Sorry, it's a long one but hopefully an amusing one.
Riding long distance now I’m older, a spring chicken compared with some, at a mere 61 years old.
I’ve done my fair share of long distance riding. Crossing Europe mainly. Although some time in Australia taught me a thing or two about long distance riding and in at times difficult conditions.
It's all about reducing the little niggles that accumulatively can really drag you down.
Exmoor Beast makes a good suggestion with the saddle cover. Horse people usually have money sufficient for good kit so it could be a good starting point.
I totally get the Air Hawk suggestion too. I’ve suggested them to friends who don’t like the sheepskin idea. Yes, people take the piss but I don’t care, I’m comfortable and that’s all that counts.
A sheep skin not a lamb skin as that is too soft, is a great help, in both cold and hot climates.
@Vince mentioned sitting on a sun heated saddle, yes I can testify that, that is uncomfortable. I thought I’d cauterised my Chalfonts when first sitting on my CX500 in Oz one summer. Didn’t do that again, not in light weight trousers anyway.
Over the past five years, stationed in Bremerhaven Germany, but home is Spain, I’ve been crossing North to South and vica versa, several times a year. Even during COVID lockdown periods.
What I’ve realised as I’ve got older is that there is a lot you can do to alleviate fatigue. A lot of it focused on rider comfort.
I’ve only done a few long days in the saddle with my 3CL (youngest bike I own and ride) but the same applies as for my BMW, 1977 R100 on which I am now up t 400,000 kilometres, way less than some I know.
Ear plugs, ‘Loud pipes’ may save lives, I think not in general, but they batter the ear drums and cause fatigue along with wind noise.
Find good earplugs and wear them.
Back support. Yes I wear a kidney belt, made for me by a dear old friend, Dougie Baggott, RIP.
Bike kit, I spend a fortune, according to friends on kit but I stay dry or warm or cool as required.
Stadler two piece with heated jacket when required or Knox armoured shirt when the going gets hot. The Knox armours shirt was/is a game changer. Riding in Oz in, I was told fifty Centigrade heat, across the Nullarbor was tough. There was a bird fell from the sky with heat exhaustion. Close to 40 Centigrade last summer in Southern Europe was bearable thanks to the Knox kit.
Daytona boots, cost me a full weeks wage when I bought them but they fit like a glove, as if tailor made for me, and after more than twenty years are still waterproof and comfortable.
Yes, underwear, etc. is important. I prefer merino wool long johns in winter and have used cycle pants in summer.
Gloves, get the ones that DON’T pinch, chaff, restrict circulation etc. Sounds simple but I see enough people fiddling with gloves to know that not everybody has got the right pair for them.
Camel pack. Keep hydrated. Summer or winter. Make a difference. Last summer on my journey from North of Dijon to Carcassonne the bike did five litres to one hundred kilometres whilst I was drinking about a litre for every two hundred.
@Exmoor beast also mentioned those who ride a hundred miles and stop for a coffee.
How is anybody going to cover long distances if they keep stopping? I know what he means, I’ve met them too.
I fitted my BMW with a thirty two litre tank, as I got fed up with having to stop every two hundred miles.
I do try to start my day with a good breakfast inside me and I know realise that stopping for a proper, off the bike and jacket off sit down lunch and break for an hour in the middle of the day, may feel like I’m wasting time but I restart after my meal and break refreshed and ready for another saddle session.
Give yourself time to digest the food you’ve eaten.
Avoid lots of carbohydrates. Makes you sluggish.
Two stories I’ll try to keep short.
Once returning from South of Paris to Calais for the ferry, I was overtaken by three crotch rocket riders, three times at speed between Paris and Calais.
The third time, I could not help but notice that they were signalling to each other their surprise I’d got ahead of them again.
What I had seen was that they had pulled over at least twice for fuel, coffee, cigarettes and stretching, where I had maintained a mile munching steady pace.
Our arrival time at Calais, for coincidently the same ferry, differed by two to three minutes in their favour.
Riding at your own pace is so much easier than either to slow or to fast at the pace set by someone else.
The second story.
Is of my arrival at Dieppe ferry terminal again in France (for those who may not know) after a longish day on my 1953 BSA from Montauban (Southern France)
Sat at the terminal making myself a coffee, I’d got there very early and I was carrying the cooking paraphernalia, a full kitted touring Harley turned up.
The rider got off the bike, groaning and complaining and needing to stretch all sorts of obvious agony out of his limbs, his wife meanwhile stayed say on the bike.
When I asked how far they had come, thinking they had covered HUNDREDS of miles that day.
I was told that they had left a town, some distance closer to the ferry terminal that the town I had left from.
Get the bike sorted for you and bugger the looks or style.
You are a discharging battery when you are riding.
Everything you can do to reduce the rate of discharge is going to help.
Recharge properly when you can.
