How Many Miles a Day to Plan on a Motorcycle Trip

The most common mistake I see on a first motorcycle tour is not a riding error. It happens at the kitchen table, weeks earlier, when someone opens a map app, sees that a destination is 480 miles away, and decides that is one day of riding because it would be one day in a car.

By mile 300 they are stiff, sunburnt on the wrist where the glove meets the sleeve, and making small mistakes at junctions. By mile 400 the light is going and they are still an hour from the hotel. I have done it myself on a loaded touring bike, and the second half of that day was not riding so much as enduring. Here is how I plan daily distance now, and the numbers I give to riders who ask.

Why bike miles are not car miles

A car insulates you from almost everything that tires a rider. On a motorcycle you hold your body against the wind for hours, you feel every vibration through the bars and pegs, and you lose water faster than you notice because the airflow dries sweat before it beads. Your concentration also works harder. A car driver can relax into a lane; a rider is reading the surface for gravel, diesel and potholes the whole time.

Fatigue builds slowly and then all at once. The first sign is usually not feeling tired. It is small lapses: missing a gear, braking later than you meant to, drifting wide on a bend you would normally nail. If you know how to brake on a motorcycle well, you will notice your own braking getting sloppy before anything else. That is the moment to stop, not the moment to push on for another forty miles.

Typical daily distances that riders actually enjoy

These are ranges I hear again and again from touring riders, and they match my own days. They are not limits, and a few riders comfortably do far more, but they are a sensible place to start planning.

• First multi day trip, any bike: about 150 to 250 miles a day.
• Experienced rider on a touring or adventure bike with a fairing: about 250 to 400 miles a day.
• Back roads and mountain passes: knock a third off whichever number you chose, because the average speed drops and every bend asks for attention.
• Unfaired naked bike on a motorway: also lower than you think. Wind blast at 70 mph is exhausting in a way 45 mph on a country road is not.

You may have heard of the 1,000 miles in 24 hours challenges that some long distance riding clubs certify. Those riders train for it, plan sleep around it and treat it as an endurance event. It is not a model for a holiday.

Plan in hours, not miles

Here is the advice I disagree with most: "just work out the distance and ride it." Distance tells you very little. Time in the saddle is what wears you down, so I plan every day by hours first and only then check the miles.

A rough rule that works for me: on mixed A roads and B roads, a loaded bike averages somewhere around 40 to 45 mph once you include towns, roadworks and overtakes. Add a stop of fifteen minutes or so every 60 to 90 minutes, a proper lunch of 45 minutes, and fuel stops. Your bike's tank range matters here. Plenty of naked and sport bikes only manage 120 to 180 miles before the reserve light, so on quieter roads you may stop for fuel earlier than you would like, simply because the next station is too far.

Here is how a 250 mile day on back roads works out on paper:

Eight hours is a full working day. Leave at 9:00 and you arrive around 17:00, which leaves some margin for a wrong turn or a closed road. Stretch that day to 350 miles of the same roads and you are looking at eleven hours, with the last stretch in fading light. That is when deer move, when low sun blinds you on westbound roads, and when tired riders crash.

Adjust for the conditions you will actually get

Heat changes everything. On days above about 30°C, I cut my planned distance and start earlier, because riding in full gear through an afternoon of heat drains you faster than any amount of distance. Rain does the same thing in a different way: visibility, spray from lorries and the constant extra care on painted lines and manhole covers.

Luggage counts too. A bike with panniers and a tail bag steers more slowly and feels heavier in crosswinds. If you have never ridden yours fully loaded, the first day of a trip is not the place to learn. And kit that fits badly shows up after hour three as a sore neck or numb hands; I explain why in why motorcycle gear fit matters more than the rating label.

Finally, build in a short day. On any trip longer than four days, I plan one day of under 150 miles, or none at all. Something will go wrong, a puncture, a storm, a café too good to leave, and that day absorbs it.

The best touring days end with energy left over to walk around the town you stopped in. If you arrive and go straight to bed, the day was too long.

A note for newer riders

If you only passed your test recently or you are riding your first big bike, be conservative. Two hundred miles of unfamiliar roads with a pillion or luggage is a long day for most newer riders, and there is no prize for finishing tired. If you are still choosing a machine for touring, my thoughts on choosing your first motorcycle as a new rider cover comfort and seating positions, which matter enormously over a full day.

Do a test day before the trip

This weekend, load the bike exactly as you will for the tour and ride a loop of about 200 miles on the kind of roads you plan to use. Note the time you leave, every stop and the time you get home, and how you feel in the last hour. Use that real figure, not the map app's estimate, to set your daily distance for the trip.