Quote:
Originally Posted by backofbeyond
...you don't get to see much. You're always looking at the clock and just riding past places it might be interesting to stop and visit. In practical terms it means riding from one cheap hotel to another and spending your day mixing it with the trucks on the motorway. ...
|
Exactly! Well said!
After 20 years of doing 3 or 4 week rides in Europe & North Africa every year, I have learned to apply the following guidelines to my route planning:
1) Except for "transit days" (see below), don't plan on riding more than 250 km (150 miles) a day. It's perfectly OK to actually ride more than 250 km a day, just don't base your plans on riding more than 250 km a day. Rain, crappy weather, and the occasional maintenance headache need to be allowed for, and 250 km a day allows for those unplanned lost riding days.
2) For "transit days", don't plan on more than 500 or 600 km (300-400 miles) a day, and don't schedule more than two consecutive transit days. After completing one or two transit days, plan an equal number of consecutive night stays in the same place to recover.
Is it possible to do more than the above? Sure, lots of people have. I've ridden cross-Canada in 5 days (about 5,000 km) when I was younger. But don't expect to have an enjoyable vacation if you exceed the above planning guidelines, unless your idea of a vacation is doing not much more than just riding your motorcycle all the time.
Michael
|