Originally Posted by
snipe2k5
.. I was planning my first long-distance ride from San Francisco to San Diego. I'm worried about messing up the bike when I hit bumps coming back. Can my old nishiki take a little abuse on a 500 mile journey?
From the bike's perspective there's little-to-none difference between doing 3 miles daily for half a year, or doing 50 miles daily for 10 days. If you think it's OK for regular, short rides, then it'd be OK for the single, longer ride as well. That stretch will be fairly well populated too, so getting a ride into the nearest town in case of a breakdown shouldn't be too bad.
I'm curious what you intend to do for gear/luggage. Will this be credit card touring, or are you planning to carry more stuff?