rails to trails like the Katie in Mo.

When I did a quick calculation to estimate how much time it might take us to do the North Sea Route, the calculation went like this:

North Sea Route = 6000 km
Average km/day = 50 km

6000/50 = 120 days.

As I mentioned earlier, I don't ride every single day, so for the average of 50 km/day to work, I would need to ride more than that for 3 or 4 days in order to take a day off. But that still keeps me within the 60-80 km/day range for actual riding distance.


So in your case 1300 miles = 2100 km @ 50 km/h = 42 days.

No one can really say but you. That said I find that for me a longer tour doesn't equate to shorter days. My daily mileage is usually determined by the spacing of desirable places to stay and if on a popular route, also may be longer or shorter in order to stay with other riders met along the way. My mood and fitness level are also factors.

I am not inclined to take rest days myself except when I want to do so because of a desire to spend the day in a given place. On the TA we never stayed in one place for consecutive days, but in the Sierras we though Yosemite was worth stopping for several days. So I might stop to see a place or to do some interesting activity, but have never taken a full day to rest. I do take a short day sometimes and think of them as half days.

Plan on less mileage when you're offroad than on road. Whatever you're comfortable with on your week tours should be similar. I'd expect a few shorter days for laundary and such. I find I do less miles per day offroad.

If you do push the mileage, I've found the soreness starts after the tour is over. Active recovery is the key to recuperating from a long tour.

I calculate my tours based on 50 miles per day, including days off. 60 day tour equals 3000 miles.