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Photo by Ulrike Hahnel, Rock Formations on the Lagune Route, Bolivia

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Ulrike Hahnel,
Rock Formations on the
Lagune Route, Bolivia



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  • 2 Post By navalarchitect

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  #1  
Old 12 Apr 2019
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Question Miles per day
Hi All,

We'll be away for over a year, Europe and Africa. Two-up, with my lady, Africa Twin.

What's the general thoughts on average miles per day for a comfortable trip - combining not-to-onerous distances with getting to see/know some places en route?

My experience on tarmac in Europe over shorter trips suggests 80 miles per day - and I halved that for sub-Saharan Africa - but I'm wondering if that might be a different experience on a longer trip.

We've got time in reserve, too - see BigTrip19: The Trip Travel Algorithm

Cheers,

Simon
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  #2  
Old 12 Apr 2019
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Everyone is of course different - vastly so. I travel steadily, not in a huge rush and try and see major tourist sights etc, but generally don't stop for more than two or three days anywhere.

So, bearing the above in mind, for what it's worth I have found over several 5-8 month trips across Russia, Africa, Europe and the Americas that my average is about 1000km (600 miles) a week. This really is a long term average, I can have days as short as 20km and others as long as 600km - also I typically ride about 4 days a week.

For what it's worth my trip planning algorithm is: (i)Find the road distance between major points (ii) multiply distance by 2.5 or 3 to represent all side trips (iii) divide by 1000 to get how many weeks I need. This works reasonably well for me.

For example I'm now crossing Central America up to the USA: Panama to USA border the direct road distance is about 4000 km, so I'm assuming 10,000-12,000 actual and it will take 10-12 weeks. Half way up and roughly on plan.

Good luck.

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  #3  
Old 13 Apr 2019
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Seems good to me...
Hi Martin,


Thanks for your reply.


It's good to have confirmation. Your experience is similar to mine when I've been travelling in Europe. Your 600m per week is more or less the same as my 80 miles per day.


I just wondered if that pace assumed different charecteristics when travelling over longer time periods- which I've not done before, four or five weeks being my longest stints previously.


Cheers,


Simon
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  #4  
Old 13 Apr 2019
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Hi - glad it was useful. Yes it does assume different characteristics happening over the duration of the trip. Most of my longer trips have included some patches of a week or so where I "rush" for some reason and then other patches where I stopped for five days or a week. My figures are very much a rough average for my longer trips. Shorter trips of 6 weeks or less my average will be a bit higher. The average is based on:

Vladivostok - UK - 5 months (included two stops of 1 week each), 27,000 km.

Cape Town -Nordkapp- UK. 9 months (again two stops of about 1 week each) 40,000km.

Chile -Ushuaia - Panama. 6 months (lots of 2-3 day stops), 27,000km

Happy travels

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  #5  
Old 15 Apr 2019
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My experience almost exactly matches what Martin said in his post #2 above.

About 1,000 km a week - that allows for days when you don't ride at all, days when you stay in the same place overnight for a few days and make side trips, and days when you "cover miles" to get from one place to another.

1,000 km a week is also a sustainable pace... you won't get worn out, or fed up with the motorcycle. On a long-term basis, I would not plan on doing any more than that.

Michael
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