Thursday, March 19, 2009

Redwing19 IBA route planning -- rough estimate of time & speed

1000 miles in 24 hours....that's 42 mph. That doesn't sound too bad.

Let's estimate an average of 50 mph since most of the route is interstate roads. While on I-95 and I-81, I can probably do better than 50 mph, maybe much better. However, I've learned from experience--130K miles worth--that riding at high speed on my Valkyrie doesn't necessarily mean I can cover long distances faster because I end up having to stop more times to refuel. Keeping speeds at reasonable levels, I can expect to travel 120- to 130-miles before I need to switch to 'Reserve' on my fuel tank. So, I'll stop every 120 or so miles for gas. I'll allot 20-min at each stop to refresh. The math:

1000 mi at 50 mph equates to 20 hrs.
Stops every 120 miles means I'll stop 8 times during the 1000 mile route.
Taking a 20-min break at each stop adds 160 min to the trip for a total of 22 hrs 40 min.
Start time is no later than 6 am, meaning I'll be back at 4:40 am the next day.

I can do this.

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