There's an Iron Butt ride next weekend that goes from Seattle to Missoula AND BACK in a day. While I'm certainly not ready to spend 17+ hours in the saddle for a patch, it made me wonder if my bike could even do it.  Anyone done something like that with an S40?  The ride goes straight across Washington and Idaho on I-90 (60-70 mph) with minimal breaks/stops and back and is a bit over 1,000 miles.

Bwahahaha!!! No WONDER I'm obsessed with my bike.  

My butt would need Novocaine to sit still for 17hrs...
...my brain would too...  ...

Long straight boring roads make my tushy hurt  

Curvy and twisty roads are so much less painfull its worth the extra time it takes to get places    besides being that much more fun to ride.

I rode from Missoula to Portland in one day. I think by the time i got done it was close to 700 miles. Half of the day I rode in a crappy rain storm and faced strong head winds down the Columbia Gorge. A very long day but the bike ran fine at freeway speeds. I found the trick to riding long distances is to pull over every hour for a 10 or 15 minute break and shake you arms and legs out.

They can keep their patches.. Im not gonna wear myself out goin somewhere I dont need to go just to turn around & ride back, so I can sew a patch on.. Im sure not gonna put up with cars rippin along at speeds my bike can barely manage..

Summer time ride? Forget it, between the air cooled engine and all the super fine dust (St Helen's ash, silt, alkakli flats, etc), the side winds, the lack of fuel stops (unless you really like the diesel and urine stench of truck stops)... I used to make runs all over eastern WA, hauled primarily heavy exports loads to Seattle and Tacoma (was based in Fife).

I'd recommend having a bike with a radiator or at least an oil to air cooler for a run like that. And a much better seat, bars that are not a compromise, windscreen if not an outright windshield...

The longest I've done on a Savage (with a decent seat at that) is right around 500 miles in a day. Anymore than 120 miles and I'm taking a full grown bike (I'm way too big at 6'2" 235 for a Savage). Even if mine didn't get a whopping 36 mpg and have a 2 gallon tank...  

I'm fixin' to ride from panhandle of florida up to the blue ridge camp and i'm going to take two days to go up there at 530 miles. Just being carefull on the way up to see how the wifes savage can handle it, I plan on doing a little touring on the way back also....wife don't know that yet tho... LOL.