What's a LONG ride to you?

[CLAY]

This is inspired by my sister-in-law.  Her and my BIL are classic pirate Harley riders- fit every negative stereotype.  She mentioned that she did her longest ride ever- around 40 miles I would guess.  Impressive, by her standards.  I gave her a little crap, but I did seriously congratulate her on it- hopefully the more she rides, the more she *wants* to ride far.  And the more she wants to ride far, the more she realizes the comfort and safety of something like a full face helmet and gear rather than a t-shirt, jeans, and a novelty helmet (her husband, my BIL is a cop, so they get a free pass wearing the novelty helmets).

I always figured a long ride included multiple states, maybe a passport (in Michigan).  A short ride (now I'm saying ride, not commute) would be 40-60 miles.  A nice ride would be 100 or so.  A long ride would be a couple tanks of gas- 500 or so miles.

Thoughts?  Just curious.

[thatguy]

If I have to pay someone to take care of the Dog it's a long one.

[Mr.Black]

One tank full minimum.

[black hills]

A long ride to me would be 500+ a day. I occasionally buzz back to my hometown for a day or so, leave after work and make the 275mi. in 3 1/2 hours. I consider that a pretty good ride for after work. When my wife worked in Cody, WY I would ride over (400mi.) after work on fridays. Leave at 4:00 and get there about 10:00, about a perfect ride IMO. Long would have to be more than that. Of course I have had some long rides in rain/sleet/snow that didn't cover that many miles

[paddy_crow]

I would consider a ride from Detroit to Ironwood, which involves staying within the state of Michigan, to be pretty long (about 600 miles). Further, in the four corners area of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, it's possible to pass through four states without even covering a mile.

I guess for me, if it involves being on the road for most of the day, it's a pretty long ride. Less than an hour I would consider short, more than an hour medium.

Multi-day rides are a category unto themselves.

[dm_gsxr]

I think it depends on what you're doing during the ride. When touring a long ride may be 500 or so miles. When running around here with the local sport bike group, 300 miles can be pretty long since there's usually a lot of twisties and even some high speed runs (got to 140 in one place trying to keep up ). Heck sometimes riding with someone else is a long ride at 1 mile

Carl

[Jes_VFR]

This is inspired by my sister-in-law.  Her and my BIL are classic pirate Harley riders- fit every negative stereotype.  She mentioned that she did her longest ride ever- around 40 miles I would guess.  Impressive, by her standards.  I gave her a little crap, but I did seriously congratulate her on it- hopefully the more she rides, the more she *wants* to ride far.  And the more she wants to ride far, the more she realizes the comfort and safety of something like a full face helmet and gear rather than a t-shirt, jeans, and a novelty helmet (her husband, my BIL is a cop, so they get a free pass wearing the novelty helmets).

I always figured a long ride included multiple states, maybe a passport (in Michigan).  A short ride (now I'm saying ride, not commute) would be 40-60 miles.  A nice ride would be 100 or so.  A long ride would be a couple tanks of gas- 500 or so miles.

Thoughts?  Just curious.

A long ride to me is rolling out of the driveway at 0700, buying a couple of tanks of gas and arriving at a destination at say 16-1700. That could be 350 miles or 700 miles depending on the route, but either way its a days ride.
ex. Pennsauken, NJ to Grand Isle VT is long days ride.
or Deals Gap, NC to Orlando, FL via 95 near Charleston.
then again so is Pennsauken, NJ to the PA Ren Faire in manheim by all back roads.

[brockep]

For me it is the total time it takes, and the conditions it is done in, that makes it long not the miles traveled.  Des Moines, Ia to Denver, Co could be an easy day with nice weather and no wind.  Des Moines, to Denver with a south wind at 20mph gusting to 35mph and a temp of 95 with high humidity would be grueling.

A long ride could be 200 miles with a lot of stops to take pictures and eat at small town diners.  But a slab ride from Billings, Mt to Des Moines, Ia where you are just chewing up miles might not be all that bad.  Long days are all relative. IMO

[Ramming Speed]

When it's not fun anymore.

[Tejasbusa]

I have been known to ride to California for a tire replacement from East Texas. I also have ridden from Texas to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and then to Keywest, Florida. Those are LONG rides. A long day ride is at least two gas stops.

[county]

More than 40 miles...

[M.Brane]

When it's not fun anymore.

 Winner.

[freecatSV]

In a day, I'm like everyone else -- 500 miles. 600 feels quite long (I did too many of those on my trip last year). I've done 800 before, when I was much younger. I honestly don't know how these Iron Butt guys do it.

But to me a long ride is several days on the road. You get that feeling when you're far from home on a bike. It's a long ride when you have to do laundry.

[jaykup]

Yeah it depends on the type of riding.  If I'm going along the freeway (which I hate doing) 600-700 miles is about my limit (though I have done 1,000 miles to prove I'm cool ), and I'd only do that if I really wanted to make time getting somewhere far away in hopes of good roads there.

350-450 miles is a long day of twisty riding, lots of body language, throttle on, brake, higher concentration, just wears you out...

[Andrew]

  A long ride ???

More than 3 days, anything else is just a weekend ride

When it's not fun anymore.

I have had great rides that lasted all summer and loved every minute,
I have had rides that lasted 30 minutes that were too long.  

[Orpheus]

A long day ride for me is about 550 miles and three states.  Around 300 is blazing the twisties with 125 miles each way from the house.

[fotomoto]

When it's not fun anymore.

+1

Sometimes a long ride is only 50 miles after it was too damn hot to go on a ride anyway and then you run out of gas in the middle of BFE.  Other times, it's 6-700 miles when you're on a schedule and behind.

[bluepoof]

My long rides lately....let's see, I rode 17 miles two weekends ago!  Iron Butt'ers, watch out!  :

[skater69]

200 miles.....longish afternoon ride is long to me.  I've ridden 500 miles in a day too.  These days I do far less.  After a few hours of riding, it starts to feel like a job and no longer is fun to me.  

[Galo]

To me, anything beyond 300 miles is a long ride. My fave days/memories are always of rides between 200 and 300 miles....seems just right.

Returning from the BBBBQ a few weeks ago, I did 700+ in one day, and that was a LOOOOOOOONG ride...