How many miles a day to ride on a motorcycle tour
Most riders on a motorcycle tour enjoy 150 to 250 miles a day. I plan 200 miles on a day of good A and B roads, 150 in the mountains or on single track, and up to 400 on a day that is mostly motorway to get somewhere. Those motorcycle touring miles per day drop further with a group or a pillion, and the number you can do once is higher than the number you can do every day for a week.
Miles a day by type of riding
| Type of day | Miles I plan | What slows you down |
|---|---|---|
| Motorway or autoroute transit | 300 to 400 | Fuel stops, tolls, wind and boredom |
| Good A and B roads | 180 to 220 | Towns, photo stops, lunch |
| Mountain passes | 120 to 160 | Hairpins, cyclists, queues behind camper vans, stopping at the top |
| Single track with passing places | 100 to 150 | Pulling in for oncoming traffic, livestock, blind crests |
| Rest day | 0 to 60 | That is the point of it |
These are my planning numbers, not averages anyone has measured. They assume a rider who stops for fuel, coffee, lunch and a few photos, and who wants to arrive with time to get the kit dry and find dinner. If you ride straight through without stopping, you will go further. Most people on holiday do not want to.
Why 200 miles is a good number to start from
Two hundred miles sounds short if you have ridden that distance on a motorway in three hours. On touring roads the average speed drops a long way. Junctions, villages, roadworks and the stops you actually want to make all add up, so 200 miles of good roads fills most of a day.
That is why the tour planner starts at 200 miles a day. Put in a route and it splits it into days at that distance, then shows the sunset time and the fuel stops along each day. Change the number and the days move.
What changes your number
Daylight
A 250 mile day is easy in June and tight in late September, when you lose hours of light at each end. In a deep valley the light goes well before the official sunset time. Check sunset for each day before you fix the miles, which the planner does for the dates you enter.
Riding in a group
Every rider in a group adds time. Fuel stops take longer when four bikes queue for one pump, and someone always needs a coffee or a phone call. My group of four covers noticeably less ground in a day than I do alone, even at the same pace on the road. For a group I knock 20 or 30 miles off each day.
A pillion
A pillion gets stiff and cold sooner than the rider, because they are not doing anything to keep warm or busy. Plan more stops and fewer miles, and ask them how they are getting on rather than waiting for a tap on the shoulder.
Fuel range
A small tank means more stops, and on routes with long gaps between pumps it can shape the whole day. Work out your range with luggage on using the fuel range calculator, then check the longest gap on the route page.
Tiredness over a week
Day one feels easy. By day four the miles add up, even when each day was sensible. On one trip I ran wide on an easy bend late on the fourth long day in a row. Nothing happened, but I took it as the sign I had planned too far, and the next day was half the distance. A rest day in the middle of a week stops that build-up.
Transit days to the Alps and Spain
Getting from the Channel ports to the Alps is a long ride, and most riders split it over two days. That is where a motorway day makes sense. Use the autoroute to get there, then slow down once the good roads start. The tolls cost money, but they buy you a riding day in the mountains.
For northern Spain the long ferries from Portsmouth and Plymouth to Santander and Bilbao skip that ride altogether. Our ferry and tunnel crossings page lists every route that takes motorcycles.
How to find your own number
Ride a weekend away before the big trip, loaded as you will be. Do 200 miles on the Saturday and see how you feel on Sunday morning. If you are fresh, plan a little more. If you are stiff and tired, plan less, and remember that a week is harder than a weekend.
Then set that number in the planner and look at where each day ends on your route. If an end falls somewhere with no beds, move the overnight stop to the next town and let the following day absorb the difference. Our guide to planning a motorcycle tour covers the rest of the order I do things in, and the best European tours all open in the planner with a free GPX.