Hi Steven, Just got done doing 625 miles in one day last weekend on my way to the Redwood Run, and 500 miles in a day coming home. I actually run days like that a lot on long hauls.

Sounds like you have the basics that you would take on any long ride, but there are a couple of additional things when doing that many miles in one day.

Your face is going to get windburned and your lips chapped unless you put something on. Standard sunscreen will not help much with the windburn, you need to either get a sunscreen with moisturizer, or put some moisturizing cream on before the sunscreen. Carry plenty of chap stick and use it.  If it is not to uncomforable where a mask or bandana across your face.

I also find that my right hand and fingers will fall asleep holding the throttle in one position for too long. If you have a cruise control or throttle lock, use it before your hand goes to sleep. If you don't have either you may consider one of those clip on throttle bosses so you can hold the throttle position with your palm and open your fingers.

And of course watch out for drowsiness and/or dizziness. Be sure to keep hydrated and keep you blood sugar level up. I find when putting on that many miles in one day, I am usually beat at the stops and don't feel like eating as much as I should. I try to eat power bars high in protein and sugar. And even though I don't normally like them, I carry a couple of those small 5 hour energy drinks with me in case drowsiness comes on in the middle of nowhere.

Hope that helps a bit. Have fun and most important...ride safe!

If it is going to be warm I have one word. HYDRATE! I have a water bottle holder on my bars and a one handed squeeze bottle. If you are thirsty you waited to long to drink. I take a mouthfull from it every once and a while and refill it almost every stop. I only use water and prefer ambient temp.  It can also be used to cool if you squirt it on your head and arms. As for the GPS, I am anti-them. That may be another forum topic someday. I plan my route, write it down in water proof ink and attach it to my dash. So far on the ride for Sophie I have done over 5000 miles and only missed one turn, but because I studied the map before hand I was able to get back on track with only a few extra miles. If there are a lot of route changes I also look over the map at every gas stop or break just to keep the visual image in my feeble mind.
My personal record is 662 miles, and I still had room for more but that was all highway. On the other hand I have been exhausted after only 350 miles. The difference was wind. On the shorter trip I was being beat up all day by nasty cross winds.
Be safe Friend.

All the advice you got above was excellent advice, not sure I can add to what Lucky, Rex or yourself have already said. One thing I do on the long rides is to not put myself in stressful situations, just relax cruise along and enjoy the ride. I have a couple of groups that I ride to Sturgis with which is just under 1500 miles, one group it takes us about 3.5 days and I feel good enough when we get there we usually unpack and head for the Sugar Shack for a cold one and a burger which is another 120 miles round trip going thru Deadwood. The other group I ride with it takes us about 38 hours to get to Sturgis and when we get there I beat to say the least.

Something I have found that really helps me in the Hydration dept. sense I do not drink enough water is a drink made by SOBE it's called life water and comes in differant flavors, there loaded with vitimans and also have the sugar that lucky mentioned. These work great for me.

The best advice I can give is to enjoy the ride and of-course ride safe.

Thanks my fellow bikers, the route I am taking to get there is all US highways and county roads with the exception of 3 miles of interstate and according to Map Quest it will take 7 hours. The return trip is all interstate; which is 3/4 mile shorter than the route getting there, but will be 1 1/2 hours faster. If we get too tired to go on we will stop and get a room for the night and start out fresh the next morning. Basically what we want to do is see how far we can ride and be somewhat comfortable and rested. At the end of the riding day we want to go sightseeing and do that tourist thing that people do. Like I mentioned we are preparing for 2,200 mile Canadian trip; the longest leg is 344 miles with shortest being 180 miles the average is around 250 to 300 miles. We both have water bottle holders that holds bottles of different sizes and our favorite coffee travel mugs. Lucky we added moisturizing sunscreen to our list of things to get and REX I am taking Garmin, I am retarded when it comes to looking for and remembering route changes. Thursday and Friday will be spent hydrating and we are taking off at 0600 Saturday, thats 6am. We will post photos of our challenge ride.

Here's the Archive of Wisdom from the Ironbutt site. http://ironbutt.com/tech/aow.cfm

Good luck and ride safe,

Johnny

Hey Steven, Just rode about 500 miles today. Mike (RexTheRoadDog) came by to visit during his Ride for Sophie. I rode from my house to Las Vegas with him, then turned around and came home (he continued on).

So here's a tip...Don't ride across Death Valley, and then turn around and ride back across Death Valley right in the middle of the day. For more than 5 hours of my 9 hour ride it was over 105°. I am drained!!!

Wow, Good going Lucky, I bet you are drained. We just got back from our 562.4 mile round trip. We are beat. We started at 540 AM arrive at our destination at 1215 PM. The ride was the best it was cool to cold in the higher elevations and warmed up beautifully later on and then cooled down in the evening. Definitely a 60 SPF day and used plenty of it. The Garmin went bonkers when we took the new by-pass around Parkersburg, WV. We need to update our GPS Maps. We rode across the Ohio river without a bridge, how about that. Least the Garmin motorcycle icon did. LeVere did great she is a real trooper, rides and handles her bike perfect. With a few adjustments we will be ready for our Canadian trip in August and I like to thank Lucky, RexTheRoadDog, SpeedwayFan and jrobinson for your tips and suggestions.