Yesterday I rode 1133 kilometres from Reims to Dunblane and as a result am feeling pretty manly. Can anyone top this?

(Knowing this forum, I'm sure it'll take about three minutes for someone to come back saying "I've ridden a Ural in my underkecks through a Siberian winter on farm tracks for two thousand kilometers in a single day." but what the heck.)

Matt

PS: I am available to put up shelves and open jam jars at a reasonable rate for pretty ladies.

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*Disclaimer* - I am not saying my bike is better than your bike. I am not saying my way is better than your way. I am not mocking your religion/politics/other belief system. When reading my post imagine me sitting behind a frothing pint of ale, smiling and offering you a bag of peanuts. This is the sentiment in which my post is made. Please accept it as such!

I managed 45kms from Brussels to Antwerp this morning in my Landrover - by the time I got to work I really needed that 1st cup of coffee .
I bet yer bum ached

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He said he was riding, not being ridden!!!


Don't even go there with this thread, many riders 'hit' 1600kms from time to time.

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Never confuse the map with the journey.

Did 450 miles in one day, temp got down to -12c

on a c90.....

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Oh geez, there are all sorts of um... interesting adventures that people have embarked upon. Cold, long, muddy, hot, dry, wet…..If you will expand the question to how stubborn are you or how stupid in some cases I'll toss in a story. Caveat, not recommended.

Long story shortened somewhat. Invited a girl (whom I had recently met and was trying mighty hard to impress, even going to the extremes of showering and brushing teeth) on motorcycle trip to Europe. I convinced her that this was a good idea and how simple and straightforward it would all be. It was all her fault for listening to me.

We picked Turkey for it's combination of culture and riding. Only problem was that we, as well as the bike were still in North America. She, being very organized, looked at flights and picked a date to fly from Canada a couple of weeks later. I, being organized in manly sort of way (i.e. not at all) stupidly agreed as I figured there was plenty of time to ship bike over and meet up.

After a few delays and unhelpful shippers later, I called the airlines directly and got them to ship bike to Frankfurt. One flight delay later, only one problem now, the day the bike and I arrived in Frankfurt was only a few hours before she was scheduled to arrive in Istanbul.

Hmm, this seemed to be a small problem so I did what most men would do, I left her a vague message that I was "running a little late" and that she should get to the hotel herself and I would see her soon.

Meanwhile, I hoped on my bike, rode an hour south to Heidelberg to pick up my original green card from Stefan and headed east in the early evening. Germany came and went, thank goodness for the autobahn, and once in Austria it got dark. Usually I find Austria quite picturesque, at night not so much. I tried to stop in the middle of the night a couple of times to unpack my sleeping bag and sleep but couldn’t find a decent spot and usually what happens in these cases is you ride long enough and by the time you find a spot, you are awake again. The smart may even stop and drink coffee, the stubborn bounce up and down and slap their helmets.

Slovenia at night looks a lot like Austria. Entered Croatia at sunrise, strangely enough not much traffic at that time of day. Very awake now that it was daylight. Crossed Serbia, still light, into Bulgaria, still light for a while and then darkness fell. You know you've been riding a long time when you get to see darkness twice. A lot of riding with face mask open and even stops for coffee. Moderate amount of singing to oneself, plenty of yelling at oneself.

Finally, at around midnight, arrived at the border with Turkey. Crossed with a couple of German guys in a car who were driving around the world. They were amused that anyone would ride a motorcycle long distances. I was amused that anyone would use such a soft means of transport as a car with extreme luxuries such as "heat" and "music". Stumbled through the border and at one point took an exit that I thought said Istanbul. Things didn't look right so I asked at a petrol station if he knew where the Blue Mosque was and he said it was about 120 km from there. Hmm, my middle of the night route finding could use some work I thought.

Onto Istanbul, finding your way through Istanbul with a clear head is difficult enough, with no sleep it took a couple of hours of driving the wrong way up one way streets. In fact that is the little known secret to getting around Istanbul quickly, that and riding up the tram line (even better when the tram is not on it). Finally, at about 5:00 am, found the miniscule hotel by the Blue Mosque and knocked at the door as if I was only a couple of minutes behind schedule. Told her that I was sorry for being late, traffic was terrible.

Slept rather well that night, coma might be a more apt description. Eventually told her how far I had rode that day so that she wouldn’t kill me. Total distance, around 2,400 km in about 30 hours.

OK, I reckon you win so far!



Matt

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http://scotlandnepal.blogspot.com/

*Disclaimer* - I am not saying my bike is better than your bike. I am not saying my way is better than your way. I am not mocking your religion/politics/other belief system. When reading my post imagine me sitting behind a frothing pint of ale, smiling and offering you a bag of peanuts. This is the sentiment in which my post is made. Please accept it as such!

To Mountain man! You sir, are THE MAN Not because of the distance you rode, nor even for your manly stupidity (a thing we're ALL guilty of) Not even because you managed to persuade a lady friend to accompany you. No, you are the man, for your sentence which I have quoted
By the way. I loved your story

[QUOTE=MountainMan;183997]

Finally, at about 5:00 am found the miniscule hotel by the Blue Mosque and knocked at the door as if I was only a couple of minutes behind schedule. Told her that I was sorry for being late, traffic was terrible.

[QUOTE=MountainMan;183997]I was only a couple of minutes behind schedule. Told her that I was sorry for being late, traffic was terrible.[/COLOR]


i really impressed from the story above. i know how bad riding is in Bulgaria and in Turkiye. congrad mate..

my long and horrible ride was from Dover (UK) to Venice (Italy). had a broken rear suspention near Strasburg in France. 2 hours wait for repearing it. and 3 hours in Verona, Italy.

I have ridden from L'boro to Dover and was Dover around 9pm. I was a guest of a chap in Dover from hospitalityclub.com. went to bed like 12ish am. there was also some other guests (2 from Germany) just after went to bed, i have realised that i have left my carne, passport, etc all my documents in the paniers and the paniers were not locked. I couldn't go down cause i did not want to disturb them and couldn't sleep becase worrying about the documents. just slept an hour and woke up at 4.30pm to rainy and windy British morning. rode to Dover, cought the ferry. I have tried to sleep but childeren did not let me. arrived to rainy and windy France. got lots of red bull and espresso on the way. Stoped twice for meal in France and a big stop for rear shock near Strasburg. rain has stopped in Switzerland around 12am. I had a nap in Switzerland in a service station in disabled wc (cause they are bigger). tried to dry up my gloves, socks, boots using the hand dryer. spend there almost 2 hours. entered Milan around 9am and realised that i have missed the ferry to Greece which was at 10am. then i was slow on the trotter. then i show a bmw sign on the motorway near verona. entered Verona for bike repairshop. found one honda garage with the help of locals. they said, they don't have bmw rear shock and takes a week to order and get it. spent there almost 3 hours. and finally arrived Venice, a camping place near Marco-Polo airport at around 3pm next day.

so, about 1400 km in 32 hours with a broken suspention half of the way. not bad 3 months after having the driving licance on a overloaded single huh??

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I rode my XT250 back from Portsmouth on Tuesday night the 150 odd miles home, brrrr...

Those who use the Portsmouth-Le Havre route will be pleased to hear that they're putting a second ferry on the route which means I won't have to get back to the UK at 10pm and ride through the night, there will be an overnight ferry on the return trip too. This will transform this route. Starts October 2008 so no good for this summer though.

I did a stupid thing in 2006, comming back from the Northcape.
I was on my wat from Ramsjö in Sweden to Denmark, planning to find a hotel and to use the bridge to Kobenhavn the next day. Then, at a parking I met a Danish couple with children who invited me for a cup of coffee. We had a chat and they told me that it was much better to get the nightboat from Gotenburg to Denmark, sleep on the boat and drive home the next day.

The +/- 800 km to Gotenburg was no problem but then I had to wait for hours to get on the boat. On the boat, there was no way I could sleep so the next morning, at a quarter past three in the morning, the ferry arrived in Frederikshavn and I was on the road again in a cold foggy night and without any sleep that night.

I did manage to ride the almost 1100 km home without accident but I needed a lot of Redbull and coffee. I'll never do that again !

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My bikes are a Honda GoldWing GL1200 and a Harley-Davidson FXD Dyna Super Glide

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Forget the other claims - this one wins it all! Great bike, the most successful ever made....

Also, I am in awe of you guys - I spend a lot of time avoiding long trips, and planning where to stop to make the trip pleasurable...I've done more, but my ideal is 300 miles-ish a day, MAX. Then its tent out, wine bottle out, and hey ho relax!

I ate four Shredded Wheat this morning....

But seriously I'm in awe of you guys riding that far (is it awe or wonderment at the stupidity?) The furthest I can claim is Darwin to Perth via Adelaide, with stops only for fuel, coffee and bathrooms. But we were three up in a Holden HQ Stationwagon, so could sleep for hours in the back. My applause went to the car though.

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I'm with Caminando on this one. I used to get up at 5.00 am, do a half day at uni, ride 200 miles London-Leeds in a snowstorm on a 300cc MZ, go out clubing until 3 am then get a bit of sleep and ride back in time for kick-off at London Irish.

A year or fourteen later, I'm the bloke holding a G&T at 7.00 pm or I'll want to know why!

Andy

Lol, thats not bad, but for biking achievements, i've done 1000 miles in a day (and then rested for a week after!).

But as for bigger manly achievements, how does learning to walk after fracturing 3 vertebrae count?

I'm tough me, or bloody ignorant...

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Champion effort Mountain Man.

I rode about 1150km in 12hrs from Namibia to South Africa via Botswana (incl 2 African border crossings), but the difficult part was that I couldn`t use my right hand at all from a large crash a week earlier, and so I wound 8 guage fencing wire around the throttle and handguard to keep the throttle stuck open. And even if I could have been scared enough to try to pull the front brakes they didn`t work yet anyway since when we welded the cracked axle mount back to the forkleg during reparation we mis-aligned it and so the brake pads were not aligned. I had only the rear brake and gears to slam down whenever a wild boar, disorientated African, etc would cross the road. The day was New Years Eve so couldn`t miss the party, which went until 8am...

A ´difficult to stay on the road`one was 13hrs from middle Austria to a World Enduro Championship race in Alpine Italy on a Ducati, but it was following 15hrs in the bar which first started with 8hrs drinking with a girl friend before she retired, and then a further 7hr “free bar” lock-in with her friend, the bar owner`s daughter. Only 3 hours sleep between leaving the bar and starting the ride is really not recommended, although I did sober up by sunset and the real twisty stuff.

Off road i`ve only done 5500km of dirt in 10 days, but that was Oz.

I have a Dutch friend, Jan Heemskerk, who use to ride 850km from near Amsterdam to the south of France every Monday for work and back Friday (lunchtime start and finish for those days) for 9mths because he preferred it over flying. He also rode from Vladivostok to Amsterdam in 24 or so days on a Tiger 900.

And through a South African MX riding buddy I met a Capetown guy, Freddi Stafford, who road from Capetown to Sudan/Egypt border, where he was refused entry, and so he rode back to Capetown all in a total of 21 or 22 days! Including 2 days stuck in about 150km of southern Sudan swampland. I saw the photos, and there he could only sleep on top of his stuck bike it was so wet! I bet he still does 400km mountain runs on his R1 at warp speed Sunday mornings before his wife and kids wake up.

P.S. Toby, I`m going to be in that area of Peru soon, and it will bug me to try now that there is a time to beat!