Quote:
Originally Posted by ally99
Thanks for the responses!
I realize I'm not mechanically savvy enough to actually make a trip that long, but halfway across the country to somewhere really cool might be doable. From my house to the Pacific is over 33 hours road time, ~2500 miles. It's a dream of mine, so maybe one day!  |
The hardest part of a long ride has very little to do with the bike itself, or even the body so much. The hardest part is the mind. If you can imagine yourself doing a long ride, and you actually use that visualization to set goals for both physical and bike prep, then you can pull it off pretty easily. The thing to realize is that lots of people have ridden really long rides on the little Ninja with little or no problems. Heck, even the problems were generally surmountable, look at this epic ride:
http://forums.ninja250.org/viewtopic...ghlight=mexico
As to the actual physical prep, IMHO the best thing to do is to build up to long rides with shorter rides of increasing length. This allows you to both get the confidence and experience in long-distance riding as well as identifying deficiencies in gear, bike, and technique. I started small, with 100-250 mile rides which quickly pointed out the problems with the stock seat. I found a Corbin to fix that. I also developed a riding style using a well-stuffed and padded tank bag to support my torso and chin such that I could fully relax my body when I ride, other than two fingers for throttle. That allows me to do very long legs repeatedly without noticeable physical or mental tiredness, and no soreness in the following days.
My very first ride as a licensed rider was in March of 2009. In June of that year I'd worked up to a 240 mile one-day each way ride. In August I did it again, 225 miles each way, one day each. After several more rides in that class over a year I did my first really long ride in October '10, 740 miles, which I easily did in one day. It had been nineteen months and 18K miles since beginning to ride. I stopped every couple of hours for breaks, etc. On the way back I decreased my stops to once every 3 hours or so, and in later years I've done similar rides stopping only for gas. This year I'm seriously contemplating an IBR run, and am completely confident in being able to complete it.
FWIW, there's nothing like an adventure, and long rides across this country definitely qualify as that. It starts with that first step, and all that.
Also, it's better to do it while you're still young and bendy, if you wait until you're an old fart like me it's a lot harder.