Daily distances?

[John K]

What sort of daily average distance would be reasonable for planning a bike tour around Europe?

I know it's going to depend largely on individual preferences, but assuming it was three weeks of fairly purposeful riding with enough sight seeing to make the trip worthwhile what's the maximum you would expect to do?

[Reprobate]

If you stay off the motorways, your legal top speed will be 80kph with 50kph-zones in the urban areas. Your daily distance will probably be around 300 kilometers. Taking the occasional motorway will boost distance to 500-600 providing you don't get caught in traffic jams.

[Otherguy]

Originally Posted by CG125

What sort of daily average distance would be reasonable for planning a bike tour around Europe?

Assuming you're an American, an easy way to figure time/distance in Europe is to treat km as miles. 350km=350 US miles

[John K]

Reprobate, thanks for the input. If I was to stay on motorways for a chunk of the route (as part of a greater plan!) would it be reasonable to expect to average as much as, say 650km a day for a week or ten days?

Pimpninny, I'm a Brit. We reckon that just going to the shops is a long way!

[Knighthawk]

Hi CG, I am an American stationed in Germany, in my experiences, if you are not afraid to split/lane share, 700-800 KM a day on the Autobahn/Autostrada is no problem. If my math is correct, 800 km is just shy of 500 miles.

I am not sure of you destinations or planned routes, but be aware that those will have an effect on your daily distances as well.

[Steve-C]

Originally Posted by Knighthawk

I am not sure of you destinations or planned routes, but be aware that those will have an effent on you daily distances as well.

What he said. Last year when I did a trip to France on only back roads (i.e. not Autoroutes) 2-300 miles tops, assuming a start time of around 10am and getting to a destination around 5pm. This year, I had less time so used the autoroutes. Got to maybe 500 miles a day.

But it really depends on how many miles you want to put down, road/traffic/weather conditions and what sort of distances your used to. If you go out for the odd weekend jaunt of a couple hundred miles, don't expect to get abroad and put down multiple 500+ mile days. It just wont be fun! It also depends on if your there for the journey or the destination. In 04, I was there to travel, so probably spent more time covering less distance just seeing the sights. Same for the start this year. Saved the return trip for the last day, covered over 600 miles and although it was a fun (I'm perverse!) experience covering that many miles in a day, I know I couldn't have done it repeatedly for several days.

Tell us a bit more about yourself, where your from, riding experience, current bike, where you'll be staying (camping/hotels) and maybe people can give you a bit more info!

Steve

[Knighthawk]

I don't want to steal anyones thunder (with due respect to Global Rider aka Alex)

Global Rider, he is a member here, has a wealth of information on his website.

Alex's BMW Motorcycle & Global Touring Page

[John K]

Originally Posted by Steve-C

Tell us a bit more about yourself, where your from, riding experience, current bike, where you'll be staying (camping/hotels) and maybe people can give you a bit more info!

OK, here goes:

- I live in the south of England
- I have almost zero riding experience, but working on it
- Looking at getting a 650 to start with (most likely candidate right now is XL650 Transalp). May end up with a bigger bike, may not.
- Probably mixture of camping and hotels

I'm not planning an epic trip any time soon, but exploring what the options might be for a couple of years down the line as I prepare for my mid-life crisis.

The idea that I had was for a fairly challenging "Quite a long way round" visiting the Arctic Circle and the Sahara in the course of a few weeks. Last night I discovered ViaMichelin and spent a happy couple of hours looking at routes. I'm reckoning on four weeks being my maximum time for the trip, and would want a week in each of Norway and Morocco. That leaves a 4000 mile motorway blast in the space of a couple of weeks.

Assuming that I do actually like riding a bike, does this sound like a dream trip worth developing? Or have I just got my head in the clouds (or somewhere worse)?

I know that I'm getting way ahead of myself, but what seemed like a simple plan "learn to ride a bike, have an adventure" is becoming a minor obsession. Not helped, I might add, by all the fantastic pictures and trip reports here and elsewhere on the web!