krobinson103

I just finished a three day 600km ride from one end of South Korea to the other. We went 210,170, and 220km on consequtive days with at least 1000m of climbing everyday on loaded tour bikes. By the end of the third day my legs were just about spent. I'm not unfit and ride 200-300km every week with a long ride on the steepest hill I can find every weekend (130-250km). But, it took 2 days to recover from this one. Whats a reasonable distance goal that would last a month?

boomhauer

Anything less than 300 km per day you will be considered a failure. Do not bring shame to this board again.

krobinson103

Lol... Thats a brevet not a tour. Brevets are fun, but it takes me 24 hours to go 400km - tried it. Couldn't stand up without my tendons giving out after one and thats not sustainable. I'm thinking get up early, ride 4-5 hours, have a 2 hour lunch time. Perhaps find something intersting to look at. Then ride another 3-4 hours and setup camp as the sun begins to set. Given it will be mid summer thats not till late.

Cyclebum

andrewclaus

Good question, and humor aside, probably hard to get an answer for. The Adventure Cycling Association Trans Am route is a popular 4200+ mile route that many do in about 80 days, for an average of just over 50 miles per day, and that's probably as good an average as you'll find.

When I went back to touring after a decade-plus hiatus, during which I lightened my pack load by more than 50%, I was wondering the same thing. I took off hoping to ramp up to 500 mile weeks, since I felt like I was in good shape and my bike was pretty light. My first week was 500, then I started riding consecutive centuries and 600 miles was a slow week. At my age (55 at the time) I didn't expect to be so athletic about it. I rode for a while with a 20 year old but couldn't keep up with him long-term. We passed lots of cyclists on a popular route (the ACA Northern Tier route).

djb

you do realize that your question is something that only you can answer, everyone is different, terrain, how much your bike weighs, you name it.
Put all the stuff you want to take on this month long trip and go for a weekend ride, see what happens and what works right for you.

as I've said before, bicycling touring doesn't have to be a Bataan Death March, but its up to you.

rwpshaw

I host Warm Showers riders and I tour. Most of the tourists, and I, will do between 50 and 70 miles a day (80 to 110km) depending upon where they need to stop for the night and what they want to see along the way. Very few average more. It's about fun, not racing from one point to another - unless that's what you want to do.

nfmisso

Take a look at the journal here https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/ to get an idea of what others are doing.

Sharpshin

2,000 miles, 33 days, averaging 65 miles/day on my recent, first and only tour. 33 pound bike, 40-50 pounds of gear and water.

Fifty-seven year old, essentially a non-cyclist up to ten months prior to departure, and then worked up to about a 100 mile a week cyclist at the time of departure.

No attempts at athleticism were made on my part at any time, just the opposite in fact. Long as I'm rolling I'm good, speed being largely irrelevant.

Mike

vik 

I use a 100km/day rate of travel for road touring when planning at home. That assumes mountains and average conditions.

On the road I know I can ride further if I have to to make a goal or take an easy day to deal with something and make it up later.

SparkyGA

I figured out my average per day being around 70 km/day (I enjoy doing off road stuff). I use that figure out places to stay, quantity of food/water need etc. However when I make a time frame for the purpose of booking a flight on a long trip, I use 60 km/day (6 days riding with 1 day off/week, 420 km/week) plus the number of days I want to spend being a tourist in an area. Works pretty good for me.

Walter S

Like others have said you have to figure out what works for you. You said you made a three day ride. But you didn't say how much riding you were doing before that three day event started. Yes, I know you're "in shape" but that can mean quite a lot of things.

Were you used to back to back days in the saddle before you left?

I went on a three week tour last year. I ride 40 miles RT commuting and took off without any real "training". I consider myself in shape to tour just about anytime IF I let myself get used to it for a few days. I was a tiny bit sore after day, going about 80 miles and of course way more loaded than when commuting. Then considerably worse the 3rd day. At that point I might have decided this was going to be too many miles/day for three weeks. But things started looking up after that. By the 2nd week I felt like an ox and could seemingly go just as long as I wanted and the whole thing was sort of matter of fact. I thought about more fun things than whether or not I'd be OK making my goal that day.

MassiveD

I average 80 miles a day, that is just tooling along smooth shoulders. I find hills, rain, wind average out. Only a few of the days are easy in a long tour.

chasm54

^^ This. There's no great hurry.

cyccommute 

You did what a lot of people often do...you put too much "de France" into your "Tour". I can understand the need to set a goal but, honestly, your goal was too far to be enjoyable and you are paying for it. A tour should be about the journey, not the destination. Set a daily mileage that you are comfortable with and one that you can sustain day after day. But, more importantly, leave time for enjoying something about the trip other than just pounding out the miles...less "de France" (racing) and more "tour".

By way of illustration, I did a tour in Scotland years ago. In the small towns everywhere people kept asking us if we were with the "Alaskans". We chased them all over Scotland and, by about the 2nd week I was willing to push some more miles to catch up with them. My wife, on the other hand, wasn't. Since I couldn't just leave her on the side of the road, I was frustrated and was starting to take it out on her. Eventually, we lost touch with the Alaskans (they went off the track we were following) and I calmed down a bit and started to enjoy the ride.

We were in a little town on the west coast of Scotland called Oban when the Alaskans blew through town. We happened to be at the same shop when the group of 10 to 15 walked in.

I said "Hey! You're the Alaskans! We've been chasing you all over Scotland!"

One of the girls said "So you've caught us."

"Um. Yeah. So anyway, how's your trip? Where are you headed?"

"Good. Home."

"No, I mean today."

"We've done 50 miles and got another 50 to do today. Bye," and I was dismissed. They hopped on their bikes and blasted out of town.

The only problem for them was that their 100 mile day caused them to miss the town of Oban which is a jewel. They didn't stop at Fort William. They didn't visit Dunnottar Castle. They didn't see experience Iona or Staffa Island. I can still...30 years later...close my eyes and run the complete trip in my minds eye. I'm not sure that they can...too much "de France" not enough tour.

I had spent most of 3 weeks envying those people for their mileage. I had an epiphany that day and apologized profusely to my wife for adding too much of my own "de France" to our tour. We ended up staying in Oban for 5 very lovely days. It didn't matter that we weren't doing 100 mile days and covering as much of Scotland as possible. Scotland, or any place, is more about where you are, then how much territory you cover.

Stop. Smell the roses. Sample the haggis.

fietsbob

I just get up and ride for a comfortable number of hours and allow for distractions and Pub Lunches along the way.

MassiveD

It is all about objectives. While touring I prefer to ride, not stop and see stuff. I can't really see Fort William on a bike, what about winter climbing on Point Five Gully. I would rather just ride a really nice road, and keep going than collect postcards. But that is what I like to do. I can see the Alaskan's approach, but it isn' a sight seeing approach (though one can certainly drink in scenery). One can argue that the multitasking approach which is episodically all over the map is less memorable. I think it pays to have a plan that everyone is onside with, and then try and execute it. You can ruin your stop and see approach with too much riding, or you can ruin your riding with too much stop and see.

For myself, I had an injury to my knee, and the knee is the tour guide. I can't set artificial external goals of any kind. Need to grind in order to get to a site before closing, can't do it. Have to meet a mile quota, can't do it. Sure I know what I tend to average on terrain I have so far covered, based on last year's fitness level, but every day is a new one.

bikenh

It depends on your fitness level and what you are use to as to how many miles you can sustain for the long haul. I can pretty much easily do over 100 miles per day without any trouble. If I start to change the conditions, say tons more vertical than yes my legs will start to feel it. I had that happen to me on my most recent trip. I hit the usual stretch MD/PA where it gets up to 100 feet per mile on average. By the time I was done with that stretch my legs were telling me they needed a breather from the big climbing. I kept riding in more tepid terrain and two days later I rode 200 miles fully loaded in one day. Doing the miles isn't the hard part once your body is use to it. The big thing you have to keep in mind is to keep yourself fed and hydrated. You miss either one of those two factors and it's all over.

krobinson103

Back to bacl days? Yes. Every day for three years. Loaded rides? Yes,mtb and touring bike with commuting loads on the heavy side for three years again. Double metrics every week? Yup. Double metrics day after day loaded with a bikes worth of stuff in the trunk and panniers? Nope. Lightly loaded I could do it. That load took its toll and we had some pretty serious climbs every day. The flat wasn't much better as the sun was merciless. No shade and few places to resupply so we had to carry a lot of food and water making it even heavier. I've been riding loaded down on purpose for a few months but its obviously not enough. Going to have to up the load a bit and ride some tougher weekends to get used to it.

The three days wasn't my idea. Friend had to home within the time frame. So many cool mueseums I just passed by (I like mueseums) because we simply didn't have time. Sadly with two kids and a business to run I had limited time as well. Could have done it in four, would rather have done it in six and actually stopped in towns rather than blasting through at warp 10. Still it was the test ride for the big tour of New Zealand which is far hillier than South Korea. Learned a lot. Going to have to lose some gear, add a little more. Every day teaches you new lessons.

mev

+1

Best way to calibrate this is what works for you - based on shorter trips.

To give a few data points from my personal experience:
- In 1992, did my first trip across USA. Full loaded and including rest days averaged in, I averaged 95 miles/day. I was younger and didn't do much else other than ride. For me at that point in my life, that was a sustainable average.
- In 1997, I rode across Canada. Full loaded and this time, the average including rest days was 90 miles/day in June but 85 miles/day over 2.5 total months.
- In 2001, I cycled across USA again. This time it was 75 miles/day average overall.
- In 2007, I cycled across Russia. This time including rest days, I was going 55 miles/day average (between 60 and 70 if I didn't include my rest days)

I've generally ridden at rough pace that is sustainable for weeks/months at a time on trips, but as I've gotten older and as I've realized it is nice to do things other than ride all the time, that average has become lower. So the right amount for me varies over time, and similarly will also be different for different people. Good way to figure it out is on your own experiences including shorter trips.

BigAura

I've never really set daily distance goals. I've just determined what I can reasonably ride as a daily average. I plan my tours' destination/distance/time based on that average. For my long tours its been 50 miles/day including days off. So on any given day I ride 20 to 90 miles (plus or minus 20 miles). I hope that helps

JDFLood

Good one!!!! I wish I thought of that.

I used to do centuries, did a double century, three day 300 mile - 18,000 vertical foot rides, 3,500 miles with lots of 80 - 100 mile days. I'm leaving tomorrow for 9 days, I plan on starting with 35 miles and ramping gradually to 60. I plan on stopping, seeing the sites, taking lots of pictures and enjoying the sites and weather. Life is to short to be in such a hurry.

Big Lew

All my tours have averaged between 75 and 85 miles a day, but I've never really taken a whole day off while touring.
I have taken part days off in order to check out special sights, or to dodge fierce weather.

Lone

my daily tour average is about 1-3 miles per hour lower than my typical average speed.

Tourist in MSN

My last tour was in an area of a lot of hills. I estimated before the trip that we would average 2,000 feet of elevation gain per day, actually averaged 2,400. My point is that you can't just focus on horizontal distance, you have to take vertical distance into account. Other tours that were predominantly flat, we set our estimates on horizontal distance. Gravel (such as rail to trail routes) vs pavement also require different goals.

I rarely laugh when I look at this forum, but did this morning. Thanks for a good one.