Route Planning/ How far do you ride in a day?

I keep bumping up against this problem. If I am going to a particular destination on my bike I can plan the route to follow Interstates (aka the slab) and get there relatively quickly. These routes range from downright boring (I 90 from Cleveland to NYC) to very nice (I 80 from Cleve to NYC) and anywhere in between.

I can also plan my trip taking state routes and county roads. These will pass through small towns, the roads will be curvy and hilly, and the average speed drops significantly. The quality of this ride is much higher (my opinion) than the slab, but the daily distance covered is much shorter. This kind of riding is not so much suited to point to point (destination) riding.

The problems with the second routing are finding places to stay unless larger towns or cities are used as stopping points, and the fact that the overall ride will take days longer means costs go up.

How do other guys balance these routing decisions? A number of you have planned 'trips of a lifetime' encompassing thousands of miles and weeks of time. Do you do a lot of slab riding? Back roads? A combination of these?

How much distance to you typically cover in a day of riding?

I used Microsoft Streets and Trips and you could tell it to avoid slabs. It told you how many hours you'd be on the road based on your endpoints.
But it has been discontinued... sigh.

I know about how many miles I like to ride in the twisty parts (2 lane roads in the mountains) and plan accordingly.
2 lane flat land roads also are okay, way better than slabs and you can estimate how long the route will take based on the number of small towns you'll be going through...
Oh... East Coast/West Coast... yeah... you have *many* more small towns. Ouch.

I guess I can't help you much...
Sorry...
Mark

Give this a try: https://www.myscenicdrives.com/ - it allows you to determine how far or how long to travel each day of a multi-day trip, and finds hotels at the day's end.

I don't post often (as is obvious by my lack of posts), but I felt compelled to respond to you. I've been riding all over the western US and Canada for the past 20 years (total of 40+ years of riding), and think I have a couple of suggestions that may help. First, I spend 80 to 90% of my time on back roads. Much more fun from various perspectives, including scenery, the "fun" factor, odd ball things you run across, getting to know our country, and so on.

Second, "how far" will depend on your own stamina, what you are trying to do, etc. If you are rushed, use the slab. If you have time, plan your days on the backroads. I usually plan for 300 to 450 miles, depending on where I am at. That said, I'm guessing riding "out west" is going to allow for many more miles in a day, even on backroads, that you can do in the eastern US.

Third, for places to stay, I use TripAdvisor.com, and am not bashful about staying at what you might call "mom and pop" or "50s style" motels. Many times, they are highly rated, and have been refurbished and are very clean and quiet. Are the rooms as big as the hotel chains? Nope. Especially the bathrooms, which are typically tiny. However, they have character, the owners generally greet you and welcome you to their motel, you can park right outside your room, and usually other guests are very friendly. Do I hit a home run every time? Nope. But, most of the time I am not disappointed. As a side benefit, their room rates are usually quite a bit less than the chain hotels.

Lastly, I incorporate some personal enjoyment into my trips, in that I like to find good places to eat for dinner, so I can wind down from the day, read a good book, and enjoy good food. Doesn't have to be expensive. But, after I find a motel / hotel, I look to see if there is a good place to eat within walking distance from my room (up to a mile). Once I'm off the bike at the hotel, I don't like to get back on until the next morning, and the walk let's me stretch my legs and justify eating desert.

My $.02 worth.

Happy riding.

Picking your route, what to see and how far to ride is a fun part of tour planning. It's great to know what's coming up, where the hotels are with best reviews (hint >> Super 8 often has indoor pool and hot tub) and for us Yamaha ST riders, where gas stations are. (200 miles and we're looking)

I have two modes, one is get there mode when I want to cover the miles and spend time at my destination. The other is rambling and exploring mode. A good tour will often have some of both. In terms of how far you can ride, just remember that if you're tired, sore, stiff and cold, you won't be safe and alert or having fun. Proper gear will address some of these issues and good ride management will help with the rest. It's easy to put in 12 hours of riding if you're prepared for it and manage your time with breaks where you exercise your butt and keep yourself hydrated and fed. Breaks early in the day before you're tired will give you more hours later in the day. Good planning and gear should make 600+ mile days easy in 12-14 hours of riding. That's at Interstate speeds with plenty of gas stations and rest areas which make for efficient time use. If you're using state or rural routes, your MPH average will drop.

One thing to consider on rural roads vs Interstate is safety. Contrary to what many riders think, Interstate travel (divided highway) is statistically safer then rural or (two-lane) travel. You can Google it and find several studies but this is a good place to start: http://www.npr.org/2009/11/29/120716625/the-deadliest-roads-are-rural

I'm sure there will be a range of thought on safety of Interstate vs enjoyment vs convenience vs riding with big trucks etc... Check out a thread on this topic over on the Yamaha Super Tenere forum at: http://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?topic=13136.0

Other random things that may help... Did you know you can use Google with search phrases like "hotels near moab" (then click on maps to execute that search in Google maps. Example >> https://www.google.com/maps/search/hotels+near+moab/@38.5743979,-109.5514186,14z/data=!3m1!4b1

The Google Maps app now includes WAZE traffic data and will route you around slower routes and provide alternative routes showing time savings.

And... my favorite two bits of long-distance gear, the Bead Rider and Air Hawk. One for hot weather and one for every other kind of weather. It's amazing how much farther you can ride without pain!

Bead rider >> http://amzn.to/1H25jUH

Air hawk >> http://amzn.to/1NxSmEz

Pnelson....that all makes perfect sense.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Mark said:

I used Microsoft Streets and Trips and you could tell it to avoid slabs. It told you how many hours you'd be on the road based on your endpoints.
But it has been discontinued... sigh

Click to expand...

I am using MS S&T 2013 and those features are still in the product. What version are you on?

My planning is dependent on a few things, by my self, one up riding with two bikes (my wife) or am I on a short schedule. I am prone to take two lane roads when ever possible. I like the solitude and the pace. Riding the slab at 85 mph is not for me.

So with that said I use MS S&T exclusively for route planning, scheduling stops, identifying motels, etc. The issue I find is that regardless of how I make settings as to preferred road types I still need a lot of push pins. Second is when the GPX data is imported to my GPS the routing may change, base on the preferred road settings of the GPS and also the routing algorithm is different than S&T, resulting in a potentially different route. I use a lot of pushpins and test the route in the GPS before I leave to make sure it matches S&T. None of these methods are perfect.

I use things like Butler maps and online resources for the roads I want to take. For me it is about the road and what we can see along the way. I typically leave the motels up to the wife, she sees the town we will stop in and finds us a room. When I travel sole I typically wing it with a kind of plan as to where I will stop. Because our bikes get different mileage I need to plan that to by finding gas stations and maybe food.

We are planning a trip to Yellowstone in August and on the way back the distance we want to travel leaves us in the middle of nowhere on one of the days. So in that case we found a KOA with a cabin. Not ideal but it fits that plan. We have also found that traveling these back roads as mention earlier adds time. 1 1/2 to 2 times as much time needed. More stops to see thing, slower speeds, more leisure time. Our only schedule we keep is what we have planned. As like last week on the way to RockSTOC a normal 3 1/2 hour ride took us 5 1/2 hours for a number of reasons.

This is all very good information for me too. Planning NATSTOC and looking at these kinds of options for getting there and back. I've been used to the closer STOC events that are only a few hundred miles + and really haven't traveled far otherwise... but would like to consider doing that. Since those closer events only take no more than 4-5 hours at the most by back roads I stay clear of the Interstates and enjoy the ride more. Not being retired puts a crimp on traveling the back roads and side roads for LD. Just the trip to NATSTOC would be just over 9 hours driving time by super slab, or 10-11 hours driving time if only half the route was a diagonal across the state highways of Nebraska, and even then some of those roads are not really the "back roads" but well developed state highways that are often divided 4 lane for many miles same as the Interstates.

If I've got a time constraint, slabs. If not, back roads, for the most part... I prefer shorter mile days with better scenery and uniqueness. I too don't mind staying in 'older' hotels (actually, I prefer them) but I also try to camp when I can. I'm not as experienced as many here, but my days have typically been 300-600 miles/day. For routing, I've been using Motogoloco, which allows a lot of waypoints and you can select Avoid highways. It also allows you to save/export the route for input into your GPS.

FWIW, I just completed a 7 day, 2200 mile motocamping trip, of which only about 200 miles were slab (man, I need to finish that ride report!). I planned out everything ahead of time but made adjustments as I went, both in route and places to stay.

Grabcon said:

What version are you on?

Click to expand...

Not on S&T any longer as I had a system crash and the disk seems to have mis-placed itself while I was changing systems...

Mark said:

Not on S&T any longer as I had a system crash and the disk seems to have mis-placed itself while I was changing systems...

Click to expand...

Mark - You used could get S&T 'used' on Fleabay ... ;-)

SMSW, I'm roughly in the same boat as you living in the middle of Ohio. My issue is for twisties, I to 4 to 5 hour out-and-back rides. For long trips, I ride TO destinations (beaches) more than I ride FOR the ride. So, I slab most of the way. It takes a while to get to Pensacola Beach, OBX, New Orleans, etc taking back roads from Columbus, OH.

However, on my last trip I rode the BRP for a short stint and my goals have now changed. It was an epiphany moment.

Now, I want to ride the entire BRP, and Rt 50 to DC then to Denver. Now the goal isn't getting to the destination but to take the windy roads and just see what we see. And not even plan hotel stops but let each day and our butts dictate how far we go where we spend the night. In answer to your question, to get to do Rt50 or the BRP, I would slab from home to the starting point and slab from the ending point to get back home.

It's simply the way we must handle not having enough vacation time nor iron butts.

As still part of the 'unretired', I do a lot of 'compression touring' - slabbing it to get to an area I really want to ride. I would prefer to do all back roads, but that is just not an option for now. I usually stay at Super 8s and Motel 6s when I'm slabbing as their 'quality' is fairly predictable. If I'm head out to California, it's 3 800 mile days out and 3 800 mile days back - which takes 6 days of my vacation for just 'transport'. It would great just to wander across on Highway 50, but that's not a current option. So if I want to see anything, that's the way it sorts out. For instance, on my next ride - LobsterSToc - to Maine, it will be mostly slab up and slab back with a little two lane tossed in during transit. If I had more days, I would wander across VA, take the CP Bay and Tunnel, the Water route through CN/MS and back roads up to Maine. But I've used some vacation already, so that's what works on this trip. You have decide a few things -

1. What is the purpose/goals for this trip (just get away, see something in particular, ride particular roads)?
2. How many days do I have (consider on long trips you want/need a day or 2 out of the saddle)?
3. How long can I spend in the saddle (not miles but hours - 8 hours on the slab obviously covers a lot more than 8 hours on the 2 lane).
4. What does my budget look like?

This link to the subject on my website may help -

http://www.unclephil.us/PlanningATrip.htm

If I had waited until everything was 'perfect', very few of the states would be filled in on my maps.

+1 with Phil. Like for me next week I am headed to NatSTOC. It is only 420 miles but taking back roads adds several hours for the same distance. So I will slab it from Denver to just north of Cheyenne and then take the 2 lane roads. About the first 140 miles or so of slab. Same thing back home. In this case it is a big time saver. A little over 7 hours compared to 10 if all back roads.

Since I only camp and that's the other half of my vacation, the 1st being the riding portion, I always center my starting/ending routes for the day around state/nat'l parks.

If I know I've got to 'get' to an area and cover ground so I can take it easy for a couple days then I'll plan out an 800-1000 mile day, but I typically leave after work which cuts that to under 500 and typically under 400 but that gives me a good starting point for the next day.

Once I'm in the area I want to explore I try to keep things under 600 miles. I'm a morning person so I'm on the road by 7 or sooner and you can easily cover 400 miles before lunch.. I take pictures as I go and if I do stop to look at something, the novelty wears off after about 45 seconds.. LOL

Basically, everyone will have a different answer or an answer that is a mix of everyone else's answers because it's something you have to just chip away at... you plan a conservative ride and at the end you either feel like you were good with the pace or if it was too much or not enough and adjust from there.

Oh, and I usually plan 2 trips... opposite directions.. that way, in the event there may be a lot of bad weather I have the option to go the other direction.. doesn't always work but it has on a couple occasions.

NYC? Going the wrong direction is the problem.

Nope, you have 3 to choose from so your odds are still not bad.

Touring in Europe two-up we tend to restrict daily distances to about 250 miles. On my own, 350-400 mile days are not uncommon. On the other hand, 160 miles around the French Alps is more than enough riding! Depends on the terrain and the plan, but I like to have some spare capacity to stop, look and enjoy at times.

I'm doing essentially the same as you describe. When on long rides, X Canada and X USA, I generally stick to hiways (slabs) for simplicity and making good predictable distances. I usually have a destination and once there I tour around for a day or so on secondary or back roads. On rides of less than 2000 kms I usually mix it up depending on how much time I have.I tend to allow for longer return time then outbound time.

Generally, I travel between 700 and 1000 kms (450 - 600 m) to get where I'm going. Those days are usually 10 -12 hrs. Once there I just ride until I'm tired or bored.

I find I sometimes do very long 1 day rides at home because I want to see something specific but don't want to spend the night away