Tips for long distance rides

[Spookymonster]

I'm considering a long (~14 hours) ride in June. At this point, I'm leaning towards breaking the ride up over 2 days (either 7/7 or 10/4) with a 1 night layover in whatever motel I find along the way. To allow for plenty of 'recovery time', I'm only driving during daylight hours. This also assumes an average speed of about 60MPH.

This will be the longest ride I've made. I've never been on a bike longer than 3 hours in a row, and that was on a 20 year old Yamaha Virago standard. I don't remember any ill-effects from that ride, and I imagine a 5 year old R1100R would be far more comfortable.

Any long distance veterans want to offer tips, tricks, suggestions, recommendations, etc.? Fore warned is fore armed, afterall...

TIA

[Ian]

buy a camelback - i recently did 3000 odd ks in 5 days and drank one dry twice a day in 30+ heat/too the pooring rain. even in the pouring rain all rugged up in my gear it amazing the fuild lost

[Spookymonster]

Here's a couple of links I've found along the way as well:

http://www.visi.com/~dalebor/index.html#contents

http://www.ridemyown.com/links/distance.shtml

[DJ Downunder]

If you don't already use them get good earplugs.

Wind noise in your helmet for long periods will cause irreparable damage.

Just a thought.

DJ

[sjbmw]

The most important thing is to give yourself extra time, and do NOT think you are driving a time machine if you are not 'on schedule'. Get there when you get there, it's all good if you are safe and happy.

Water in the tank bag, and stop and stretch the legs whenever you feel like it. See something cool you need a closer look at? Take a few minutes and stop.

I like to use running waterways for this. Something about the sound of moving water that makes me stop and pause. Don't know why.

The journey is MORE important than the destination. The real beauty of bikes.

Good luck, remember, we need pics

[Ian]

If you don't already use them get good earplugs.

Wind noise in your helmet for long periods will cause irreparable damage.

Just a thought.

DJ

i forgot those DJ - i have a set of Alpine Earplugs that are fantastic. found the squishie one fell out and didnt block the wind noise out.

[Boxer]

Get up and start the day early. Get most of your miles in before noon. Find a place to stop for the night while it's still early afternoon. Take the extra daylight to enjoy the local area where you stop. This is why I enjoy camping on a long ride. But you can also enjoy it from a motel if you ride around the area in the afternoon before dark/dinner....or even better, walk around for a couple of hours before and after you eat. Drink lots of water and don't eat big meals. Keep drinking the water and Gatorade or something equivalent.

Check out the bike while its still daylight each day: tire pressure, oil level, blinkers, etc. If something is wrong you have the rest of the day to sort it out. Take the BMW MOA anonymous book with you. There are riders everywhere that are willing to help if you have a problem. This is very comforting.

Two 7 hour days will be more enjoyable than a 10 and a 4.

Then return home on a different route than you took to your destination. As someone above said, its the ride, not the destination, so take your time, enjoy the scenery and stop occasionally by the side of the road to just listen to the local grass growing.

[Biff's R]

I agree with Phil about getting an early start. I usually try to be off the road before dusk, since that is when deer seem to be most active.

I like to take a quick break(3-10 minutes) every hour to 1.5 hours. It lets me stretch my legs and get the blood flowing a bit better.

Enjoy the trip, and if you begin to get tired take a break. It would suck to fall asleep while riding.

[bmwdave52]

Learn to flex all your muscle groups from head to toe. One at a time.
An old LD tourer taught me this trick and it really works.
Be sure to practice this on a chair before you start riding.

[Spookymonster]

I've firmed up my plans a bit. Instead of 14 hours (NJ to TN), it's going to be a 10 hour ride down to my friend's house just outside Asheville, NC. We take the next day off, then the following day we're carpooling to our final destination (Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, TN).

The break day was my buddy's idea; having the spare time takes the pressure off of me doing it all in one day, or if bad weather prevails. sounds good to me. Besides, I can think of worse things to do than spend a spare day tearing up the Blue Ridge Mountains!

Thank you all for your suggestions!

[wncbmw]

Good advice so far. I also like the early start when you have to cover miles. I can do some long runs early in the day, then break it up more later in the day when the aches and fatigue start to set in. And keep hydrated!

my friend's house just outside Asheville, NC.

Hey, that's my neighborhood! Give me a shout if you want some ride suggestions!

[hirsty]

Good tips all - do remember it's for pleasure though! I tend to get overanalytical & have to remind myself a bad day on a bike is better than a good day in the office ...

1/ My last long ride went a lot better when I got into a routine and synched-up all of my stop needs (bathroom, head scratch, smoke, fuel, food, drink etc). If you keep stopping for a different reason every time, it takes a lot longer to get anywhere.

2/ Drink water rather than coffee at breaks (see #1). Makes an amazing difference to my level of alertness.

3/ Try to keep all your 'stuff' in the same pockets all the time - wallet, phone, keys, earplugs etc - and you spend less time fumbling & are less likely to leave anything behind at a stop.

4/ Take your time & do the same things you do every ride (eg: I always kick down the side stand before getting on). Dropping the bike etc would cost a whole lot more valuable trip time than a few seconds several times a day.

Enjoy & let us know how you get on.

[MIXR]

Spooky,

I do dawn to dark rides all the time. I love long distance riding, much to the horror of most of my riding buddies who don't like my kind of ride!. 1,000 km days are a regular thing, so I can offer some advice from experience here as I often do consecutive days of over 1,000 kms and often exceed 12-15 hour days on the bike. It's not bragging. It's just the way things are on my big rides.

As said by others, earplugs and hydration are a must. Get comfortable ear plugs and if you buy foam, get soft foam ones as the hard foam ones will hurt after a few hours. Don't just take a water bottle and stop every now and then to have a sip. Use a camelback that holds at least 2.5 or 3.0 litres of water and drink on the run. Any more is heavy on your back. Any less is not enough water between fuel stops. About three fills (9 litres) is more than enough in a single hot day. One fill (3 litres) is enough for a single cool day. Works much better in keeping you hydrated and awake than stopping to drink.

Your body will tell you when you are getting tired. You won't fall asleep, but you might forget to put your feet down as you pull up, or you might run too close to a centre island or gutter as you take a wrong line on a bend, or you may miss that roo (substitute deer or moose) standing on the side of the road, or you may see but not recognise that big chunk of shredded truck tyre lying in your path. You tend to hallucinate rather than fall asleep. Watch for the signs.

Your bum will get sore and your back will get tired. There is an important element of 'ride fitness' here. Being unfit may prevent you from achieving your long-ride goal, or worse, contribute to you having an accident. Ride fitness can't always be achieved at the gym - It needs time on the bike. As founding member of the 'NUMB-BUM Long Distance Touring Motorcycle Club', I can state that even I get a sore bum, to the point of getting heat blisters if the weather is hot, when I undertake a very long ride after not riding big distances for a while. You get over it.

Use a decent 'Butt-balm' BEFORE you start out. It reduces friction and sweat burns. Some of the 'nappy-rash' baby products are fantastic. Avoid long-johns and undies and liners under your riding gear that have seams across your bum-cheeks - Took me a while to find some non-stink (from sweat and body odor), self-wicking polytech gear that I wear summer and winter. No seams in critical spots like your arse. That's where the blisters and irritation starts after sitting on a stitched seam all day. I wear 'trunk' undies with long legs and no seams. Over that goes the polytech long-johns to keep me cool/warm, again with no bum seams .

If you do really long and hot rides, take some 'baby-wipes', the kind that have lanolin or some other cleansing and soothing cream impregnated in the cloth. Nothing like a good wipe of the neck, armpits and crotch area with a silky, sweet smelling disposable baby-wipe. Don't use the same cloth for your crotch and face!

I could ramble on even more, but maybe that gives some more useful ideas for your big ride. I love chalking up 1,000 km days. Maybe you will too.

[Sunbeemer]

Hey Spooky, if you haven't already checked out the Iron Butt website, then here's a link to their "Wisdom" page for long-distance riders:
http://www.ironbutt.com/tech/aowprintout.cfm
It's got 29 good tips and a list of tools to carry. Some have been mentioned in this thread which shows the proficiency of the riders on this forum

Have a good trip!

[tonyff]

Great link Sunbeamer. I am just back on a bike after many years off. It's good to see the tips.

[Spookymonster]

The bike part of my Bonnaroo trip in June is 682 miles (Bloomfield, NJ to Asheville, NC). Is that too much for a novice to try to pack into a single day of riding?

I've done 2 test runs so far, both 3-hour rides. One was on local roads (lots of stoplights) with mild (near 60 degree) weather. I had plenty of energy when I got home (enough to give my bike a thorough washing). The other was all highway, but cold (mid-40s without factoring wind chill). I was beat out when I got home, but I figure that's just due to the weather.

[Boxer]

Piece a cake. In high summer you can get in 1000 miles easy between sunup and sundown.

[wncbmw]

In spite of what my friend Phil says, I think nearly 700 miles in the heavy traffic of the east coast is too much for a novice to do safely in a day. I would think you would not be very alert or thinking very clearly by the end of that day.

I once spent 23 hours doing 750 miles, managing to catch massive traffic jams in 3 cities at morning, lunch and afternoon. I was experienced and still was very nearly unconcious at the end of that day!

Build up to that kind of mileage and soon you can accompany Phil on an Iron Butt ride! If you are beat after 3 hours, in any weather, you aren't ready. Heck, I sometimes do 3 hours before breakfast!

[JanWeuts]

2 years ago, I drove from the Belgian Coast to Sweden in 2 days. Regulars tops (every 1-2 hours) for a ciggy and/or a cup of coffee. The only thing I would not do over again is to carry a small backpack; it increases muscle pain (tends to strain the back muscles too much...).

Mike driving interesting, especially if you're doing a quite boring highway;

and of course, you'd need earplugs; not only to protect your ears but also to reduce fatigue.
Enjoy & Go for it! :

twisted:
Jan

[JanWeuts]

Oh, and I had 4 hours (!) of driving experience before I started on that trip.

Jan