Long Distance Experiment Chapter 1

[Duccrazydave]

As a few of you know, in this crowd I'm far from an Iron Butt type of rider. But, in order to at least give it a try, I decided to go for my first 500 mile day, last Saturday. I didn't really have a big window of opportunity, but a better part of the day to accomplish this. I topped off in the NC metropolis of Kernersville, lol, and headed North at 7am. 58 degrees meant the jacket liner was in and the grips were set to low. My destination was however far I could get on a tank of gas, following the start of a route that sometime in the future will turn West. That meant 52N to 77N through VA and into WVA. Since this was about straight up riding, trying to cover the maximum amount of real estate I made some small adjustments to the RS to achieve my goal. Step 1: Remove the Wunderlich Touring screen and mount the Cali Sci shorty with the MRA X-Creen. Step 2: Remove the Heli Bar risers. The smaller screen combo cleaned up the air that was hitting me, resulting in a much quieter ride without the down side of staring through a "barn door". The stock bar position changed the pressure points on my derriere.
The day was beautiful and traffic relatively light. Temps fluctuated quite a bit in the VA area with the most dramatic shift happening at the East River Tunnel heading to WVA. In - 61 degrees, Out - 72! I was really hoping to hit 250 miles but the good pace of traffic and the long uphill grades cut the party short at around 215. After a 45 minute stop for gas and early lunch at Shoney's, it was back on the road again. Everything in me wanted to keep going the same direction, Another time, when there's more of it. Anyway, back to VA, then NC where the temp was up to 91 degrees. In other words, back to normal
In the 430 miles I covered I learned that the ergonomic mods paid off. I've been less comfortable traveling less miles for sure. And I think 600 miles would have been easy to obtain. The only mod I'm going for now is a gel insert for my stock seat (thanks Sam).
If any of you have read this far, I would love to hear about your strategies for long distance travel.
Cheers, David

[Duccrazydave]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Grumpy Goat]

Nice ride report Dave. I am still waiting on those nice temperatures! Lucky you.

For me and long distance, my strategy is:
- Stop every 2 hours for at least 15 minutes and stretch and give the butt and legs a break; gas up at these stops
- Move around in the seat; shifting positions eases the fatigue in the glutes
- Stay hydrated
- Have some good music on the headset or audiobooks or whatever you need. Also know when to turn it off for a bit of variety
- Use cruise control as much as possible and sit back upright from time to time to give the hands a rest; tank grips help
- Super slab is easy on the arms; if you are interested in covering a lot of miles then super-slab is the way to go
- Push when possible; some find a radar detector useful

My normal limit is 500 miles before 5 PM but after the last ride out to Helen I am thinking I can do 600, and was even considering doing an Iron Butt run one of these days.