The reason I ask is that I had a friend who went from PA to Sturgis and he was riding with two others about his age and they had a terrible accident! From what I have gathered they had road about 14 hours the last leg and the hotel they were supposed to stay at gave up their rooms because they were late. Anyhow they were riding around looking for a place to stay when one rider decided to turn around and the second rider hit him broadside. I am not certain which one did what and and which rider turned around but one of the riders had not been riding long.

I am still waiting for more info because the guy I know was still in the hospital in South Dakota with serious injuries that probably have ended his riding days. He is 70 yrs old with a lot of years in the saddle.

I am 55 this year and have been riding since I was 15 and I just bought my RKC in Florida from my brothers neighbor and rode it home in April. I put 780 miles on the first day 14 hours in the saddle but I felt fine. I was riding alone so I figured I would ride until it was time to pull over for the night. I guess there are a lot of factors to deal with so how long do you hang in the saddle and do it safely???

 

Its different for everyone,I stop when I start making stupid little mistakes.Best place to check is Iron Butt,the people on there have some real good tips and they know what they,re talking about.

 

I rode out to South Dakoda with 3 friends this August. Ages 42, 52, 56 and 67. We had a great ride out from Staten Island New York. From Shanksville we too all state hiways to SD. It was a great experience to ride out with a vetteran rider. This was my first trip to Sturgis. We did about 600 to 650 miles a day. But the leader has to be focussed. Someone has to make a plan and you should ride the plan. Sometimes there are detours but if traveling far you should have an atlas. The HOG one is nice but I find the the print is too small for me I like the larger one from Rand McNally better.
On the way back from Sturgis we didn't have rooms booked and thought we could just wing it.... Bad plan this year..... The Iowa State fair was on that week and we couldn't find a room for 150 miles . The closer we got to cedar rapids teh worse it got, Did I mention that they were building an Ethanol plant, So all those construction workers needed a hotel to stay in. and those poor people who were displaced from the floods earlier in the summer . Bad move on our part not haveing a room to stay in. We did eventually get a room at 1:15 in the AM , but we were riding from 6:30 that morning.
Next time I will plan the ride home the way we planned it on the way out.

 

Twice my wife were on the bike for 12 hours,but we stopped about every hour to stretch and whatever.A lot of it depends on the seat you are on.

 

It depends on a lot of things, including the amount of traffic since it seems to add to the amount of stress. But for me 800 miles is a good safe day on the road. I have done 1,000 of course, but towards the end it was more stressful and challenging and it usually ends up being at night when you go past the 8-900 mile range.
With my last group of ridiing brothers I was the trip planner/navigator and I usually planned the trips so we wouldn't be going through any major cities at the last part of any leg of the day. It just isn't the way I like to end a ride. I would rather go through major cities after the traffic rush in the morning and ride through them mid-day if possible. I am used to traffic and big city riding, but most of the these guys weren't (they were from N. Dakota and lived there all of their life) so it was major stress for them regardless of the the amount of traffic/time of day, but I would mitigate that by going through in mid-morning/mid-day when we were fresh and ready to cruise for the day.
I am never in hurry to get anywhere on a trip. Especially if we are going to a Rally. The Rally is just where we are going to end up. We usually have had just about as much fun, if not MORE, just riding there. Rally's are more of an excuse to get on the road, than actualy being at it.

Sorry to hear about your buddies, that is definetely a bumber when one of your own causes the accident.

 

Don't know what my limit is cause I'd probably die if I hit it. I think 12 something hours still works if everything is in apple pie order.

All-time limits? Years ago the Cannonball Roberts Sea-to-Shining-Sea Rally was run by a guy who decided to try it on a bike, a BMW tourer. Attached gas cans so he could do it in about 4 fuel stops. He won... one rider, ***** to the wall all the way!

 

I will do between 5/6 hyndred a day I don't like to ride at night so that is about all you can do I also stop a lot every 50/70 miles .
as I get older 67 yrs it seems to be the stops get closer together

 

4 fuel stops? How about coast to coast, non-stop.

http://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/etc/ne...t_cali_florida

 

seems around 12 hrs (including stops) or 500-600 is my max. but then again i can barely do that in a car.
narcolepsy hits big time around 3 in the afternoon.

i am amazed with anyone who can do more.
but i also find it hard to believe that after that amount, you are still able to drive safely. it just seems that your reactions are slower and decision making process is below par.

 

Yeah, the diff. is that the Cannonball rally (oh, hell it was really a very illegal race coast to coast) was a no holds barred secretive event that only one thing mattered... gettin there first. The average coast to coast speeds were awesome.