MUDDY88YJ

Say you are on a long tour say cross country how many miles do you average per day. I am on a tour now from Boston MA to Jackson WY I will be in Jackson tomorrow completing 3000 miles in 36 days or average 83 per day. I am traveling on a surly LHT with 4 panniers handlebar bag and tent slapping bag and mattress pad. I will stay in Jackson for a week then it's off to Denver then back to Boston.

Brian25

Sort of a strange thread that you have started. I am a bit confused. Are other posters suppose to chime in on the high mileage tours that they have done as some sort of pissing mach???
Since you are finishing up on a tour, I do not see how you would not know about the factors that make up for average miles per day. I mean there is: A) how hilly. B) what sort of headwind/ tail wind? C) how early did you start D) how many hours willing to spend in the saddle. E) was it torrentialy raining, and after 20 miles you decided to call it a short day? F) did you sleep too close to railroad tracks, got no sleep, today will be short. maybe sprinklers went off, again no sleep. Or a whole bunch of possibilities that make up ones mileage averages. Everyone has their goals, I have lone some high mileage tours, but in the end, I wish that I did less riding, and more rose smelling, if you will.

spinnaker

The answers will be irrelevant. No one is the same. Everyone does the miles per day that the for all kind of reasons. Some of them ability, others just preference. I try not to exceed 60 a day because I feel it the next day and then it keeps compounding on itself. I also like to take the time to smell the roses and have time at the end of my day to explore the area I have stopped for the night.

spinnaker

I should add that if you need to do 83 miles a day and you can do it without undo stress then do it. Especially if it makes your whole trip works and makes you happy. But if you need to cut it in half to be comfortable with the miles then do it, even even you need to cut your trip. A lot better doing a short trip when you come away happy than a long grueling trip where you accomplished your goal but come away miserable.

Then again if reaching your goal is what makes you happy then do the miles and don't worry about the discomfort. The point is only you can answer what is right for you. What others do really does not matter all that much.

DanBell

How long is a string?

This is the touring version of the average speed threads that get posted in the road cycling subforum. It's like a Buddhist koan, only pointless.

saddlesores

i always average 0.37 miles per day more than you.

fietsbob

Until I got to a nice place to stop.

raria

I agree its a bit different, but we don't need to turn it into a pissing match.

Personally I'm interested/curious how many miles people do each day on a longer tour and why or why not.

Personally I try to limit it to under 60 miles per day otherwise my butt starts screaming in agony. So whilst my head, heart, lungs and legs would be be happy doing longer days my butt says no way! I've just learnt to understand this is a limit of my body.

Machka 

That's not how I approach tours. Our tours are usually more like ... let's go over there and see that, and then we just ride till we get there, however long that takes.

But if I'm making an estimate of how long it might take, I'll often use 50 km/day every day as an approximate way to calculate. That way, whenever I want to take a day off, it's not too difficult to make it up ... and I do like to have a day off every 4th day or so.

It is, after all, a tour not a randonnee.

indyfabz

Have many people have you slapped with that bag?

saddlesores

slapping bag
hmm....i assumed that was his riding partner. hoping he wasn't talking about the wife.

MUDDY88YJ

Thank you for your comments. I was just curious about what other people do on tour I certainly didn't want to start a compition or anything. It is a sleeping bag.

djb

well Mr Muddy, there's a good expression--"you gotta ride your own ride"

I think a lot of folks, especially those new to the game, read of someone doing x or y per day, and think, oh well I guess I can/should/can plan for what "all those people" do per day--and then overdo it, or have a physical issue, get run down, or heck, even find it fine.

btw, 83miles per day is 133km per day average, which for all of my touring years, going back about 30, is a crapload of klicks per day. Waaaaaaaaay beyond my realistic level, so there you go, even in my 20s I didnt do this, and if I had, I would have screwed my knees and been knackered all the time.....

Machka 

Yep ... when I was in my peak physical shape and riding 1200 km randonnees, I did a 3-month cycling tour of Australia.

My cycling partner then wanted to average 100 km/day.

We ended up averaging 80 km/day, and by the end of the 3 months, I was ready for a rest.

In our case we were trying to cycle and sightsee (because that's why I tour!) ... and if we're off on an afternoon boat tour to see crocs, or doing a hike to the top of a mountain, or taking a cruise to the Great Barrier Reef, or something, you can only fit so much cycling in.

raybo

I was riding up Going To The Sun Road in Glacier National Park, one of prettier and nicer rides I've done. I was moving up at a comfortable sustainable pace. I get passed by two young men (just graduated from college). I sped up in order to talk with one of them. I come to find out that they started the ride after finishing college but that they now have to do large mileage every day because the other guy has to be somewhere at a specific time for work. The guy I was talking to was a bit tired and didn't like having to skip some of their route, but he was going along with his partner's needs.

After about 10 minutes, I slowed back down to me comfortable pace and the two of them pulled away from me. I felt a bit sorry for the guy as it was a beautiful day in a beautiful place and he had his head down pushing hard.

mev

Three general comments:

1. I view "miles per day" more in the context of budgeting time for a trip, than a particular goal I am trying for on the trip. Two recent examples:
- I'm just finishing a ride this July from Abilene to Minot. Prior to the ride, I wanted a rough estimate of time to allow to budget my vacation time, return trip plans, potential adjustments, etc.
- I did a ride from Deadhorse to Ushuaia where the seasons at either end mattered as well as rainy periods in between. To create a rough plan, it was useful to have overall distances to work rough calendars.

2. The metric I pay a bit more attention is "hours per day" since it gives me a flavor of the ride. For many years I had a rough planning approximation of 10 mph including all my stops. I'm a little slower now. However it gave me a feel that an 80 mile per day ride I would be on the road ~7am to ~3pm most days with some longer and some shorter. Taking rest days would also push that average higher than 8 hours on the remaining days.

Once I'm on the trip, I'll do what I need to keep in that rough mileage budget and that then means throwing more time at it.

3. It has changed over time as I've gotten older. My average speed has gone down slightly, but at least as much is a preference for shorter days and taking an occasional rest days. In my 20s, I had more of an idea of cycling from early morning to late afternoon. In my 50s, I'd be happier stopping midday. This has been the biggest factor affecting miles per day. To give an example: My first trip across the US was 95 miles/day. Five years later I crossed Canada doing 85 miles/day. Four years later my second trip across US 75 miles/day and around Australia at 55 miles/day. Five years later crossing Russia at ~55 miles/day. Alaska to Argentina was ~30 miles/day with averages pulled down by time spent not on the bike e.g. a few months break here and there. Time I was actually riding would be closer to 50 miles/day.

So I think of miles per day as more describing the type of trip (e.g. a trans- America race vs a mix of biking and other explorations). In that preferences are going to differ between individuals and over time. Unless it is explicitly part of the exercise (e.g. Tour Divide race), I see the metric of more of a planning/characterization aspect than a competition.

Big Lew

I started my serious touring when I was in my 40's and would train for a few weeks before leaving.
I always wished to go as far and to see as much as I could in the few weeks I could get off work.
I would start at dawn, ride for 1 to 1 1/2 hrs, take a 15-20 min break, and continue this most of the day
depending where I wished to stop for the night that was interesting enough to casually check out.
This worked out to an 85 miles a day average. As the next several tours came and went, that average
dropped down to 75, keeping in mind that some days I only went about 40, while others were well over 100.
It all depended on the hills, headwinds or tailwinds (I love strong tailwinds) and the interesting sights I
chanced upon. Now at my advanced age, I would plan for 50-60 and no more. My knees and Achilles heals
are my gauge to which I determine how hard I push and how far I go per day.

pdlamb

When you wrote "Abilene to Minot" my first thought was, BORING! Did you find yourself riding further on this trip that some of your other recent trips, just because you were riding prairie most of the time?

alan s 

rhm

On my longest tour so far, I averaged 100 miles a day; that included days of over 150 miles and days of under 50 miles. I was 21 at the time, didn't have enough time, and I went as fast as I could. I don't regret my decisions, but I wish I'd been able to take more time, and I wish I'd done a shorter distance --my goal was to get across the country, and I didn't succeed at that. Should have had more fun doing a shorter distance.

But ironically my average daily distance hasn't dropped off all that much on more recent tours, often taking on 80 or 90 mile days. I know why I do this to myself: I try to do a long tour in a short time. It's a mistake, but one I make every time. That's why I've started doing more randonneuring lately, and less touring.

mev

No. I kept it slightly shorter at the start to avoid July heat in the Texas panhandle and Kansas. It was nice to get into town by noon or so on afternoons in the upper 90s.

As far as boring goes... I enjoy seeing the subtle variations on the plains and coming through the small towns. So picked this route in part as a way to see a lot of the prairie around the 100th meridian.

​​​​​​https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/mev-route83-2018

tspoon

I typically incorporate my fitness goals into tours, i.e. they aren't just holidays. Even then the mileage varies according to numerous other factors. In general I mostly do >100km per day, and also take note of the meters climbed. On one recent trip the day total was 100km just on, but the ascended meters was at 3500, my legs definitely told me the truth of that. So in that way, I'm more concerned with getting a decent physical workout whilst enjoying the many other aspects of a bicycle tour, but mileage is only one factor of that.
As others have noted, bike comfort is possibly the main determining factor as to whether you feel able to ride for extended periods (in conjunction with weather), so take time before the tour to make sure you have this worked out, and also don't be afraid to experiment with small adjustments as the tour continues.

spinnaker

If you don't like to camp is another factor in daily miles. You need to get to a place with lodging, warmshowers, airbnb, motel etc. If you are certain that you are in an area that requires no reservations then it makes it a lot easier and you can just wing it. Assuming you have an open schedule, just ride the miles you want to do then find a place for the night.

I have never felt comfortable in doing this in the US. I have always been worried that if I get to a town there won't be any rooms. And I always have at least some schedule I need to keep so that I can make my flight or train etc.

Places like Europe really fix that problem with trains going everywhere. Ride as far as you want. Get to town and no rooms, too pooped to ride further then just jump on a train to the next town. But the best thing about the train is I know I can always get back on time for my flight. Really hard to ride far enough in a week or two where I can't get back to the airport on a train in a day or two.

fantom1 

HAHAHAHA. Best phrase I've heard in a while.

Leebo

My bike packing trips are usually less, but thats big fat tires, gravel and dirt in the mix. Usually I look at the day as, where do I get my second breakfast, lunch and where to sleep for the night? I did 262 miles in 5 days on "mixed" terrain, tropical downpours and some steep New England pitches.