How many hours of riding is enough for one day?

[onearmedbandit]

Which hand was it?

Hmmmm, how to answer that....

[Squeak the Rat]

Six is usually enough for me, but have done up to 10 hours. I hate stopping, so a six hour day in the saddle usually only has a 20 min lunch stop + what's needed for gas. If i see something interesting I usually either kick myself for not stopping, or stop and get itchy feet after 5 minutes......

[Kwaka14]

Did the grand challenge a couple of years ago, rode down to the start and rode home again so was 2300km in 27 hours.

[gijoe1313]

I do so love a long pootle - I consider riding down to Wellywood a long trip (anything else in between is short to me!) Have always been tempted to pootle down to Welly ways and back up again just to drop in and see some friends and family (I think the taniwha Colapop keeps me from doing that! )

I find riding around to all points on the map an invigorating excercise, nothing suits me better than keeping a nice constant tempo and enjoying the ride!

When I get thirsty I drank, when I got the need to go, I went, when I felt hungry, I ate, when I felt the need to stop, I stopped ... life is like a box of fork seals, you know you're going to need one eventually, so you'll have to stop to get it done ...

The last trip I did on a spur of the moment was the 500km ride to Gissy in the night, turning around and heading back to help the olds out in the shop (after a nap at home natch!)

Been investigating a ride to see the Air show down South Island in the holidays coming up ... just get on the bike, ride on the ferry, pootle down to watch some WWI replica planes and then...back up again!

[XP@]

I just did the vote now, read later thing...
With the multi day ride my answer would not have been 10+
How long you should plan to ride for depends on a number of factors.
www.ironbutt.com has probably the best advise avalible on planning your trip

If the longest ride you have ever taken is 300 miles in a day, don't plan a trip with a string of endless five- hundred mile days. Iron Butt Association surveys also warn of an important trend in long distance trip planning (see Chart A). Discounting weather or other problems; after an initial mileage peak on days one and two, daily average mileage will steadily drop during trip days three to seven. On day seven of a trip, the typical long distance rider will comfortably ride about 65% of the average daily mileage that they would book on a two day trip. If the pros have this type of mileage attrition rate, would you plan on any less?

Also include large easy-to-cut loops into your trip plan. If you do get behind schedule, this is the easiest way to skip part of your trip without ruining the rest of it.

Whether you are capable of riding 300 miles per day, or 1,000, the ability to make miles tends to decrease as the length of the trip increases. The most severe loss is in days 3 through 7, where Iron Butt types then level out to about 65% of their peak capacity.

Wait until some of the Grandie participants start posting. The Grandie is a 24hr marathon of
1,600km. Some people have been finishing within 17 hrs and so this year they're going to add another 400km (I think) for a 'selected' group so that it's back to being a true 24hrs of riding.

I love riding but to me that is nuts. It's setting yourself up for a huge bin and death.

The Rusty Nuts has a really good record, probably better than kiwi biker rides! Last year most of the accidents were in the first hour of riding so fatigue was not a factor there. Most RN Grand Challenge riders won't just go out and do 1000 miles without practice, I usually start off with a couple of 500km night rides, then a 1000km night ride. So then with a reasonable level of fitness 1000 miles is a not too hard to archive. 2100km's on the other hand is a little bit more of a challenge.

<plug type="shameless">If you really want to see what it is like get hold of a copy of the documentary</plug>

[Grahameeboy]

Hmmmm, how to answer that....

Sorry just could not resist.....

[Warr]

I just did the vote now, read later thing...
With the multi day ride my answer would not have been 10+
How long you should plan to ride for depends on a number of factors.
www.ironbutt.com has probably the best advise avalible on planning your trip

What he said.. VERY good reading there at that IronButt site.
Have done just a couple of Grand Challenges. Last year I had extra lights. They were magic. Didnt get me home tho as mine was the dead bike with no rear sprocket shown at the end of the DVD !!

Another thing that Rider-in-Black told me that I've remembered and practice. 'If there is anything flapping in the breeze or something uncomfortable. Stop and sort it. Dont let little distractions take your mind off the main task"

[Back Fire]

10ish hours... anywhere up to 1000km's... I generally stop from getting bored more than tired though

[vifferman]

When you are out on a multi-day ride, how many kilometers do you do in a day, or in hours?

Haven't done any multi-day rides since last Easter, and then we rode for only a couple of hours max before stopping to sight-see or have a coffee or whatever, as that's what the vifferbabe wanted. In any case, I start to really hurt after more than an hour or so, due to AaaaaarrRRRthritis pain, which is cumulative (i.e., the first ride I can manage over an hour before a break, then it takes only half an hour or so before the pain sets in, then I'm fukt after that).
I've found now that it helps if I tank up on ibuprofen before I ride.

Back when I wasn't oldish and fukt, I'd ride till I needed to stop for gas or peoplefuel, so 3 hours or more was OK. Like when I moved to Chchchch, I rode from Hamilton to Taupo then stopped to buy some polyprop underthings (it was the end of winter) and ahve some food, then rode from there to Wellington. Next day, it was Picton to Chchchch.
Coming back: Chchch to Picton, Wellington to Hawera, then Hawera to Tauranga.

[pritch]

There are a lot of variables, type of bike, weather, etc etc.

On my South Island trip later this month I'm trying to keep each day to about four hours riding so as to permit time to take a look at the places I stop, and take photos, whatever.

Such a liesurely schedule should also permit staying somewhere in the event of a storm and making the distance up later.

[Steam]

I see I should have added many more hours to the poll at the top end of the scale! I never even considered that people would ride for more than 10 hours, I am totally amazed at these Rusty Nuts or Grand Challenge feats.
That's one of the things I like about motorcycling, there's always more incredible things to learn about.

[Indiana_Jones]

depends what time i start etc, if it's like 7pm, i'd say bugger the riding, grab a beer and browse KB

-Indy

[Macktheknife]

As said by others, it really depepnds on what kind of trip you want to do, what conditions, roads etc. I usually allow for 10 hrs per day for 'wanna cover some ground' kinda riding, about 6 perday for ' just touring around' riding, or less if I am with others who may not be as nuts as me.
But practice for multi day rides is really essential in my opinion, build up gradually.

[imdying]

8 is about tops for me... and that includes stopping to tell war stories with the guys I'm riding with

[Lissa]

Well being a newbie... the longest time i have spent on a bike would be the Rapa ride.. that turned into the kapit ride and bbq. And I was completely buggered after that... prob spent about 4 hours on my bike.. Had sore bottom and legs after that.. need to harden up I think.

Can't wait to do longer trips.. maybe staying somewhere overnight.