I rode down to Austin today to have lunch with my daughter and her husband. I spent a few hours down there and then rode back. Just got in about 45 minutes ago. Round trip was 347 miles and because of lousy traffic in Austin you can add an hour and a half of basically sitting on the bike on the Austin highway. With a little better seat and a back rest I think I could do 500 miles in a day. I am tired though. But it was a good day.

KennyG, I do not even want to think about riding 950 miles in less that 24 hours. I've done that in a car many times and that is exhausting enough. Well, you've got tougher butt that I do!

Getting a lot of miles on the ODO in a short period of time involves lots of highway riding.....and I just don't find that enjoyable.  The longest ride I have ever done in a day was the Moonshine Lunch Run, and I went 570 miles....my butt was so incredibly tired on the last hour of riding I just hated riding!

I would much rather ride 30-40 mph back roads....and getting 250 miles racked up takes a very long time at those speeds.  On some of the trips to NC we have been able to get that many miles in a day - but you have to ride in areas where the roads aren't packed with tourists and motorhomes.

springman wrote on 03/05/16 at 22:24:59:

we did over 1000 in less than 24 in my truck last year
the good thing about traffic in Austin is, when you're waiting for traffic to move, you can take your ass OUT of the seat
I did this every time we hit a red light on the run to the Sisters and the run back last year

Well, I am up and about today. Body aches a bit pretty much all over. The 2 biggest surprises are that my abs are sore, like as if I had done a bunch of sit ups and my left hand, my clutch hand hurts.

I think the inflatable seat cushion I have helps a lot. I think the biggest help to be able to do a longer ride would be a back support to lean against and I guess maybe a windscreen would help. But I've never ridden a bike with a windscreen and I am reluctant to put one on thinking it will affect my handling. Plus, I have to admit that in the Houston summer I want all the wind hitting me to help cool me off.

Yeah, I do prefer the shorter rides at slower speeds but I just wanted to find out how much saddle time I can do so if ever I plan a long trip I can have a good idea of how many miles I should plan on covering in one day. And now I also know the after effects of extended saddle time. It was an adventure.

I did wpb,fl to Phoenix az in 52 hours once on my old yamaha triple 2600 miles. But a windscreen is a must. I did wpb to buffalo,ny straight thru a bunch of times on my old goldwing. My friends up there always said I had my backbone removed and replaced with a piece of stainless steel. Bout 10 years ago made it from my driveway to my friends up there, 1437 miles in 23hours 55 minutes on my pc800. (honda pacific coast, little goldwing) But now that I'm retired, I don't need to be in that much of a hurry. My hip buggs me now just on the 190 miles over to see my mother. I'm going to leave anything over 600 in a day to the younger guys now. I too prefer the back roads at 50 to the ss at 70.

I have done two 800 mile plus days.  I went from Las Cruces, NM to east of Houston last summer which was 815 miles in a day.  In west TX, if I had an ST or FJR I would have used all of it.  

Best regards,

When I was younger, back in the 80's, I worked away from home all the time. I remember one summer I was working in South Bend IN. It was 650 miles from home. I would climb on my bike after work on a Friday and ride home. On Sunday at noon I'd climb back on and ride back. I had that trip down to a little over 9 hours and 20-40 min. depending on traffic in Chicago. Sheesh I just been an animal back in those days. I know I was in my 20's and thought I would live forever. That bike was a Shovelhead FLH.
For me a windscreen has never been optional equipment. It has always extended my riding season enormously up here in the North country. In a hail storm they're never big enough.