Originally Posted by
Steve B.
Thats a long way each day, is my initial thought. My rule of thumb is also about 10mph, especially on gravel, which can suck the life out of you sometimes. 129 miles @10mph is a 13 hr. day, and that’s way more than I would do.
So, Yes, lesson learned. 45-60 might have been a reasonable day.
Begs the question, what was the point of this trip ?, where you just racking up mileage or did you want to actually stop and see anything ?. Even a pavement pace at 12 mph would have left little time to do anything but ride.
Steve - very good question. For both of us this was our first foray into touring. I have a tendency to like to challenge myself on the bike from time to time - for example I'm planning a solo 114 mile 11,000 feet of climbing ride i a couple weeks. So I think that my mindset was - we're there to ride, not sightsee and dilly-dally. Haha. I had assumed moving pace of 15 mph - which was about right over most of it.
As I said, I've realized that touring doesn't necessarily equate to an endurance challenge. Will keep that tendency in check on future tours, unless the goal is just cranking out miles