I find 150/170 miles is good if you want plenty of breaks/sightseeing. 200 is ideal for a good steady days ride with a few stops, and 250/300 if you just want to just cover some distance. Anything over that becomes a bit of a slog. When I am on a tour I always aim for about 200 miles a day.
I found on my last Europe trip that it was hard to average over 40 mph.... I couldn't believe this at first and still struggle to work out how it is so...but that was the reality even though it felt like I was spending most of the time at 70- 80 mph.... 350 miles in a day was doable but took 9 hours ish and that's a long day.... I preferred to do 2- 250 mile days for sure. especially if you are doing loads of days back to back... it is possibly to bomb it down motorways and average a lot better than this obviously but its no way to see the world, just a way to get from point a-b quickly.. that can be fun for sure but hard work day in day out.
It always surprises me too how low the average speed can be. But unless you are on motorways or riding at licence losing speed all day it's usually less than you would think. Even more so on twisty mountain roads.
As much as I love the NC500 (we've been the last 2 years and booked again this year) there's no way I'd be travelling all the way north from the bottom of England when I could head south and get much better weather and arguably just as good riding roads. I've been trying to convince the lads to go to Spain instead of doing the NC500 but it's too handy for us and the ride down south to the ferry for us a pain in the arse...literally.
It's the opposite for me. The ride up to Scotland to do the NC500 was a bit of a drag. Whereas Pompey ferry port is fifteen minutes down the road. Having said that, last year coming back from Spain, due to the problems with the Port Aven ferry I could only come back via Plymouth with a 180 mile ride home instead of 10 miles from Pompey! That was a bit of a pisser!
Remember to wave as you hammer past me El!! When I was planning my trip I was conscious to keep the mileage about 200/day, I’m riding to Moffat on the first day which is 300 but that is mostly motorway from Buckinghamshire. I’m doing a combination of the first day in a hotel then wild camping as I didn’t want the pressure of having to get to the hotel each day. Can’t wait.
That is the reality of motorcycles. Even those with bigger fuel tanks tend to fuel up around 120 miles (or when fuel is available) as that will be typically when someone else in the group needs fuel. Add in peeps needing to smoke, piss, piss about. It soon adds up. Most need a break from the saddle mid day and after a few days the will to 350 miles plus tends to evaporate! The days when you can blitz a road at 100 plus, fuel, do it again are gone with the proliferation of speed cameras we now have. I have done the Scotland route, virtually identical to the 4 day one above (Rob..) and day 1 and 4 were a little long. Multistrada at the time, so long legs and good on fuel. Different folks might prefer time in the saddle. I used to, as time off work was precious and my idea of a good tour was huge miles every day. On topic, top end of Scotland, Wick over to Scourie (?) from memory has lots of single track road and very few if any petrol stops. Allow that as a slow progress day.
You can get petrol at Thurso, Reay, Bettyhill, Durness, Scourie (and Lochinver if you are sticking to the coast) and then at Ullapool. So no worries for fuel if you are sensible.
